Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

Ternora. 355
neath the wind. ' How has that tree fallen ?' he
says, and, whistling, strides along. Raise the song
of joy, ye bards of Morven ! Let our souls forget
the past. The red stars look on us from clouds,
and silently descend. Soon shall the grey beam of
the morning rise, and show us the foes of Cormac.
Fillan ! my son, take thou the spear of the king.
Go to Mora's dark-brown side. Let thine eyes
travel over the heath. Observe the foes of Fingal :
observe the course of generous Cathmor. I hear a
distant sound, like falling rocks in the desert. But
strike thou thy shield, at times, that they may not
come through night, and the fame of Morven cease.
I begin to be alone, my son. I dread the fall of
my renown !"
The voice of bards arose. The king leaned on
the shield of Trenmor. Sleep descended on his
eyes. His future battles arose in his dreams. The
host are sleeping around. Dark-haired Fillan ob-
serves the foe. His steps are on the distant hill.
We hear, at times, his clanging shield.
BOOK IL
AUGUJrENT.
This book opens, we may suppose, about midnight, with a soliloquv of
Ossian, who had retired from the rest of the army, to mourn tor' his
son Oscar. Upon hearing the noise of Cathmor's army approaching,
he went to find out his brother Fillan, who kept the watch on the
hill of Mora, in the front of Fingal's army. In the conversation of
the brothers, the episode of Conar, the son of Trenmor, who was the
first king of Ireland, is introduced, which lays open the origin of the
contests between the Gael and the Fir-bolg, the two nations who first
possessed themselves of that island. Ossian kindles a fire on Mora;
upon which Cathmor desisted from the design he had formed of sur-
prising the armv of the Caledonians. He calls a council of his chiefs ;
reprimands Foldath for advising a night attack, as the Irish were so
much superior in number to the enemy. Tlie bard Fonar introduces
the story of Crothar, the ancestor of the king, which throws further
light on the history of Ireland, and the original pretensions of the
family of Atha to the throne of that kingdom. The Irish chiefs lie
down to rest, and Cathmor himself undertakes the watch. In hU
circuit round the army, he is met by Ossian. The interview of the
two heroes is described. Cathmor obtains a promise from Ossian to
order a funeral elegy to be sung over the grave of Cairbar ; it being
the opinion of the times, that the souls of the dead could uot bo