that' atà,' for the abbreviated' ta,' or generally 'tha,' occurs only The Gaelic translation is, as we have observed, not uniform, Further, should those lines, numbered as verse, in the Gaelic 15 Conlath 91. Comala 230, Calthon 119, 273, Temora I, 254, 718-2, 399- 16 Cathloda 3. 83, Carricthura 136, Calthon 206, Fingal 3, 154, Temora 8, 17 Fingal 1, 517, 577-3, 314-6, 59; Temora 2, 376, 437-5, 79; Cath- 18 The very worthy H. Ebel had evidently been deluded on this subject ' verses is a turgid and meaningless phraseology. Some of the pieces have apparently been subjected to a more thorough revisal, and, speaking generally, it may be admitted that here and there one meets beautiful passages, and among hundreds of wretched verses some that are beyond complaint—but apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto." .. The thoughtless recklessness with which the Gaelic "Ossian' is rendered with slavish literalness from the English is in the matter of personal names still more apparent even to the ordinary reader. These appear throughout in a form which corresponds with the English modelled according to the pronunciation, but it does not correspond with the true Gaelic form found in the popular ballads and elsewhere. The name Fingal-that is, Fionn Gaidheal,' 'Finn of the Gaels '-by which the hero since ancient times has been known among the Lowland Scots, but by which he is extremely rarely definitely designated by the Gaelic-speaking population, is in 1807 straightway changed to Fionghal,' and later, indeed, to 'Fionngheal,' though in 1763 (Temora, p. 229) Macpherson had more correctly written it Fionnghael. 19 The ancient form Fionn (Middle-Irish, Finn) is of very rare occurrence in the Gaelic "Ossian (Comala, 134, 137; Fingal 3, 335), Goll, the strongest hero among the Fèinne, becomes in the English version Gaul,' and thereafter in the "Ossian" of 1807, ‘Gall'; the hero Faolan, written according to pronunciation Fillan' in the English "Ossian," becomes Fillean' in the Gaelic, being correctly given as 'Faolan' only in Temora" 7, 20. Iollan appears as 'Ullin'; Dearg (Dargo) as 'Deargo' (Calthon, 174); clann Uisneach (the sons of Usnoth) as clann Usnoth (Temora 1, 567); and Hidallan in the English, transmuted in to Hideallan in the Gaelic, is probably the form Sithallan (Cb. 58a), which 66 19 The form Fionn ghael (also Stewart, Collection, p. 555), is incorrect, inasmuch as the opposition (gaël or gaidheal) should have no aspiration. The correct explanation of the name Fingal, which first appears in the "Bruce" of John Barbour, is given incidentally by Drummond, Essay, p. 142, and Ch. Stewart, Killin, Collection of Gaelic Songs, p. 83; Hill, Ancient Erse Poems, p. 6, wrote Fion na Gaël. In 1689, in Dublin, a travesty appeared, The Irish Hudibras or the Fingalian Prince, in which Ossian poses as the bard of the Danish giants in Ireland (Ulster Journal, VI., 1858, p. 315). Fingalian" is derived from Fionn-ghall," fair stranger," that is, Norwegian, which is occasionally confounded with the name of the leader of the Feinne-as, for instance, in a shliochd riogh Fionnaghaidhill (R. Macdonald, Collection 2, p. 114), instead of Fionna-ghall; cf. Mackenzie, Beauties of Gaelic Poetry, p. 38, 77, 214. [Dr Stern's explanation is not quite satisfactory. Barbour's "Fyngal" is a copyist's error, the original being "fra Fyng al his men"Goll took from Fin all his men. The name Ri Fionnghall-King of the Norse --is the title assumed by the Lord of the Isles, and is the real origin of Macpherson's Fingal.-TRANS.] 6 again appears in "Fingal" 1, 439, as 'Sith-àluinn.' One cannot mention all the numberless personal names invented deliberately by Macpherson, and with a special regard, as in the case of 'Malvina,' to considerations of euphony. Is it possible then, we ask, that the universally known name of Finn's warrior bands, ' fiann' or 'feinn, the Féinne, never once occurs in this Gaelic "Ossian?" 20 It was possible because Macpherson was insufficiently acquainted with the Gaelic language and poetry, and because in his poems he generally abandoned the scene of the old mythical legends and transported his heroes into the region of his own imagination. The majority of his placenames are quite fictitious and untraceable, and the actual names are met with at other times under another garb. It has been already remarked that Morven - Mór-bheann,' great mountain-is a piece of romantic invention; and Macpherson's apologists are accustomed to identify it as Morairn (Cb. 186b)Morvern, on the Sound of Mull, in Argyll-as if this were a mere matter of course. The name of the Royal palace, 'Selma' or Seallamath '—that is, 'Belvedere (fine prospect)—is of Macpherson's own creation: scholars locate the actual site as that of the ancient Berigonium at Ardmucknish, north of Loch Etive. The old Irish regal seat, Temair or Teamhair-rampart or terrace -in the province of Meath, callel by O'Flaherty, in his "Ogygia (p. 186), Temoria, and indicated in an ancient tradition in the Dinnshenchas as Teae Murum,' 21 has undergone an astonishing transformation at the hands of Macpherson. From the cus tomary pronunciation of the oblique case, Teamhrach, Teamhra,' the name is written Taura, Tewra, or Tura, but in Ireland Tara ; yet he uses Temora and Tura in close conjunction (e.g., Temora, p. 165-1, 100-104), without, of course, suspecting that both are variants of the very same word. Further, in the Gaelic Ossian of 1807 the name is daringly changed into Tighmora,' apparently in the belief that it is equivalent to 'great house'; and quite as impossible is his rendering of the name as 'Ti-mor-ri' house of the great king'-in 1763 (Temora, p. 179). 22 We need not 20 Fiann, gen. feinne, means the band, troop; the plural, fianna, the troops or the soldiers: usually Finn's troops are understood thereby, and in modern times the Irish Celts delight to designate themselves the "Fenians." 21 Cf., Wh. Strokes in "Folk-lore," 3, 470. "Revue Celtique," 15, 277. 22 John Smith, Seandàna (p. 43), gives this valuable verse "An Seallama, 'n Taura no 'n Tigh-mòr-ri' or in "In Selma" (Macphersonian), "in Taura" (or Tura, properly Teamair), Tigh-mor-righ" (or Temoria, properly Teamair), "there is neither shell, song, nor harp." 18 therefore be surprised that he altered Olnecmacht,' the ancient name of the Province of Connaught, into Alnecma' (Temora 2, 287), and Sorcha,' the Land of Light, the Land of the Blest, into a region' Sora,' in Scotland. But a truce to this Gaelic “ussian!" Had it all along been more diligently read and studied, it would certainly not have been so often belauded. The intention to defraud was present to Macpherson from the time that influential patrons honoured him with their confidence. The two specimens printed by him in the Gentleman's Magazine," XXX., 287 et seq., 23 and the "Fragments" of 1760, in which Ossian" already is the chief figure, 24 are a still more scandalous product than the "Poems," if that, indeed, be possible; and only two of the "Fragments" (Nos. 6 and 14) are based on ballads, by which we mean that some lines of these are incorporated—all the rest of the composition being romantic phantasy. Let us then listen to himself in his Introduction to the "Fragments": -“ The translation is extremely literal. Even the arrangement of the words in the original has been imitated;" and in his preface to his Introduction of 1771:-" An enemy to fiction himself, he imposes none upon the world." Now, in this very work he forged (p. 168) Gaelic verses, and (p. 180 et seq.) he 'translates' a legend, which has absolutely no existence whatever, on the subject of the Celtic elysium. But it is everywhere the same; his whole literary life reeks of fraud. Macpherson resorted to falsehood because the reputation of having discovered and restored to an honoured publicity something ancient and marvellous which had escaped the notice of all others was of greater value in his eyes than the simple truth that his actual materials were nothing but the familiar folk-poetry which he despised, and which the friends of his muse looked upon as merely miserable crudities. His imposture is, in its details, even more detestable than that of Th. de la Villemarqué, whose " Barraz-Breiz," nowadays recognised as spurious, took similar unwarrantable liberties with the popular ballads of the Bretons. It may be conceded that Macpherson had to some small extent imbibed the spirit of Gaelic poetry, but he had so mixed it up with noxious sentimentality and religious unction 23 One of the two songs. "Autumn is dark on the mountains," appears later in "Carricthura;" the other, "The wind and the rain are over," is absorbed in the "Songs of Selma." 24 Of the "Fragments," four find a place later in "Carricthura,” five in the "Fingal," two in the "Songs of Selma," and five remained unused. All that it became scarcely recognisable as a native product. that remains to his credit, then, is the impetus he gave to the study of the Gaelic language, and his services in this direction cannot be belittled. We cannot now, said J. Hardinan in 1831, look back on this huge piece of fabrication-which certainly belonged to a period notorious for its literary impostures-without amazement at the perfect audacity of the forger, the infatuation of his learned apologists, and the national credulity and ignorance of an entire people. In Scotland, it is true, it took a longer time for the truth to prevail, and that it penetrated to all parts of Germany no one who has studied this period of the history of literature can readily maintain. We therefore trust that the foregoing exposition will not appear superfluous. 25 We cannot take leave of this counterfeit Ossian" without mentioning some of the kindred spirits whom the example of this desperate man tempted to similar courses. The first of these Ossianists is a John Clark, who in 1778 published as the work of Caledonian bards a small volume of poems in English prose-vapid imitations, which even surpassed Macpherson in lachrymose sentimentality, and can deceive only the most credulous and inexperienced. Of the first two sections of the "Mordubh," the first of these epic poems, Gillies supplied in 1786 a Gaelic version, the beginning of which was again printed in D. Macleod's "Orain," 1811, p. 257 et seq., and it was not till 25 I may, by way of example, express my astonishment that Sidney Lees' Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XXXV., 1893, sub voce Macpherson, homologates the views of imperfectly-informed apologists in stating, "It is therefore clear that the general charge of forgery in the form in which it was made by Johnson was unjustifiable." Johnson's verdict is undeniably the correct one. At the same time, we have seen that many scholars have wavered in their judgment, for instance, our own Jacob Grimm (Kleinere Schriften II., 79), and even Celtic specialists have not always expressed themselves with the decisiveness called for on this point: take H. Ebel in the Litterarisches Centralblatt, 1870, p. 835; H. Gaidoz n the Revue Celtique I., 482; E. Windisch in his article "Keltische Sprachen" in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklopädie (1864), p. 160. But, like W. Shaw, in the last century many scholars, from being believers, have become unbelievers. We specially mention Thomas Maclauchlan (Gaelic Society, Inverness, VII., 204-9, 127); further, compare J. F. Campbell's Tales of the West Highlands IV., 1862, with his Leabhar na Feinne, 1872; Gaelic Society, Inverness, X., 95 et seq. with XII., 210 (1886), and Celtic Magazine XII., 135 et seq. (1887); and, last of all, An Gaidheal VI., 65 (1877), with Chambers's Encyclopædia (1891). |