Editing Ossian (section)

==Poems==
[[File:Krafft Ossian und Malvina.jpg|thumb|''Ossian and Malvina'', by [[Johann Peter Krafft]], 1810.]]

In 1760, Macpherson published the English-language text ''Fragments of ancient poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse language''.<ref name="litpedia">{{citation |title=[[The Literary Encyclopedia (English)|Literary Encyclopedia]] |year=2004 |contribution-url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9045 |contribution=Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in the Highlands of Scotland |access-date=27 December 2006}}</ref> Later that year, he claimed to have obtained further manuscripts and in 1761 he claimed to have found an [[Epic poetry|epic]] on the subject of the hero Fingal (with Fingal or ''Fionnghall'' meaning 'fair stranger' denoting hair or eye colour <ref>{{citation |url=http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=fingal |title=Behind the Name: View Name: Fingal}}</ref>), written by Ossian. According to Macpherson's prefatory material, his publisher, claiming that there was no market for these works except in English, required that they be translated. Macpherson published these alleged translations during the next few years, culminating in a collected edition, ''The Works of Ossian'', in 1765. The most famous of these Ossianic poems was ''Fingal'', written in 1761 and dated 1762.

The supposed original poems are translated into poetic prose, with short and simple sentences. The mood is epic, but there is no single narrative, although the same characters reappear. The main characters are Ossian himself, relating the stories when old and blind, his father Fingal (very loosely based on the Irish hero [[Fionn mac Cumhaill]]), his dead son Oscar (also with an [[Oscar (Irish mythology)|Irish counterpart]]), and Oscar's lover [[Malvina]] (like [[Fiona]] a name invented by Macpherson), who looks after Ossian in his old age. Though the stories "are of endless battles and unhappy loves", the enemies and causes of strife are given little explanation and context.{{sfn|Okun|1967|p=328}}

Characters are given to killing loved ones by mistake, and dying of grief, or of joy. There is very little information given on the religion, culture or society of the characters, and buildings are hardly mentioned. The landscape "is more real than the people who inhabit it. Drowned in eternal mist, illuminated by a decrepit sun or by ephemeral meteors, it is a world of greyness."{{sfn |Okun |1967 |p=328}} Fingal is king of a region of south-west Scotland perhaps similar to the historical kingdom of [[Dál Riata]] and the poems appear to be set around the 3rd century, with the "king of the world" mentioned being the [[Roman Emperor]]; Macpherson and his supporters detected references to [[Caracalla]] (d. 217, as "Caracul") and [[Carausius]] (d. 293, as "Caros", the "king of ships").<ref>[http://www.exclassics.com/ossian/aera.htm "A Dissertation concerning the Aera of Ossian"], published as prefatory matter in later editions of the poems.</ref>