Ossian (person)

Ossian and Malvina; Oil painting by Johann Peter Krafft , 1810

Ossian's swan song; Oil painting by Nicolai Abildgaard , around 1782

Ossian is the title character in Ossian by the Scottish poet James Macpherson . In this allegedly traditional Celtic epic, which was actually written by Macpherson himself, he is named as the famous poet and son of the Scottish king Fingal ( equated by Macpherson with Fionn mac Cumhaill ).

Ossian's role model is the Irish hero Oisín , Fionn's son. Contrary to the Irish tradition, Ossian is blind - presumably a reference to Homer.

He is said to have lived in the west of the Scottish Highlands in the 3rd century AD . After the murder of his son Oscar (the mythological figure of the same name Oscar , also Oskar), his fiancée Malvina takes care of the aged, blind poet, who sings about the heroic deeds of Fingal, Oscars and the other heroes.

Artistic reception

Painting (excerpt):

• Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard : Ossian's Swan Song ( Ossian singing to the harp )
• François Gérard : Ossian on the bank of the Lora conjures up spirits to the sound of the harp
• Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson : The Death of Ossian ; The apotheosis of the French heroes
• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres : The Dream of Ossian
• Jean-Baptiste Isabey : Ossian, lonely and blind, sings of times gone by
• Károly Kisfaludy : Ossian's grief
• Johann Peter Krafft : Ossian and Malvina

Music (excerpt):

• Johannes Brahms : Gesang aus Fingal - by Ossian (in: Four songs for female choir with accompaniment of 2 horns and harp op.17)
• Niels Wilhelm Gade : Efterklange af Ossian ("Nachklänge von Ossian", overture)
• Friedrich Ludwig Æmilius Kunzen : Ossian's harp
• Jean-François Lesueur : Ossian, ou Les Bardes
• Franz Schubert : 11 songs based on Ossian texts ( Loda's Ghost, Ossian's Song after the Fall of Nathos, Lorma, The Death of the Oscars, etc. )

literature

• Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , p. 7 f.
• Helmut Birkhan: Post-ancient Celtic reception. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-7069-0541-1 , p. 352 f.
• Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p. 261 f.

Web links

Commons : Ossian  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• James Macpherson, Michael Denis ( transl .): The Poems of Ossian, An Ancient Celtic Poet . Trattner, 1768 (today Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 353.