James Macpherson’s Ossian poems, presented as translations of an ancient Gaelic bard, caused a sensation across Europe, nowhere more than in Germany. This study lists the German translations and imitations, surveys the first notices of Ossian, and examines his influence on Klopstock and the school of so-called Bards who imagined an ancient Germanic poetry of their own.
A scholarly study for readers interested in literary forgery and the roots of German Romanticism. Download the free EPUB.