Page images
PDF
EPUB

-His eyes hang forward from his face, his lips are trembling, pale.

Do the chiefs of Erin ftand, he faid, filent as the grove of evening? Stand they, like a filent wood, and Fingal on the coaft? Fingal, the terrible in battle, the king of ftreamy Morven.-Haft thou seen the warrior? faid Cairbar with a figh. Are his heroes many on the coaft? Lifts he the fpear of battle? Or comes the king in peace?

:

In peace he comes not, Cairbar. I have feen his forward fpear (1). It is a meteor of death the blood of thousands is on its fteel. He came firft to the shore, ftrong in the grey hair of age. Full rofe his finewy limbs, as he ftrode in his might. That fword is by his fide, which gives no fecond (2)

(1) Mor-annal here alludes to the particular appearance of Fingal's fpear. If a man, upon his firft landing in a ftrange country kept the point of his fpear forward, it denoted in those. days that he came in a hoftile manner, and accordingly he was treated as an enemy; if he kept the point behind him, it was a token of friendship, and he was immediately invited to the feaft, according to the hofpitality of the times.

(2) This was the famous fword of Fingal, made by Luno, a fmith of Lochlin, and after him poetically called the son of Luno: it is faid of this fword, that it killed a man at every ftroke; and that Fingal never used it but in times of the greatest danger.

wound. His shield is terrible, like the bloody moon afcending thro' a ftorm.-Then came Offian king of fongs; and Morni's fon, the first of men. Connal leaps forward on his fpear: Dermid fpreads his dark-brown locks.

a

Fillan bends his bow, the young hunter of ftreamy Moruth (1).-But who is that before them, like the dreadful courfe of ftream! It is the fon of Offian, bright between his locks. His long hair falls on his back.— His dark brows are half inclofed in fteel. His fword hangs loofe on his fide. His fpear glitters as he moves. I fled from his terrible eyes, king of high Temora!

Then fly, thou feeble man, faid Foldath in gloomy wrath: fly to the grey ftreams of thy land, fon of the little foul! Have not I feen that Ofcar? I beheld the chief in war. He is of the mighty in danger: but there are others who lift the fpear.-Erin has many fons as brave, king of Temora of Groves! Let Foldath meet him in the ftrength of his courfe, and ftop this mighty ftream.-My fpear is covered with the blood of the valiant;

my

shield is like the wall of Tura.

(1) In fome traditions Fergus the son of Fingal, and Ufnoth chief of Etha immediately follow Fillan in the lift of the chiefs of Morven; but as they are not afterwards mentioned at all in the poem, I look upon the whole fentence to be an interpolation, and have therefore rejected it.

Shall Foldath (1) alone meet the foe? replied the dark-browed Malthos. Are they not numerous on our coaft, like the waters · of many ftreams? Are not these the chiefs who vanquished Swaran, when the fons of Erin fled? And shall Foldath meet their braveft heroes? Foldath of the heart of pride! take the ftrength of the people; and let Malthos come. My fword is red with flaughter, but who has heard my words (2)?

Sons of green Erin, faid Hidalla (3), let not Fingal hear your words. The foe might rejoice, and his arm be ftrong in the land.-Ye are brave, O warriors, and like the storms of the defart; they meet the rocks without fear, and overturn the woods.-But let us move in our ftrength, flow as a gathered

(1) The oppofite characters of Foldath and Malthos are ftrongly marked in fubfequent parts of the poem. They appear always in oppofition. The feuds between their families, which were the fource of their hatred to one another are mentioned in other poems.

[ocr errors]

(2) That is, who has heard my vaunting? He intended the expreffion as a rebuke to the felfpraife of Foldath.

(3) Hidalla was the chief of Clonra, a small diftri&t on the banks of the lake of Lego. The beauty of his perfon, his eloquence and genius for poetry are afterwards mentioned.

cloud. Then shall the mighty tremble; the fpear shall fall from the hand of the valiant.We fee the cloud of death, they will fay, while shadows fly over their face. Fingal will mourn in his age, and fee his flying fame.The fteps of his chiefs will ceafe in Morven : the mofs of years shall grow in Selma.

Cairbar heard their words, in filence, like the cloud of a shower it ftands dark on Cromla, till the lightning burfts its fides: the valley gleams with red light; the fpirits of the ftorm rejoice.-So ftood the filent king of Temora; at length his words are heard.

:

Spread the feaft on Moi-lena let my hundred bards attend. Thou, red-hair'd Olla, take the harp of the king. Go to Ofcar chief of fwords, and bid him to our feast. To-day we feaft and hear the fong; to-morrow break the fpears. Tell him that I have raised the tomb of Cathol (1); that bards have fung

(1) Cathol the fon of Maronnan, or Moran, was murdered by Cairbar, for his attachment to the family of Cormac. He had attended Ofcar to the war of Inis-thona where they contracted a great friendship for one another. Ofcar immediately after the death of Cathol had fent a formal challenge to Cairbar, which he prudently declined, bur conceived a fecret hatred against Ofcar, and had beforehand contrived to kill him at the feast, to which he here invites him.

: to his ghoft.-Tell him that Cairbar has heard his fame at the ftream of refounding Carun (1). Cathmor (2) is not here, Borbar-duthul's generous race. He is not here with his thousands, and our arms are weak. Cathmor is a foe to ftrife at the feaft: his foul is bright as that fun. But Cairbar shall fight with Ofcar, chiefs of the woody Temora! His words for Cathol were many; the wrath of Cairbar burns. He shall fall on Moi-lena: my fame shall rife in blood. ·

(1) He alludes to the battle of Ofcar against Caros, king of ships; who is fuppofed to be the fame with Caraufius the ufurper.

(2) Cathmor, great in battle, the fon of Borbarduthul, and brother of Cairbar king of Ireland, had, before the infurrection of the Firbolg, paffed over into Inis-huna fuppofed to be a part of South-Britain, to affift Conmor king of that place, against his enemies. Cathmor was fuccefsful in the war, but, in the courfe of it, Conmor was either killed, or died a natural death. Cairbar, upon intelligence of the defigns of Fingal to dethrone him, had dispatched a meffenger for Cathmor, who returned into Ireland a few days before the opening of the poem.

Cairbar here takes advantage of his brother's abfence, to perpetrate his ungenerous defigns againft Ofcar; for the noble fpirit of Cathmor, had he been prefent, would not have permitted the laws of that hofpitality, for which he was fo renowned himself, to be violated. The brothers form a contraft: we do not deteft the mean foul of Cairbar more, than we admire the difinterested and generous mind of Cathmor.

« PreviousContinue »