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

Book VIII. AN FPIC POfAt. !2(31
Evening cp.me down on Moi-lena. C!"v';y rolled the
streams of the land. Loud came forth the voice or Fin-
gal : the heam of oaks arose, tlie people c;athered round
with gladness ; with gladness blended with shadc.^.
Thev side-long looked to the king, and beheld his un-
finished jov. Pleasant, from the way of the desert, the
voice of music came, ^t seemed, at first, the noise of a.
stream, far distant on its rocks. Slow it rolled along
the hill like the runled wing of a breeze, when it takej: _
the tufted beard of the rocks, in the still season of night.
Tt was the voice of Condan, mixed with Carril's trem-
bling harp. They came with blue-eyed Ferad-artho,
tc Mora of the streams.
Sudden bursts the song from our ojM'ds, on Lena : the
host struck their shields midst the sound. Gladncssrose
bvigiitening on the king, like the beam of a cloudy
day, when it rises on the gi-een hill, before the roar of
winds. He struck the bossy shield of kings ; at once
they cease arovind. The people lean forward, from
their spears, towards tlie voice of tlieir land ^^.
of the feeble, when my strengtli shall have faiUd in yeats, for young
Oscar lias cea^•ed on his field.'
Sul-inaDa returned to her own countrs% and m,i';cs a considerable
fipirc in tlie poem wliich immediately fo'lows; her bciigviour in
that piece accounts for that partial regard vatli whic'i the poet speaks
of her throughout Temcra.
k Before I finish my nptes, it may not be altogether iTrproper to
obviate an objection, which ra^ be made to the credibility of the
story of Temora, as related by Oasian. It may be asked, v.;;ether
it is probalie fhat Finu;al could perform sucb. actions as are ascribed
to him in ri is book, at an age wlien his grandson Oscar, had acquir-
ed so much repxitation in arms. To this it may be answered, ttr.t
Fingal was but very young (Cook IV.) vvl;en lie took to wife Ror«
crana, who soon r.fter became the mother of Ossian. OsMan was .i'-
34) extremely young when he married Ever-aliin the motherofOsca-.
Tradition relates, that Finga! was but eighteen years old at the bin ii
of ills son Ossian ; and that 0-;si.in was much about the same a|:e,
when Cscar, his son, was born. Oscar, perhaps, might be aboi;t
tvcn:y, when he was killed, in the battle of Gabhra, (Book I.) so
tl c aje of Finga', when the decisive battle was. fought between iifhi
apa Catljoicr, wae just I'.fty-sijc years. la lliq^e thnes of activity
' S 3