Ossian Collection > Works of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volumes 3 and 4

A P O E M. 14 1
/Tiielded Trenmor is ll:ill feen , amidft his own
dim years. Nor feeble was the foul of the
king. There , no dark deed wandered in fe-
cret. From their^ hundred ifreams came
the tribes , to grafly Colo;lan - croria. Their*
chiefs were before them. Each llrove to lead
the war. Their fwords were often half^un-
Iheated. Red roiled their eyes of rage. Sepa^*
rate they llood , and hummed their furly fbngs.^
■ "Why ihould they yield to each other':?
their fathers were equal in war. ''
Trennior
tlid fo, but they were uiirucccrsFuI. When it c;i-
nie to Trenmor'ji tuia, he totally defeated the
enemy, by his fuperior valour audconduft; which
gained him fuch an intereft among the tribes ,
that he, and his family after him, were regard-
ed as kings ; or , to nfe the poet's exprellion ,
the words of power ruf bed forth from Selm'it of
kings. The regal authority , however , ex-
cept in time of war , was but inconfiderable ;
for every chief, within his own diilriifl:, was ab-
folute and independent. From the icene of
the battle hi this epifode (which was in the val-
ley of Crona , a little to thenorth of Agricola's
wall ) I fhould fuppofe , thrtt the enemies of the
Caledonians were the Romans , or provincial
Britons.