Ossian Collection > Morison's edition of the Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

NOTES ON TEMORA. 1:5
from which proceeds Fir-bolg, i. e. boiu-men, fo called from
tluir uting bows, more than any of the neighbouring nations.
"^^ It- is remarkable, that, after this paffage, Ofcar is not
'.nLQtioned in ail Temora. The iituations of the charadters
who adt in the poem are fo interefting, that others, foreign
to the fubjedl, could not be introduced with any luftre.
Though the epifode, which follows, may feem to flow na-
turally enough from the converfation of the brothers, yet
I have fliewn, in a preceding note, and, more at large in
the Diflertation prefixed to this collection, that the poet
had a farther defign in view.
f Conar, the firft king of Ireland, was the fon of Tren-
mor, the great-grandfather of Fingal. It was on account
of this family connexion, that Fingal was engaged in fo
many wars in the caufe of the race of Conar. Though few
of the adions of Trenmor are mentioned in Offian's poems,
yet, from the honourable appellations beftowed on him,
we may conclude that he was, in the days of the poet, the
mod renowned name of antiquity. The moft probable
opinion concerning him is, that he was the firft, who united
the tribes of the Caledonians, and conAmanded them, in
chief, a^ainft the incurfions of the Romans. The genealo-
gifts of the North have traced his family far back, and
given a lift of his anceftors to Cuamr.or nan Ian, or Conmor
of the fwords, who, according to them, was the firft Avho
croiTed the great fea, to Caledonia, from which circum-
ftance his name proceeded, which fignifies Great ocean.
Genealogies of fo ancient a date, however, are little to be
depended upon.
s The chiefs of the Fir-bolg who pofielTcd themfclves of
the fouth of Ireland, prior, perhaps, to the fettlement of
the Ca?/ of Caledonia, and the Hebrides, in Ulfter. Froiti
the