Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

172 OSSIAN
was, at last, unwittingly killed by his father Clessammor,
in a single combat. This story is the foundation of the
present poem, which opens on the night preceding the
death of Carthon, so that what passed before is introduced
by way of episode. The poem is addressed to Malvina,
the daughter of Toscar.
TALE of the times of old ! The deeds of
days of other years !
The murmur of thy streams, O Loral*
brings back the -memory of the past. The
sound of thy woods, Garmallar, is lovely
in mine ear. Dost thou not behold, Malvina, a rock
vrith its head of heath? Three aged pines bend from
its face ; green is the narrow plain at its feet ; there the
flower of the mountain grows, and shakes its white
head in the breeze. The thistle is there alone, shedding
its aged beard. Two stones, half sunk in the ground,
shew their heads of moss. The deer of the mountain
avoids the place, for he beholds a dim ghost standing
there, t The mighty lie, O Malvina ! in the narrow plain
of the rock.
A tale of the times of old ! the deeds of days of
other years !
Who comes from the land of strangers, with his
thousands around him? The sun-beam pours its bright
stream before him ; his hair meets the wind of his hills.
His face is settled from war. He is calm as the evening
beam that looks, from the cloud of the west, on Cona's
silent vale. Who is it but Comhal's son,t the king of
* There is a mountain in the north of Ireland near the seat
of Lady Antrim — now called Don-Lora — t.e. Hill of Lora. C.
t It was the opinion of the times that deer saw the ghosts of
the dead. To this day, when beasts suddenly start without any
apparent cause, the vulgar think that they see the spirits of the
deceased.
X Fingal returns here from an expedition against the
Romans, which was celebrated by Ossian in a poem called
t/ie Strife of Ciona.