https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/ossian-literary-hoax-james-macpherson-fingal-mathematics-social-network-study-a7371806.html Jump to content US EditionChange UK EditionAsia EditionEdicion en Espanol Sign up to our newslettersSubscribe now {{indy.truncatedName}} Log in / Register Push notifications SubscribeMenu * News + News + US + US election 2024 + UK + Europe + World + US Politics + UK Politics + Health + Business + Science + Space + News Videos * Sports + Sports + US Sports + Soccer + Formula 1 + UFC + Rugby Union + Cricket + Tennis + Boxing + Cycling + Golf + Sports Videos * Voices + Voices + Editorials + Letters * Culture + Culture + Movies + TV & Radio + Music + Games + Books + Art + Photography + Theatre & Dance + Culture Videos * Lifestyle + Lifestyle + Tech + Money + Food & Drink + Fashion + Love & Sex + Women + Health & Families + Royal Family + Motoring + Electric Vehicles + Lifestyle Videos * Travel + Travel + News & Advice + Simon Calder + USA + UK + Europe + Asia + Inspiration + City Guides + Sustainable Travel * Premium + Premium + Editorials + Voices + Long Reads + Politics Explained + News Analysis More Best * Home & Garden * Tech * Fashion & Beauty * Food & Drink * Kids * Books * Travel & Outdoors * Sports & Fitness * Deals Climate * News * Voices * Sustainable Living * Explained * Climate Videos * Electric vehicles * SGI TV * Behind The Headlines * On The Ground * Decomplicated * You Ask The Questions * Binge Watch * Music Box * Love Lives * Travel Smart * Watch on your TV * Indy100 * Crosswords & Puzzles * Most Commented * Newsletters * Ask Me Anything * Virtual Events * Vouchers Thank you for registering Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in CultureBooksNews Ossian, the 'Homer of the North', and the truth behind the world's greatest literary hoax 'I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the North the greatest Poet that has ever existed,' US founding father Thomas Jefferson wrote of the blind 3rd century Scottish poet Ossian, who was almost certainly made up in the 18th century Ian Johnston Science Correspondent Friday 21 October 2016 00:03 BST Comments Article bookmarked Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile [ ]Don't show me this message again Ossian plays a harp and sings of Fingal to Malvina, a name probably made up by James Macpherson that became popular in Norway amid the success of the epic poems, in this 1810 painting by Johann Peter Krafft Ossian plays a harp and sings of Fingal to Malvina, a name probably made up by James Macpherson that became popular in Norway amid the success of the epic poems, in this 1810 painting by Johann Peter Krafft IndyArts Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter [ ] Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP [ ]I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} It has been described as the greatest-ever literary hoax, taking in world leaders from Napoleon to Thomas Jefferson and inspiring the likes of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron to create the Romantic movement of the late 18th century. For decades, high society couldn't get enough of the epic poetry of the blind 3rd century Scottish bard, Ossian, dubbed the 'Homer of the North', and his tales of the great warrior Fingal after it was 'discovered' by his 'translator' James Macpherson in the mid-1700s. But doubts soon emerged. Could it be that Macpherson, also a poet, had adapted Irish folklore to create Scottish legends that would be taken seriously by a British elite obsessed by Classical Greece and Rome? Literary giant Samuel Johnson certainly thought so, condemning the "forgeries" and the "mountebank" behind them. Now scientists have used mathematical techniques to compare patterns in the "social networks" of characters in Ossian with those in two key Irish stories - and discovered they are almost a perfect match, virtually ending any remaining debate. Recommended * The sex life of Simone; are her letters for real or is this a hoax? * Fake memoir's surprise success Professor Ralph Kenna, of the Applied Mathematics Research Centre at Coventry University, said their results strongly suggested it was indeed a hoax and there was no such person as Ossian. "I doubt it very much on a personal level. I wouldn't think so," he said. "My personal opinion is certainly not. I would be on the side of Samuel Johnson, saying that it is very unlikely. "If you take it [their study] together with everything else, it sounds more convincing that it was lifted from the Irish [stories]." Science news in pictures Show all 20 1/20Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify "dangerous" humans from listening to each other's warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or "contact calls" (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the "Goldilocks Zone" which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planet's oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a "transient anus" that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the "interstitium". These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary The researchers created "social networks" for each of the characters based on others they knew in the stories, according to a paper in the journal Advances in Complex Systems. They then plotted the probability of a character having a lot of acquaintances against the number of people in an individual's social network on a graph. When Ossian was compared to two Irish stories, Acallam na Senorach and Lady Gregory's text, the lines on the graph were virtually identical. This means while some of the names may have been changed, the social networks of many of the characters were the same - something that was unlikely to occur by chance. The 15 best opening lines in literature Show all 15 1/15The 15 best opening lines in literature The 15 best opening lines in literature Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." chipkidd.com The 15 best opening lines in literature Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy "All happy families are alike but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion." npr.org The 15 best opening lines in literature A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way." The 15 best opening lines in literature Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte "I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with", which pitches you straight into the story." Penguin Books The 15 best opening lines in literature Middlemarch, by George Eliot "Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress." Penguin Books The 15 best opening lines in literature Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." AP The 15 best opening lines in literature The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticising any one, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." cracked.com The 15 best opening lines in literature Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie "All children, except one, grow up." read.gov The 15 best opening lines in literature One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey "They're out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them." listed.com The 15 best opening lines in literature Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." rarebookschool.org The 15 best opening lines in literature One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." Harper Collins The 15 best opening lines in literature The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." minabach.com The 15 best opening lines in literature The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly." Penguin Books The 15 best opening lines in literature The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish." npr.org The 15 best opening lines in literature Catch 22, by Joseph Heller "It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him." gonereading.com When plotted against Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, chosen because of the link made by Macpherson and his supporters to serve as a control, there were clear differences. "In the past, people compared characters [in Ossian] to characters [in Irish folklore] ... what we're doing is comparing the set of links between them," Professor Kenna said. "Ossian is overlapping very strongly with the Irish stuff and it's not overlapping so well with the Classical stuff." But despite the apparent hoax, in recent decades some have praised Macpherson for the quality of the work. "They are saying he did good things. Before that people didn't really value their past, their ancient heritage. His work really did inspire people to go looking at their national heritage," Professor Kenna said. Recommended * Read more Remembering Bob Dylan's finest song lyrics as he wins the Nobel Prize "There's no doubt it's evocative and very beautiful and all that. "I suppose he is the real Ossian. If he'd said 'here's a work of fiction', that would have been absolutely fine." But even he was not quite prepared to say definitively that Ossian was a definitely hoax and they plan to carry out further analysis. "We are saying there are very strong similarities ... we leave it a little bit tantalising there at the end, so you're interested in part two," Professor Kenna said. To modern ears, Ossian perhaps sounds a little melodramatic and wordy. In one passage, the hero Fingal says: "Raise, ye bards, the song; raise the wars of the streamy Carun! Caracul has fled from our arms along the field of his pride. He sets far distant like a meteor, that encloses a spirit of night, when the winds drive it over the heath, and the dark woods are gleaming around. I heard a voice, or was it the breeze of my hills? Is it the huntress of Ardven, the white-handed daughter of Sarno? Look from the rocks, my love; let me hear the voice of Comala!" When it was published, Scotland had just emerged from the Jacobite Rebellion, when Gaelic and Highland culture was suppressed. But the astonishing international popularity of Ossian - despite the doubters - helped spark a revival that turned the Highlands into a romantic holiday destination and led the royal family to dress in tartan, which had been banned. It has been described as "the Harry Potter of the 18th century", but this was no children's book and it attracted the attention of some of the world's greatest names. According to Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book, the second US President even wanted to learn Gaelic so he could read the work in its original language. "The tender and the sublime emotions of the mind were never before so finely wrought up by human hand," Jefferson wrote. "I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the North the greatest Poet that has ever existed. "Merely for the pleasure of reading his works I am become desirous of learning the language in which he sung and of possessing his songs in their original form." And in 1797, Jean-Pierre-Louis de Fontanes wrote in a gushing letter to Napoleon Bonaparte: "It is said that you always have a copy of Ossian in your pocket - even in the midst of battles." James Boswell, Johnson's diarist, raised money to help Macpherson carry out further research to discover more of Ossian's work. But Boswell's close friend Johnson smelled a rat, calling Macpherson "a mountebank, a liar, and a fraud" and the poems "forgeries". More about hoaxLiteratureScotlandHomer Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments 1/1The truth behind the world's greatest literary hoax The truth behind the world's greatest literary hoax 'I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the North the greatest Poet that has ever existed,' US founding father Thomas Jefferson wrote of the blind 3rd century Scottish poet Ossian, who was almost certainly made up in the 18th century Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Subscribe Already subscribed? Log in Most Popular Popular videos Sponsored Features * Get in touch + Contact us + * Our Products + Subscribe + Register + Newsletters + Donate + Today's Edition + Install our app + Archive * Other publications + International editions + Independent en Espanol + Independent Arabia + Independent Turkish + Independent Persian + Independent Urdu + Evening Standard * Extras + Advisor + Puzzles + All topics + Betting Offers + Voucher codes + Competitions and offers + Independent Advertising + Independent Ignite + Syndication + Working at The Independent * Legal + Code of conduct and complaints + Contributors + Cookie policy + Donations Terms & Conditions + Privacy notice + User policies + Modern Slavery Act Thank you for registering Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in Close US EditionChange UK EditionAsia EditionEdicion en Espanol Subscribe {{indy.truncatedName}} Log in / Register Push notifications {{#items}} {{#stampSmall}}{{/stampSmall}}{{#stampClimate}}{{/stampClimate}}{{# stampPremium}}{{/stampPremium}}{{title}}{{#desc}}{{desc}}{{/desc}} {{#children}} * {{title}}{{/children}} {{/items}} * Indy100 * Crosswords & Puzzles * Most Commented * Newsletters * Ask Me Anything * Virtual Events * Vouchers Log in [ ]Email address [ ]Password Email and password don't match Submit Forgotten your password? New to The Independent? Register Or if you would prefer: SIGN IN WITH GOOGLE Want an ad-free experience? View offers This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy notice and Terms of service apply. Hi {{indy.fullName}} * My Independent Premium * Account details * Help centre * Logout