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For a brilliant introduction to Macpherson and the “Ossian” poems, we suggest our International Companion, ed. Dafydd Moore – available in print or online via Project MUSE

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Cover 🖼️: Karoli, The woes of Ossian

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/companions/ic4/

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

Book cover
The International Companion to
JAMES MACPHERSON AND THE POEMS OF OSSIAN
Edited by Dafydd Moore

Cover image: The ancient poet Ossian sits next to a stream, head bowed, playing his harp. Behind him, giant figures of dead heroes form out of clouds of mist.

Ossian, the European National Epic
Gauti Kristmannsson

“The number of translations & imitations […] underlines the huge creative impulse of the [Ossian] poems, which can be seen as a major paradigm shift in the outlook of what is called high culture literature.”

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https://www.ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/models-and-stereotypes/anglophilia/gauti-kristmannsson-ossian-the-european-national-epic-1760-1810

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

Ossian, the European National Epic (1760–1810)
by Gauti Kristmannsson
Published 2015-11-09

The Poems of Ossian are a unique phenomenon in European literary history. They have been referred to as a "pseudotranslation" and effectively discarded from the canon, to which they undoubtedly belonged to for a hundred years, yet their monumental influence on literature, visual art and music is undeniable. The poems were certainly not a translation of one single text but an editoral construct which on its own shook the literary system of the late 18th century to its foundations and helped usher in Romantic notions of poetry, in addition to turning the focus definitely to the native productions of the people in each country or area. The number of translations and imitations of several degrees underlines the huge creative impulse of the poems, which can be seen as a major paradigm shift in the outlook of what is called high culture literature.

“He’s usually scorned by English-language readers as a charlatan. But he knew Gaelic, he travelled in the Highlands & he talked to Gaelic speakers. […] All works of art are made by artifice.”

Prof Alan Riach on James Macpherson’s “Ossian”

7/9

https://www.thenational.scot/news/18453868.unlocking-james-macphersons-tales-ossian/

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

Prof Derick Thomson conducted extensive research into the Gaelic sources of Macpherson’s poetry. This dimension is still often overlooked by scholars & many seem to be entirely unaware of it. Dr Petra Johana Poncarová explores Thomson’s work in this field

6/9

https://anglica-journal.com/article/144001/en

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

Petra Johana Poncarová
Charles University, Prague
Derick Thomson and the Ossian Controversy

Abstract
This paper focuses on Derick Thomson’s engagement with the Ossian controversy and maps his contributions, both scholarly and popularising, and the development of his attitudes. As the Gaelic dimension of the Ossian controversy still tends to be overlooked and many contributors to the debate exhibit very little awareness of it, a survey of Thomson’s scholarship provides numerous relevant impulses for further research. Moreover, since many aspects of Thomson’s career have not received due attention, this essay also strives to provide more understanding of Derick Thomson as a scholar.

Keywords: Derick Thomson (Ruaraidh MacThòmais), James Macpherson, Ossianic poetry, Ossian controversy, Scottish Gaelic studies

Another likely reason why he was (& still is) sneered at was his popularity & success… Undoubtedly he padded his texts & added his own inventions—as writers do. Real or fake, whole swathes of the modern literary world still lie in his shadow

5/9

🖼️: Runciman, The Death of Oscar

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

Alexander Runciman (1736–1785), The Death of Oscar (date unknown)

An ink-wash sketch. Oscar lies contorted in the centre, resting on his round shield. A spear lies along the ground in front of him. Various figures stand behind and beside him, in postures of grief and sorrow.

Macpherson did not find his texts in “ancient manuscripts” – though there are some, e.g. The Red Book of Clanranald & the Book of the Dean of Lismore. But 18th-century attitudes dismissed the oral tradition which formed the bedrock of the poems

4/9

🖼️: Scheffer, La Mort de Malvina

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

Today, Macpherson is often called a “faker” & “forger”. But much of the hostility towards him is because, shortly after the Jacobite rebellions, he staked a claim for the existence of a Gaelic high culture

3/9

🖼️: Girodet, Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of Fallen French Heroes

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

Anne-Louis Girodet De Roucy-Trioson, Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of French Heroes (1802)

The blind poet Ossian, robed in white, reaches out to bring in blue-uniformed soldiers. Behind him we see fallen warrior heroes of history, illuminated as with an inner radiance, and, as if in reward, surrounded by fairy-like floating maidens.

@litstudies

Ossian fans included Goethe, Diderot, Jefferson, Bonaparte, Mendelssohn… Ossian-inspired art was created across Europe. Children were given Ossianic names such as Oscar & Fiona (will children still get named “Daenerys” in 250 years?)

2/9

🖼️: Abildgaard, Ossian Singing

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

James Macpherson (1736–1796), of “Ossian” fame, was born #OTD, 27 Oct. The “Ossian” poems were the literary sensation of the 18th century; they inspired the Brothers Grimm to collect German folktales, & Elias Lönnrot to compile Finnish poems into the Kalevala. They are the founding texts of European Romanticism & of modern fantasy literature

A 🎂🧵

@litstudies
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🖼️: Ingres, Le Songe d’Ossian

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #romanticism #fantasy #Ossian #JamesMacpherson #Gaelic #Gaidhlig