Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

^6 F I N G A L : Book I.
ilreams from high rocks meet, and mix and roar on the
plain ; loud, rough and dark in battle meet Lochlin and
innis-fail. Chief mixes his ftrokes with chief, and man
with m.an ; Heel, clanging, founded on fteel, helmets are
cleft on high. Blood burfts and fmokes around. — Strings
twang on the polifhed yews. Darts rulh along the Iky.
Spears fall like the circles of light that gild the flormy
face of night.
As the troubled noife of the ocean when roll the waves
on high : as the laft peal of the thunder of heaven, fuch
is the noife of battle. Though Cormac's hundred bards
were there to give the war to fong ; feeble were the voices
of a hundred bards to fend the deaths to future times.
For many v/ere the falls of the heroes ; and wide poured
the blood of the valiant.
Mourn, ye fons of fong, the death of the noble Sith-
allin*. Let the lighs of Fiona rife on the dark heaths
of her lovely Ardan. They fell, like two hinds of the
defart, by the hands of the mighty Swaran ; when, in
the midft of thoufands he roared ; like the fhrill fpirit of
a ftorm, that fits dim, on the clouds of Gormal, and en-
joys the death of the mariner.
Nor llept thy hand by thy fide, chief of the ifle of
miftf ; many were the deaths of thine arm, Cuchullin,
thou fon of Semo. His fword w-as like the beam of hea-
ven when it pierces the fons of the vale ; when the peo-
ple are blafted and fall, and ull the hills are burning a-
round. Dufronnal ^ fnorted over the bodies of heroes ;
and Sifadda II bathed his hoof in blood. The battle lay
behind them as groves overturned on the defart of Crom-
la ; when the blail has paiTed the heath laden with the
fpirits of night.
Weep on the rocks of roaring winds, O maid of Inif-
tore §, bend thy fair head over the waves, thou fairer
than
* Sithallin fignifies a har.dfome man ; Fiona, a fair maid ; and Ardan, pride.
+ The lUe of Sky ; r.ot improperly called the IjleofMiJl, as its high hills, whicl;
catch the clouds from the wcilern ocean, occalion almoft continual rains.
t One of CuchuUin's horfes. Dubhftron-gheal,
II Sith-fadda, /. c. a longjlride.
§ TJie maid of Inijlnre was the daughter of Gorlo king of Iniftorc or Orkney
jflands. Trenar was brother to the king of Inircon, fuppofed to We one of the
illands of Shetland. The Orkneys and Shetland were at that time fubjcift to the
king of Lochlin. We tind that the dogs of Trenar are fenfible at home of the
death of their nia.fter, the very inftant he is killed. It was the opinion of the
times,