Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

DU AN THIRD. 253
high, hke a formless meteor in clouds. He
sends abroad the winds, and marks them with
his signs. Starno foresaw, that IMorven s king
was not to yield in war.
He twice struck the tree in wrath. He
rushed before his son. He hummed a surly
song; and heard his hair in wind. "" Turned
from one another, they stood, like two oaks,
which different winds had bent; each hangs
over its own loud rill, and shakes its boughs in
the course of blasts."
" Annir," said Starno of lakes, " was a fire
that consumed of old. He poured death from
his eyes, along the striving fields. His joy was
in the fall of men. Blood to him was a summer
stream, that brings joy to withered vales, from
its own mossy rock. He came forth to the lake
Luth-cormo, to meet the tall Corman-trunar, he
from Urlor of streams, dweller of battle's wing.
z The surly attitude of Starno and Swaran. is well adapted
to their fierce and uncomplying dispositions. Their charac-
ters, at first sight, seem little different ; but, upon examina-
tion, we find that the poet has dexterously distinguished be-
tween them. They were both dark, stubborn, haughty, and
reserved ; but Starno was cunning, revengeful, and cruel to
the highest degree ; the disposition of Swaran, though savage,
was less bloody, and somewhat tinctured with generosity. It
is doing injustice to Ossian, to say, that he has not a great
variety of characters.