Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

Book II. An EPIC POEM. 35
away. Sadnefs ought not to dwell in danger,
jior tJic tear in the eye of war. Our fathers for-
got tliclr fallen fons, till the noife of arms was
part. Then forrow returned to the tomb, and
the fong of bards arofc." Tlie memory of thofe,
who fell, quickly followed the departure of
war: When the tumult of battle is paft, the foul,
in filence, melts away, for the dead.
CoNAR * was the brother of Trathal, firft of
mortal men. His battles were on every coaft. A
thoufand ftreams rolled down the blood of his foes.
His fame filled green Erin, like a pleafant gale.
terefting, that others, foreign to the fubjeft, could not be In-
troduced with any luftre. Though the epifode, which follows^
may fcem to flow naturally enough from the converfation of the
brothers, yet I have fhewn, in a preceding note, and, more at
large, in the diflertation annexed to this collet'lion, that the
poet had a farther defign in view.
* Conar, the firft king of Ireland, was the fon of Trenmor,
the great-grand- father ofFingal. It was on account of this
famiJy-connedion, that Fingalwas engaged in fo many wars in
thecaufeof the race of Conar. Tho' fewof the adions of Tren-
mor are mentioned, he was the moft renowned name of antiquity.
The moft probable opinion concerning him is, that he was the
firft, who united the tribes of the Caledonians, and commanded
them, in chief, againft the incurfions of the Romans. The ge-
nealogiils of the North have traced his family far back, and
given a lift of his ancertors to Cuan-m'or nan Ian, or Conmor of
the fvvords, who, according to them, was the firft who crofted
thc^rfrt/_/frt, to Caledonia, from which circumftance his name
proceeded, which fignifies Great ocean. Genealogies of fo an-
cient a date, however, are little to be depended upon.
D 2 The