For today's epic post (see all this week's epic posts on one page), I'm going to shift back in time with the great national epic of Ethiopia, composed in written form in the 14th century: here's the Kebra Nagast, translated by E. A. Wallis Budge, just a click away at Internet Archive. The full title gives you a sense of what this amazing book is about: The Queen of Sheba and her only son Menyelek; being the history of the departure of God and His Ark of the covenant from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, and the establishment of the religion of the Hebrews and the Solomonic line of kings in that country.
Because this translation is in the public domain, it's available at a variety of online libraries, in addition to Internet Archive; here's a chapter-by-chapter list of links to the Sacred Texts online publication. You can find out more at Wikipedia, and also at this information page for Columbia's World Epics: Kebra Nagast.
Another useful book about this tradition is by Enno Littmann (whom you might remember from this earlier post: Tales, Customs, Names, and Dirges of the Tigre Tribe); this book focuses on the Queen of Sheba portion of the story: The Legend of the Queen of Sheba in the Tradition of Axum, also just a click away at Internet Archive; the "Axum" of the title refers to the ancient Kingdom of Axum (Aksum) in what is today Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.
This illustration shows the Menelik, the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, son bearing the ark:
And here are two more books that might be of interest on this topic, both available online; Post Wheeler's book is at Internet Archive, while Bessie van Vorst's book is at Hathi Trust.
by Post Wheeler
by Bessie van Vorst
So, plunge into this wealth of epic storytelling from Ethiopia; some great books await you online!
by E. A. Wallis Budge
by Enno Littmann
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