Works like Hurrian hymn to Nikkal
Hurrian hymn to Nikkal is still unknown and belongs to Before 1700. These works share its status, era, or form, ranked by how much they share.
- Still unknown
Beowulf
The Old English epic of the hero's fights with Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. Its poet is unknown, and the single surviving manuscript names no author.
- Still unknown
Book of Dede Korkut
The epic story cycle of the Oghuz Turks, framed around the legendary bard Korkut Ata. Its compilers are unknown; the bard is the frame, not a documented author.
- Still unknown
Book of the Dead
The ancient Egyptian collection of funerary spells guiding the dead through the afterlife. Tradition associates such texts with the god Thoth; no historical author exists in the record.
- Still unknown
Book of the Earth
An ancient Egyptian funerary composition showing the sun's night journey through the earth god Aker. Anonymous, like all Egyptian netherworld books.
- Still unknown
Cantar de Mio Cid
The Castilian epic of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the Cid, composed around 1200. The poet is unknown; only the copyist Per Abbat's name survives in the manuscript.
- Still unknown
Coffin Texts
The Middle Kingdom corpus of Egyptian funerary spells painted on coffins, ancestor of the Book of the Dead. Composed anonymously within priestly tradition.
- Still unknown
Debate between bird and fish
A Sumerian disputation poem in which Bird and Fish argue their worth before the god Enki. Composed some four thousand years ago by unnamed scribes.
- Still unknown
Key of Solomon
The most famous of the grimoires, attributed by its own tradition to King Solomon. Its actual medieval and Renaissance compilers are unknown.
- Still unknown
Lament for Eridu
A Sumerian city lament mourning the destruction of Eridu, the oldest of cities. Composed by unnamed scribes in the early second millennium BCE.
- Still unknown
Lament for Nippur
A Sumerian lament for the religious capital Nippur and its restoration by king Ishme-Dagan. Its composer is unnamed.
- Still unknown
Lament for Sumer and Ur
The Sumerian lament for the fall of the Ur III empire to Elamite invasion, around 2000 BCE. Composed anonymously in the scribal tradition.
- Still unknown
Lament for Ur
The masterpiece of the Sumerian city laments, mourning Ur's destruction through the voice of the goddess Ningal. Its poet is unknown.