translations from manuscript sources, they cannot be called “forgeries,” for they are reflective of the oral legends that had been passed down. Ossian had a profound effect on European literature, influencing writers as diverse as William Blake (himself the son of Irish immigrants from Rathmines, Dublin), J. W. Goethe, and Lord Byron. The influence extended even to political figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Marshal Bernadotte, afterwards King Charles XIV of Sweden, who had married Desirée Clary, daughter of Joseph Cleary, a Dublin merchant who had opened a branch of the family business in Marseilles. Their son Oscar, named after the grandson of Fionn Mac Cumhail, became Oscar I of Sweden.

Ossian now became “literary parent” to such works as Joseph Walker’s Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1786), Reliques of Irish Poetry by Charlotte Brooke (1789), and Irish Ministrelsy by James Hardiman (1831); in Wales, Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards by J. Evans (1764) and his Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784); and, in Brittany, Barzaz Breiz: Chants populaires de la Bretagne by de la Villemarqué (1839).

These works awoke a new interest in the legends of the Celtic peoples. There was an enthusiasm generated by collectors of folktales. Even the Brothers Grimm became fascinated by Celtic legends. In Ireland, William Carleton (1794–1869) produced Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1830) and Tales of Ireland (1834). T. Crofton Croker (1798–1854) published The Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825) and Legends of the Lakes (1829). In Scotland J. F. Campbell produced Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1860–1862). Cornish folklore and legends were collected in Robert Hunt’s Popular Romances of the West of England (1865). In Wales, Lady Charlotte Guest translated The Mabinogion from Llyfr Coch ó Hergest (the Red Book of Hergest), which was published in three volumes in 1849.

Such works heralded the start of a period that was to become known as “The Celtic Renaissance.” The interest prompted the holder of the chair of poetry at Oxford University, Matthew Arnold (1822–1888), to give four lectures, subsequently published in Cornhill Magazine. The articles were then reprinted in book form in 1867 as On the Study of Celtic Literature. Arnold argued for the establishment of a chair of Celtic studies at Oxford. The last thing he wanted to do, he said, was