Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 1

THE POEMS OF OSStAN. 2^
of Swaran happened, whicli is the fubjecTt of the poem
of FincraK The family of Atha, who had not relin-
. quifhed their pretenfions to the Irifh throne, rebelled In
the minority of Cormac, defeated his adherents, and
murdered him in the palace of Temora. [Book I.] Cair-
bar, lord of Atha, upon this, mounted the throne. His
ufurpation foon ended with his life ; for Fingal made
an expedition into Ireland, and reilored, after various
viciffitudes of fortune, the family of Conar to the pof-
feflion of the kingdom. Tliis war is the fubjecft of Te-
mora ; the events, though certainly heightened, and
embellilhed by poetry, feem, notwithftanding, to have
their foundation in true hiilory.
Ofiian has not only preferved the. hiftory of the firll
migration of the Caledonians into Ireland, but has alfo
delivered fome im.portant fads concerning the firll fct-
tlementof the Firbolg, or Belga of Jiriiain, in that king-
dom, under their leader Larthon, who was anceftor to
Cairbar and Cathmor, who fuccelTively mounted the I-
rlfh throne, after the death of Cormac, the fon of Artho.
I forbear to tranfcribe the paflage, on account of its
length. [Book VII.] It Is the fong of Fonar, the bard ;
towards the latter end of the feventh book of Temora.
As the generations from Larthon to Cathmor, to whora
the epifode is addreiTed, are not marked, as are thofe
of the family of Conar, the firft king of Ireland, we
can form no judgment of the time of the fettlement of
the Firbolg. It is, however, probable, it was fome time
before the Cael, or Caledonians, fettled in Ulfter. One
important facl may be gathered from this hifrory' of Of-
fian, that the Irifh had no king before the latter end of
the fii-ft century. Fingal lived, it is certain, in the
third centur)'- ; fo Conar, the fii-fl monarch of the Irifh,
who was his grand-uncle, cannot be placed farther back
than the clcfe of the firlt. The eftablL^ning of this fact,
lays, at once, afide the pretended antiquities of the Scots
and Irifii, and cuts off the long hft of kings which the
latter give us for a millennium before.
Of the affairs of S cotland, it is certain, nothing ca»