Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

CATH-LODA 5
arm of death ! Cromma-glas of iron shields ! Struthmor,
dweller of battle's wing ! Cormar, whose ships bound on
seas, careless as the course of a meteor, on dark rolling
clouds ! Arise round me children of heroes, in a land
unknown 1 Let each look on his shield, like Trenmor
the ruler of wars." "Come down," thus Trenmor said,
"thou dweller between the harps! Thou shalt roll this
stream away, or waste with me in earth."*
Around the king they rise in wrath. No words come
forth : they seize their spears. Each soul is rolled into
itself. At length the sudden clang is waked, on all their
echoing shields. Each takes his hill, by night ; at in-
tervals, they darkly stand. Unequal bursts the hum of
songs, between the roaring wind.
Broad over them rose the moon I
In his arms, came tall Duth-maruno ; he from Croma
of rocks, stern hunter of the boar. In his dark boat he
rose on waves, when Crumthormo* awaked its woods.
In the chase he shone, among foes : No fear was thine,
Duth-maruno !
"Son of daring Comhal, shall my steps be forward
through night? From this shield shall I view them over
their gleaming tribes? Starno, king of lakes, is before
me, and Swaran, the foe of strangers. Their words are
not in vain, by Loda's stone of power.— Should Duth-
maruno not return, his spouse is lonely at home, where
meet two roaring streams, on Crathmo-craulo's plain.
Around are hills, VTÌth echoing woods, the ocean is
Cormar, are mentioned, as attending Comhal in his last battle
against the tribe of Morni, in a poem, which is still preserved.
It is not the work of Ossian ; the phraseology betrays it to be a
modern composition. It is something like those trivial com-
positions which the Irish bards forged, under the name of
Ossian, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Duth-maruno
signifies, black and steady ; Cromma-glas, bending and swarthy ;
Struthmor, roaring stream ; Cormar, expert at sea.
* Crumthormo, one of the Orkney or Shetland Islands.