Ossian Collection > Fingal

( i87 )
C A R R I C-T H U R A : A POEM *.
HAST t thou left thy blue courfe in heaven,
golden-haired Ton of the fts.y ! The weft has
opened its gates; the bed of thy repofe is there.
The waves come to behold thy beauty : they lift
their trembling heads: they fee thee lovely in thy
lleep ; but they fhrink away with fear. Reft, in
in thy fhadowy cave, O fun ! and let thy return be
* FIngal, returning from an expedition which he had
made into the Roman province, refolved to vifit Cathul-
la king of Inis-tore, and brother to Comala, whofe fto-
ry is related, at large, In the dramatic poem, publifhed
in this colleflion. Upon his coming in fight of Carric-
thura, the palace of Cathulla, he obferved a flame on
its top, which, in thofe days, was a fignal of diftrefs.
The wind drove him into a bay, at fome diftance from •
Carric-thura, and he v/as obliged to pafs the night on
the fhore. Next day he attacked the army of Frothai
king of Sora who had befieged Cathulla in his palace of
Carric-thura, and took Frothai himfelf prifoner, after
he had engaged him in a fingle combat. The delive-
rance of Carric-thura, is the fubject of the poem, but
feverai other epifodes are interwoven with it. It ap-
pears from tradition, that this poem was addreifed to a
Culdee, or one of the firfl: Chriftian millionaries, and
that the ftory of the Spin'i of Loda, fuppofed to be
the ancient Odin of Scandinavia, was introduced by
Ollian in oppofition to the Culdee's doftrine. Be this
as it will, it lets us into Oflian's notions of a fuperior
being ; and fhews that he was not addicted to the fuper-
llition which prevailed all the world over, before the
introdudlion of chriftianity. ,
t The fong of Ullin, with which the poem opens, is
In a lyric meallire. It was ufual with Fingal, when he
returned from his expeditions, to fend his bards finglng
before him. This fpecies of triumph is called by Ollian,
Kh-^fong sf ^ji^ory.