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Fragments of Ancient Poetry: Collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and Translated from the Gaelic or Erse Language, 1760 - Primary Source Edition
Son of the noble Fingal, Oscian, Prince of men! what tears run down the cheeks of age? what shades thy mighty soul?
20 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1760
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About the author
James MacPherson
726 books46 followersJames Macpherson (Gaelic: Seumas Mac a' Phearsain) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poems.
It was in 1761 that Macpherson claimed to have found an epic on the subject of the hero Fingal, written by Ossian. The name Fingal or Fionnghall means "white stranger". His publisher, claiming that there was no market for these works except in English, required that they be translated. He published translations of it during the next few years, culminating in a collected edition, The Works of Ossian, in 1765. The most famous of these poems was Fingal.
The poems achieved international success (Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson were great fans) and were proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical writers such as Homer. Many writers were influenced by the works, including the young Walter Scott. In the German-speaking states Michael Denis made the first full translation in 1768, inspiring the proto-nationalist poets Klopstock and Goethe, whose own German translation of a portion of Macpherson's work figures prominently in a climactic scene of The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).
The poem was as much admired in Hungary as in France and Germany; Hungarian János Arany wrote Homer and Ossian in response, and several other Hungarian writers Baróti Szabó, Csokonai, Sándor Kisfaludy, Kazinczy, Kölcsey, Ferenc Toldy, and Ágost Greguss, were also influenced by it.
It was in 1761 that Macpherson claimed to have found an epic on the subject of the hero Fingal, written by Ossian. The name Fingal or Fionnghall means "white stranger". His publisher, claiming that there was no market for these works except in English, required that they be translated. He published translations of it during the next few years, culminating in a collected edition, The Works of Ossian, in 1765. The most famous of these poems was Fingal.
The poems achieved international success (Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson were great fans) and were proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical writers such as Homer. Many writers were influenced by the works, including the young Walter Scott. In the German-speaking states Michael Denis made the first full translation in 1768, inspiring the proto-nationalist poets Klopstock and Goethe, whose own German translation of a portion of Macpherson's work figures prominently in a climactic scene of The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).
The poem was as much admired in Hungary as in France and Germany; Hungarian János Arany wrote Homer and Ossian in response, and several other Hungarian writers Baróti Szabó, Csokonai, Sándor Kisfaludy, Kazinczy, Kölcsey, Ferenc Toldy, and Ágost Greguss, were also influenced by it.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 30, 2017
Difficult to judge properly as the repetitive nature of the storytelling is not particularly attractive to the modern eye. Prose is often beautiful and memorable, and I can see why this inspired so many writers. The 'fragments' are in a way like our Scottish poetic Edda's, and I'm glad I've read them. I love the backstory and intrigue surrounding authorship as well. Whether ancient folk tales or written by MacPherson, a worthy and quick read.
August 27, 2021
I find it so weird and interesting that someone would publish their own poetry as pretend translation of ancient fragments. I thought it would speak to an obscure writer desperate for an air of legitimacy. I had seen some truly beautiful lines of this book quoted elsewhere, so I thought I would read the whole thing.
The preface established MacPherson’s arrogance with his hands-off “let the public judge” these works, as if they’re just too profound to be described. Eyeroll. The imagery in the first poem was striking, and then it became striking in the sense of a hammer to the head because the same imagery was used in almost every ensuing poem. I don’t know much about this era or the cultural context, and I see in the reviews that this kind of repetition was fashionable at the time. In that case I’d like to think it went out of style for a reason.
I was surprised to see in the reviews how many writers and other figures were inspired by these boring little poems. As a modern reader, they were not only boring but came with that expected heap of misogyny and the mythological purity of long ago, “untouched” cultures. Some may say it’s not fair to look at this as a modern reader, but unfortunately those are the only sensibilities I care to have. Save for a few beautiful lines, MacPherson doesn’t have much to offer besides the European male heroism fantasy and like three metaphors stuck on loop. I hate this book. Quite a character study on the author and other self-important men obsessed with gratuitous “epics” such as these.
The preface established MacPherson’s arrogance with his hands-off “let the public judge” these works, as if they’re just too profound to be described. Eyeroll. The imagery in the first poem was striking, and then it became striking in the sense of a hammer to the head because the same imagery was used in almost every ensuing poem. I don’t know much about this era or the cultural context, and I see in the reviews that this kind of repetition was fashionable at the time. In that case I’d like to think it went out of style for a reason.
I was surprised to see in the reviews how many writers and other figures were inspired by these boring little poems. As a modern reader, they were not only boring but came with that expected heap of misogyny and the mythological purity of long ago, “untouched” cultures. Some may say it’s not fair to look at this as a modern reader, but unfortunately those are the only sensibilities I care to have. Save for a few beautiful lines, MacPherson doesn’t have much to offer besides the European male heroism fantasy and like three metaphors stuck on loop. I hate this book. Quite a character study on the author and other self-important men obsessed with gratuitous “epics” such as these.
May 26, 2019
Kudos to Google books for giving us access to a facsimile of a 1760 printing of this little volume. As we learn in Arthur Herman’s How the Scots Invented the Modern World, the Scottish and English reading public would have got an early taste of the pleasures of historical fiction, and even fantasy writing, in this curious little collection of simple, earnest lyrics. It is amusing to think so many readers would ever have thought Macpherson’s narrator was anything but a creation of the author, but it goes to show how much they wanted to believe in a vital heroic past for the Scottish highlands, even though they evidently had less historical consciousness per se than we do today. But if this is true, how much of our ability to picture the past is owed to efforts that began here, and snowballed with Walter Scott, and Thomas McCaulley, and James Mill, and so on? Even the eminent skeptic, David Hume, enjoyed this little book, and it might have left some influence on the tone of his later histories.
The book’s stories are stilted and at times unexpectedly funny, as when Duchomar hands over his sword to his beloved Morna, and she immediately stabs him, but also easy to read and full of the pleasures of the big fighting man, and the lovely lady of feeling, who sometimes stops a death, as with Minvane, sister of Gaul, who saves his life when he becomes Fingal’s prisoner, but at other times is compelled to throw herself into the breach, as with Rivine, when her brother and her suitor are both killed in a duel over her. The total effect is to remind us of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, but set among the comic-fantastic past of the Scottish highlands.
Addendum, after reading the introduction of John J. Dunne in the Project Gutenberg edition:
I have gone from thinking of these as a minor lark to a much more important and delicious discovery, for two reasons. First, Macpherson’s work points the way to establish the larger significance of being able to celebrate regional traditions in popular vernacular; it does not strike me as a stretch to connect Ossian and fires of imagination it stoked with Game of Thrones today. (In Game of Poems, people argue over what is the past, noble or savage.) Second, the introducer here illuminates the attractive free verse features of the poetry; showing that translation of regional language sponsored effectively the patterns of innovation that would lead to modern free verse, as with Whitman. Suddenly I have the plan for a course on world poetry.
The book’s stories are stilted and at times unexpectedly funny, as when Duchomar hands over his sword to his beloved Morna, and she immediately stabs him, but also easy to read and full of the pleasures of the big fighting man, and the lovely lady of feeling, who sometimes stops a death, as with Minvane, sister of Gaul, who saves his life when he becomes Fingal’s prisoner, but at other times is compelled to throw herself into the breach, as with Rivine, when her brother and her suitor are both killed in a duel over her. The total effect is to remind us of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, but set among the comic-fantastic past of the Scottish highlands.
Addendum, after reading the introduction of John J. Dunne in the Project Gutenberg edition:
I have gone from thinking of these as a minor lark to a much more important and delicious discovery, for two reasons. First, Macpherson’s work points the way to establish the larger significance of being able to celebrate regional traditions in popular vernacular; it does not strike me as a stretch to connect Ossian and fires of imagination it stoked with Game of Thrones today. (In Game of Poems, people argue over what is the past, noble or savage.) Second, the introducer here illuminates the attractive free verse features of the poetry; showing that translation of regional language sponsored effectively the patterns of innovation that would lead to modern free verse, as with Whitman. Suddenly I have the plan for a course on world poetry.
July 17, 2013
Eh, it was ok. I'm glad I finally read it, so I know what all these 18th & 19th Century people are always going on and on about. But it was pretty tedious. Every fragment is the same: ah, life is so sad, I remember when a young man and woman loved each other, then he got killed by someone and she died of a broken heart. Over. And over. And freaking over. How can so many 18th Century writers have been so taken with this??
April 24, 2025
nobody seems to want to read these for the beauty of their language and skill at setting mood and atmosphere, or in context (namely, macpherson was an 18th century scotsman and writing as his culture was being actively destroyed by britain). why are you judging these like they’re post tolkien. they’re not post tolkien. they are of a time and place, and no one wants to read them like that.
i admit that i like these so much because i appreciate their style and ambiance, something which others might not. i’m also a high fantasy fan. which is why im curious as to why people are treating these like they came out of 1989 instead of the fucking mid 18th century. come on. i get that you’re wordsworth pilled or whatever but stop being presentist oml.
i admit that i like these so much because i appreciate their style and ambiance, something which others might not. i’m also a high fantasy fan. which is why im curious as to why people are treating these like they came out of 1989 instead of the fucking mid 18th century. come on. i get that you’re wordsworth pilled or whatever but stop being presentist oml.
July 21, 2017
Ah, Ossian. Hoax or not? Recent research suggests it was; though, as MacPherson said: "Those who have doubted my veracity have paid a compliment to my genius". Tru dat.
It's nice to have read the fragments that inspired so many, from Napoleon to Jefferson via Voltaire and Goethe. Still - dare I say it - if you've read one, you've read them all. They're rather samey - topics cover war, love, death, burial, grief. And there are lots of maidens with skin as white as snow, of course. Epic, but repetitive.
It's nice to have read the fragments that inspired so many, from Napoleon to Jefferson via Voltaire and Goethe. Still - dare I say it - if you've read one, you've read them all. They're rather samey - topics cover war, love, death, burial, grief. And there are lots of maidens with skin as white as snow, of course. Epic, but repetitive.
October 30, 2021
It's really hard to determine whether these fragments are ancient or not. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading this: it had very simple language, and they caused feelings in me since they were so sad. It was indeed inevitable to feel nostalgic while reading them. My favourite quote: "Undisturbed you now sleep together; in the tomb of mountain you rest alone" (25).
February 20, 2020
I confess, I don't like poetry. I thought reading some of historical significance might change that. It didn't.
July 3, 2024
oh my god what these poems mean to me!!! connal & crimora changed my life a little
September 4, 2025
the mandatory readings begin again
June 13, 2018
I remember reading in my high school English textbook about the "hoax" of Ossian, supposedly an ancient Celtic bard. My lasting impression was that the "translator" of Ossian's poetry, James MacPherson, had simply made everything up. But after learning more about Celtic traditions in Ireland and Scotland, I wondered whether MacPherson had gotten a bad rap. At the time his work came out in the 1760s, Ossian was hailed as similar in stature to Homer. And the same character names appear in some of the oldest authentic Gaelic manuscripts. But MacPherson never presented the original text he translated from. Could he have been working from oral tradition? Or at least synthesizing authentic poetry he had heard in Scotland?
"Fragments of Ancient Poetry" was the first Ossian translation that MacPherson published. As the title indicates, it is a set of fragmentary scenes that do not necessarily relate to each other. There was some remarkable imagery in the poetry, but for me the fragments did not cohere into an enjoyable whole. I am looking forward to the larger work MacPherson published next, his version of the epic "Fingal."
"Fragments of Ancient Poetry" was the first Ossian translation that MacPherson published. As the title indicates, it is a set of fragmentary scenes that do not necessarily relate to each other. There was some remarkable imagery in the poetry, but for me the fragments did not cohere into an enjoyable whole. I am looking forward to the larger work MacPherson published next, his version of the epic "Fingal."
November 19, 2014
Difficult to summon the same enthusiasm that greeted these apparent poetic prose translations from the ancient Gaelic. They are interesting for the extremely dense, complex debates about authenticity that surround them, and for the impact that they had on subsequent literature both in Britain and elsewhere (see the "Ossian fraud"), but it is a struggle to enjoy them.
July 6, 2015
Reads a bit like a great-uncle's reminiscence of war and love. Some grand imagery, of course, because the subject is steeped in epic. Flow is fairly natural, and the vocabulary isn't too obstructive (aside from names and relation of characters), therefore: light read, not too overwhelming. Good for fans of battle, epics, and romantic poetry.
September 24, 2012
Interesting to see how ancient poetry of the Scottish highlands was shaped in content and form. For whatever reasons, it reminded me more of Homer's work than of Beowulf (or anything other such closer literary neighbors in both geography and time).
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews