Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

sooK iiL T E M R A. 235
Nor is he unseen of Fingal. Sidelong he beheld his son. He
beheld him, with bursting joy; and turned, amidst his crowded,
soul. In silence turned the king towards INIora of woods, He
hid the big tear with his locks. At length his voice is heard.
" First of the sons of Morni ; thou rock that deftest the storm !
Lead thou my battle, for the race of low-laid Cormac. No boy's
staff is diy spear : no harmless beam of light thy sword. Son of
Morni of steeds, behold the foe ; destroy. Fillan, obsei-ve the
chief: he is not calm in strife : nor burns he, heedless, in battle;
my son, observe the king. He is strong as Lubar's stream, "but
never foams and roars. High on cloudy Mora, Fingal shall be-
liold tlie war. Stand, Ossian,*' near thy father, by the falling
stream. Raise the voice, O bards ; Mor^'en, move beneath die
sound. . It is my latter field ; clothe it over with light."
As the sudden rising of winds ; or distant rolling of troubled
seas, when some dark ghost. In wrath, heaves the billows over
an isle, the seat of mist, on the deep, for many dark-brown years :
so terrible Is the sound of the host, wide-moving over the field.
Gaul is tall before them : the streams glitter within his strides.
The bards raised the song by his side ; he struck his shield between.
On the skirts of the blast, the tuneful voices rose.
On Crona, said the bards, there bursts a stream by night. It
swells, in its own dark course, till morning's early beam. Then
comes it white from the hill, with the rocks and their hundred
groves. Far be my steps from Crona : Death is tumbling there.
Be ye a stream from Mora, sons of cloudy Morven.
" Who rises, from his car, on Clutha.'' the hills are troubled
before the king ! The dark woods echo round, and lighten at his
steel. See him, amidst the foe, like Colgach'sf sportful ghost ;
when
* Uilin being sent to Morven with t]ie body of Oscar, Ossian attends his father,
in qAwlity of chief bard.
f There are some traditions, but, I believe, of late invention, that this Colgach
was the same with the Galgacus of Tacitus. He was the ancestor of Gaul, the son
of Morni, and appears, from some, really ancient, traditions, to have been king,
or Vergobret, of the Caledonians ; and hence proceeded the pretensions of the family
of Morni to the throne, which created a good deal of disturbance, both to Ccmhal
and his son Fingal. The first was killed in battle by that tribe ; and it was after
Fingal was grown up, that they were reduced to obedience. Colgach signifies _;ffr.-f-
' -'.ocdii^ ; which is a very proper name for a warrior, and is probably the origin