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Oisin |
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Oisin / Ossian
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Name: Oisín / Ossian / 'Little Deer' Clan: Bascna Profession: Warrior Race: Celtic Father: Fionn Mac Cumhaill Mother: Sabha of the Sidhe Paternal Grandfather: Cumhall Paternal Grandmother: Muirne Wife: Niamh of the Sidhe Half-Brother: Fiachna Foster-Brothers: Innsa
Sons: Oscar and Finn sons of Niamh Daughter: Blaithín Army: The Fianna King: Cormac Mac Art Oisín was the son of the hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the fairy-woman Sabha who was abducted back to the Otherworld when Oisín was a young boy and he was then brought up by his father Fionn. He fought many brave battles with the Fianna when he came of age. He did not always agree with his father especially in the case of his father's enmity against Diarmuid O'Duibne when he eloped with Gráinne who had been promised to Fionn Mac Cumhail. Oisín met Niamh a beautiful woman of the Sidhe and went to Tír na nÓg with her to live it is said he lived there for three years and then he wanted to return to his homeland to see his family again, he was given a white horse and told not to step off it. He returned to his home but could find no trace of his old house or any of his family and the people seemed different, somehow smaller and weaker. He discovered some men at a place called Glen na Smól trying to lift a large rock. He found out that three hundred years had passed since the time of his father and the Fianna. He decided to help the men lift the rock but as he reached over he slipped from his horse and his foot touched the earth. He was instantly transformed into a withered old man and he died there, in front of the men but not before telling them who he was. Stories, Myths and Legends associated with Oisín
© Shee-Eire |
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James
MacPherson’s romantic retelling of the tales of Ossian was the literary
toast of Europe, and in the inevitable critical backlash that followed,
it was also derided as fake Celtic culture. As John Purser discovers,
the truth is somewhere in the middle. 
Duibhruinn
