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

CATH-LO^A:
A POEM.
THE ARGUMENT.
Rnctal, in one of his voyages to the Orkney islands, was driven, by
stress of weather, into a bay of Scandinavia, near the residence of
Stavno, king of Lothlin. Starno invites Fingal to a feast. Fip*
gal, doubting the faith of the king, and mindful, of his former
breach of hospitality, (Fingal, D. III.) refuses to g». Stafno ga-
ther.- together his tribes ; Fingal resolves to defend himself. Night
coming on, Duth-maruno proposes to Fingal, to observe the mo-
tions of the enemy. The king himself undertakes the watch.
Advancing towards the enemy, he accidentally, comes to the cave
of Turthor, where Starno had confined Conban-carglas, the cap-
tive daughter of a neighbouring chief. Her Story is imperfect, a
part of the original being lost. Fingal comes to a place of wor-
ship, where Starno, and his son Swaran, consulted the spirit af Lo-
da, concerning the issue of the wa,r. The reacounter of Fingal
and Swaran. The Duan concludes with a description of the airy
hall of Cruthloda, supposed to be the Odin tf Scandinavia.
DUAN a FIRST.
A TALE of the times of old ! Why, thou wanderer
-L\ unseen, that bendest the thistle of Lora, why, thou
breeze of the valley, hast thou left mine ear? I hear no
distant roar of streams, no sound of the harp from the
rocks ! Come, thou huntress of Lutha, send back his
«oiil to the bard.
a The bards distingulslicd those compositions, in which the nar-
ration is often interrupted by episodes and apostrophes, by the name
of Buan. Siiue the extinction of the order •f the bards, it lias been
a gener.il name for all ancient compositions in verse. The abrupt
manner in which die story of this poem begins, may render it obscure
to some readers; it may not therefore be improper, to give here the
traditioaal preface, which is generally prefixed to it. Two year*
after he took to wUe Ros-crana, the daughter of Cormac, king of
Ireland, Fingal undertook an expedition into Orkney, to visit hi»
friend Cath-ulla, king of Inistore. After staying a few days at Car-
rie- ihuraj the residence of Cath-uUa, thek^g snsail, to return tp