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Composed toward the end of the first millennium, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath.

In the contours of this story, at once remote and uncannily familiar at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that summons power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface. Drawn to what he has called the "four-squareness of the utterance" in Beowulf and its immense emotional credibility, Heaney gives these epic qualities new and convincing reality for the contemporary reader.

Table of Contents:

• 5 - Preface (The Dead Astronaut) - essay by Editors of Playboy
• 11 - The Dead Astronaut - (1968) - short story by J. G. Ballard
• 27 - Here Comes John Henry! - (1968) - short story by Ray Russell
• 41 - A Man for the Moon - (1960) - short story by Leland Webb
• 51 - Nine Lives - (1969) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• 83 - Requiem on the Moon - (1964) - short story by David Duncan
• 95 - The Sensible Man - (1959) - short story by Avram Davidson
• 101 - Skin-Deep - (1963) - short story by Brian Rencelaw
• 109 - The Wreck of the Ship John B. - (1967) - novelette by Frank M. Robinson [as by Frank Robinson]
• 155 - Maelstrom II - (1965) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 173 - Spy Story - (1955) - short story by Robert Sheckley (variant of Citizen in Space)

A fantastic classic science fiction tale from an anonymous late-19th century author. In a far-flung future, humanity has colonised the solar system. The story is set against a background of interplanetary war, with mighty electric spaceships riding the inter-system electric currents to battle in epic space warfare.

From Ali Baba and the forty thieves to the voyages of Sinbad, the stories of The Arabian Nights are timeless and unforgettable. Published here in three volumes, this magnificent new edition brings these tales to life for modern readers in the first complete English translation since Richard Burton's of the 1880s.

Every night for three years the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, and the next morning puts her to death. To end this brutal pattern, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to tell the king enchanting tales of mystical lands peopled with princes and hunchbacks, of the Angel of Death and magical spirits, and of jinnis trapped in rings and in lamps--a sequence of stories that will last 1,001 nights, and that will save her own life.

From Ali Baba and the forty thieves to the voyages of Sinbad, the stories of The Arabian Nights are timeless and unforgettable. Published here in three volumes, this magnificent new edition brings these tales to life for modern readers in the first complete English translation since Richard Burton's of the 1880s.

Every night for three years the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, and the next morning puts her to death. To end this brutal pattern, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to tell the king enchanting tales of mystical lands peopled with princes and hunchbacks, of the Angel of Death and magical spirits, and of jinnis trapped in rings and in lamps--a sequence of stories that will last 1,001 nights, and that will save her own life.

From Ali Baba and the forty thieves to the voyages of Sinbad, the stories of The Arabian Nights are timeless and unforgettable. Published here in three volumes, this magnificent new edition brings these tales to life for modern readers in the first complete English translation since Richard Burton's of the 1880s.

Every night for three years the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, and the next morning puts her to death. To end this brutal pattern, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to tell the king enchanting tales of mystical lands peopled with princes and hunchbacks, of the Angel of Death and magical spirits, and of jinnis trapped in rings and in lamps--a sequence of stories that will last 1,001 nights, and that will save her own life.

Contents:

• 11 - Meet Cap'n Kidd - non-genre - [Breckinridge Elkins] - (1937) - novelette by Robert E. Howard
• 35 - The Death of a Hero (excerpt from The Red Gods) - (1924) - short fiction by Jean d'Esme
• 59 - Wings of Y'vrn - (1972) - novelette by Darrel Crombie
• 89 - The Slave of Marathon - (1926) - novelette by Arthur D. Howden Smith
• 117 - How Sargoth Lay Siege to Zaremm - (1972) - short story by Lin Carter

Thought to have been first written down in the 12th century by an author who is still unknown, "The Nibelungenlied", translated from Middle High German as "The Song of the Nibelungs", is an epic German poem reflecting the oral tradition, heroic motifs, and actual events and individuals from the 5th and 6th centuries. This remarkable work begins with an assurance of both joy and sorrow, though ultimately tragedy reins in "The Nibelungenlied".

The early chapters recount the young life of Siegfried, a great Netherlands prince, who slew a dragon and bathed in its blood while still young, giving him extraordinary strength. He goes on to meet the lovely princess Kriemhild, whose brother Gunther requires his help to marry the strong Icelandic Queen Brünhild in exchange for his sister's hand. All is well until Brünhild discovers the deception of Gunther and Siegfried, and her successful plot to murder the latter incites bloody revenge from Kriemhild.

From the court of the Burgundians to the court of Etzel, from terrible deaths to hidden treasure, "The Nibelungenlied" is a masterful illumination of German antiquity and dramatic legend.

The Poetic Edda, also known as The Elder Edda or Saemund's Edda, is a magnificent and magical collection of thirty-four Icelandic poems, interwoven with prose, dating from the 9th century to the 12th. The original Old Norse verses are printed here, side by side with English translations. The collection includes the archetypal stories about wise Odin, hammer-wielding Thor, mischievous Loki and the other gods and goddesses of Asgard.

The poems features a dragon called Fierce-stinger: "Fares from beneath a dim dragon flying, a glistening snake from the Moonless Fells. Fierce-stinger bears the dead on his pinions away o'er the plains. I sink now and cease." The language is archaic, so for 21st century readers a glossary is provided at the back of this book, as well as an index of names to help identify all the characters. Bray's lengthy introduction has also been revised for modern readers, and some footnote citations omitted. Remarkably in Bray's edition, the original Icelandic text was included.

The Poetic Edda is the most important existing source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.