Ossian Collection > Fingal

XVI A DISSERTATION, &c.
name of Scandinavia in the Galic language. Cuchullin, general of
the Irifli tribes in the minority of Ccrmac king of Ireland, upon in-
telligence of the invalion, aflembled his forces near Tura, a caiHe
on the coaft of Ulfter. The poem opens with the landing of Swa-
ran, councils are held, battles fought, and Cuchullin is, at lafl,
totally defeated. In the mean time, Fingal, king of Scotland, whofe
aid was foUicited before the enemy landed, arrived and expelled
them from the country. This war, which continued but fix days
and as many nights, is, including the epifodcs, the whole ftory of
the poem. The fcene is the heath of Lena near a mountain called
Cromleach in Ulfter.
All that can be faid of the tranllation, is that it is literal, and
that fimplicity is ftudied. The arrangement of the words in the
original is imitated, and the inverfions of the ftyle obferved. As the
tranflator claims no merit from liis verfion, he hopes for the indul-
gence of the public where he fails. He wilhes that the imperfedl
femblance he draws, may not prejudice the world againft an origi-
nal, which contains what is beautiful in fimplicitv, and grand in
the fuLlime.
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