CATH-LODA: A POEM. РО DUAN*) FIRST. A tale of the times of old! Why, thou wanderer unfeen, that bendeft the thiftle of Lora, why, thou breeze of the valley, haft thou left mine ear? I hear no di *) The bards diftinguished those compofitions, in ftant roar of Arcams, no found of the harp, from the rocks! Come, thou huntress of Lutha, fend back his foul to the bard. I look be improper, to give here the traditional preface, which is generally prefixed to it. Two years af ter he took to wife Ros-crana, the daughter of Cormac, king of Ireland, Fingal undertook an expedition into Orkney, to visit his friend Cathulla, king of Inistore. After staying a few days at Carric-thura, the refidence of Cathulla: the king fet fail, to return to Scotland; but a violent ftorm arifing, his fhips were driven into a bay of Scandinavia, near Gormal, the feat of Starno, king of Lochlin, his avowed enemy. Starno, upon the appearance of ftrangers on his coaft, fummoned together the neighbouring tribes, and advanced, in a hoftile manner, towards the bay In it of U-thórna, where Fingal had taken shelter. Upon discovering who the ftrangers were, and an fearing the valour of Fingal, which he had, more than once, experienced before, he refolved to accomplish by treachery, what he was afraid he fhould fail in by open force. He invited, therefore, Fingal to a feaft, at which he intended to asfaffinate him. The king prudently declined to go, and Starno betook himself to arms. 511 The fequel of the ftory may be learned from the poem Itself, 1 I look forward to Lochlin of lakes, to the dark, ridgy bay of U-thórno, where Fingal defcended from ocean, from the roar of winds. Few are the heroes of Morven, in a land unknown! Starno fent a dweller of Loda, to bid Fingal to the feaft; but the king rememb red the past, and all his rage arose. Nor Gormal's moffy towers, nor Starno fhall Fingal behold. Deaths wander, like fhadows, over his fiery foul. Do I forget that beam of light, the white-handed daughter *) of kings? Go, fon of Loda; his words are but blafts to Fingal: blafts, that, to and fro, roll the thistle, in autumnal vales. Duth - maruno **), arm of death! Crommaglas, of iron fhields! Struthmor, dweller of $ batt *) Agandecca, the daughter of Starno, whom her father killed, on account of her discovering to Fingal, a plot laid against his life. Her ftory is related at large, in the third book of Fingal. **) Duth - maruno is a naine very famous in tradition. Many of his great actions are handed down; but the poems, which contained the detail of them, 1 battle's wing! Cormar, whofe fhips bound on feas, careless as the courfe of a meteor, on dark ftreaming clouds! Arife, around me, children of heroes, in a land unknown. Let each look on his fhield, like Trenmor, the ruler of battles. "Come down, faid the king, thou dweller between the harps. Thou fhalt roll this ftream away, or dwell with me in earth.” CV T Around him they rofe in wrath. Nò words came forth: they feized their spears. Each foul is rolled into itself. At length the them, are long fince loft. He lived, it is fuppofed, in that part of the north of Scotland, which is over against Orkney. Duth-maruno, Cromma-glas, Struthmor, and Cormar, are men tioned, as attending Comhal, in his last battle against the tribe of Morni, in a poem, which is ftill preserved. It is not the work of Offian; the phrafeology betrays it to be a modern compofition. It is something like those trivial compofitions, which the Irish bards forged, under the name of Offan, in the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries. Duth-maruno fignifies, black sand Steady; Cromma - glas, bending and swarthy; Struthmor, roaring fream; Cormar, expert at jea. fudden clang is waked, on all their ecchoing fhields. Each took his hill, by night; at intervals, they darkly ftood. Unequal bursts the hum of fongs, between the roaring wind. Broad over them rofe the moon. In his arms, came tall Duth-maruno; he from Cromacharn of rocks, ftern hunter of the boar. In his dark boat he rofe on waves, when Crumthormoth*) awaked its woods. In the chace he fhone, among his foes: No fear was thine, Duth-maruno. Son of Comhal, he faid, my steps fhall be forward thro' night. From this fhield I fhall view them, over their gleaming tribes. Starno, of lakes, is before me, and Swaran, the foe of strangers. Their words are not in vain, by Loda's ftone of power. If Duth-maruno ま returns not, his fpoufe is lonely, at home, where meet two roaring ftreams, on Crathmocraulo's plain. Around are hills, with their woods; the ocean is rolling near. My fon looks *) Crumthormoth, one of the Orkney or Shetland iflands. The name is not of Galic original. It was fubject to its own petty king, who is mentioned in one of Offian's poems. |