How did the future Emperor of the French come to consider Ossian, the enigmatic ancient bard of the Celts, as a superior and more heroic figure than Homer?
Thanks for this. I hope your Napoleon novel flourishes. As far as the poetic myth of MacPherson/Ossian is concerned I prefer to judge it through a wider contextual lens. The anthropologist Levi Straus noted that all histories are ‘histories-for’. Ossian is a fairy tale Celtic hero who still delivers a mythopoetic underlying truth for the yet to be politically delivered dream of cultural freedom from past colonial oppression in Scotland and Ireland. The poetry cycle is also, like the Irish Finn cycle, one which resides as a rooting cultural mnemonic in a particular geographical Place. Napoleon always felt that he was a culturally liminal figure championing an effaced European Celtic culture. Ossian is his poetic dream time.
Thank you for this. I love another quote from Napoleon that I didn't put in the text. He talked about the fact that Homer and Virgil are already "taken" (by non other than Alexander and Augustus) and that after he discovered Ossian, he now has his own poet.
Except for the fact that Ossian is suppose to have lived about 1500 years before Napoleon. So more like Homer and Alexander than direct sponsorship like that of Augustus and Virgil.
Thanks for a side of Napoleon I didn't know about. I do know that he wrote a novel when he was around 20, allegedly a 'romance novel'. A friend of my parents who collected Proust letters took part in an auction where the manuscript was up for sale. He didn't buy it because he was waiting to bid for a particular Proust item. A few years ago, I read somewhere that the novel had been auctioned off again. On an another literary front, Goethe was apparently astonished at how well Napoleon knew 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'. When they met, Napoleon brought up certain specific aspects of the novel, which I believe he had read more than once.
Thanks for this. I hope your Napoleon novel flourishes. As far as the poetic myth of MacPherson/Ossian is concerned I prefer to judge it through a wider contextual lens. The anthropologist Levi Straus noted that all histories are ‘histories-for’. Ossian is a fairy tale Celtic hero who still delivers a mythopoetic underlying truth for the yet to be politically delivered dream of cultural freedom from past colonial oppression in Scotland and Ireland. The poetry cycle is also, like the Irish Finn cycle, one which resides as a rooting cultural mnemonic in a particular geographical Place. Napoleon always felt that he was a culturally liminal figure championing an effaced European Celtic culture. Ossian is his poetic dream time.
Thank you for this. I love another quote from Napoleon that I didn't put in the text. He talked about the fact that Homer and Virgil are already "taken" (by non other than Alexander and Augustus) and that after he discovered Ossian, he now has his own poet.
Perhaps to be understood as Napoleon’s version of modern day celebrity sponsorship?
Except for the fact that Ossian is suppose to have lived about 1500 years before Napoleon. So more like Homer and Alexander than direct sponsorship like that of Augustus and Virgil.
I have a little book of those Ossianic poems. They're really beautiful and inspired some of my own writing
What are some poems you're most fond of?
Connal and Crimora
"By the brook of the hill their graves are laid,
a birches unequal shade covers their tomb.
Often on their green earthen tombs,
the branchy sons of the mountain feed,
when midday is all in flames,
and silence is over all the hills "
Thanks for a side of Napoleon I didn't know about. I do know that he wrote a novel when he was around 20, allegedly a 'romance novel'. A friend of my parents who collected Proust letters took part in an auction where the manuscript was up for sale. He didn't buy it because he was waiting to bid for a particular Proust item. A few years ago, I read somewhere that the novel had been auctioned off again. On an another literary front, Goethe was apparently astonished at how well Napoleon knew 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'. When they met, Napoleon brought up certain specific aspects of the novel, which I believe he had read more than once.
Fascinating read!
Thanks Tracy. Glad you like it.