/lit/ - Literature

>>14023628
Generals and conquerors were worshiped in all ages by men of all kinds - just consider how Alexander and Caesar were both idolized in the very battailous medieval period.
>>14023391
Here's the first proper answer: one of his favourite works was the "Poems of Ossian" - he was said to be "in ecstasy" after reading them, and was known to always keep a copy in his back pocket.
The Ossianic works were a cycle of Gaelic epic poems, translated (and it is now believed, mostly composed) by James MacPherson. They were very popular in their age - you may remember it being read in "The Sorrows of Young Werther". Here's a quotation:
>A TALE of the times of old!
>Why, thou wanderer unseen! Thou bender of the thistle of Lora; why, thou breeze of the valley, hast thou left mine ear? I hear no distant roar of streams! No sound of the harp, from the rock! Come, thou huntress of Lutha, Malvina, call back his soul to the bard. I look forward to Lochlin of lakes, to the dark, billowy bay of U-thorno, where Fingal descends from ocean, from the roar of winds. Few are the heroes of Morven, in a land unknown!
>>14023968
They're on James MacPherson's Wikisource page