Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 2

Book V. AM EPIC POEM. 165
rocking Druman-ard, when spirits heave the earth in
their wrath ; so fell blue-shielded Rothniar.
Near are the steps of Culniin ; die youth came, biUbt-
jng into tears. Wratiiful he cut the wind, ere yet he
mixed his strokes with Fiilan. He had tirst bent the
bow with Rothmar, at the rock of his own blue streams.
There they had marked the place cf the roe, as the sun-
beam flew over the fern. Why, son of Cul-allin, dost
thou rush on that beamf of light ? It is a fire that con-
sumes. Youtii of Strutha retire. Your fathers v/ere
not equal, in the glittering strife of the field.
The mother of Culmin remains in the hall ; she looks
forth on blue-rolling Strutha. A whirlv/ind rises on
the stream, dark-eddying round the ghost of her son.
His dogs g are howling in their place : his shield is
bloody in the hall. '*^Art tliou fallen, my fair-haired
son, in Erin's dismal war r"
As a roe, pierced in secret, lies panting, by her wont-
ed streams, the hunter looks over her feet of wind, and
remembers her stately bounding before,so lay the son of
Drontlicim, little inferior to the former; and it went always under
the name of Loden. — Mallet, introduction a I'liistoire de Danneuiarc.
f The poet, metaphorically, calls FillaJi a beam of light. Culniin,
fticntioned here, was the son of Clonmar, chief nf Strutha, by the
beautiful Cul-allin. Slie was so remai kahle for the beauty of her per-
son that she ib introducer!, frequently in the shnilies and allusions of
ancient poetry. ♦' Mar Chu'aluin Strutha nan sian ;" is a simile of
t>ssian in auother poem ; i. e. Lovely as Cul-allin of Strutha of the
storms.
g Dogs were thought to be sensible of the death of their master, let
it happen at ever so great a distance. It was also the opinion of the
time.';, that the arms wl-ich warriors left at Lome became bloody,
when they themselves feUin battle. It w;i:> from those signs that
Cul-allin is supposed to understand that iier son is killed ; in which
she is confirmed by the appearance of liis ghost. Her sudden and
short exclamation, on the occasion, is more affecting than if she had
extended lier coiTipIaints to a greater length. The attitude of the fal-
len youth, and Kiilan's refections over him, are natural and judici-
ous, and come forcibly bark on the mind wh.en we consider tiiat the
supposed Situation of the father of Culmin, was »o similar to that of
ilngal, after the death of Fiilan himself.