Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

Book III. F I N G A L. 175
Know my Progenitors their Lineage trace,
1 95 As high as Cormar, Author of the Race ;
Who bounding o'er the Billows, fearlefs paft
The rougheft Seas, Companion of the Blaft.
A Spirit once embroil'd the Night ; around
The Waves in Mountains roll, the Rocks refound :
200 Clouds heap'd on Clouds are blown along the Sky,
On Wings of Fire the vivid Lightnings fly.
Aftonifli'd at the wild tumultuous Roar
Of warring Elements, he made to Shore ;
But
V. 198. A Spirit once embroil'd the Night, £iff.] Befides Ghofts, or.
Spirits of departed Men, we find in OJJian fome Inftances of other Kinds ot
Machinery. Spirits of a fuperior Nature to Ghofts are Ibmetimes alluded
to, which have Power to call forth Winds and Storms ; to overturn Forefts,
and to embroil the Deeps, as in this Place. The Fidion here introduced
is calculated to aggrandize the Anceftors of Calmar, which it does by
ihowing his Forefather Cormar'& Contempt of Danger ; nor is that Hero's
wounding the Spirit fo unnatural or fo wild a Fiftion as might be at firft
imagined, fince, according to the Notions of thofe Times, fupernatural
Beings were material, and confequently vulnerable. There is only one
more Inftance of this Kind to be found in the Works of OJJian, and
that is the Engagement of Fingal with the Spirit of Zj)da in Carrec-thura.
I forbear