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

188 t£mora: Book VII.
More dreadful rung the shield. Sul-malla starts.
Her helmet falls. Loud echoed Lubav's rock, as over
it rolled the steel. Bursting from the dreams of night,
Cathmor half-rose beneath his tree. He saw the fomi
of the maid, above him on the rock. A red star with
tv/inkling beam locked down through her Moating
hair.
*' Who comes through night to Cathmor, in the dark
season of his dreams ? Bringest thou ought of war :
"Who art thou, son of night ? Standest thou l>efore me,
a form of the times of old? a voice from the fold of a
cloud, to M^irn me of Erin's danger ?
" Nor traveller of night am I, nor voice from folded
cloud: but I warn thee of the danger of Erin. Dost
thou hear that sound ? It is not the feeble, king of Atha,
that rolls his signs on night." ^
" Let the warrior roll his signs ; to Cathmor they
are the sound of harps. My joy is great, voice of night,
and burns over all my thoughts. This is the music of
kings, on lonely hills by night : v/hen they light their
daring souls, the sons of mighty deeds ! The_ feeble
dwell alone, in the valley of the breeze ; where mists
lift their morning skirts, from the blue-winding
streams."
" Not feeble, thou leader of heroes, were they, the
fathers of my race. They dv/elt in the darkness of"
batde : in their distant lands. Yet delights not my
sou 1 in the signs of death ! He s who never yields,
comes forth : Av/ake the bard of peace !"
Like a rock v/ith its trickling waters, stood Cathmor
in Ills tears. Her \ oice came, a breeze on his soul, and,
g ringal is said to have never been overcome in battle. From
t'.is proceeded that titiciOi" honour which is always bestowed on hjin
in tradition, ' Fion-ghal nabuai,' Fingal of Victories.' In a poem.
j(ust now in my hands, which celebrates some of the great actions of
Arthur the famous Erirish hero, that appellation is often be»towed
on hitn. The poem, from the phraseology, appears to be ancient ;
aiid is, perhaps, thcusli tliat li not ineijUoaed, a trsnilation firom thj