The Poems of Ossian: Literally Translated from the Gaelic in the Original Measure of Verse.

M'NAUGHTON, Peter [Ossian].

$375.00

Item Number: 116541

Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1887.

First edition of Peter M’Naughton’s translation of the poems of Ossian. Small octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine. In very good condition. Uncommon.

Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson in 1760. Macpherson claimed to have collected word-of-mouth material in Scottish Gaelic, said to be from ancient sources, and that the work was his translation of that material. Here, Peter M'Naughton offers a new translation which, as he states in his Preface, "preserves the measure of Ossian's verse... [and the] rhythmic cadence of the original Gaelic."