Literary cycle
A literary cycle is a group of stories focused on common figures, often based on mythical figures or loosely on historical ones. Cycles which deal with an entire country are sometimes referred to as matters. A fictional cycle is often referred to as a mythos.
Examples from folk and classical literature
Western Europe
The three great western cycles
Source:The Matter of Britain, which centers on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table- * Historia Regum Britanniae
- * The Vulgate cycle
- * The Post-Vulgate cycleThe Matter of France, which centers on Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers
- * Chanson de Geste
- ** La Geste de Garin de Monglane
- ** Doon de Mayence
- ** Garin le Loherain
- ** Crusade cycle
- *** Knight of the Swan
- The Matter of Rome, which centers on Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great
- *Alexander Romance
- ** Roman d'Alixandre
- *Classical mythology
- **The Epic Cycle centering on the Trojan War
- ***Roman de Troie
- ***Aeneid
France
- The four troubadours Bernart d'Auriac, Pere Salvatge, Roger Bernard III of Foix, and Peter III of Aragon composed a cycle of four sirventes in the summer of 1285 concerning the Aragonese Crusade.
- The Reynard cycle, which centers on the fabular fox Reynard
Britain
- The Henriad, the four plays of Shakespeare centered on Henry V.
- The Nine Worthies
- Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales''
Germany
- Der Ring des Nibelungen, which centers on the Ring and the Norse pantheon
Ireland
- The Mythological Cycle, which centers on the Celtic pantheon in Irish mythology
- The Fenian Cycle, which centers on Fionn mac Cumhaill and the Fianna
- The Cycle of the Kings, which centers on the monarchy of Ireland
- The Ulster Cycle, which centers on Cú Chulainn and the Kingdom of Ulster
- The Cycle of the Gods, centering on the god-like Tuatha Dé Danann
Africa
- The Anansi tales, which center on the Ashanti of Ghana trickster spider-spirit Anansi, and its variations in the Americas as Ti Malice and Bouki in Haiti, Br'er Rabbit or John and Old Master in the Southern United States.
Asia
Japan
- Two examples of Japanese cycles are: the Matter of Japan and the Genji-Heike Cycle.
- Also popular are the Soga Brothers and Forty-Seven Ronin cycles.
India
- The Mahabharata, the world's longest epic poem, many of whose stories deal with the lives of Indian mythological characters, most notably Krishna
Middle East
- The Epic of Gilgamesh, centering upon the demigod king Gilgamesh and Enkidu
- The Baal Cycle, which centers on the battle of Ba'al Hadad against Yam and Mawat
- The tales of the One Thousand and One Nights, brought together by the frame story of the tale of Scheherazade and Shahryār.
- Nasreddin is a character in the folklore of the Muslim world from the Balkans to China, and a hero of humorous short stories and satirical anecdotes.
- The Shahnameh and the legend of Arash the Archer as well as Avesta that make up most of the Persian Mythology, namely, tales of heroes like Rostam and Esfandyar
- The voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, the hero of a cycle of tales of monsters, magical places, and supernatural phenomena met on his successive voyages.
- The Seven Wise Masters