Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

144 THE WAR OF INIS-THONA.
youth. His voice was trembling low. My spear shook
its bright head in his hand : he spoke to Morven's king.
" Fingal ! thou king of heroes ! Ossian, next to him
in war ! ye have fought in your youth ; your names are
renowned in song. Oscar is like the mist of Cona ; I
appear and I vanish away. The bard will not know my
name. The hunter will not search in the heath for my
tomb. Let me fight, O heroes, in the battles of Inis-
thona. Distant is the land of my war ! ye shall not
hear of Oscar's fall ! Some bard may find me there ;
some bard may give my name to song. The daughter of
the stranger shall see my tomb, and weep over the youth,
that came from afar. The bard shall say, at the feast,
' Hear the song of Oscar from the distant land ! '"
"Oscar," replied the king of Morven ; "thou shalt
fight, son of my fame ! Prepare my dark-bosomed ship
to carry my hero to Inis-thona. Son of my son, regard
our fame ; thou art of the race of renown ! Let not the
children of strangers say, feeble are the sons of Morven !
Be thou, in battle, a roaring storm : mild as the evening
sun in peace ! Tell, Oscar, to Inis-thona's king, that
Fingal remembers his youth ; when we strove in the
combat together, in the clays of Agandecca. "
They lifted up the sounding sail ; the wind whistled
through the thongs* of their masts. Waves lash the
oozy rocks : the strength of ocean roars. My son beheld,
from the wave, the land of groves. He rushed into
Runa's sounding bay, and sent his sword to Annir of
* Leather thongs were used among the Celtic nations instead
of ropes.