Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

The Buried Foundation of the Gilgamesh Epic : the Akkadian Huwawa Narrative

Leiden: Brill, 2010. First edition. Octavo. xx, 227, (1)pp. Indices. Blue buckram lettered in white, with 1/2" yellow band at top. Illustrated with 2 photographic plates at rear. A fine, as new copy.

"The book is well written and tightly argued...This makes it a first point of reference for anyone interested in the Old Babylonian (Akkadian) evidence for the Gilgamesh Epic."
Scott C. Jones, Covenant College

The Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, perhaps the most famous of Mesopotamian literature, has been considered the artistry of one author inspired by Sumerian tales. Specialists have assumed that all the earliest evidence (ca. 1800-1700 BCE) reflects this creative unity. Deep contrasts in characterization and narrative logic, however, distinguish the central adventure to defeat the monster Huwawa from what precedes and follows it. The Huwawa narrative stands on its own, so that the epic must have been composed from this prior Akkadian composition. Recognition of the tale embedded in the epic allows each block of material to be understood on its own terms. Such literary-historical investigation from contemporary texts is new to Assyriology and may produce important results when applied to other Mesopotamian writing. (Publisher)

Contents: Abbreviations; Table 1: Early Second-Millennium Gilgamesh Narrative; Table 2: Reconstructed Relationships between Early Second-Millennium Gilgamesh Compositions; Foreword; Chapter One Introduction; Chapter Two Enkidu's First Steppe: Competing Portraits of Enkidu in Yale and Penn; Chapter Three Defining the Bounds of the Akkadian Huwawa Narrative; Chapter Four From Sumerian to Akkadian: Major Innovations in the Akkadian Huwawa Tale; Chapter Five Behind Penn: Old Babylonian Introductions to the Huwawa Narrative and to the Epic; Chapter Six Conclusion; Bibliography. (OCLC)

Volume 39 in the Brill series, "Cuneiform Monographs." Item #51854
ISBN: 9789004178489

Price: $100.00

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