The Poems of Ossian and Related Works: James Macpherson

This is the only edition available of Ossian's poems. The influence of this work on literature, art and society of the time cannot be overstated. Napolean carried a copy with him wherever he went. Elias Linroot later used the, apparent same gathering techniques as Macpherson and was probably greatly influenced by him like so many others. Both used somewhat creative editing in putting their Magnum opus together so successfully.

Hugely popular when they were published in the 18th Century, the Poems of Ossian helped sparked the Romantic movement and its interest in folk themes and native mythology. Napoleon read this work, and Goethe referred to it in "The Sorrows of Young Werther." The poems were presented as translations from 6th-Century Scottish manuscripts discovered by MacPherson--or so he claimed. Anachronisms and deviations from other sources made the authenticity of this work suspect from the start, and many have considered the Poems of Ossian to have been composed by MacPherson himself. It might be more accurate to say that MacPherson based this work on authentic sources, interpreting freely as he went. Its tainted history shouldn't detract from enjoyment of this book; MacPherson was no mean poet and he had a real feel for the Celtic sensibility. MacPherson was neither the first author nor the last to over-hype his book; if he were alive today he probably would claim to have "channeled" Ossian.

Yes, James MacPherson didn't unearth these poems by the blind bard Ossian, he wrote them himself & passed them off as the real thing … but in doing so, he contributed to the beginnings of the Romantic movement. And does it really matter that he wrote them, since they're so filled with mysticism & unearthly beauty? In a way, he was creating mythic material from scattered sources, as refined in the crucible of his own psyche: and if that isn't Romantic in itself, I don't know what is.Consider this opening from "Temora":"The blue waves of Ullin roll in light. The green hills are covered with day. Trees shake their dusky heads in the breeze; and gray torrents pour their noisy streams.—Two green hills, with their aged oaks, surround a narrow plain. The blue course of the mountain-stream is there; Cairbar stands on its banks.—His spear supports the king: the red eyes of his fear are sad. Cormac rises in his soul, with all his ghastly wounds. The gray form of the youth appears in the midst of darkness, and the blood pours from his airy sides."Not only is this stirring, evocative epic, but it's in many ways the ancestor of modern fantasy, which has its original roots in Romanticism. And to my ear, it's not entirely dissimilar from the style of Tolkien's SILMARILLION, or even earlier, the style of William Morris in THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END. At the very least, they're literary cousins to some degree, weaving images of larger-than-life legends imbued with nobility & a tragic grandeur.Now, this won't be to every taste to be sure! But there's no denying the powerful effect that these poems had on Europe at that time, praised by Napoleon & Goethe among others. In helping to birth Romanticism, the poems gave rise to a new way of seeing & experiencing the world of the imagination, one filled with rapture & passion. Some of that feeling survives to this day, making this collection well worth reading — highly recommended!

This is a great edition, with an excellent introduction (which I don't think the negative reviewers bothered to read). Those who are claiming it a "hoax," etc. are just propagating the old English attack on native Scottish literature, headed by Samuel Johnson who wondered if the ignorant Scots could count to five (seriously). Unfortunately, his attacks on the poems have stuck, despite a lot of exceptional scholarship in recent years that demonstrates the authentic roots of the work. Yes, Macpherson embellished and construed some things, but its a remarkable collections that literally transformed Europe: Napoleon carried a copy of the poems into battle, Jefferson loved the poems and wanted to learn Gaelic, and hundreds of composers set the text to music. The poetry just drips with emotion. It's a fascinating read, and this is an excellent edition.

I did my master's thesis on James Macpherson, who is the author of the Ossian prose-poems, supposedly the work of an ancient Gaelic bard. Macpherson claimed to have translated them, but that was a hoax. Interestingly, though, the language of the poetry (the principal nouns, verbs, and adjectives) prefigure the language of Romantic poetry by 50 years (the subject of my thesis).

One of the greatest works of the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson read this book on a daily basis and extolled its merits. Unfortunately, the work was shrowded amidst questions about its "authenticity". It is a beautiful masterpiece, in my opinion. It does at times suffer from the excesses of 18th century sentimentality, but so does Tom Jones.

In the 1760s James Macpherson wandered Scotland, collecting the Poems of Ossian, many apparently existing only verbally. The book is a classic, the poetry is incredible, and the work is almost entirely forgotten today. That's a shame. Howard Gaskill has done the world a favor by releasing a new edition of "Ossian". He does an excellent job of organizing the material, and provides detailed explanations of the various plots of the poems. A great book for those who enjoy epic poetry.

Attacked by Samuel Johnson and others as a 'fraud', the Highland Society's investigation and subsequent report made clear that Macpherson's collection was firmly based on the gathering of oral tales and some written accounts gathered from the Highlands and Islands.A very useful introduction by the editors.Macpherson's collection has no doubt inspired a number of later Scottish writers and I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in or perhaps studying late Victorian literature by Scottish and Irish writers.