Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

Book V. An E F I C P O E M. 105
at once, from rocking Druman-ard, when fpi-
rits heave the earth in their wratli j fo fell blue-
Ihielded Rothmar.
Near are the llcps of Cuhiiln. The youth
came, burfting into tears. Wrathful he cut the
wind, ere yet he mixed his flrokes with Fillan,
He had lint bent tlie bow with Rothmar, at the
rock of his own blue ftrcams. There they had
marked the place of tlie roe, as the fun-beam flew
over the fern. Why, fon of Cul-allin ! Why, Cul-
min, doft tliou rulh on that beam * of light ? It is a
fire that confumes. Son of Cul-allin retire. Your
fathers were not equal, in the glittering ftrife of the
field. The mother of Culmin vemaiiis in the hall.
She looks forth on blUe-rolling Strutha. A whirlr
wind rifes, on the ftream, dark-eddying round
the glicft of her fon. His dogs r are howling
in
* The poet, metaphorically, calls Fillan a beam of light.
Culmin, metitioncd here, was the fon of Clonmar, chief of
Sirutha, by the beautiful Cul-ailin. She was fo remarkable
for the beauty of her perfon, that (he is introduced, frequently,
in the fimilies and allufions of ancient poetry. Mar ChuU
aluiit Struiha nan Jinn; Lcuely as Cvl-aLin of Strutha of the
fiortns,
•j- Dogs \yere thought to be fcnfible of tlie death of their
ipafler, let it happen at ever fo great a diitance. It was
alfo the opinioa of the times, that the arms which warriors
left at home became bloody, when they themfelves fell in
battle. Ii; was from thofe figns that Cul-allin is fuppofed to
underllaud thai her fon is kilkd ; in which fhe i« confirmed
by