What is "ossian"

Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/ Scottish Gaelic: Oisean) is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson from 1760. Macpherson claimed to have collected word-of-mouth material in Gaelic, said to be from ancient sources, and that the work was his translation of that material. Ossian is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a legendary bard who is a character in Irish mythology. Contemporary critics were divided in their view of the work's authenticity, but the consensus since is that Macpherson framed the poems himself, based on old folk tales he had collected.

The work was internationally popular, translated into all the literary languages of Europe and was influential both in the development of the Romantic movement and the Gaelic revival. "The contest over the authenticity of Macpherson's pseudo-Gaelic productions," Curley asserts, "became a seismograph of the fragile unity within restive diversity of imperial Great Britain in the age of Johnson." Macpherson's fame was crowned by his burial among the literary giants in Westminster Abbey. W.P. Ker, in the Cambridge History of English Literature, observes that "all Macpherson's craft as a philological impostor would have been nothing without his literary skill."

Of all the admirers of Macpherson’s Ossian, perhaps one of those most qualified to judge its poetic quality (as opposed to the question of its authenticity) was the great Hungarian national poet Sandor Petõfi. He went so far as to write a poem entitled Homer and Ossian, of which the first verse reads:

.Oh where are you Hellenes and Celts?. .Already you have vanished, like .Two cities drowning .In the waters of the deep. .Only the tips of towers stand out from the water, .Two tips of towers: Homer, Ossian.

Likewise, William Wordsworth was evidently beguiled by Macpherson's text when he wrote his poem Glen-Almain, the Narrow Glen:

.In this still place, remote from men, .Sleeps Ossian, in the Narrow Glen; .In this still place, where murmurs on .But one meek streamlet, only one: .He sang of battles, and the breath .Of stormy war, and violent death; .And should, methinks, when all was past, .Have rightfully be laid at last .Where rocks were rudely heap'd, and rent .As by a spirit turbulent; .Where sights were rough, and sounds were wild, .And everything unreconciled; .In some complaining dim retreat, .For fear and melancholy meet; .But this is calm; there cannot be .A more entire tranquility.

.Does then the bard sleep here indeed? .Or is it but a groundless creed? .What matters it? - I blame them not .Whose fancy in this lonely spot .Was moved; and in such way express'd .Their notion of its perfect rest. .A convent, even a hermit's cell, .Would break the silence of this Dell: .It is not quiet, is not ease; .But something deeper far than these: .The separation that is here .Is of the grave; and of austere .Yet happy feelings of the dead: .And therefore, was it rightly said .That Ossian, last of all his race! .Lies buried in this lonely place.

Ossian are a Scottish traditional music group, formed in 1976.

The initial line-up brought together Billy Ross and former members of the group Contraband, Billy Jackson, John Martin, and George Jackson. One of their earliest gigs was at the 1976 Kinross Folk Festival.

Each of the members was a multi-instrumentalist and singer. Their arrangements of songs, slow airs and dance tunes were meticulous, almost a chamber music approach to Scottish Music. They sang in English, Scots, and Gaelic.

Billy Jackson's wire-strung harp, the clàrsach, featured in most pieces but he also played Uilleann (Irish) pipes and whistles. John Martin, who played fiddle and cello went on to become a member of The Tannahill Weavers. George Jackson (brother of Billy) played guitar, cittern, mandolin, fiddle, whistle and flute. Billy Ross was the main singer who played guitar, dulcimer and whistle.

Their first two LPs were remarkably popular and influential; Ossian (1977) and St Kilda Wedding (1978). Billy Ross left the band and was replaced by Tony Cuffe as lead vocalist also playing guitar and whistle. Iain MacDonald joined playing highland pipes, flute, and whistles. They broke up in 1989 when Tony Cuffe and William Jackson moved to the U.S. In 1997, William Jackson reformed the band with the original singer, Billy Ross, and the group made a CD and performed some gigs for a time.

The Works of Ossian is an influential cycle of poems written by James Macpherson.

Ossian may also refer to:

• Loch Ossian, a lake in the Scottish Highlands
• Ossian, Indiana, United States, a town
• Ossian, Iowa, United States, a city
• Ossian, New York, United States, a town

• Ossian, ou Les bardes, an 1804 opera by Jean-François Le Sueur
• Ossian (band), a Scottish traditional band of the 1970s and 1980s
• Ossian (Hungarian band), a Hungarian heavy metal band formed in 1986
• Osjan or Ossian, a Polish indo-prog/raga rock band formed in the 1970s

• Ossian (given name)
• Ossian Studios, a video game development company

Ossian is an Anglicised form of the Irish Oisín and the Scottish Gaelic Oisein. The latter names are derived from a byname constructed from the element os ("stag"). Another Anglicised form of Oisín is Osian.

Ossian was one of several names popularised by the romantic works of James Macpherson (died 1796), composer of so-called Ossianic poetry. In consequence, it and other Ossianic names—such as Malvina, Minona, Orla, Oscar, and Selma—were enthusiastically adopted in Scandinavia in the nineteenth century. The specific adoption of Ossian in Denmark does not appear to have been a direct result of the works of Macpherson, however, but owes its popularity there as an import from Sweden. In this way Ossian is similar to the Ossianic names Oscar and Selma which were introduced into Denmark by Swedish immigrants.