tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post5313066156158381332..comments2024-03-23T12:38:46.260+00:00Comments on The History Girls: Ossian, by Miranda MillerMary Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-69264826750464262082016-02-26T17:24:51.630+00:002016-02-26T17:24:51.630+00:00It's instructive to us all to consider how eas...It's instructive to us all to consider how easy it is to be carried away by reputation and fashion. I wonder whether Goethe would have been so impressed if it had been written in German? If the quote Sue P has given us is typical, it does seem amazing, now, that he was so popular, yet tastes change. I have to say that I've never really enjoyed Goethe's Sufferings of Young Werther, and yet that was the punk rock of the nineteenth century; shocking, scary to the older generation, and devoured by the younger.. luckily (in my view) Goethe improved with experience.Leslie Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15105465949970430998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-34129930450140587142016-02-26T10:39:13.335+00:002016-02-26T10:39:13.335+00:00Yes, Susan, it's banal stuff, isn't it? I ...Yes, Susan, it's banal stuff, isn't it? I agree with Sue that he gave people what they wanted and - ancient celtic ranting to match the growing mood of nationalism all over Europe. And once a forgery/hoax has been successful lots of people have a vested interest in insisting it's the real thing.Miranda Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08847761353240720080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-41899749275217254492016-02-25T19:24:42.403+00:002016-02-25T19:24:42.403+00:00Would this one have been such a bestseller if peop...Would this one have been such a bestseller if people had known it was written by a modern writer? The author obviously didn't think so. And as with many modern literary hoaxes - I think I'd call it tat rather than a forgery - I'm betting it had its defenders for a long time after. We all know about literary hoaxes. They still happen. I know of one that won a major award here because the author posed as something she wasn't, and that one had its defenders too. Sue Bursztynskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09362273418897882971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-30255551926057359742016-02-25T09:51:50.217+00:002016-02-25T09:51:50.217+00:00"Connal lay by the sound of the mountain-stre..."Connal lay by the sound of the mountain-stream, beneath the aged tree. A stone, with its moss, supported his head. Shrill, through the heath of Lena, he heard the voice of night. At distance from the heroes he lay; the son of the sword feared no foe! The hero beheld, in his rest, a dark-red stream of fire rushing down from the hill. Crugal sat upon the beam, a chief who fell in fight. He fell by the hand of Swaran, striving in the battle of heroes. His face is like the beam of the setting moon. His robes are of the clouds of the hill. His eyes are two decaying flames."<br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fingal-book-ii/#content<br /><br />I think I'm with Dr Johnstone.<br /><br />Interesting to know more about this Highland-clearing faker... I always thought Oscar Wilde was named after Finn MacCool's grandson!<br /><br />Susan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.com