was not a lonely beam in danger; for your steps were always near. But never was I a dreadful form, in your prefence, darkned into wrath. My voice was no thunder to your ears: mine eyes fent forth no death. -When the haughty appeared, I beheld them not. They were forgot at my feafts: like mift they melted away. A young beam is before you: few are his paths to war. They are few, but he is valiant: defend my dark-haired fon. Bring him back with joy: Hereafter he may ftand alone. His form is like his fathers: his foul is a flame of their fire. Son of car-borne Morni, move behind the fon of Clatho: let thy voice reach his ear, from the skirts of war. Not unobferved rolls battle, before thee, breaker of the fhields. THE king ftrode, at once, away to Cormul's #lofty rock. As, flow, I lifted my fteps behind; came forward the ftrength of Gaul. His fhield hung loofe on its thong; he fpoke, in The rock of Cormul rofe on the hill of Mora, and commanded a profpect of the field of battle. The fpeech of Fingal, which immediately precedes this paffage, is worthy of being remarked, as the language, not only, of a warlike but a good king. The confidence which his people repofed in him, was as much the refult of his clemency and military merit, as the confequence of that affection which men, uncorrupted with the vices of advanced fociety, naturally have for the chief of their blood and hereditary prince. hafte, hafte, to Offian.-Bind *, fon of Fingal, this fhield, bind it high to the fide of Gaul. The foe may behold it, and think I left the fpear. If I fhall fall, let my tomb be hid in the field; for fall I must without my fame: mine arm cannot lift the fteel. Let not Evir-choma hear it, to blush between her locks. Fillan, the mighty behold us; let us not forget the ftrife. Why fhould they come, from their hills, to aid our flying field. HE frode onward, with the found of his shield,, My voice purfued him, as he went. Can the fon of Morni fall without his fame in Erin?. But the deeds of the mighty forfake their fouls of fire. They rufh carclefs over the fields of renown: their words are never heard.—I rejoiced over the fteps of the chief: I ftrode to the rock of the king, where he fat in his wandering locks, amidst the mountain-wind. In two dark ridges bend the hofts, towards each other, at Lubar. Here Foldath rofe a pillar of darkness: there brightned the youth of Fillan. Each, with his fpear in the ftream, fent forth the voice of war.-Gaul ftruck the fhield of Morven at once they plunge in battle. * It is neceffary to remember, that Gaul was wound-' ed; which occafions his requiring here the affiftance of Offian to bind his fhield on his fide. Steel ན Steel poured its gleam on fteel: like the fall of ftreams fhone the field, when they mix their foam together, from two dark-browed rocks. Behold he comes the fon of fame: he lays the people low! Deaths fit on blafts around him!Warriors ftrew thy paths, O Fillan! * ROTHMAR, the fhield of warriors, ftood between two chinky rocks. Two oaks, which winds had bent from high, spread their branches on either fide. He rolls his darkening eyes on Fillan, and filent, fhades his friends. Fingal. faw the approaching fight; and all his foul arose., -But as the ftone of Loda falls, fhook, at * Roth-mar, the found of the fea before a form. Drumanard, high ridge. Culmin, foft-haired. Cull-allin, beautiful locks. Strutha, freamy river. + By the stone of Loda, as I have remarked in my notes on fome other poems of Offian, is meant a place of worship among the Scandinavians. Offian, in his many expeditions to Orkney and Scandinavia, became acquainted with fome of the rites of the religion which prevailed in thofe countries, and frequently alludes to them in his poems. There are fome ruins, and circular pales of ftone, remaining ftill in Orkney, and the islands of Shetland, which retain, to this day, the name of Loda or Loden. They seem to have differed materially, in their conftruction, from thofe Druidical monuments which remain in Britain, and the western ifles. The places of worship among the Scandinavians were originally rude and unadorned. In after ages, when they opened a communication with other nations, I 2 at once, from rocking Druman-ard, when fpirits heave the earth in their wrath; fo fell blue-fhielded Rothmar. NEAR are the fteps of came, bursting into tears. Culmin; the youth. Wrathful he cut the. wind, ere yet he mixed his ftrokes with Fillan. He had firft bent the bow with Rothmar, at the rock of his own blue ftreams. There they had marked the place of the roe, as the fun-beam flew over the fern.-Why, fon of Cul-allin, doft thou rush on that beam of light? it is a fire that confumes.-Youth of Strutha retire. Your fathers were not equal, in the glittering ftrife of the field. THE mother of Culmin remains in the hall; fhe looks forth on blue-rolling Strutha. A nations, they adopted their manners, and built temples. That at Upfal, in Sweden, was amazingly rich and magnificent. Haquin, of Norway, built one, near Drontheim, little inferior to the former; and it went always under the name of Loden. Mallet, introduction a l'hiftoire de Dannemarc. *The poet, metaphorically, calls Fillan a beam of light. Culmin, mentioned here, was the fon of Clonmar, chief of Strutha, by the beautiful Cul-allin. She was fo remarkable for the beauty of her perfon, that he is introduced, frequently, in the fimilies and allufions of antient poetry. Mar Chul-aluin Strutha nan fian; is a line of Offian in another poem; i. e. Lovely as Gul-allin of Strutha of the forms, whirlwind whirlwind rifes, on the ftream, dark-eddying round the ghoft of her fon. His dogs are howling in their place: his thield is bloody in the hall." Art thou fallen, my fair-haired son, in Erin's difmal war?" Still As a roe, pierced in fecret, lies panting, by her wonted streams, the hunter looks over her feet of wind, and remembers her stately bounding before: fo lay the fon of Cul-allin, beneath the eye of Fillan. His hair is rolled in a little ftream: his blood wandered on his fhield. his hand held the fword, that failed him in the day of his danger." Thou art fallen, faid Fillan, ere yet thy fame was heard.-Thy father fent thee to war: and he expects to hear thy deeds. He is grey, perhaps, at his ftreams, *Dogs were thought to be fenfible of the death of their mafter, let it happen at ever fo great a diftance. It was alfo the opinion of the times, that the arms which warriors left at home became bloody, when they themselves fell in battle. It was from thofe figns that Cul-allin is fupposed to understand that her fon is killed; in which she is confirmed by the appearence of his ghoft.-Her fudden and short exclamation, on the occafion, is more affecting than if she had extended her complaints to a greater length. The attitude of the fallen youth, and Fillan's reflexions over him, are natural and judicious, and come forcibly back on the mind, when we confider, that the fuppofed fituation of the father of Culmin, was fo fimilar to that of Fingal, after the death of Fillan himself. |