Morven (Ossian)
Morven is a fictional kingdom in the western Highlands in the work of Ossian by the Scottish poet James Macpherson . The name is derived from the Scottish Gaelic mór-bheinn ("big mountain").
In this supposedly traditional Celtic epic, which was actually written by Macpherson himself, Morven is mentioned as the kingdom of King Fingal . Originally only the north-west coast of Scotland was named that way, but Fingal's sphere of influence later extended to all of Scotland with the northern islands and Ireland . Fingal's castle is called Selma , one of his royal seats is Temora in Ireland.
- "Fingal alone, the mighty king of the stormy Morven."
- "... a hundred hurricanes through morves and rivers of a hundred mountains, ..." (poems by Ossian)
The kingdom of Morven is an invention of Macpherson and is not mentioned in the Celtic traditions. There is, however, a mountain Morven in the Scottish county of Caithness in the northeast of the Highlands and in the county of Aberdeenshire (both in Scottish Gaelic: A 'Mhòr Bheinn ).
literature
- Helmut Birkhan : Post-ancient Celtic reception. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-7069-0541-1 .
- Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p. 239.