Ossian Collection > Fingal

Book I. AnEPICPOEM. 5
war ! or yield green Innisfail * to Lochlin ! O Connal -f- fpeak,
thou firft of men ! thou breaker of the fhields ! thou haft often fought
with Lochlin ; fhalt thou lift up thy father's fpear ?
CucHULLiN ! calm the chief replied, the fpear of Connal is
keen. It delights to lliine in battle, and to mix with the blood of
thoufands. But tho' my hand is bent on war, my heart is for the
peace of Erin if. Behold, thou firft in Cormac's war, the fable fleet
of Swaran. His mafts are as numerous on our coaft as reeds in the
lake of Lego. His ftiips are like forefts cloathed with mift, when
the trees yield by turns to the fqually wind. Many are his chiefs-
in battle. Connal is for peace. Fingal would fhun his arm the
firft of mortal men : Fingal that fcatters the mighty, as ftormy
winds the heath ; when the ftreams roar thro' echoing Cona : and
night fettles with all her clouds on the hill.
Fly, thou chief of peace, faid Calmar || the fon of Matha ; fly,
Connal, to thy filent hills, where the fpear of battle never flione ;
♦Ireland fo called from a colony that his name, were called Tir-chonnuil or Tir-
fettled there called Falans. — Innis-fail, /. connel, /. ^. the land of Connal.
e. the ifland of the Fa-il or Falans. J Erin, a name pf Ireland ; from ear
+ Connal, the friend of Cuchullin, was or tar Weft, and in an ifland. This name
the fon of Cathbait prince of the Ton- was not always confined to Ireland, for
gorma or the //7(7nf^ ij/"W«< wfluff, probably there is the higheft probability that the
one of the Hebrides. His mother was Itrne of the ancients was Britain tc the
Fioncoma the daugliter of Congal. He North of the Forth. — For lerne is faid lo
had a fon by Foba of Conachar-neflar, be to the North of Britain, which could
who w.is afterwards king of Ulfter. For not be meant of Ireland.
his fervjc.s in the war againft Swaran he S i rabo, 1. 2.& 4.'Casau3. 1. i.
had lands conferred on him, which, from ||. Calmer, ajlrong man.
purfue