Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

BERRATHON
A Poem
ARGUMENT
Fingal in his voyage to Lochlin, whither he had been invited by
Starno the father of Agandecca, touched at Berrathon, an
island of Scandinavia, where he was kindly entertained by
Larthmor, the petty king of the place, who was a vassal of
the supreme kings of Lochlin. The hospitality of Larthmor
gained him Fingal's friendship, which that hero manifested,
after the imprisonment of Larthmor by his own son, by
sending Ossian and Toscar the father of Malvina, so often
mentioned, to rescue Larthmor, and to punish the unnatural
behaviour of Uthal. Uthal was handsome and, by the
ladies, much admired. Nina-thoma, the beautiful daughter
of Torthdma, a neighbouring prince, fell in love and fled
with him. He proved inconstant : for another lady, whose
name is not mentioned, gaining his affections, he confined
Nina-thoma to a desert island near the coast of Berrathon.
She was relieved by Ossian, who, in company with Toscar,
landing on Berrathon, defeated the forces of Uthal, and
killed him in a single combat. Nina-thoma, whose love
not all the bad behaviour of Uthal could erase, hearing
of his death, died of grief. In the meantime Larthmor
is restored, and Ossian and Toscar return in triumph to
Fingal.
The poem opens with an elegy on the death of Malvina
the daughter of Toscar, and closes with presages of Ossian's
death.
!END thy blue course, O stream! round the
narrow plain of Lutha.* Let the green
woods hang over it, from their hills : the
sun look on it at noon. The thistle is
there on its rock, and shakes its beard to
the wind. The flower hangs its heavy head, waving, at
* Lutha, swiji stream.
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