SOURCE: "Fingal: The Garbh mac Stàirn and Magnus Ballads" and "Fingal (contd.)," in The Gaelic Sources of Macpherson's "Ossian," Oliver and Boyd, 1952, pp. 13-20, 21-41.

In the following excerpt from his book-length study, Thomson offers a detailed examination of the Gaelic verses Macpherson used to create some of the central scenes in his epic Fingal.

Fingal is probably to be regarded as Macpherson's magnum opus. Some of the shorter pieces may claim a greater felicity, and indeed the lack of architectonic power which [Matthew] Arnold attributed, with some justice, to the Celts, and particularly to Ossian, may be attributed to Macpherson also. But when Fingal is compared with Macpherson's other essay in epic, Temora, the measure of his success in the former becomes more apparent. His theme, at least, was heroic, although his treatment of the theme was at times arbitrary. W. A. Craigie, writing on Fingal...