Ossian Collection > Gaelic bards

170 ANCIENT GAELIC BARDS.
Ere I struck him down on the green-sward,-
Cormac in battle not slack.
I swept the head from his shoulders,
And held it up in my hand ;
His troops they fled, and we came with joy
To Fingal's mountain land.
Whoe'er had told me on that day,
I should be thus weak to-night,
Firm must his heart have been, and strong
His arm in the desperate fight.
THE DEATH OF OSCAR.
I NOW proceed to give a })oem on the death of Oscar, one
of the most popular and touching themes of the Gaelic
muse. Oscar was the Achilles of the Fingalians, and
Ossian was both his Homer and his father. No Avonder,
then, his death aflords a favourite and pathetic subject
both for the oldest ballads and their most modern
imitations. The "Lay of Oscar" is still repeated.
There is a version of it in the third volume of J. F.
Campbell's " Popular Tales," got within the last five or
six years in the Hebrides. It is in all the collections.
If we take jNIacCallum's and Mr. Campbell's versions to
begin with, we ai-e carried on very well to near the end
of the story ; then, by filling in a little from Allan
MacRorie's and Fergus the poet's accounts, as they are
found in the Dean of Lismore's book, we see our subject
a good deal clearer ; and, finally, we can end the
sorrowful recital as we began. We thus get this old and
manly popular song in the most complete state possible
for us nowadays : —