Ossian and Ossianism in Britain and Germany: a review article.('Homer des Nordens' und 'Mutter der Romantik': James Macphersons 'Ossian' und seine Rezeption in der deutschsprachigen Literatur, vols. 1-3)(Kommentierte Neuausgabe wichtiger Texte zur deutschen Rezeption, vol. 4)(Ossian and Ossianism: Subcultures and Subversions, 1750-1850)(Book Review)

Publication: The Modern Language Review

Publication Date: 01-JUL-05

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This extended review of two collections of materials on the reception of James Macpherson's 'Ossian' poems in Britain and Germany respectively examines the diversity of responses to Macpherson's work and the depth with which his imagery pervaded German literature of the classical and Romantic periods, with particular reference to Kleist.

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'Homer des Nordens' und 'Mutter der Romantik': James Macphersons 'Ossian' und seine Rezeption in der deutschsprachigen Literatur. By GERHARD SCHMIDT (vols I-III); vol. IV: Kommentierte Neuausgabe wichtiger Texte zur deutschen Rezeption, ed. by WOLF GERHARD SCHMIDT AND HOWARD GASKILL. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter. 2003. Vols I and II: xx+1417 pp.; vol. III: x+501 pp.; vol. iv: xvi+850 pp. Vols I and II: 218 [euro]; vol. III: 98 [euro]; vol. iv: 9138. Vols I and II: ISBN 3-11-017924-5; vol. III: ISBN 3-11-017923-7; vol. IV: ISBN 3-11-017937-7.

Ossian and Ossianism: Subcultures and Subversions, 1750-1850. Ed. by. London: Routledge. 2004. 4 vols; 2300 pp. 425 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-415-28894.

James Macpherson's Ossianic poems are among the most remarkable, and influential, literary phenomena to have arisen from these islands. Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry [...] Translated from the Galic or Erse Language in 1760, followed by Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem [...] together with Several Other Poems, Composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal in 1761 and a further 'reconstructed' epic, Temora, in 1763, together with further shorter poems and 'a specimen of the original Galic, for the satisfaction of those who doubt the authenticity of Ossian's poems'. Doubts had indeed already been forcefully expressed. Macpherson presented the poems as literal translations from the works of a third-century Gaelic bard. That they certainly were not, but nor were they entirely the fraudulent concoctions of an unscrupulous Scotsman on the make, as was roundly declared by numerous Scotophobes, not least the redoubtable Samuel Johnson. Controversy continued to rage as further editions of the poems appeared, lasting well into the nineteenth century and flaring up intermittently beyond it. Meanwhile the poems had been enthusiastically devoured across the entire world of Western civilization, especially in Germany--thanks no doubt in considerable measure to Goethe's Werther, despite Goethe's later disavowal of his early enthusiasm. In 1901 Rudolf Tombo set out to trace the fortunes of Ossian in Germany, but got no further than the 1760s, with Klopstock and the would-be German 'bards'. (1) Ossian in France was better served by Paul van Tieghem, who also, in Le Preromantisme, showed the crucial significance of Ossian in the European sensibility of the time. (2) The last fifteen years or so have seen a great resurgence of Ossian studies in the English-speaking world, with the monographs by Fiona Stafford and Paul J. DeGategno, numerous articles by Howard Gaskill (a collected edition of these scattered publications would be very useful), and not least Gaskill's indispensable edition of the poems, based on Macpherson's complete collection of 1765, and published in 1996, the bicentennial year of Macpherson's death. (3) Now, it would seem coincidentally, two substantial four-volume compendia have appeared, tracing and documenting the appearance of the poems, the scholarly and critical controversies and the further literary responses they aroused in Britain and Ireland...

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