Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

AN EPIC POEM, 260
.Amid his thoughts of mighty Carbar *, a hero
slain by the chief in war; the scout f of ocean
ralour. Cuthullin, when very young, married Bragela,
the daughter of Sorglan, and passing over into Ireland,
lived for some time with Connab grandson, by a daugh-
ter, to Congab the petty king of Ulster. His wisdom
and valour, in a short time, gained him such reputation,
that, in the minority of Cormac, the supreme king of Ire-
land, he was chosen guardian to the young king, and
sole manager of the war against Swaran, king of Loch-
lin. After a series of great actions, he was killed in
battle somewhere in Connaught, in the twenty-seventh
year of his age. He was so remarkable for his strength,
that to describe a strong man it has passed into a pro-
verb, " He has the strength of Cuthullin." They shew
the remains of his palace at Dunscaich, in the Isle of
Sk^'e ; and a stone, to which he bound his dog Luatli,
goes still by his naine.
* Cairbar, or Cairbre, signifies a strong man,
t Cuthullin having previous intelligence of the inva-
sion intended by Swaran, sent scouts all over the coast
of UUin, or Ulster, to give early notice of the first ap-
pearance of the enemy, at the same time that he sent
Munan, the son of Stirmal, to implore the assistance of
Fingal. He himself collected the flower of the Irish
youth to Tura, a castle on the coast, to stop the progress
of the enemy till Fingal should arrive from Scotland.
We m.ay conclude, from Cuthullin's applying so early
for foreign aid, that the Irish were not then so numerous