Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 41
first book of Temora. In one circumstance the bard
differs materially from Ossian. Oscar, after he was
mortally wounded by Cairbar, was carried by his
people to a neighbouring hill which commanded a
prospect of the sea. A fleet appeared at a distance,
and the hero exclaims with joy,
Loingeas mo shean-athair at' an
'S iad a tiachd le cabhair chugain,
O Albin na n' ioma stuagh.
" It is the fleet of my grandfather, comiilg with aid
to our field, from Albion of many waves !" The tes-
timony of this bard is sufficient to confute the idle
fictions of Keating and O'Flaherty ; for, though he
is far from being ancient, it is probable, he flourished
a full century before these historians. He appears,
however, to have been a much better Christian than
chronologer ; for Fion, though he is placed two
centuries before St. Patrick, very devoutly recom-
mends the soul of his grandson to his Redeemer.
' DuanaGharibhMac-Starn' is another Irish poem
in high repute. The grandeur of its images, and its
propriety of sentiment, might have induced me to
give a translation of it, had not I some expectations,
which are now over, of seeing it in the collection of
the Irish Ossian's Poems, promised twelve years
since to the public. The author descends some-
times from tlie region of the sublime to low and
indecent description; the last of which, the Irish
translator, no doubt, will choose to leave in the
obscurity of the original. In this piece Cuthul-
lin is used with very little ceremony, for he is
oft called the ' dog of Tara,' in the county of Meath.
This severe title of the redoubtable Cuthullin, the
most renowned of Irish champions, proceeded from
the poet's ignorance of etymology. Vu, ' voice,' or
commander, signifies also a dog. The poet chose
the last, as tlie most noble appellation for his hero.
Tlie subject of the poem is the same with that of the
epic poem of Fingal. Caribh Mac-Starn is the same
with Ossian's Swaran, the son of Starno. His single
combat's with, and his victory over, all the heroes of