Ossian

See Ois?n for more on the myth.

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Ossian, alternatively spelled Ois?n, 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.

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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.

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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.

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Fionn mac Cumhail: Fionn mac Cumhail (earlier Finn or Find mac Cumail or mac Umaill, pronounced roughly "Finn mac Cool") was a legendary hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, also known in Scotland and the Isle of Man. The stories of Fionn and his followers, the Fianna, form the Fenian cycle, much of it supposedly narrat...

Fianna: In Irish mythology, the Fianna were Irish warrior-hunters who served the High King of Ireland in the 3rd century AD. Their adventures were recorded in the Fenian Cycle. Their last leader was Fionn mac Cumhail....

Fenian Cycle: The Fenian Cycle also known as the Fionn Cycle, Finn Cycle, Fianna Cycle, Finnian Tales, Fian Tales, Féinne Cycle, Feinné Cycle, Ossianic Cycle and Fianaigecht, is a body of prose and verse centering on the exploits of the mythic hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warriors the Fianna &Eac...

Ossian related Images and Photos (experimental)

Pierre-Ossian Bonnet French Mathematician

Ossian Conjures up the Spirits on the Banks of the River Lorca