The Poems of Ossian

Ossian purports to be a translation of an epic cycle of Scottish poems from the early dark ages. Ossian, a blind bard, sings of the life and battles of Fingal, a Scotch warrior. Ossian caused a sensation when it was published on the cusp of the era of revolutions, and had a massive cultural impact during the 18th and 19th centuries. Napolean carried a copy into battle; Goethe translated parts of it; the city of Selma, Alabama was named after the home of Fingal, and one of Ingres' most romantic and moody paintings, the Dream of Ossian (above) was based on it.

There was just one problem. The whole composition was a massive forgery. James Macpherson claimed that Ossian was based on an ancient Gaelic manscript, the existence of which was never established. The authenticity of the work was widely contested, particularly by Samuel Johnson. Although some of the themes and characters of Ossian are based on established Celtic mythology, Macpherson is the author of the entire work, and the language of composition was English.

The work has literary merits, and historical importance. The project resembles other attempts at national epic-building such as the Finnish Kalevala; however the Kalevala is acknowledged to be based on years of ethnographic fieldwork by Elias Lönnrot. Lönnrot is now believed to have composed a few bridge portions of the Kalevala; but he didn't pull the whole work out of thin air, as did Macpherson.

Production notes: This version is based on material produced by Donal O'Danachair. Be sure to visit his website (exclassics.com)--highly recommended! I've scanned and proofed about 200 pages of prefatory material, added the original illustrations and page numbers; corrected some typos and added a few missing footnotes to the exclassics etext.