Ossian, the European National Epic (1760-1810) by Gauti Kristmannsson

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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. "The Poems of Ossian" and the New National Epic 2. Ossian in Literature: Translation and Imitation 3. Intermedial inﬂuences: Ossian in Visual Art 4. Ossian in Music 5. The Ossianic Paradigm Shift 6. Appendix 1. Sources 2. Literature 3. Notes Indices Citation "The Poems of Ossian" and the New National Epic

When James Macpherson (1736–1796) (➔ Media Link #ab) published his small volume, Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Galic or Erse Language1 in the summer of 1760 he may have had a young man's hopes of becoming known as a man of letters, at least in Scotland. Nothing could have been more wrong, since he became famous, infamous, lionised and detested in the course of a few years, and not only in his own country, Great Britain, but all over Europe and beyond. Moreover, his ﬁnancially rewarding rise from poor schoolteacher in the Highlands of Scotland to intellectual, servant of the empire and MP is more reminiscent of a modern celebrity than the career of a "man of letters" in the 18th century.2 ▲1

The success of his poems was much greater and enduring, however. After the publication of the Fragments, which paved the way for romanticist, lyrical poetry, the Edinburgh elite composed of ﬁgures such as Adam Smith (1723–1790) (➔ Media Link #ac), David Hume (1711–1776) (➔ Media Link #ad), Hugh Blair (1718–1800) (➔ Media Link #ae) and Adam Ferguson (1723–1816) (➔ Media Link #af) became excited about the possible existence of an epic from the Scottish Highlands. After funds had been raised, the young man went into the country where he collected folk poetry as well as manuscripts and transcribed and translated oral poetry. After the journey, he worked on his translation under the supervision of Hugh Blair, among others. Fingal, the ﬁrst epic, was published in late 1761 and another edition followed in early 1762.3 In the following year, the second epic Temora4 was published, with new full editions appearing in 1765 and 1773). ▲2

The poems caused an instant controversy in the British Isles which was of a twofold nature. The ﬁrst outcry came from Irish intellectuals who accused Macpherson of cultural theft since the poems, on which the epic was based, had been recited and written in Ireland for generations.5 South of the border, the response was much more furious, undoubtedly because of the importance of a grand national epic for Scotland at a time when the Scottish Lord John Stuart of Bute (1713–1792) (➔ Media Link #ag) was at the helm of government and anti‐Scottish feeling was widespread in the capital.6 There, the accusation was that the translation was a hoax and no such epic had ever existed.7 The controversy simmered on for years and even led to a personal feud between Macpherson and Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) (➔ Media Link #ah), which remains an anecdote gleefully recounted by in many an encyclopaedia article.8 ▲3

This view has come to dominate the literary and scholarly discourse on the subject of Macpherson's works and has since overshadowed all debates on the phenomenon linked with Ossian and its inﬂuence on European literature, which in the latter part of the 18th and well into the 19th century is probably second only to William Shakespeare (1564–1616) (➔ Media Link #ai) . A prime example is the work of Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) (➔ Media Link #aj), a major philosopher of national literature. He was absolutely taken by The Poems of Ossian and convinced these works held the key to a new vision of popular poetry in the North.9 His famous Von deutscher Art und Kunst opens with an essay on ancient poetry in which he also mentions Ossian and the Eddic poetry of the North10 while the next essay is about Shakespeare (➔ Media Link #ak).11 This slim volume, with a contribution from the young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) (➔ Media Link #al) among others,12 is often seen as the manifesto of the Sturm und Drang period and remained inﬂuential well into the 19th century. ▲4

Herder's fascination with Ossian was above all based on the fact that Macpherson had collected the material for the epics from folk tradition and then used it to construct his own version of an epic to the best of his ability, in line with what was considered to be textual criticism at the time.13 That Macpherson used sources which had long been in existence for his epics has been shown many times, ﬁrst in the Report of the Committee of the Highland Society14 in 1805. In 1952 Derick Thomson (1921–2012) (➔ Media Link #am) published his The Gaelic Sources of Macpherson's "Ossian" in which he was still able to trace source material related to the Ossianic poems published some 200 years earlier. Recent scholarship has also highlighted that Macpherson worked from a variety of sources, oral and written.15 ▲5

Herder and Goethe may have been the pioneers in reception of Ossian in Europe, in the sense that they drew inspiration from it almost instantly (Herder even prior to seeing the English original version). Goethe used the Songs of Selma in his Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (➔ Media Link #an)16 and for Herder, Ossian was the chief inspiration for his highly inﬂuential Volkslieder which later were called Stimmen der Völker in Liedern. Both of them even tried to translate directly from the Gaelic with the aid of a dictionary.17 ▲6

Ossian in Literature: Translation and Imitation

It is sometimes said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The response in the British Isles was, hostility in many quarters notwithstanding, also positive in parts. Many contemporaries, even among those who condemned The Poems of Ossian, started collecting and editing folk poetry themselves. The result was a flurry of publications in Ireland, Wales and indeed England, where bishop Thomas Percy (1729–1811) (➔ Media Link #ao) published his Five Pieces of Runic Poetry (➔ Media Link #ap) in 1763. To this translation of Eddic poetry Percy wrote a remarkable preface, calling the Nordic skalds the ancestors of the British minstrels.18 Two years later he published a collection of British ballads under the title Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,19 which confirmed that Macpherson's works had effectually helped to change the perspective on the folk ballad and poetry tradition. Formerly an element of "low" culture, it had now become a feature of "high" culture. This trend was established all over Europe within the course of the following century and produced epics, collections of folk poetry, folk tales and other historical material largely ignored by the elites hitherto. ▲7

Translation (➔ Media Link #aq) and criticism of the Poems of Ossian indeed spread out in a sort of transnational wildfire throughout Europe in the latter part of the 18th century and beyond. According to the Timeline of Ossian's European Reception by Paul Barnaby the first French translation from the Fragments appeared already in 1760, done by Anne‐Robert‐Jacques Turgot (1727–1781) (➔ Media Link #ar). Immediately the year after Jean‐Baptiste‐Antoine Suard (ca. 1734–1817) (➔ Media Link #as) and Denis Diderot (1713–1784) (➔ Media Link #at) followed suit. This was only the beginning of a long series of translations and critical debates on Ossian in Europe. The pace of translation picked up in the following years after the epics had been published. It may be surmised from the voluminous reception, through direct translation, critical debate and also creative reception, that these poems had touched a raw nerve among European intellectuals. ▲8 The first Dutch translation by Egbert Buys (1725–1769) (➔ Media Link #au) appeared 1762 as well as a first anonymous one in German. Melchiorre Cesarotti (1730–1808) (➔ Media Link #av) published his influential Italian translation of Fingal in 1763,20 only a year after it appeared in English. The same year Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736–1794) (➔ Media Link #aw) published a few extracts from it in German. Swedish translations of selections from the poems by Johan Gothenius (1721–1809) (➔ Media Link #ax) appeared in a journal 1765–1766 and in Austria21, Michael Denis (1729–1800) (➔ Media Link #az) was the first to publish a full translation of the works of Ossian, and in hexameter, too. By doing so, the alignment with the Homeric epics became obvious. The number of languages into which Macpherson's works were translated continued to grow throughout the 19th century and is indeed still growing. Few texts in the English language have been translated more often and as widely than The Poems of Ossian.22 ▲9

Part of the poems' appeal is the fact that they were received by most intellectuals and poets in Europe as a kind of prototype or model for their own budding national literatures at the time. This was certainly Herder's point of view and indeed of many others who translated, commented or rewrote Ossianic material. As a literary "earthquake" Macpherson's works positively shook the foundations of the old classical literary system and marked a paradigm shift by oﬀering a viable alternative for the "new" nations north of the Alps.23 ▲10

Intermedial influences: Ossian in Visual Art

The Poems of Ossian also inﬂuenced works of visual artists and composers of music. The transnational circulation and impact of The Poems of Ossian was not limited to the ﬁeld of literature but inspired artists working in other media, too. This "translation" into other art forms is perhaps the best argument for counting the poems among the realm of "world literature" (Weltliteratur).24 ▲11

In the visual arts, several important artists have applied Ossianic themes. Not only in Britain, but also in Denmark, Germany, and France. The British creative reception (including Ireland) was in accordance with the discourse of the day. The Scotsman Alexander Runciman (1736‐1786) (➔ Media Link #b0), who chose literary and mythological subjects very much en vogue at the time, rendered the Scottish national hero appropriately in drawings and in a ceiling painting in Penicuik House, Edinburgh, which was destroyed by ﬁre in 1899. ▲12

James Barry (1741–1806) (➔ Media Link #b1) also interpreted Ossian as a national bard in his series The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture, but since he was Irish, the bard to him was also an Irishman.25 Furthermore he sets Homer (ca. 8th century BC) (➔ Media Link #b2) and Ossian up as equals, a notion propagated by many of the greatest authors and thinkers in the latter part of the 18th century.26 Indeed, Ossian became a transnational ﬁgure by providing two parts of the United Kingdom with a national bard comparable with the greatest of them all. Other artists in Britain, either British or foreigners living there, also took up Ossianic topics, for example Angelika Kauﬀmann (1741–1807) (➔ Media Link #b3), and John Sell Cotman (1782–1842) (➔ Media Link #b4).27 On the whole, however, Ossian did not have a major impact on British art in the second half of the 18th century, owing to the controversy which surrounded the poems.28 ▲13

Nevertheless, painters from other countries were fascinated by the image of the northern bard, but perhaps for different reasons. In the northern parts of Europe Ossian became the symbol for a new national subject. The Danish artist Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard (1743–1809) (➔ Media Link #b5), who, like many of his contemporaries, merged influences of Neo‐classicism and Romanticism in his work, was very fond of both classical and Nordic literary motifs. Ossian played a major part in his work, and his Ossian Singing his Swan Song (➔ Media Link #b6) has almost become the defining image of the blind bard. One of Abildgaard's students, Asmus Jacob Carstens (1754–1798) (➔ Media Link #b7), was inspired by Ossian as well, as were many other Danish artists.29 ▲14

Just as the literary reception in Germany, or rather the German speaking part of Europe, and France was lively for decades after the publication of The Poems of Ossian, the same was true for the visual arts.30 In Germany Philipp Otto Runge (1777–1810) (➔ Media Link #b8) may be the best known artist who used Ossian as an inspiration, but the Austrian Joseph Anton Koch (1768–1839) (➔ Media Link #b9) was no less active. Furthermore Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) (➔ Media Link #ba) and the Englishman Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) (➔ Media Link #bb) (➔ Media Link #bc) show the influence of the supposedly typical Ossianic landscape with its melancholy fog and strange light effects.31 Although Friedrich never painted any actual figures from Macpherson's works, he was regarded by contemporaries as one of the "leading Ossianists in painting" because of the atmosphere in his work.32 ▲15

In France The Poems of Ossian were a favourite text of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) (➔ Media Link #bd) and commissions for works from Ossian at the time gave the subject "imperial support". Anne‐Louis Girodet de Roucy‐Trioson (1767–1824) (➔ Media Link #be) painted his famous Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of the French Heroes (➔ Media Link #bf) at the beginning of the 19th century, a work which was destined for one of Napoleon's residences, the Château Malmaison. This highly nationalistic work, with French fallen heroes almost embracing Ossian, Fingal and other characters from the poems, highlights once more in how far the Celtic bard could be used to foster the subjective nationalism of another culture. The two other most famous French painters inspired by Ossian were François‐ Pascal‐Simon Gérard (1770–1837) (➔ Media Link #bg) and Jean‐Auguste‐Dominique Ingres (1780–1867) (➔ Media Link #bh). The former's painting was also commissioned for Malmaison, whereas Ingres's The Dream of Ossian (➔ Media Link #bi) was especially painted to embellish Napoleon's quarters in Rome.33 ▲16

In Scottish contemporary art Ossian has lately resurfaced. One reason for this burgeoning interest in Macpherson's works may be found in a newly established political context in Great Britain. Since the late 1990s devolution has begun changing the British political landscape and subsequently left its mark on the arts, too. The sculptor Alexander Stoddart (*1959) (➔ Media Link #bj) has created a "heroic scale" bust of Ossian and his version of "Ossian singing" on a smaller scale. The art photographer Calum Colvin (*1961) (➔ Media Link #bk) has created a series of portraits based on an etching by Runciman which was exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery from 2002 to 2003.34 Despite having been dismissed from the academic literary canon, Ossian appears to play an important role again in what might be perceived as a new Scottish search for cultural identity. As Sebastian Mitchell (*1959) (➔ Media Link #bl) puts it: "... we have just lived through the most signiﬁcant period of Ossianic visual interpretation since the early nineteenth century…"35 ▲17

Ossian in Music

While The Poems of Ossian had a great impact on the visual arts, in particular during the Romantic period, the inﬂuence on European (and American) musical composers appears to be even greater and of a much longer duration. 36 Both well‐known and lesser‐known composers drew inspiration from Macpherson's works. Franz Schubert (1797–1828) (➔ Media Link #bm) set several passages to music; Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847) (➔ Media Link #bn) was inspired by a visit to Fingal's Cave on Staﬀa to write his celebrated overture Die Hebriden (The Hebrides, 1830). Jean‐François Le Sueur (1760–1837) (➔ Media Link #bo) wrote the most important opera based on Ossian (Ossian, ou Les bardes, 1804), much to the delight of Napoleon.37 The Danish composer (➔ Media Link #bp) Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–1890) (➔ Media Link #bq) made his name with the overture Efterklange af Ossian (1840), a work which became part of the Danish national heritage.38 The Frenchman François‐Hippolyte Barthélemon (1741–1808) (➔ Media Link #br), who lived in England, drew on Ossian for Oithona, a "dramatic poem" in three acts (1768).39 Among the many other musicians to adapt the material, some composed only one small piece, others whole ballets and operas. Composers such as Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) (➔ Media Link #bs), Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) (➔ Media Link #bt), John Wall Callcott (1766–1821) (➔ Media Link #bu), Johannes Brahms (1833– 1897) (➔ Media Link #bv), Georges Bizet (1838–1875) (➔ Media Link #bw), Camille Saint‐Saëns (1835–1921) (➔ Media Link #bx) and even Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951) (➔ Media Link #by) belong to the illustrious circle of artists inspired by Ossian. Apparently these intermedial approaches show how the bard took on a life of his own within the musical world. The Poems of Ossian proved not only to be transnational but also transdisciplinary. ▲18

The Ossianic Paradigm Shift

Macpherson's works thus led to a paradigm shift in European literature and, what is more important, this eﬀect was achieved by doing exactly what Macpherson was most criticised for: by combining the gathered material into the epic form. The theoretical basis to his work might have been laid by the 18th‐century scholar, Thomas Blackwell (1701–1757) (➔ Media Link #bz) from Aberdeen, whose important work An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer went into four editions between 1735 and 1761 in Britain alone.40 Blackwell's work opens with a question: ▲19 By what Fate or Disposition of things it has happened, that None have equalled [Homer] in Epic‐poetry for two thousand seven hundred Years, the Time since he wrote; Nor any that we know, ever surpassed him before.41

Blackwell's answer to his "research question" is centred on the "Progression of Manners", a combination of three factors: "Thus we ﬁnd that the Fortunes, the Manners, and the Language of a People are all linked together, and necessarily inﬂuence one another".42 ▲20

This meant that the Homeric epics consisted of a combination of inﬂuences and sources which were brought together in one work by one man. Blackwell's theories were given a new form in the so‐called Homeric question of Friedrich August Wolf (1759–1824) (➔ Media Link #c0) in his Prolegomena ad Homerum (1795) that undoubtedly was also related to the previous three decades of Ossianic controversy.43 Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805) (➔ Media Link #c1) and Goethe saw it that way and asked Herder to contribute an essay to their journal Die Horen, titled Homer und Ossian. Anne Louise Germaine de Staël‐Holstein (1766–1817) (➔ Media Link #c2) is sometimes cited as being the ﬁrst to use the phrase "Homer of the North", although this has been disputed.44 ▲21

The continous comparison of Ossian with Homer, which began with Hugh Blair's influential A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian (1763), aims perhaps at more than mere questions of greatness.45 The causes for this juxtaposition may also be found in the nature of the epic itself. Keeping the definition of "national epic" in mind, Macpherson's construction proved to be so influential because it effectually took the epic tradition in the West "back to basics". Usually national epics are defined as renderings of traditional epics which have their origins in oral tradition; Homer is always the case in point when referring to an epic passed on orally. Virgil's (70–19 BC) (➔ Media Link #c3) Aeneid and Edmund Spenser's (ca. 1552–1599) (➔ Media Link #c4) The Faerie Queene are some examples from the large number of authors who wrote so‐called "national epics". ▲22

Macpherson, however, collected oral and written sources to construct his version of a national epic. In a sense, it was an attempt to create a traditional epic which instantly was defined as a "national epic". As an effect intellectuals all over Europe began to perceive their own traditions in a different light. They ceased imitating the classical models and began using sources in their own countries or areas outside the classical sphere. In Britain itself the Welshman Evan Evans (1731–1788) (➔ Media Link #c5) published his Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards (1764); Charles Henry Wilson (ca. 1757–1808) (➔ Media Link #c6) presented Select Irish Poems Translated (1782) and Charlotte Brooke (ca. 1740–1793) (➔ Media Link #c7) her Reliques of Ancient Irish Poetry (1789; with Thomas Percy's encouragement), to name just a few. Antiquaries and poets such as Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) (➔ Media Link #c8), John Pinkerton (1758–1826) (➔ Media Link #c9) and Walter Scott (1771–1832) (➔ Media Link #ca) collected and published ballads and folk songs. Extensive explanatory paratexts were added in an attempt to support the construction of a unique national heritage. In the 19th century national epics were simply written with that aim in mind. The Finnish national epic Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot (1802– 1884) (➔ Media Link #cb) is perhaps the most important work in this vein, since Lönnrot used largely the same means of collecting sources as Macpherson did. ▲23

As this overview shows, the much‐derided comparison of Homer and Ossian is perhaps not as absurd as some modern commentators like to claim. Although scholars and poets at the time had published "native" sources and used them for their own creations, as had happened often before, these works were not "ennobled" by the epic form which Macpherson gave the ballads and folk poetry of his people. He literally translated a speciﬁc culture to the "higher sphere" of classical culture. That Macpherson's works were removed from the canon of the most important works of European, and, indeed, world literature, might thus be regarded as a matter of nationalist narrow‐mindedness and dogmatic notions on translation and textual criticism. ▲24

Gauti Kristmannsson, Reykjavík

Appendix Sources Blackwell, Thomas: An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, 3rd ed., London 1757, original from New York Public Library, digitized by Google, online: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433081606117 [16.06.2014].

Idem: Untersuchung über Homers Leben und Schriften: Aus dem Englischen des Blackwells übersetzt von Johann Heinrich Voß, Leipzig 1776, ed. by the Munich Digitization Center, online: http://www.mdz‐nbn‐resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12‐ bsb10233539‐3 [24.06.2014].

Blair, Hugh: A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal, London 1763, digitized by the National Library of Scotland, online: http://www.archive.org/details/criticaldisserta01blai [17.06.2014].

Denis, Michael [pseudonym Sined]: Ossian und Sineds Lieder, Wien 1791–1792, vol. 1–6, ed. by the Austrian National Library, online: http://data.onb.ac.at/ABO/%2BZ170976608 [06.06.2014].

Gaskill, Howard (ed.): Ossian Revisited, Edinburgh 1991.

Idem (ed.): The Poems of Ossian and Related Works, Edinburgh 1996.

Idem (ed.): The Reception of Ossian in Europe, London 2004.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, Leipzig 1774, ed. by the Munich Digitization Center, online: http://nbn‐ resolving.de/urn%3Anbn%3Ade%3Abvb%3A12‐bsb00070246‐2 [27.05.2013].

Herder, Johann Gottfried: Von deutscher Art und Kunst: Einige ﬂiegende Blätter, Hamburg 1773, in: Deutsches Textarchiv, online: http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/herder_artundkunst_1773 [26.05.2014]

Idem: V. Homer und Ossian, in: Die Horen 10 (1795), ed. by the Friedrich Schiller Archiv, Weimar, online: http://www.friedrich‐schiller‐ archiv.de/die‐horen/die‐horen‐1795‐stueck‐10/v‐homer‐und‐ossian [17.06.2014].

Herder, Johann Gottfried et al.: Von deutscher Art und Kunst: Einige ﬂiegende Blätter, ed. by Hans Dietrich Irmscher, Stuttgart 1988.

Mackenzie, Henry et al.: Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, Appointed to Inquire into the Nature and Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian: With a Copious Appendix, Edinburgh 1805, digitised by the National Library of Scotland, online: http://www.archive.org/details/reportofcommitte02high [27.05.2014].

Macpherson, James: Fingal, in: idem: Fingal: An Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books: Together with Several other Poems, Composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, London 1762, pp. 1–85, ed. by the Munich Digitization Center, online: http://reader.digitale‐ sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10007516_00039.html [26.05.2014].

Idem: Fingal: An Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books: Together with Several other Poems, Composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, London 1762, ed. by the Munich Digitization Center, online: http://www.mdz‐nbn‐resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12‐ bsb10007516‐7 [26.05.2014].

Idem: Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), in: Howard Gaskill (ed.): The Poems of Ossian and Related Works, Edinburgh 1996, pp. 1–2.

Idem: Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and Translated from the Galic or Erse Language, Edinburgh 1760, original from the Oxford University, digitized by Google, online: http://www.archive.org/details/fragmentsancien00fraggoog [26.05.2014].

Idem: Oeuvres d'Ossian, translated and ed. by Samuel Baudry, Paris 2013.

Idem: Poesie di Ossian, ﬁglio di Fingal, antico poeta celtico, ultimamente scoperte, e tradotte in prosa inglese da Jacopo Macpherson, e da quella trasportate in verso Italiano dall' Ab. Melchior Cesarotti, con varie annotazioni de' due traduttori, Padova 1763, original from the National Library of Scotland, digitized by the Internet Archive, online: http://archive.org/details/poesiediossianﬁ11macp [30.05.2014].

Idem: Temora, in: idem: Fingal: An Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books: Together with Several other Poems, Composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, London 1762, pp. 172–192, ed. by the Munich Digitization Center, online: http://reader.digitale‐ sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10007516_00210.html [26.05.2014].

Percy, Thomas (ed.): Five Pieces of Runic Poetry Translated from the Islandic Language: Egill's Ode og Regner's Ode, London 1763, original from the library of Oxford University, digitized by Google, online: http://www.archive.org/details/ﬁvepiecesrunic00norwgoog [20.06.2014]. Idem (ed.): Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets, (Chieﬂy of the Lyric Kind.): Together with some Few of Later Date, vol. 1–3, London 1765.

Staël‐Holstein, Anne Louise Germaine de: De l'Allemagne, Paris 1810, vol. 1–3, ed. by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Réserve des livres rares online: vol. 1: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b86232882/f5.image; vol. 2: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8623289g/f5.image; vol. 3: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b86232904/f5.image [24.06.2014].

Wolf, Friedrich August: Prolegomena ad Homerum, Sive de Operum Homericorum prisca et genuina forma variisque mutationibus et probabili ratione emendandi, Halis 1795, ed. by the Munich Digitization Center, online: http://reader.digitale‐ sammlungen.de/resolve/display/bsb10912217.html [16.06.2014].

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Ó Dochartaigh, Caitríona: Goethe's Translation from the Gaelic "Ossian", in: Howard Gaskill (ed.): The Reception of Ossian in Europe, London, 2004, pp. 156–175.

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Schmidt, Wolf Gerhard et al. (ed.). 'Homer des Nordens' und 'Mutter der Romantik', Berlin et al. 2003–2004, vol. 1–4.

Sher, Richard B.: Those Scotch Imposters and their Cabal: Ossian and the Scottish Enlightenment, in: Man and Nature: Proceedings of the Canadian Society for Eighteenth‐Century Studies 1 (1982), pp. 55–63.

Smith, Christopher: Ossian in Music, in: Howard Gaskill (ed.): The Reception of Ossian in Europe, London 2004, pp. 375–392.

Staﬀord, Fiona: The Sublime Savage: James Macpherson and the Poems of Ossian, Edinburgh 1988. Eadem: Dr. Johnson and the Ruﬃan: New Evidence in the Dispute between Samuel Johnson and James Macpherson, in: Notes and Queries 36, 1 (1989), pp. 70–77, online: http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/1.toc.

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Notes

1. ^ Macpherson, Fragments 1760. 2. ^ Stafford, The Sublime Savage 1988 is the best recent introduction to Macpherson and his work. 3. ^ Cf. Gaskill, Introduction 2004; Macpherson, Fingal 1762. 4. ^ Macpherson, Temora 1762. 5. ^ Cf. Kristmannsson, Literary Diplomacy 2005, vol. 1, pp. 97–108. 6. ^ Cf. Sher, Those Scotch Imposters 1982. 7. ^ Macpherson is still being accused of fraud, cf. Curley, Samuel Johnson 2009. 8. ^ Cf. Stafford, Dr. Johnson 1989. 9. ^ Cf. Kristmannsson, The Nordic Turn 2007. 10. ^ Herder, Von deutscher Art 1773, pp. 3–70. 11. ^ ibid., pp. 71–118. 12. ^ ibid., pp. 119–136. 13. ^ Cf. Kristmannsson, Literary Diplomacy 2005, part. 1, pp. 90–94. 14. ^ Mackenzie, Report 1805. 15. ^ Gaskill, Macpherson 1990. 16. ^ Goethe, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers 1774, pp. 192–206. 17. ^ Cf. Ó Dochartaigh, Goethe's Translation 2004. 18. ^ Cf. Kristmannsson, Literary Diplomacy 2005, vol. 1, pp. 121–194. 19. ^ Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry 1765, vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3. 20. ^ Macpherson, Poesie di Ossian 1763. 21. ^ Denis, Ossian und Sineds Lieder 1791–1792, vol. 1–6. 22. ^ Even in the 21st century, when translations or new editions of previous translations are fewer and farther between, some ones are still appearing, such as Samuel Baudry's recent French translation James Macpherson: Oeuvres d'Ossian (2013). The same applies to the critical debate and creative reception. Indeed, one of the hallmarks of The Poems of Ossian seems to be that they are truly transnational, the wide range of reception into a great number of languages and their role within the respective national literatures as an inspiring source for the creation of an, as it were, indigenous native literature in the respective cultures of reception is simply fascinating from a transnational point of view. 23. ^ This paradigm shift has been ignored to a large extent by European academics for almost a century, especially in Britain, but major studies have been published all the same. Paul van Tieghem's (1871–1948) Ossian en France went into several editions between 1917 and 1967 in three languages, according to the website "WorldCat Identities"; Rudolf Tombo (1875–1914) published a study, Ossian in Germany, in 1901 and the most recent work on that issue is Wolf Gerhardt Schmidt's (birth 1973) four‐volume study, 'Homer des Nordens' und 'Mutter der Romantik', on the German reception of Ossian which underlines the massive influence in Germany alone. In Britain and the U.S. the debate has increased greatly after Fiona Stafford's The Sublime Savage (1988) and Howard Gaskill's Ossian Revisited (1991). 24. ^ According to David Damrosch (birth 1953) the term "world literature" may be defined as follows: "My claim is that world literature is not an infinite, ungraspable canon of works but rather a mode of circulation and of reading, a mode that is applicable to individual works as to bodies of material, available for reading established classics and new discoveries alike." (Damrosch, World Literature 2003, p. 5) The transnational literary reception of The Poems of Ossian would certainly suffice to categorise them as "world literature", but their circulation in other art forms – also a "mode of reading" – underlines this claim even more.. ^ Cf. Hofmann et al., Ossian und die Kunst 1974, p. 55. 25. ^ Cf. Hofmann et al., Ossian und die Kunst 1974, p. 55. 26. ^ Apart from Blair, (A Critical Dissertation 1763), Goethe in his Werther juxtaposed Homer and Ossian; Herder wrote an essay on the subject for Schiller's and Goethe's Die Horen in 1795 (Herder, Homer und Ossian 1795) and Mme de Staël also made the comparison in her groundbreaking work on German Romanticism (De l'Allemagne 1810, vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3). 27. ^ Cf. Hofmann et al., Ossian und die Kunst 1974, pp. 55–62. 28. ^ Cf. Roters, Jenseits von Arkadien 1995, p. 14. 29. ^ Cf. Celenza, Efterklange af Ossian 1998, pp. 370–382. 30. ^ The list is too long to be recapitulated here in detail, but for those interested in a good overview, albeit in German, Ossian und die Kunst um 1800, a catalogue for a major exhibition in Hamburg in 1974, and Roters's Jenseits von Arkadien may be recommended. 31. ^ Cf. Hofmann et al., Ossian und die Kunst 1974, p. 63. 32. ^ Cf. Roters, Jenseits von Arkadien 1995, p. 28. 33. ^ Cf. Hofmann et al., Ossian und die Kunst 1974, p. 127. 34. ^ Cf. Macdonald, Ossian and Art 2004. 35. ^ Mitchell, Celtic Postmodernism 2013, p. 327. 36. ^ Two doctoral dissertations in German from the 1990s, one by Manuela Jahrmärker (birth 1957) and another by Matthias Wessel provide long lists of composers who from the 1760s till the 1940s used the Ossianic poetry for their compositions. The lists complement each other nicely since Jahrmärker uses a chronological order, whereas Wessel uses an alphabetical one. Wessel notes that he was able to find over 200 compositions of various provenance based on the Ossianic corpus in one way or another (cf. Wessel, Die Ossian Dichtung 1994, p. 2). Wessel (ibid., p. 13) also notes that the composers often referred to the translations in their own language rather than the original English translation and that these were often adaptations of the English text. This underlines the importance of translation for a text's transnational circulation and impact. 37. ^ Roters, Jenseits von Arkadien 1995, p. 16; cf. also Smith, Ossian in Music 2004, p. 379. 38. ^ Cf. Celenza, Efterklange af Ossian 1998, p. 389. 39. ^ Cf. Gaskill, Introduction 2004; cf. also Smith, Ossian in Music 2004. 40. ^ Johann Heinrich Voss (1751–1826),the greatest German translators of Homer, also adapted this work, which was published in 1776: Blackwell, Untersuchung 1776. A French translation by Jean Nicolas Quatremère‐Roissy (1754–1834) appeared in 1798. 41. ^ Blackwell, An Enquiry 1757, p. 2, italics in the original. 42. ^ ibid., p. 54, italics in original. 43. ^ James Macpherson was educated in Aberdeen (1753–1756), first at King's College and then Marischal College, at which Thomas Blackwell was principal at the time. 44. ^ Cf. Gaskill, The Homer of the North 2007–2008. 45. ^ Gaskill, The Poems of Ossian and Related Works 1996, offers a modern edition of Ossian and includes Blair, A Critical Dissertation 1763.

This text is licensed under:

Editor: Fridrun Rinner mit Laurenz Lütteken Copy Editor: Claudia Falk / Joe Kroll

Eingeordnet unter: Modelle und Stereotypen › Anglophilie › Ossian Models and Stereotypes › Anglophilia › Ossian

Indices

DDC: 410 , 700 , 820

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Citation

Kristmannsson, Gauti: Ossian, the European National Epic (1760‐1810), in: European History Online (EGO), published by the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG), Mainz 2015‐11‐09. URL: http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/kristmannssong‐2015‐en URN: urn:nbn:de:0159‐ 2015103003 [YYYY‐MM‐DD].

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(https://archive.org/details/fragmentsancien00fraggoog) Fragments of ancient poetry, collected in the highlands of Scotland and tr. from the Galic or Erse language

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(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/william‐shakespeare‐156420131616‐en) William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

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Link #ap Five pieces of runic poetry translated from the islandic language (http://https//archive.org/details/ﬁvepiecesrunic00norwgoog)

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Link #aw Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736–1794) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/95156657) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118787888) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118787888.html)

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Link #az Michael Denis (1729–1800) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/32028043) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/116071532) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd116071532.html)

Link #b0 Alexander Runciman (1736‐1786) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/9376805) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/137449674) Link #b1 James Barry (1741–1806) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/36926685) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/120538180) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd120538180.html)

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Link #b5 Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard (1743–1809) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/10020076) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/116003472) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd116003472.html)

(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/ﬁngal‐sees‐the‐ghosts‐of‐his‐forefathers‐by‐moonlight‐ca.‐1782) Fingal Sees the Ghosts of his Forefathers by Moonlight, ca. 1782

Link #b6

(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/ossian‐1787‐ossians‐swan‐song) Ossian 1787 (Ossian's Swan Song)

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(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/ﬁngals‐battle‐with‐the‐spirit‐of‐loda‐1797) Fingal's Battle with the Spirit of Loda 1797

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Link #b9 Joseph Anton Koch (1768–1839) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/64802393) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118724010) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118724010.html)

(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/ﬁngal‐befreit‐conbana) Fingal befreit Conbana

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Link #bc

(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/staffa‐fingals‐cave‐1831‐1832) Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Staffa, Fingal's Cave, 1831/1832

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(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/test‐napoleon) Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821)

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(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fran%C3%A7ois_G%C3%A9rard_‐_Ossian.jpg) François Gérard ‐ Ossian

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Link #bi

(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/ossian2019s‐dream‐1813) Ossian’s Dream 1813

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(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/calum‐colvin‐ossian‐2002) Calum Colvin, Ossian 2002

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Link #bo Jean‐François Le Sueur (1760–1837) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/9945810) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118572148) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118572148.html)

Link #bp Niels Wilhelm Gade (http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/de/threads/modelle‐und‐stereotypen/germanophilie‐und‐ germanophobie/deutsche‐musik‐in‐europa/yvonne‐wasserloos‐niels‐wilhelm‐gade‐1817‐1890)

Link #bq Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–1890) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/54332446) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/119057077) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd119057077.html)

(http://www.ieg‐ego.eu/en/mediainfo/niels‐wilhelm‐gade‐181720131890) Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–1890)

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Link #bs Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/95146280) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118547356) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118547356.html)

Link #bt Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/74037336) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118526731) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118526731.html)

Link #bu John Wall Callcott (1766–1821) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/48303083) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/140372717) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd140372717.html)

Link #bv Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/7573295) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118514253) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118514253.html)

Link #bw Georges Bizet (1838–1875) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/10032551) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118511440) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118511440.html)

Link #bx Camille Saint‐Saëns (1835–1921) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/7575200) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/11875081X) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd11875081X.html)

Link #by Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/12492826) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118610023) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118610023.html)

Link #bz Thomas Blackwell (1701–1757) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/3399581) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/124220193)

Link #c0 Friedrich August Wolf (1759–1824) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/45080401) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/117444154) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd117444154.html)

Link #c1 Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/96994450) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118607626) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118607626.html)

Link #c2 Anne Louise Germaine de Staël‐Holstein (1766–1817) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/89204033) DNB (http://d‐ nb.info/gnd/118616617) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118616617.html)

Link #c3 Virgil (70–19 BC) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/8194433) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118626574) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118626574.html)

Link #c4 Edmund Spenser (ca. 1552–1599) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/100170015) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118616129) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118616129.html)

Link #c5 Evan Evans (1731–1788) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/57413633) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118924028)

Link #c6 Charles Henry Wilson (ca. 1757–1808) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/296453360) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/1031928375)

Link #c7 Charlotte Brooke (ca. 1740–1793) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/7731550) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/141429755)

Link #c8 Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/19808411) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/130366633)

Link #c9 John Pinkerton (1758–1826) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/12358699) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/100236456) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd100236456.html)

Link #ca Walter Scott (1771–1832) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/95207079) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118612409) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118612409.html)

Link #cb Elias Lönnrot (1802–1884) VIAF (http://viaf.org/viaf/7393523) DNB (http://d‐nb.info/gnd/118780301) ADB/NDB (http://www.deutsche‐biographie.de/pnd118780301.html)

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