Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

Preface. 8
thoy would lose. The determination of this point
ehail be left to the readers of this Preface. The
following is the beginning of a poem, translated from
the Norse to the Gaelic language; and, from the
latter, transferred into English. The verse took
little more time to the writer than the prose; and
even he himself is doubtful (if he has succeeded in
either), which of them is the most literal version.
Fragment of a Northern Tale.
WHiere Harold, with golden hair, spread o'er
^oclilin* his high commands; where, with justice,
ue ruled the tribes, who sunk, subdued, beneath hia
fword ; abrupt rises Gormai f in snow ! The tem-
pests roll dark ou his sides, but calm, above, his vast
forehead appears. White issuing from the skirt of
his storms, the troubled torrents pour down his sides.
Joining, as they roar along, they bear the Tome,
in foam, to the main.
Grey on the bank, and far from men, half covered,
ty ancient pines, from the wind, a Ion el v pile exalts
,ts head, long shaken by the storms of the north.
To this fled Sigurd, fierce in fight, from Harold the
leader of armies, when fate had brightened his spear
with renown: when he conquered in that rude field,
where Lulan's warriors fell in blood, or rose in terror
on the waves of the main. Darkly sat the grey-
haired chief; yet sorrow dwelt not in his soul. But
when the waiTior thought on the past, his proud
Ueart heaved against his side: forth flew his sword
|rom its place; he wounded Harold in all the winds.
One daughter, and only one, but bright in form
And mild of soul, the last beam of the setting line,
lemained to Sigurd of all his race. His son, in
iiulan's battle slain, beheld not his father's flight
from his foes. Nor finished seemed the ancient
line 1 The splendid beauty of bright-eyed Fithon,
• The Gaelic name of Scaudinavia, or ScaaJini*.