title: The Epic of Gilgamesh
author: Anonymous
description: This edition provides a prose rendering of <i>The Epic of Gilgamesh</i>, the cycle of poems preserved on clay tablets surviving from ancient Mesopotamia of the third mi llennium B.C. One of the best and most important pieces of epic poetry from human history, predating even Homer's Iliad by roughly 1,500 years, the Gilgamesh epic tells of the various adventures of that hero-king, including his quest for immortality, and an account of a great flood similar in many details to the Old Testament's story of Noah. The translator also provides an interesting and useful introduction explaining much about the historical context of the poem and the archeological discovery of th e tablets.
zlib_text: Alone in the moonless midnight, high atop a cli�  overlooking
  Q ualinost, Gilthanas continued to sing the ancient song that had
  been a part of the elven coming of age ceremony since Kith-Kanan
  had formed the elven kingdom more than two thousand years
  before.
  Yet somewhere, out in the darkness, a murderer lurked. Tanis
  waited alone in the shadows, the only one who could save
  Gilthanas. Flint was gone, swallowed by the earth as though he had
  never existed.
  At that moment, Gilthanas’ s song broke o�  with a cry. “ You
  should not be here! ”  the elf proclaimed. “ The ceremony forbids  …
  ”
  Tanis watched as a hooded �gure advanced on his cousin.
  “ Who are you? ”  demanded Gilthanas, edging backward. The cli� ,
  with its six-hundred-foot drop, loomed dangerously near his heels.
  Tanis, drawing his sword and moving as q uickly as he could,
  slipped from boulder to boulder.
  The �gure, wordless, drew nearer. Gilthanas looked desperately
  about, but the stranger blocked the only escape. Then Tanis sa