Ossian in the North

Abstract

The Poems of Ossian were instrumental in putting the North in Europe into a new and elevated cultural perspective. The first part of this essay examines how the general aesthetic development in the North of Europe was in many ways determined by the paradigm shift ushered in by the poems, despite latter-day denials. Two case studies are briefly presented: the first is the modern denial of Ossianic influence on Danish arts, literature, music and visual art; the second the actual reception in Iceland, the country which, for some, represented the Northern ‘counter example’ to Ossian, with the manuscripts of Eddas and Sagas.