Literary cycle

Examples from folk and classical literature

• 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 US.
• The tales of the One Thousand and One Nights, brought together by the frame story of the tale of Scheherazade and Shahryār.
• 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 Matter of Britain, which centers on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
• *The Vulgate cycle
• *The Post-Vulgate cycle
• The 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
• The Henriad, the four plays of Shakespeare centered on Henry V.
• 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.
• The Matter of Rome, which centers on Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great
• 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 Mythological Cycle, which centers on the Celtic pantheon
• 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 Reynard cycle, which centers on the fabular fox Reynard
• Der Ring des Nibelungen, which centers on the Ring and the Norse pantheon
• 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 epic cycle centering on the Trojan War
• The Ulster Cycle, which centers on Cú Chulainn and the Kingdom of Ulster