Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

SUL-MALLA OF LUMON 381
rolling of strife. They fell like the thistle's head,
beneath autumnal winds.
"In armour came a stately form : I mixed my strokes
with the chief. By turns our shields are pierced: loud
rung our steely mails. His helmet fell to the ground.
In brightness shone the foe. His eyes, two pleasant
flames, rolled between his wandering locks. I knew
Cathmor of Atha, and threw my spear on earth. Dark,
we turned, and silent passed to mix with other foes.
"Not so passed the striving kings.* They mixed
in echoing fray, like the meeting of ghosts, in the dark
wing of winds. Through either breast rushed the
spears, nor yet lay the foes on earth ! A rock received
their fall ; half-reclined they lay in death. Each held
the lock of his foe ; each grimly seemed to roll his eyes.
The stream of the rock leaped on their shields, and
mixed below with blood.
"The battle ceased in I-thorno. The strangers met
in peace : Cathmor from Atha of streams, and Ossian,
king of harps. We placed the dead in earth. Our steps
were by Runar's bay. With the bounding boat, afar,
advanced a ridgy wave. Dark was the rider of
seas, but a beam of light was there, like the ray of the
sun, in Stromlo's rolling smoke. It was the daughter!
of Suran-dronlo, wild in brightened looks. Her eyes
* Culgorm and Suran-dronlo. The combat of the kings and
their attitude in death are highly picturesque, and expressive
of that ferocity of manners which distinguished the northern
nations.
t Tradition has handed down the name of this princess.
The bards call her Runo-forlo, which has no other sort of title
for being genuine but its not being of Gaelic origin, a distinc-
tion which the bards had not the art to preserve when they
feigned names for foreigners. The Highland senachies, who
very often endeavoured to supply the deficiency they thought
they found in the tales of Ossian, have given us the continuation
of the story of the daughter of Suran-dronlo. The catastrophe
is so unnatural, and the circumstances of it so ridiculously