Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

CATH-LODA.
17
Many a king of heroes, and hero of iron shields ; many
a youth of heavy locks came to Rurmar's echoing hall.
They came to woo the maid, the stately huntress of
Tormoth wild. But thou lookest careless from thy steps,
high-bosomed Strina-dona !
If on the heath she moved, her breast was whiter than
the down of Cana;* if on the sea-beat shore, than the
foam of the rolling ocean. Her eyes were two stars of
light. Her face was heaven's bow in showers. Her
dark hair flowed round it, like the streaming clouds.
Thou wert the dweller of souls, white-handed Strina-
dona !
Colgorm came, in his ship, and Corcul-suran, king of
shells. The brothers came, from I-thorno, to woo the
sun-beam of Tormoth wild. She saw them in their
echoing steel. Her soul was fixed on blue-eyed Colgorm.
Ul-lochlin'st nightly eye looked in, and saw the tossing
arms of Strina-dona.
Wrathful the brothers frowned. Their flaming eyes,
in silence, met. They turned away. They struck their
shields. Their hands were trembling on their swords.
They rushed into the strife of heroes, for long-haired
Strina-dona.
Corcul-suran fell in blood. On his isle, raged the
strength of his father. He turned Colgorm from
* A certain kind of grass, which grows plentifully in the
heathy morasses of the north. Its stalk is of the reedy kind.
and it carries a tuft of down, very much resembling cotton,
It is excessively white, and, consequently, often introduced 1>y
the bards, in their similes concerning the beauty of women.
t The name of a star, the guide to Lochlin.
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