Ossian

Ossian, alternatively spelled Oisín, son of Fingal (Fionn mac Cumhail), is a poet and warrior of the fianna in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is the narrator of much of the cycle. The spelling Ossian is particularly associated with a cycle of poems by James Macpherson which he claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic.

Related Topics:
Oisín - Fionn mac Cumhail - Fianna - Fenian Cycle - Irish mythology - Narrator - James Macpherson - Scots Gaelic

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In 1760 Macpherson, a Scots poet, published Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland translated from the Gaelic, and later that year obtained further manuscripts. In 1761 he claimed to have found an epic on the subject of Fingal written by Ossian. He published translations of it during the next few years, culminating in a collected edition; The Works of Ossian, in 1765. The most famous of these poems was Fingal written in 1762. The poems achieved international success and were proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical writers such as Homer. Many writers were influenced by the works, including the young Walter Scott and the German writer J.W. von Goethe, whose own German translation of a portion of Macpherson's work figures prominently in a climactic scene of The Sorrows of Young Werther. Goethe's associate Johann Gottfried Herder wrote an essay titled Extract from a correspondence about Ossian and the Songs of Ancient Peoples in the early days of the Sturm und Drang movement.

Related Topics:
1760 - 1761 - 1765 - 1762 - Classical - Homer - Walter Scott - J.W. von Goethe - The Sorrows of Young Werther - Johann Gottfried Herder - Sturm und Drang

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However there were immediate claims that Macpherson's claims were false and the poems were condemned as forgeries. Macpherson could be seen as promoting a Scottish political agenda, and was hotly opposed by Irish historians who felt with some justification that their heritage was being appropriated, though both cultures were intertwined at the period the poems are set in. The controversy raged on into the early years of the 19th century, with disputes as to whether the poems were based on Irish sources, on sources in English, on Gaelic fragments woven into his own composition as Samuel Johnson concluded, or largely on Scots Gaelic oral traditions and manuscripts as Macpherson claimed. While the truth remains unknown, modern scholars generally conclude that Macpherson had indeed collected Gaelic Ossianic ballads, but had adapted them to contemporary sensibilities by altering the original characters and ideas and had introduced a great deal of his own. Many feel that the question of authenticity should not overshadow the artistic merit and cultural significance of the poems.

Related Topics:
Irish - 19th century - Samuel Johnson

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