Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

AN KP£C POF.M. 20'3
tiic sun looks, in secret, on the blue streams of Dal-
rutho * ? There are the steps of thy daughter,
blue-eyed Dardu-lena ! "
" Remenibcrcst thou her," said Foldath, " be-
cause no son is mine : no youtli to roll the battle
before him, in revenge of me ? INIalthos, I am re-
venged. I was not peaceful in the field. Raise
the tombs of those I have slain, around ray narrow
house. Often shall I forsake the blast, to rejoice
above their graves ; when I behold them spread
around, with their long-whistling grass."
His soul rushed to the vale of iMoma, to Dardu-
lena's dreams, where she slept, by Dalrutho's stream,
returning from the chace of the hinds. Her bow
is near the maid, unstrung. The breezes fold her
long hair on her breasts. Cloathed in the beauty
of youth, the love of heroes la}-. Dark-bending,
Druid. The cave of Moma was thought to be inhabited hy
the spirits of the chiefs of the Fir-bolg, and their posterity
sent to enquire there, as to an oracle, concerning the issue
of their wars.
• Dal-ruiiti), ■parched or sandy field. The etymology of
Dardu-lena is uncertain. The daugliter of Foldath was,
probably, so called, from a place in Ulster, where her father
had defeated part of the adherents of Artho, king of Ire-
■ laud. Dor-du-Iena, the dark wood of Moi-icna. As Fol-
dath was proud and ostentatious, it would appear, that he
transferred tlie name of a place, where he himself had been
■victorious, to his daughter.