Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

298 OSSIAN
the wind. The grey skirts of mist are rolled around ;
thither strode the king in his wrath. Distant from the
host he always lay, when battle burnt within his soul.
On two spears hung his shield on high ; the gleaming
sign of death ; that shield, which he was wont to
strike, by night, before he rushed to war. It was then
his warriors knew, when the king was to lead in strife;
for never was this buckler heard, till the wrath of
Fingal arose. Unequal were his steps on high, as he
shone in the beam of the oak ; he was dreadful as
the form of the spirits of night, when he clothes,
on hills, his wild gestures with mist ; and, issuing forth,
on the troubled ocean, mounts the car of winds.
Nor settled, from the storm, is Erin's sea of war !
they glitter, beneath the moon, and, low-humming, still
roll on the field. Alone are the steps of Cathmor,
before them on the heath ; he hangs forward, with all
his arms, on Morven's flying host. Now had he come
to the mossy cave, where Fillan lay in night. One tree
was bent above the stream, which glittered over the
rock. There shone to the moon the broken shield of
Clatho's son ; and near it, on grass, lay hairy-footed
Bran.* He had missed the chief on Mora, and searched
son of Arcath who fought of old: thou didst first retire at
night: when the foe rolled before thee in echoing fields. Nor
bending in rest is the king : he gathers battles in his soul.
Fly, son of the stranger! with moi-n he shall rush abroad.
When, or by whom, this poem was written is uncertain. M. — I
am often led to suspect that the translator frequently confounds
and varies names. — Hence I am of opinion that Cronleach —
Cromla — Crommal zxia Corinul — are the same hill. C.
* I remember to have met with an old poem wherein a
story of this sort is very happily introduced. In one of the
invasions of the Danes, Ullin-clundu, a considerable chief
on the western coast of Scotland, was killed in a rencounter
with a flying party of the enemy, who had landed at no great
distance from the place of his residence. The few followers
who attended him were also slain. The young wife of Ullin-
clundu, who had not heard of his fall, fearing the worst on