The reason can only be this: heroic poetry depends on an heroic age, and an age is heroic because of what it is, not because of what it does. – Lascelles Abercrombie
If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it. – Lascelles Abercrombie
Poetry is the work of poets, not of peoples or communities artistic creation can never be anything but the production of an individual mind. – Lascelles Abercrombie
Epic poetry exhibits life in some great symbolic attitude. It cannot strictly be said to symbolize life itself, but always some manner of life. – Lascelles Abercrombie