000			02656cam a22003373u 4500
001			77301
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005			20260610134806.0
006			m
007			cr n
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010			_a2020778880
040			_aUtSlPG
041		7	_aen _2iso639-1
050		4	_aPR
100	1		_aM'Pherson, John, Rev., _d1837-1911
245	1	0	_aOssianic controversy
264		1	_aSalt Lake City, UT : _bProject Gutenberg, _c2025
300			_a1 online resource : _bmultiple file formats
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_acomputer _bc _2rdamedia
338			_aonline resource _bcr _2rdacarrier
500			_aRelease date is 2025-11-23
508			_aMairi, Eleni Christofaki and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (National Library of Scotland)
520			_aOssianic controversy by Rev. John M'Pherson is a literary lecture and critical essay written in the late 19th century. It probes the debate over the authenticity of the Ossianic poems attributed to the ancient bard Ossian and publicized by James Macpherson, outlining how the dispute arose and the principal arguments for and against the poems’ genuineness. The lecture begins with the mid-18th-century “discovery” of Gaelic fragments and the publication of Fingal and Temora, charting their rapid European acclaim and the ensuing backlash from skeptics such as Johnson and Laing, fueled by Macpherson’s evasive handling of originals. It then reviews the core objections—claims of impossible refinement among “barbarous” Caledonians, the implausibility of centuries-long oral transmission, the absence of early manuscripts, charges of plagiarism, the poems’ silence on religion, and the failure to find exact Gaelic counterparts—and answers them with evidence of bardic and Druidic institutions, the power of oral tradition, early written witnesses like the Dean of Lismore’s book, the bard’s non-religious remit, and losses after the collapse of clanship, including the vanished Farquharson collection. The lecture rejects Irish priority and alternative authorship theories (whether Lachlan or James Macpherson), appealing to internal Gaelic style and the translator’s limited poetic gifts. It ends with a confident verdict on essential authenticity: Fingal lived and Ossian sang. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534			_pOriginally published: _cGreenock: A. Mackenzie & Co., 1873
653			_aOssian, active 3rd century
653			_aMacpherson, James, 1736-1796
856	4		_uhttps://digital.nls.uk/81085792
856	4	0	_uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77301
999			_c118021 _d118021