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Biography
About|the cycle of poems by James Macpherson and their main character|the character from Irish mythology|Oisín|other uses Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson published. He claimed to have collected word-of-mouth material in the Scottish Gaelic language|Scots Gaelic said to be from ancient sources. His published work was his translation of this material. Ossian is based on Oisín , son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill , anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology . The poems were well received and highly influential. However, critics at the timeCitation needed|reason=This seem doubtful. My superficial reading shows contemporary critics on both sides of the issue|date=May 2012 and ever since generally agree that Macpherson wrote them himself, after being inspired by old folk tales he collected.
The poems
In 1760 Macpherson published the English-language text Fragments of ancient poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse language , and later that year obtained further manuscripts.citation |title= The Literary Encyclopedia (English)|Literary Encyclopedia |year=2004 |url= http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php? rec=true& UID=9045 |contribution=Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in the Highlands of Scotland |accessdate=27& nbsp;December 2006
In 1761 he claimed to have found an Epic poetry|epic on the subject of the hero Fingal, written by Ossian. The name Fingal or Fionnghall means "white stranger".citation |url= http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php? name=fingal |title=Behind the Name: View Name: Fingal
His publisher, claiming that there was no market for these works except in English, required that they be translated. 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.
Reception
The poems achieved international success ( Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson were great fans) and were proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical antiquity|Classical writers such as Homer .Howard Gaskill, http://books.google.com/books? id=uDYPtqw0MHwC& lpg=PA140& dq=Ossian%20Napoleon& pg=PA140#v=onepage& q=Ossian%20Napoleon& f=false The reception of Ossian in Europe (2004) Many writers were influenced by the works, including the young Walter Scott and the German writer Johann Wolfgang 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 (1774).Harvnb|Berresford Ellis|1987|p=159
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.
The poem was as much admired in Hungary as in France and Germany; Hungarian János Arany wrote "Homer and Ossian" in response, and several other Hungarian writers – Baróti Szabó , Mihály Csokonai Vitéz|Csokonai , Sándor Kisfaludy , Ferenc Kazinczy|Kazinczy , Kölcsey , Ferenc Toldy , and Ágost Greguss , were also influenced by it.citation |first=Elek |last=Oszkár |title=Ossian-kultusz Magyarországon |journal=Egyetemes Philologiai Közlöny |issue=LVII |year=1933 |pages=66–76
In Italy the translation of Ossian by Melchiore Cesarotti made that work highly popular, and among others it influenced Ugo Foscolo who was Cesarotti's pupil in the University of Padua .
The first partial Polish language|Polish translation of Ossian was made by Ignacy Krasicki in 1793. The complete translation appeared in 1830 by Seweryn Goszczynski .
The most influential Russian version of Ossian was the 1792 translation by Ermil Ivanovich Kostrov|Ermil Kostrov , who based his work on Pierre Le Tourneur 's 1777 translation from the original.Citation needed|date=December 2011 The play Ossian, ou Les bardes by Jean-François Le Sueur|Le Sueur was a sell-out at the Paris Opera in 1804, and transformed his career. This led to its influence on Napoleon and Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson|Girodet's 1805 painting Ossian receiving the Ghosts of the French Heroes (see above).Citation needed|date=December 2011 The poems also exerted an influence on the burgeoning of Romantic music , and Franz Schubert , in particular composed Lieder setting many of Ossian's poems. In 1829 Felix Mendelssohn was inspired to visit the Hebrides and composed the Hebrides Overture , better known as "Fingal's Cave". His friend Niels Gade devoted his first published work, the concert overture Efterklange af Ossian ("Echoes of Ossian") written in 1840, to the same subject.
In the 20th century Ossian became an exemplar of an imagined golden age of primitive pre-industrial culture to groups ranging from the Thule Society to the environmental movement .Citation needed|date=December 2011
Authenticity debate
There were immediate disputes of Macpherson's claims on both literary and political grounds. Macpherson promoted a Scottish origin for the material, and was hotly opposed by Irish historians who felt that their heritage was being appropriated. However, both Scotland and Ireland shared a common Gaels|Gaelic culture during the period in which the poems are set, and some Fenian Cycle|Fenian literature common in both countries was composed in Scotland.
The English author, critic, and biographer, Samuel Johnson , was convinced that Macpherson was "a wikt:mountebank|mountebank , a liar, and a fraud, and that the poems were forgeries".Harvnb|Magnusson|2006|p=340 Johnson also dismissed the poems' quality. Upon being asked, "But Doctor Johnson, do you really believe that any man today could write such poetry? " he famously replied, "Yes. Many men. Many women. And many children." Johnson is cited as calling the story of Ossian "as gross an imposition as ever the world was troubled with".Introduction of Robert Fagles' translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey In support of his claim, Johnson also called Gaelic the rude speech of a barbarous people, and said there were no manuscripts in it more than 100 years old. In reply, it was proved that the Advocates' library at Edinburgh contained Gaelic manuscripts 500 years old, and one of even greater antiquity.Cite AmCyc|Ossian|vb=1
Scottish author Hugh Blair 's 1763 A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian upheld the work's authenticity against Johnson's scathing criticism and from 1765 was included in every edition of Ossian to lend the work credibility. The work also had a timely resonance for those swept away by the emerging Romanticism|Romantic movement and the theory of the " noble savage ", and it echoed the popularity of Edmund Burke|Burke's seminal A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757).Or|date=December 2011 Faced with the controversy, the Committee of the Highland Society enquired after the authenticity of Macpherson's supposed original. It was because of these circumstances that the so-called Glenmasan manuscript (Adv. 72.2.3) came to light,When|date=May 2011 a compilation which contains the tale Oided mac n-Uisnig . This text is a version of the Irish Longes mac n-Uislenn and offers a tale which bears some comparison to Macpherson's "Darthula", although it is radically different in many respects. Donald Smith cited it in his report for the Committee.citation |first=Donald |last=MacKinnon |title=The Glenmasan Manuscript |journal=The Celtic Review |volume=1 |issue=6 |year=1904–5 |pages=3–17
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 Johnson concluded,citation |url= http://www.floridabibliophilesociety.org/Fingal.html |title=Lord Auchinleck's Fingal |publisher=Florida Bibliophile Society |accessdate=9& nbsp;April 2010 or largely on Scots Gaelic oral traditions and manuscripts as Macpherson claimed.
In 1952, Scottish poet Derick Thomson concluded that Macpherson had collected Scottish Gaelic ballads , employing scribes to record those that were preserved orally and collating manuscripts, but had adapted them by altering the original characters and ideas, and had introduced a great deal of his own.citation |first=Derick |last=Thomson |title=The Gaelic Sources of Macpherson's 'Ossian' |year=1952 The modern American literature professor and translator Bernard Knox refers to the Ossian book as a forged or fake "collective bardic epic".
The Invention of Scotland (2008) by Hugh Trevor-Roper conclusively follows the evolution of MacPherson's version(s) and the work's early support by some Scottish intellectuals.Yale University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-13686-9cite web|author=Non-Fiction Reviews |url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3553933/The-invention-of-Scotland.html |title="Telegraph" review, 6 June 2008; seen on 29 May 2011 |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2012-04-04
Editions
1996: The Poems of Ossian and Related Works , ed. Howard Gaskill, with an Introduction by Fiona Stafford (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press).
2004: Ossian and Ossianism , Dafydd Moore, (London: Routledge). A 4-volume edition of Ossianic works and a collection of varied responses (London: Routledge, 2004). This includes facsimiles of the Ossian works, contemporary and later responses, contextual letters and reviews, and later adaptations.
2011: ''Blind Ossian's Fingal : fragments and controversy a reprint of the first edition and abridgement of the follow-up with new material by Allan and Linda Burnett (Edinburgh: Luath Press Ltd)
Moore, Dafydd. ''Enlightenment and Romance in James Macpherson's the Poems of Ossian: Myth, Genre and Cultural Change (Studies in Early Modern English Literature) (2003)
refend
Further reading
citation |first=George F. |last=Black |title=Macpherson's Ossian and the Ossianic Controversy |year=1926 |location=New York
citation |first=Patrick |last=MacGregor |title=The Genuine Remains of Ossian, Literally Translated |publisher= Highland Society of London |year=1841
External links
commons|OssianWikisource1911Enc|Ossian
http://www.exclassics.com/ossian/ossintro.htm The Poetical Works of Ossian Full text at Ex-Classics
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/C18/biblio/macpherson.html Selected Bibliography: James Macpherson and Ossian Excellent online bibliography; compiled by designated experts in the field; covering the most important scholarly monographs and articles on Ossian and Macpherson up to March 2004.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/pt4/index.htm Popular Tales of the West Highlands by J. F. Campbell Volume IV (1890)
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/contents_page.jsp? t_id=Boswell A Vision of Britain Through Time James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson , discussion in entries for 22 and 23 September 1773.
http://www.calumcolvin.com/thumbs8.htm Calum Colvin: "Ossian: Fragments of Ancient Poetry" Reproduction of the cycle of paintings "Ossian: Fragments of Ancient Poetry" (2002) by one of Scotland's most renowned contemporary artists
