Six lectures arguing that history is shaped by great men — prophets, poets, and kings.
Books mentioned in On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History (9)
Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson: “Snorro indeed, in the quietest manner, almost in a brief business style, writes down, in his _Heimskringla_, how Odin was a heroic Prince, in the Black-Sea region, with Twelve Peers, and a great people straitened for room.”
Edda by Snorri Sturluson: “this is the _Younger_ or Prose _Edda_.”
Hamlet by William Shakespeare: “Nay, Shakspeare's _Hamlet_ is a twig too of this same world-tree; there seems no doubt of that.”
The Koran: “It was during these wild warfarings and strugglings, especially after the Flight to Mecca, that Mahomet dictated at intervals his Sacred Book, which they name _Koran_, or _Reading_, "Thing to be read."”
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri: “Dante's heart, long filled with this, brooding over it in speechless thought and awe, bursts forth at length into "mystic unfathomable song;" and this his _Divine Comedy_, the most remarkable of all modern Books, is the result.”
Henry V by William Shakespeare: “August Wilhelm Schlegel has a remark on his Historical Plays, _Henry Fifth_ and the others, which is worth remembering.”
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Had we, for instance, all his plays reviewed as _Hamlet_, in _Wilhelm Meister_, is!”
Table Talk by Martin Luther: “In Luther's _Table-Talk_, a posthumous Book of anecdotes and sayings collected by his friends, the most interesting now of all the Books proceeding from him”