XIX. The "eich reangach" alluded to here were the Scots Greys: Latha dhomh air cabhsair Shasuinn, Faicinn fasan nan each reangach, B' fhearr bhi air mullach na h-eileiraig, XX. I take it that the bard is here complaining of the changes wrought in the country under the operations of the York Building Company: Sud an gleannan rioghail fallain, 'N àit an cronan anns an doire, 'S e 's beus dhuinn nis anns gach badan, XXI. These lines evince the same hatred of the English employees of the Company-and of their tongue. They make sarcastic allusion to some conflagration which had broken out and disconfited the unwelcome despoilers of the Abernethy woods: Soraidh slan do 'n t-searsonach, 'S dh' fhuadaich mach na Sasunnaich A dh-iarraidh 'n leasach' bheurla; A dh' fhuadaich mach na Sasunnaich Tempora mutantur! English is now the prevailing language in Badenoch and Strathspey, and the next generation can learn little of the ancient lore and poetry of the country, except through the medium of literature. 24th MARCH, 1898. 66 At the meeting this evening Mr A. Macbain, M.A., read a paper by Mr J. L. Robertson, H.M.I.S., entitled Ossianic Heroic Poetry." The paper, a spirited and interesting translation of Dr Ludwig Chr. Stern's (Berlin) " Die Ossianischen Heldenlieder," an exhaustive and valuable work on the subject, was as follows: 66 OSSIANIC HEROIC POETRY. A hundred and thirty years have gone by since the name Ossian" reached us here. The credit of having made the world acquainted with the poetry of the son of Fingal belongs wholly to James Macpherson, a young divinity student from the Scottish Highlands, who, in Edinburgh, in 1760, under the patronage of the celebrated literary critic Hugh Blair, published two poems, then fifteen, and in the second edition sixteen "Fragments," translated from the Gaelic or Erse into English—all of which were regarded as precious gems of lyric-epic poetry. The task of collecting more of this material, either from manuscripts or from the oral recitation of the Celtic inhabitants of the Scottish mountains and the Western Islands, and of translating this material from the little-known language in which they were embodied, was offered to many, but the accomplished young man completely gratified this honourable desire, for in 1762 he startled everyone with the publication of a regular epic " Fingal," and in 1763 of an exactly similar work, “Temora "both, as well as a number of supplementary minor poetical pieces, being avowedly the composition of Ossian, the son of Fingal, a King of Morven, in ancient Scotland, in the third century, and being faithfully translated from the Gaelic version. Indeed, there was appended to the last named volume a sample of the original text, the seventh book of “Temora,” for the purpose of appeasing the doubts of inquisitive critics. The stir that the "Poems of Ossian " made throughout Europe is too well known. No one suspected for a moment the existence of such an ancient and emotional body of poetry in that remote corner of the earth. The melancholy, "the joy of grief," which suffuses these poems accorded so well with the sentimental phase of intellectual activity which was predominant about the middle of the last century, while the quaintness of the poetical prose, its flowing style, so laconic, and yet so consonant with the English language, operated as a charm upon many. Far off the harp of the Celtic Homer entranced the souls of men, and kept them long captive in a sweet captivity. "But why art thou sad, song of Fingal? And another race shall arise. The people are like the waves of the ocean: They pass away in the rustling blast, And other leaves lift their green heads. Did thy beauty last, O Ryno? Stood the strength of carborne Oscar? Fingal himself passed away, And the halls of his fathers forgot his steps; And shall thou remain, aged bard, When the mighty have failed? But my fame shall remain, And grow like the oak of Morven, Which lifts its head to the storm, And rejoices in the course of the storm." 1 But there was no lack of critics, who refused to give any unqualified acceptance to the Ossianic poetry. A sombre melancholy is the too dominant and favourite mood of the poems: a gloomy, mournful sky overhangs the desolate, though powerfullydrawn, landscape, and such is the prevailing monotony in the representations of nature which the "Cloud Poet" unfolds that they find a not inapt parallel in the changing scenes of a kaleidoscope or in the artificial patterns of a mosaic. While the poems of Ossian attempt to discard the impossible and the trivial, in which the imagination of folk-poetry delights, they yet introduce a sentimentality and magnificence still less appropriate to the legendary story of the heroic time. All through the invention is poor, the execution vague: a certain youthful immaturity is perceptible, and the lack of variety and of due attention to details betray the inexperience of the composer. The figures of speech, * Dr Steyn has here with instead of without.-TRANS. daring as they are, sometimes will not stand the test of close examination. An odd and incongruous use of words is very common, and the general diction frequently descends from the affected characteristic grandiose level to the ridiculous. 2 More over, echoes of Homer, Milton, the Hebrew Prophets, and other poets abound a fact to which Macpherson himself naively enough called attention, and which the incisive critical writings of the learned Malcolm Laing (1762-1819) have more emphatically and fully elucidated. The complete puerility of the Ossianic poesy had been characterised by Voltaire in 1770 in his scoffing remark that to compose Virgil was difficult, Ossian easy. 3 But there was another count in the indictment against the Ossianic poems. Their real basis is the preposterous theory that the Celtic Highlanders of Scotland are the descendants of the ancient Caledonians, whom the Romans, under Caracalla, are said to have subdued in 208 A.D. This erroneous hypothesis David Malcolm- 'the great author MacComb," 4 to whom Alexander Macdonald in his beautiful verses in praise of the Gaelic language appeals-stoutly championed, and thereby flattered not a little the patriotic feeling of his countrymen. According to Macpherson, Fingal was King of an ancient legendary Morven, in the county of Argyll, in Scotland-though such a kingdom is absolutely unknown to other traditional accounts, especially to those of Ireland, the motherland of the Scottish Gaels, and the chief seat of the Celtic race to the present day. Of this race, which, starting once on a time from its original Indo-Germanic home, penetrated farthest westwards of all, two branches, besides the Gauls in ancient France, have survived the centuries, viz., the Cymri in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany (to whom probably the extinct people, the Picts, belonged), distinguished by Professor Rhys from a speciality of their dialect the "P-Celts," and the Gaels or Scots, the "Q-Celts," who took possession of Ireland and the Western Islands. Beda, it may be remarked, in his Ecclesiastical History," chronicles the tradition that the Irish tribe from Ulster, the "Dalreudini " or "Dáil-Riada," emigrated about 500 A.D. to Argyle, north of the Firth of Clyde, and thus the Gaelic or Scottish nation was transplanted to Caledonia. To 2 E.g., "Thou dweller of battle" or "dweller of my thoughts" ("Temora," p. 143); also " a white-bosomed dweller between my arms" p. 120. In 1785 the style of "Ossian" was grotesquely parodied in the "Edinburgh Magazine." 3 Oeuvres Complètes, edition Garnier Frères, 17, 236. Also, W. Shaw (Inquiry 1781, p. 58) derides the mechanical in the Ossianic poetical method. 4 "'S réir Mhic-Comb, An t-ughdair mòr ri luaidh” (Alex. Macdonald). this country they gave not only the name of Scotland, but also sixty kings, from Fergus, the son of Erc, to Alexander III., 1286 A.D. In Ireland, however, the civilisation of the Scots attained a marked development, and from early days this influence operated effectively in its transference to the Gaelic-speaking countries that is, the Isle of Man, West of Scotland (Alba), and the Hebrides (Innse Gall, "the Isles of the Strangers," to wit, the Norwegians). The Gaelic language, nowadays generally called simply "Gaelic," is, as the Manx is, merely a dialect of the Irish tongue, and is accordingly named in English "Erse." 5 In modern times these dialects have widely differentiated, but their early literature is one and the same, and the ancient mythical tales have, for the most part, had their origin in the motherland. Fingal is a well-known heroic figure in this joint legendary lore, but he goes by the name of Finn or Fionn, and is Commander-inChief of the martial clan the Feinne or Fenians, under Cormac, the Overlord of Ireland in the middle of the third century. Oschin, Oscar, and Goll are certainly in the Irish saga members of this warrior band; but Cuchullin, to whom, according to Macpherson, Finn lends assistance, lived about the beginning of the Christian era, in the time of King Conchobar of Ulster. Again, Deirdri, the wife of the last-named, becomes in the poems of Ossian," who calls her Darthula, a contemporary of Fingal, and is slain by the jealous Cairbre, and HE was a successor of Cormac! So goes on the endless distortion of the story. 6 It fares equally badly with geography in the poems of " Ossian ;" sounding names without any significance are all that Macpherson gives, and his practice is to shift the scene of the action almost always to Scotland. This kind of treatment might be looked for in later poems that have lost the thread of the original tradition, but not so in such venerable relics of antiquity as the "Poems of Ossian" prʊfessedly were. Despite these objections, Macpherson gave out that he collected the "Poems" in the vernacular Gaelic-if and how far out of manuscript was never made clear-and that he translated them, indeed, word for word; and he time and again remarked how strikingly expressive the original is in this or that 5 Mentioned by William Dunbar, circa. 1500, as "erische," 2, 41; "ersche," 1, 53; and "erschry," 2, 69 (equals "Irishry." As the Irish language is also called Gaelic, I now and then use Albanogaelic" for the special Scottish dialect. 6 Cf. D'Arbois de Iubainville, La litterature ancienne de l'Irlande et l'Ossian de Macpherson," in the "Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Charles XLI.," p. 475-87. |