Sergel’s melancholic Danish friend Nicolas Abraham Abildgaard was, like Füssli, influenced by literature. The inspiration here comes from The Poems of Ossian by the Scot James Macpherson about the warlike life of the hero Fingal. The work depicts the ghost of his fallen enemy Culmin and his shield, borne by a whirlwind, appearing to his mother and his howling dogs. Here Abildgaard contrasts this wild and terrifying encounter with sublime beauty.