Ossian Collection > Fingal

N
L,
Book 1.
bar *, a hero whom he flew in war ; the fcout -j- of the ocean came
Moran % the fon of Fithil.
Rise, faid the youth, Cuchullin, rlfej I fee the fliips of Swaran-
Cuchulhn, many are the foe : many the heroes of the dark-roll-
ing fea.
MoR AN ! replied the blue-eyed chief, thou ever tremblefl, fon of
Fithil : Thy fears have much increafed the foe. Perhaps it is the
king II of the lonely hills coming to aid me on green Ullin's plains.
I SAW their chief, fays Moran, tall as a rock of ice. His fpear
is like that blafted fir. His fliield like the rifing moon 4- He fat
on a rock on the fliore : like a cloud of mift on the filent hill.
Many, chief of men ! I faid, many are our hands of war. Well
* Cairbar or Cairbre fignifies a ftrong
man.
f Cuchullin having previous intelligence
of the Lnvafion intended by Swaran, fent
fcouts all over the coaft of Ullin or Ulfter,
to give early notice of the firft appearance
of the enemy, at the fame time that he
fent Munan the fon of Stirmal to implore
the affiftance of Fingal, He himfelf col-
lefled the flower of the Irifh youth to Tu-
ra, a caftle on the coaft, to ftop the pro-
grcfsof the enemy till Fingal fhould arrive
from Scotland. We may conclude from
Cuchullin's applying fo early for foreign
aid, that the Irifti were not then fo numerous
as they have fince been ; which is a great
prefumption againft the high antiquities of
that people. We have the teftimony of
Tacitus that one legion only was thought
fufficient, in the time of Agricola, to re-
duce the whole ifland under the Roman
yoke ; which would not probably have been
the cafe had the ifland been inhabited for
any number of centuries before.
% Moran fignifies many ; and Fithil, or
rather Fill, an inferior bard.
11 Fingal the fon of Comhal and Morna
the daughter of Thaddu. His grandfather
was Trathal, and great grandfather Tren-
mor, both of whom are often mentioned
in the poem.
-j. His ponderous ihield
Behind him caft ; the broad circumference
Hung on his (houlders like the Moon.
MiLTOti.
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art