Blair Collection > Galic antiquities

144 D A R G O:
oak on the plain. Swift as the eagle's wing was thy fpeed : ftrong,
as the blafl of Loda *, thy arm ; and deadly, as Lego's mifl, thy
blade."
The bard ceafed. The tomb of Armor was reared; and his
people, with flow unequal fteps, departed. Their nodding mafl:s
are heavy on the deep. Their fongs are heard, at times; but
their found is mournful. They are like the figh of mountain-
winds in the waving grafs of the tomb, when the night is dark and
the vales are Clent.
P A R T II.
THE tales of the years that are pafl, are beams of light to the
foul of the bard. They are like fun-beams that travel over
the heath of Morven ; joy is in their courfe, though darknefs
dwells around. — Joy is in their courfe, but it is foon pail ; and the
path of darknefs, like the fhadow of mift, purfues them. It will
foon overtake them on the mountains, and the footfteps of the glad
beams will ceafe to be feen. Thus the tale of Dargo travels over
my foul, a beam of light, though the gathering of clouds is nigh it.
— Shine on, O beam, as thou didll in the flrife of Armor, when the
flrength
wrath in the flrife of war was deadly. This hero was more ancient thnn Homer;
Peace to the people's chief, and to Loch- as his fon Skiold was, according to the
lin's king ; often did the vanquifhed fly Danifli chronologies, a thoufand years
before him." older than Pompey. His many conquefts
• The Loda, or Lodda, ofOfiian, is and warlike exploits feem to have pro-
fuppofed to have been the fame with the cured him divine honours from his coun-
Odin or Woden of the Scandinavians, trymen, after his death.