Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

BOOK I. F I N G A L. 29
burning around. DusronnalJ snorted over the bodies of heroes;
and Sifadda |i bathed his hoof in blood. The battle lay behind them
as groves overturned on the desart of Cromla; vi^hen the blast has
passed the heath laden v/ith the spirits of night.
Weep on the rocks of roaring winds, O maidof Inistore,§ bend
thy fair head over the waves, thou fairer than the spirit of the hills ;
when it moves in a sun-beam at noon over the silence of Morven.
He is fallen! thy youth is low; pale beneath the sword of Cuch-
ullin. No more shall valour raise the youth to match the blood
of kings. Trenar, lovely Trenar died, thou maid of Inistore. His
gray dogs are howling at home, and see his passing ghost. His
bow is in the hall unstrung. No sound is in the heath of his hinds.
As roll a thousand waves on a rock, so Swaran's host came on;
as meets a rock a thousand waves, so Innis-fail met Swaran.
Death raises all his voices around, and mixes with the sound of
their shields. Each hero is a pillar of darkness, and the sm' ord a
beam of fire in his hand. The field echoes from wing to wing,
ns a hundred hammers that rise by turns on the red son of the furnace.
Who are these on Lena's heath that are so gloomy and dark ?
Wlio are these like tVvo clouds,* and their swords like lightning
?.bGve them? The little hills are troubled around, and the rocks
tremble with all their moss. Who is it but Ocean's son and the
car-borne chief of Erin ? Many are the anxious eyes of their friends,
as they see them dim on the heath. Now night conceals the chiefs
in her clouds, and ends the terrible fight.
It was on Cromla's shaggy side that Dorglas placed the deerjf
the early fortune of the chase, before the heroes left the hill. A
D hundred
} One of Cuchullin's horses. Dubhstron-gheal. || SIth-fadda, /. e. a long stride.
§ The maid of Inistore was the daughter of Gorlo king of Inistore or Orkney islands-
Trenar was brother to the king of Iniscon, supposed to be one of the islands of Shet-
land. The Orkneys and Shetland were at that time subjed: to the king of Lochlin.
We find that the dogs of Trenar are sensible at home of the death of their mbster,
the very instant he is killed. It was the opmion of the times, that the souls of heroes
went immediately after death to the hills of their country, and die scenes they fre-
quented the most happy time of their life. It ivas thought too tliat dogs and horses
saw the ghosts of the deceased.
* As when two black clouds
With heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on
. Over the Caspian. Milton.
f The ancient manner of preparing feasts after hunting, is handed down by tra-
dition. A pit lined v-'ith sWQOth stonss wa? made ; and neaj i? stood a heap of smooth