Ossian Collection > Notes on the authenticity of Ossian's poems

22 THE AUTHENTICITY OF
preserved by tradition in this country ; but with this
variation, that the proposal of giving up his wife and
dog in page 26, as the only condition on which peace
would be granted, was made by Magnus, King of Loch-
lin, to Fingal, and not by Swaran to Cuchullin.
" I have heard the poem in Book III., relating Fin-
gal's voyage to Lochlin, the snares laid for him by
Starno, death of Agandecca, how for his cruelty and
perfidiousness he took immediate revenge on Starno,
wdien, page 38, he eyed his valiant chiefs — 'his valiant
chiefs took arms.'
" The poem in Book IV. is handed down pretty
entire in this country, in which each of Fingal's chiefs
singles out the chief among the enemy he was to fight,
leaving to Fingal the honour of engaging the King of
Lochlin.
" The description of the sunbeam, Fingal's standard,
does not come up to the beauty and spirit of the ori-
ginal. Along with that of the sunbeam, there is in the
original a particular description of the standards of
the seven principal chiefs of Fingal, which are so inim-
itably beautiful that I cannot imagine how Macpherson
has omitted them in his translation.
" We have the poem containing the battle of Loch-
lego, and a good part of that relating to the war of Inis-
thona in page 104.
" It Avould take up too much room, and I think it
is not necessary that I go through all the poems in the
collection of which we hav e pieces joined to other
poems, and sometimes parts of two or three poems
thrown together into one.