On his spear leans Fillan of Selma 3, in the wandering of his locks. Thrice he raised his eyes MORNI. Who awakes me, in the midst of my cloud, where my locks of mist spread on the winds? Mixed with the noise of streams, why rises the voice of Gaul? GAUL. My foes are around me, Morni: their dark ships descend from their waves. Give the sword of Strumon, that beam which thou hidest in thy night. MORNI. Take the sword of resounding Strumon; I look on thy war, my son; I look, a dim meteor, from my cloud: blue-shielded Gaul, destroy. MACPHERSON. The etymology is fictitious, as usual: There is no such Earse word as Strumon, a mere alteration of stream; and the sword of Strumon, left by Colgach, or Galgacus, as a relic to his posterity, had not occurred when Fingal was written. Five Pieces of Runic poetry, translated from the Icelandic language, were published in 1763, by Dr Percy the present Bishop of Dromore, in the interval between the first appearance of Fingal, and of the Temora, which was then in the press. The first of these Runic pieces is the Incantation of Hervor, who compels her father Angantyr, to deliver his sword from the tomb. The sword of Strumon, which Gaul invokes his father to deliver from the tomb, is a plain imitation of the sword of Angantyr, transferred from Runic to Celtic poetry, and appropriated, as usual, to the Highlands of Scotland. "As it came too late," I presume, "to the translator's hands," to be introduced into the text, it was inserted in a note, as the only part, now remaining, of a poem of Ossian, on the same subject with the sword of Angantyr. The sword which Angantyr hides in his tomb from his warlike daugh to Fingal: his voice thrice fails him as he speaks. My brother could not boast of battles: at once he strides away. Bent over a distant stream he stands: the tear hangs in his eye. He strikes, at times, the thistle's head, with his inverted spear Nor is he unseen of Fingal. Sidelong he beholds ter, was made by the dwarfs; its edges were poisoned, and no mail or shield could resist its temper. But the translator forgot, that the sword preserved in the family as a relic, from the days of Colgach, possessed no magical property whatsoever, to induce Morni to hide it in his mist, or Gaul to apply for it in his last extremity. 3 Clatho was the daughter of Cathulla, king of Inistore. Fingal, in one of his expeditions to that island, fell in love with Clatho, and took her to wife, after the death of Ros-crána, the daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland. Clatho was the mother of Ryno, Fillan, and Bosmina, mentioned in the Battle of Lora. Fillan is often called the son of Clatho, to distinguish him from those sons which Fingal had by Ros-crána. MACPHERSON. "On his spear stood the son of Clatho," in the first editions: But the note remained, while the text was altered. 4 He strikes, at times, the thistle's head with his inverted spear.] A strange imitation of as strange bombast. Night Thoughts, Night iv. He writes My name in heaven with that inverted spear, YOUNG'S (A spear deep-dipt in blood) which pierced his side, In Carthon, "He saw the foe's uncovered side, and opened there a wound." Vol. i. p. 337. See Temora, viii. 4. Cathlin of Clutha, 7. his son. He beholds him with bursting joy; and turns, amid his crowded soul. In silence turns the king towards Mora of woods. He hides the big tear with his locks. At length his voice is heard. "First of the sons of Morni! Thou rock that defiest the storm! lead thou my battle, for the race of low-laid Cormac. No boy's staff is thy spear no harmless beam of light thy sword 5. Son of Morni of steeds, behold the foe! Destroy! Fillan, observe the chief! He is not calm in strife; nor burns he, heedless, in battle. My son, observe the chief! He is strong as Lubar's streams; but never foams and roars. High on cloudy Mora, Fingal shall behold the war. Stand, Ossian, near thy father, by the falling stream. Raise the voice, O bards! Selma, move beneath the sound. It is my latter field. Clothe it over with light." As the sudden rising of winds, or distant rolling of troubled seas, when some dark ghost, in wrath, heaves the billows over an isle: an isle, 5 No boy's staff is thy spear; no harmless beam of light thy sword.] The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam. 1 Sam. xvii. 7. the seat of mist, on the deep, for brown years! So terrible is the host, wide-moving over the field. many dark sound of the Gaul is tall before them. The streams glitter within his strides. The bards raise the song by his side. He strikes his shield between. On the skirts of the blast, the tuneful voices rise. "On Crona," said the bards, "there bursts a stream by night. It swells in its own dark course, till morning's early beam. Then comes it white from the hill, with the rocks and their hundred groves. Far be my steps from Crona. Death is tumbling there 7. Be ye a stream from Mora, sons of cloudy Morven !" As the sudden rising of winds; or distant rolling of troubled seas, when some dark ghost, in wrath, heaves the billows over an isle, the seat of mist, on the deep.] POPE'S Iliad, iv. 478. so frequently imitated. As when the winds, ascending by degrees, First move the whitening surface of the seas; So to the fight the fierce battalions throng; Shields urg'd on shields, and men drove men along. Sedate and silent move the numerous bands. "So terrible is the sound of the host, wide-moving over the field." 7 On Crona---there burst a stream by night. It swells in its 8 The "Who rises, from his car, on Clutha? hills are troubled before the king! The dark woods echo round, and lighten at his steel. See him, amidst the foe, like Colgach's sportful ghost; when he scatters the clouds, and rides the eddying winds! It is Morni of bounding steeds! Be like thy father, O Gaul!" own dark course.---Far be my steps from Crona. Death is tumbling there.] The former simile from THOMSON's Winter repeated. Wide o'er the brim, with many a torrent swelled, At last the roused up river pours along ; Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream. “Then comes it white from the hill, with the rocks and their hundred groves." 8 There are some traditions, but, I believe, of late invention, that this Colgach was the same with the Galgacus of Tacitus. Colgach signifies fiercely looking; which is a very proper name for a warrior, and is probably the origin of Galgacus; though I believe it a matter of mere conjecture, that the Colgach here mentioned was the same with that hero. MACPHERSON. 9 When he scatters the clouds, and rides the eddying winds.] Colgach's sportful ghost; the Angel in ADDISON's Campaign. |