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ANCIEJlfT 
 
 IRISH MINSTRELSY 
 
 WILLIAM HAMILTON DRUMMOND, D.D., M.R.LA. 
 
 ■ Sweet Ossian ! who with thee can \-ie, 
 In all the arts of minstrelsy ? 
 What hand like thine such music bring, 
 To charm the ear, from sounding string r 
 Or with such magic power control * 
 Each thought and movement of the soul ? " 
 
 page 190. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 HODGES AND SMITH, GRAFTON-STREET, 
 
 BOOKSELLERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. ♦ 
 
 MDCCCLII. 
 

TO 
 
 THE REY. RICHARD MacDONNELL, D.D, 
 
 PROYOST OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, AND M.R.I.A. 
 
 Rev. Sir, 
 
 To jou this small volume is 
 inscribed by the Author, to testify the high 
 estimation in which he holds your character, 
 not merely as occupying the highly honourable 
 and well-merited station of Provost of the 
 University of Dublin, of which it can be no 
 flattery to say that you are its decus et 
 tutamen, but as a friend and encourager 
 of the general literature of your country. 
 When you sat in the Council of the Royal 
 Irish Academy as one of their officers, you 
 evinced a genuine patriotic desire to promote 
 the cultivation of letters in Ireland, not only 
 by the general interest you took in the literary, 
 as well as in the scientific and antiquarian 
 researches of that learned society, but by 
 proposing as the subject of prize essays — 
 
 .QRAQftri 
 

 VI DEDICATION. 
 
 " To investigate the authenticity of the Poems 
 of OssiAN, both as given in Macphersons 
 Translation, and as published in Gaelic 
 (London, 1807) under the sanction of the 
 Highland Society'' That proposal, being 
 adopted and acted on by the Academy, was 
 assuredly the means of stimulating inquiry, 
 and of rescuing certain valuable ancient 
 manuscripts from oblivion or extinction, to 
 say nothing of many of the Lays in this 
 collection, which, for the first time, are now 
 presented to the reader in an English dress. 
 Since then, much has been done to bring to 
 light some of the oldest records of the country 
 that are yet extant ; and the friends of Irish 
 literature may indulge the hope that, under 
 your auspices, their favourite investigations 
 may be pursued with increasing ardour and 
 success. That you may live long in health 
 and happiness to promote them, in conjunction 
 with the still nobler objects of your rank and 
 position in society, is the sincere wish of 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Lay of Magnus the Great, ..... 1 
 
 Departure, Return, and Fall of Magnus, . . .14 
 
 Argean, son of Angart of the Ships, . . .19 
 
 Moira Borb, ....... 33 
 
 The Chase of Slieve Guillin, , . . . .46 
 
 The Chase of Glennasmol — Duan First, , . .61 
 
 The Chase of Glennasmol — Duan Second, . . .72 
 
 The Battle of Gavra— Duan First, . . . .85 
 
 The Battle of Gavra— Duan Second, . . .92 
 
 Fatal Results of the Battle of Gavra, . . 104 
 
 Death of Oscar, ...... 105 
 
 Ossian's Courtship of Evirallin, . . . .115 
 
 The Chase of Slieve-na-Man, . . . .121 
 
 Death of Carril, . . . . . .133 
 
 Combat of Fuath and Conan Maol, . . . .139 
 
 Conflict between Gaul Mac Morni and Lugaidh Laga, . 141 
 
 Beann Gulban, ...... 151 
 
 Cattle Prey of Tara— Duan First, . . . .163 
 
 Cattle Prey of Tara— Duan Second, . . .171 
 
 Talc Mac Trone— Duan First, . . . .183 
 
 Talc Mac Trone— Duan Second, . , . .190 
 
TUl , CONTENTS. 
 
 PA6B 
 
 Lamentation of Aile, ..... 204 
 
 Dearg Mac Dreitheal, . . . . 208 
 
 Combat of Conn, son of Dargo, and Gaul, son of Momi, . 219 
 Conloch, son of Cuchullin, . . . . .229 
 
 Combat between Osgar and Illan, son of the King of Spain, 239 
 The Champion of Italy, . . . . .247 
 
 Defence of the Palace of Tara, .... 255 
 
 Patrick exhorting Ossian to attend to his Psalmody, . 263 
 
 March of the Bannered Host of Congal, . . . 266 
 
 CuchulUn's Chariot, . . . . .269 
 
 Bas Oism— Death Song of Ossian, .... 272 
 Additional Notes, . . . . . .275 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Of the Irish poems usually known by the name of 
 Ossianic or Fenian, there are still extant many of 
 great poetical beauty and interest, amply deserving 
 of being introduced, in an English dress, to the 
 general reader. 
 
 In Spenser's *' View of the State of Ireland," 
 Eudoxus inquires whether the Irish bards " have 
 any art in the composition of their songs, or bee 
 they any thing wittie or well savoured as poemes 
 should be?" Irenseus replies, '' Yea truely, I have 
 caused divers of them to be translated unto me, 
 that I might understand them, and surely they 
 savoured of sweet wit and good invention, but 
 skilled not of the goodly ornaments of poetry ; yet 
 were they sprinkled with some pretty flowres of 
 their naturall device, which gave good grace and 
 comelinesse unto them, which it is great pitty to 
 see abused, to the gracing of wickedness and vice, 
 which with good usage would serve to adorne and 
 beautifie vertue."* 
 
 It is pretty evident that Spenser is here speaking 
 
 * In this descriptioQ there seems to be some inconsistency. 
 If the poems savoured of "sweet wit and good invention," and 
 were sprinkled with some pretty flowres " which gave good grace 
 and comeliness unto them," what were the " goodly ornaments 
 of poetry," in which they betrayed a lack of skill I Warton, in 
 his " Observations on the Faii'y Q,ueen of Spenser," remarks, that 
 this illustrious poet's residence in Ireland .furnished him with the 
 name Uiia, or Oonah, the lady that accompanied the Red-crosse 
 Knight. It might be worthy of inquii'y, whether Spenser has 
 wreathed any of the " pretty flowres," of which he speaks, into 
 his own poetic garland. 
 
 A 2 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 of Bards who were his contemporaries, and who 
 " abused their gift and art of song to the gracing 
 of wickedness and vice ;" and not to the ancient 
 bards, or to those compositions which celebrated 
 the heroic achievements of Finn and his warriors, 
 and which were generally ascribed to Ossian. Had 
 he caused some of these to be translated to him, he 
 would probably have found in them some "goodly 
 ornaments of poetry," not surpassed in beauty and 
 grandeur by those of the classic pages of Greece 
 and Rome, though, as a whole, challenging no 
 comparison with the great works of the classic 
 Muse. Many of them belong rather to that species 
 of minor epic, the ballad poetry of England, which 
 records such facts as Chevy Chace and the Battle 
 of Otterburn, and containing passages which must 
 have moved the heart and sounded in the ears of 
 their auditors as " The Old Song of Piercie and 
 Douglas moved the heart and sounded like a 
 trumpet" in the ears of Sir Philip Sidney. 
 
 Notwithstanding the " savour of sweet wit and 
 good invention, and the sprinkling of pretty flowres," 
 which so admirable a judge as Spenser attributed 
 to the songs of the Irish bards, they lay long 
 neglected, and to English readers not known even 
 to exist. After the lapse of ages the fame of 
 Macpherson's Ossian excited the wonder of our 
 Irish bards and senachies. They heard with 
 astonishment indescribable, that their own long 
 well-known countryman. Fin Mac Cumhal, who 
 held his chief place of residence at Almhuin — the 
 Hill of Allen in Leinster — the general of tlie 
 Fenians — renowned for his martial achievements — 
 the glory of their green isle — was no longer theirs, 
 but discovered by the new revelations of a wonder- 
 working magician, to be no son of Erin, but a 
 
PREFACE. Xl 
 
 Caledonian king named Fingal — the king of woody 
 Morven — a kingdom of which they had never 
 before heard even the name. Strong feelings of 
 indignation succeeded the first emotions of surprise. 
 They claimed Finn and his son Ossian as their 
 own, and in no measured terms expressed their 
 resentment at the piratical attempt to rob them of 
 their martial and minstrel fame. Those who were 
 acquainted with Irish history, though but partially, 
 soon saw through the imposture. Various writers 
 exposed it ; and had the Royal Irish Academy, or 
 our Gaelic and Archaeological Societies then been 
 in existence, they would at once have extinguished 
 the pretensions of Macpherson, and demonstrated 
 the fallacy of Blair's criticisms, and the nothingness 
 of the most ingenious arguments that could be 
 advanced to raise and support an edifice which had 
 no solid foundation. 
 
 The confident style in which Macpherson 
 expressed himself on every subject connected with 
 his Ossian had the effect of mystifying and deceiving 
 the public. It would naturally be concluded that 
 one who had brought to light such literary treasures, 
 must have had a thorough knowledge of their true 
 history — that he must have known, at least, the 
 Gaelic language in the various stages of its purity 
 and corruption — that he was familiar with its 
 manuscript characters and abbreviations. Notwith- 
 standing we have the authority of a distinguished 
 librarian of the Bodleian library, as testified by Dr. 
 Charles O'Connor, for affirming, that when certain 
 ancient Irish manuscript verses were placed in Mac- 
 pherson's hand, with a request to read and interpret 
 them, he confessed that he could do neither.* 
 
 * " Extat idem Carmen in alio Codice Bodleiano Rawl. 487, fol., 
 &c., cujus se nee verbum quidem intellexisse imo nee iegere 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 Now it was surely incumbent on an author who 
 was obliged to make this confession, to speak with 
 modesty of himself and with caution of others. 
 But to enhance the value of his own fictions, he 
 deemed it necessary to depreciate the compositions 
 of Irish bards and historians. Ireland was to be 
 destroyed that his new creation of Morven might 
 continue in existence. In a note to " Temora,'' 
 he says, " The Irish compositions concerning 
 Fingal invariably speak of him as a giant," (vol. II. 
 p. 126). *' Of these Hibernian poems," he adds, 
 *^' there are now many in my hands," and after 
 giving " one instance of the extravagant fictions 
 of the Irish bards," he continues thus : — " puerile 
 and even despicable as these fictions are, yet 
 Keating and O' Flaherty have no better authority 
 than the poems which contain them, for all that 
 they write concerning Fian-Mac-Comnal and the 
 pretended militia of Ireland." Notwithstanding 
 these strong assertions, he says, " Fingal is cele- 
 brated by the Irish historians for his wisdom in 
 making laws, his poetical genius, and his foreknow- 
 ledge of events. O' Flaherty goes so far as to say 
 that Fingal's laws were extant in his own time." 
 (Note to Carthon, p. 64 ) 
 
 If Macpherson had read Keating, whom he treats 
 so unjustly, he would have found him positively 
 contradicting Hector Boetius for asserting in his 
 
 potuisse propter abbreviationes." — ^'^ Macphersonus, percontante 
 clarissimo Bibliothecario, confessus est, — se nee verbura quideni 
 Carminum istorum intellexisse." — Dr. O'Connor's Rer. Hib. 
 ScRiPTORES, vol. I., pp. cxxiii — ci. 
 
 Dr. Young says that Macpherson " once was of opinion that the 
 beauty of Erse writing consisted in its * not being bristled over 
 with unnecessary quiescent consonants, like the Irish.' But the 
 learned Colonel Vallancey, to whom the Celtic literature of this 
 country owes so much, showed him how thoroughly he was 
 mistaken in this matter." 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 History of Scotland, that Finn was of gigantic 
 size, fifteen cubits high, and that by the ancient 
 records of Ireland, whose authority he (Keating) 
 says, he holds sacred, Finn did not exceed the 
 common proportion of the men of his time, and 
 there were many soldiers in the militia of Ireland 
 that had a more robust constitution of body, and 
 were of a more extraordinary stature. * * 
 
 His uncommon stature, therefore, and gigantic 
 strength, are mere fictions designed to abuse the 
 world, and to destroy the credit of those historians 
 who treat upon the affairs of the old Irish govern, 
 ment."*— pp. 294, 295. 
 
 It is rather unjust to our Irish historians to 
 charge them with the very abuse which they take 
 so much pains to expose and condemn. As for the 
 bards, they are treated with equal discourtesy. 
 " I have rejected them all,*' says he, " in my 
 compositions," and then he boasts that he has in 
 his hands all that remain of the lays of the bards ;" 
 but that " unluckily for the antiquities of Ireland, 
 they appear to be the work of a very modern 
 period — they are entirely written in the romantic 
 taste which prevailed two ages ago. Giants, 
 enchanted castles, dwarfs, palfreys, witches, and 
 magicians, form the whole circle of the poet's 
 inventions. The celebrated Fion could scarcely' 
 move from one hillock to another without encoun- 
 tering a giant, or being entangled in the circles of 
 a magician. Witches on broomsticks were conti- 
 nually hovering round him, like crows ; and he had 
 freed enchanted virgins in every valley in Ireland." 
 (p. 203.) He says that Finn in those poems is 
 attacked by kings " as tall as the mainmast of a 
 
 * See Note, pp. 81—83. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 first-rate/' — that Finn is not inferior to them in 
 height, and that his heroes had this and other 
 extraordinary properties. " In weight also the sons 
 of strangers yielded to the celebrated Ton-iosal; 
 and for hardness of skull, and perhaps thickness 
 too, the valiant Oscar stood unrivalled and alone, 
 and the brave CuchuUin was of so diminutive a 
 size as to be taken for a child of two years of age, 
 by the gigantic Swaran." 
 
 That there are many extravagant and wildly 
 romantic tales among, or connected more or less 
 with, the early minstrel songs of Ireland, is not 
 questioned ; but an honest and candid writer, who 
 had no selfish motive to bias his judgment, would 
 have distinguished between the true and the 
 false — the historical record and the fabulous 
 invention. 
 
 Had Macpherson been just to his own fame, he 
 would have told honestly where, and when, and 
 how, he became possessed of the Gaelic compositions 
 from which he constructed his system, and not 
 rashly presumed on the ignorance of Irish writers, 
 or their inability to detect and expose his imposi- 
 tions. But so little solicitous was he to avoid 
 detection or inquiry, that he threw down the 
 gauntlet of defiance and challenged hostility. His 
 falsifications of Irish history, and his frequent 
 vilification of the songs of Irish bards, as a foil to 
 his Ossian, concocted as it was from the scattered 
 remains, the disjecta membra, of the very bards he 
 depreciated, were too much to be patiently endured, 
 and accordingly he was assailed not only by Irish 
 writers, jealous of the literary and poetic celebrity 
 of their country, but by such Scottish and English 
 historians and critics as Malcolm Lamg, and Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson, who saw through the imposition 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 at a glance, and refused to take assertion for proof, 
 and fabulous invention for genuine history. 
 
 That Macpherson was a man of genius and taste 
 is not doubted. He knew, and had a relish for, the 
 beautiful and sublime. He had an ear for euphonious 
 cadence, and could appreciate the beauty and power 
 of the picturesque language of Erin, as the names 
 of his heroes and heroines, and of the scenes of 
 their adventures, amply demonstrate. To the 
 felicitous use he made of these qualifications, may 
 be justly attributed no small share of the popularity 
 which his Ossian obtained on its first appearance. 
 To him we are, in some measure, indebted for 
 having, though undesignedly, drawn the attention 
 of scholars to our long neglected manuscripts, 
 concealed in the archives of private students, or 
 collected, as they are, in such encyclopaedical 
 volumes as the books of Lecan and Ballymote, 
 and the other various works of our annalists and 
 historians. The Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, 
 edited by Dr. Charles O'Connor, at the expense of 
 the Duke of Buckingham — the magnificent volumes 
 of the Four Masters^ translated by Dr. John 
 O'Donovan, and published with the original Irish" 
 — various learned and elaborate essays on Irish 
 literature and antiquities in the Transactions of the 
 Royal Irish Academy — the topographical historical, 
 and antiquarian investigations of the scientific men 
 employed in the " Ordnance Survey" of Ireland — 
 the establishment of professorships of Irish in the 
 Queen's Colleges — the learned labours of the Gaelic 
 and Archaeological Societies, and the translation of 
 the Brehon laws now in progress — all indicate that 
 there has been, and is, a growing desire to rescue 
 from oblivion the ancient literary remains and 
 historical records of Ireland. Every genuine patriot 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 must rejoice to promote, in whatever way he can, 
 the true glory and prosperity of his country — to 
 see her literary and scientific, as well as her 
 industrial resources, explored, and rendered ancillary 
 not only to the present enjoyment, but the future 
 fame of her poets, historians, legislators, and men 
 of science. 
 
 The characters in these poems are generally 
 marked with just discrimination, either by their 
 mental or personal qualities. Finn is the beau ideal 
 of an Irish hero and prince, unconquered in the 
 field, magnanimous, courteous, hospitable, ever 
 ready to espouse the cause of the weak, to avenge 
 and redress the wrongs of the injured, to reward 
 the songs of the bards. He is also gifted with a 
 knowledge of futurity, and is skilled in oneiromancy, 
 and in the virtues of medicine. He is gentle and 
 forbearing — to females, tender and polite — to his 
 relatives and friends, kind and affectionate. 
 
 Gaul, the son of Morni, is an intrepid and 
 successful warrior. It has been remarked that he 
 more resembles Ajax than any other of the Homeric 
 heroes. When the Fenians have suffered defeat 
 from the enemy, and are in danger of being totally 
 overcome, Gaul generally appears in the critical 
 emergency ; and, by his superior might and valour, 
 restores the battle and overcomes the foe. Of the 
 other heroes, one is distinguished by his speed, as 
 Caoilte; — one, as Fergus, by his eloquence and 
 address ; — another, as Dermuid, by his admiration 
 of the fair, and who, like th^ Trojan Paris, carried 
 away the wife of his general, and gave rise to many 
 traditions, still extant, of his adventures when he 
 absconded with his Helen. 
 
 There is one remarkable personage in these lays, 
 who has not received the attention which he merits 
 
PREFACE. XVIX 
 
 This is Conan Maol, or Conan the bald, as generally- 
 translated. He has been compared to the Thersites 
 of Homer, to whom, indeed, he bears some 
 resemblance, but he is much more versatile and 
 entertaining-, being a strange compound of absurdity, 
 cunning, buffoonery, cruelty, and cowardice, with 
 the occasional semblance of valour, boastful as 
 Falstaff, and sometimes, as he is described in Irish 
 prose romances, as fond of a banquet as was that 
 celebrated worthy of a cup of sack and sugar, and 
 showing, by his actions and sayings, some affinity 
 to the clown of pantomime, and of amphitheatrical 
 equestrian entertainments. He might claim kindred 
 with Sir Kay, " the most foul-mouthed of Arthur's 
 knights, whose tongue appears to have been 
 somewhat readier than his sword." Macpherson 
 introduces him in the sixth book of his Fingal, 
 demanding the arms of CuchuUin. He names him 
 as one " of small renown ;" and subjoins in a note, 
 " He is mentioned in several other poems, and always 
 appears with the same character. The poet passes 
 him over in silence till now, and his behaviour here 
 deserves no better usage." The ancient bards seem 
 to have thought differently. Such a character was 
 in high estimation among them, not as a hero, but, 
 to them, as one of the dramatis personce to the 
 author of a farce or comedy. He afforded them 
 an eligible opportunity of introducing some witty, 
 farcical or satirical speeches and actions, to break 
 the monotony of their songs and recitations, to 
 relieve the attention, and give entertainment to 
 their auditors. Their little interludes, of which 
 Conan is the principal actor, with the succession 
 of smiles to tears — of the pathetic and sublime to 
 the risible and ludicrous, are essentially Irish. But 
 Macpherson never ventures to smile. He never 
 
XVm PREFACE. 
 
 lays aside the buskin for the sock — nor can he for 
 a moment come down from his epic stilts. 
 
 Many of the Fenian poems commence with a 
 dialogue between Ossian and St. Patrick, a name 
 studiously suppressed by Macpherson, in which 
 the old warrior-bard treats the psalm-singing saint 
 not only with no courtesy, but with insolence and 
 threats. He highly extols the Fenian heroes, and 
 the poems which celebrate their praises, as infinitely 
 preferable to the melancholy chants to which he is 
 sometimes doomed to listen. The saint, as becomes 
 him, responds with meekness, and compliments the 
 bard by requesting him to repeat a tale of the times 
 of old, with which request the bard readily complies. 
 
 These poems, like some of our ancient English 
 ballads, often assume a dramatic character, without 
 the formal announcement of the speaker's name. 
 The transitions are abrupt, the descriptions brief 
 and suggestive. Walker remarks that "it is probable 
 they were recited at the convivial feasts of the 
 chiefs, and in the public conventions, by several 
 bards, each bard assuming and supporting a character 
 in the piece." In the Report of the Highland 
 Society, a letter from the Rev. Donald Macleod 
 states that " the Highlanders, at their festivals, 
 and other public meetings, acted the poems of 
 Ossian. Rude and simple as their manner of acting 
 was, yet any brave or generous action, any injury 
 or distress, exhibited in the representation, had a 
 surprising effect towards raising in them corres- 
 ponding passions and sentiments." 
 
 In some parts of Ireland where Irish is still 
 spoken, the custom of singing and reciting old lays 
 is not yet altogether obsolete. A learned Irish 
 scholar, who has often been present at convivial 
 meetings, where music formed part of the enter- 
 
 ^ 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 tainment, has informed the author, that the effect 
 produced by it on the auditors is beyond expression 
 animated. Inspired by " thoughts that breathe 
 and words that burn," and by sounds as stirring as 
 those of old Timotheus, whose 
 
 " breathing flute 
 And sounding lyre, 
 Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire," 
 
 their hearts beat in concord to the varying strain ; 
 they are melted to pity or fired to heroic ardour. 
 They " applaud with a furious joy," and seem ready 
 to take the field and " fight their battles o'er again." 
 The first collection of poems translated from the 
 Irish, which has fallen under the author's observa- 
 tion, is that of Miss Brooke, entitled " Reliques 
 of Irish Poetry," and published in 1788.* Prior 
 to this, indeed, in the summer of 1784, Dr. Young, 
 fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, in an excursion 
 to Scotland, took particular pains to discover what 
 poems, supposed to be Ossian's, were to be found 
 in the Highlands. Of these he made a small 
 collection, and published them with a few explana- 
 tory notes, and a translation into English, in the 
 first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish 
 Academy. He also obtained some fragments of 
 poems, but in Erse so corrupted as almost to defy 
 interpretation. In his paper on the subject he 
 
 * " The earliest known translation of an Irish poem into 
 English verse, is Michael Kearney's version of John O'Dugan's 
 chronological poem on the kings of Eibhear, translated A.D. 1635, 
 ' to preserve that antient Rhyme from the overwhelmeing flouds 
 of oblivion which already devoured most part of National! 
 Memorayes.'"— 8vo, J. O'Daly, Dublin, 1847. 
 
 " About the same period as Miss Brooke's, an unfortunate 
 neglected genius named Wilson, edited a small 12mo volume of 
 Ossianic poems, with a few songs in the Irish language, but in 
 the Roman character, which is now very scai'ce." — ^Id. 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 informs us that Mr. Smith, who published a volume 
 of poems attributed to Ossian and other Highland 
 bards, confesses that Macpherson compiled his 
 publication from those parts of Highland songs 
 which he most approved, combining them into such 
 forms as, according to his ideas, were most excellent, 
 retaining the old names and leading events." To 
 this let it be added, that he did not confine himself 
 to the remainsof the Celtic bards, but borrowed freely 
 from the Hebrew Scriptures, and from Greek and 
 Roman poets, whatever he deemed most suitable to 
 his purpose. As for genuine Irish manuscripts, he 
 probably obtained all that were then to be found.* 
 In January, 1807, was held the first general 
 meeting of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, havin 
 for its objects to " promote the study of Iris 
 literature, and to publish every fragment existing 
 in the Gaelic language," — a truly noble and 
 patriotic design, which, " if pursued with spirit 
 and perseverance, will redound much to the honour 
 of Ireland." In furtherance of this design, the 
 first volume of the Transactions of the Society 
 appeared in 1808, containing "interesting obser- 
 vations on the Gaelic language, several tracts in 
 Irish, accompanied with translations into Latin 
 and English, and some considerations on the poems 
 ascribed to Ossian," 
 
 * Sir James Macdonald, of the Isle of Skye, in a letter to Dr. 
 Blair, says, " These islands never were possessed of any curious 
 manuscripts, as far as I can learn, except a few which Clani*anald 
 had, and which are all in Macpherson's possession. The few 
 bards that are left among us, repeat only detached pieces of these 
 poems." — Appendix to the Report of the Highland Society, p. 4.* 
 
 • Mr. Pope, minister of Rea, in Caithness, ascribes the loss of many of 
 Ossian's poems " partly to our clergy, who were declared enemies to these 
 poems ; so that the rising generation scarcely knew any thing material of 
 them." The same gentleman gives some curious instances of the gnat 
 corruption which the original language has sufl'ered iu the Uighlands. 
 
. PREFACE. XXi 
 
 Though the efforts of the Society were entitled 
 to liberal support, the encouragement received was 
 too languid to enable them to persevere, and it 
 gradually declined till it ceased to exist. Happily, 
 however, the Irish Archaeological Society was 
 founded in 1840, for " The Printing of the 
 Genealogical, Ecclesiastical, Bardic, Topographical, 
 and Historical Remains of Ireland." The Society 
 wisely availed themselves of the aid of the most 
 competent Irish scholars which Ireland can boast, 
 and nobly have they fulfilled the design of their 
 institution by publishing, in Irish and English, many 
 of the most ancient and interesting compositions 
 extant, on the several topics mentioned, illustrated 
 by numerous learned notes and comments. 
 
 Great is the honour due to the memory of the 
 Duke of Buckingham, under whose patronage and 
 at whose expense the four costly volumes of Rerum 
 Hibernicarum Scriptores^ edited by Dr. Charles 
 O'Connor, were presented to the world in the years 
 1814 — 1826. Well might the spirited example of 
 the Saxon noble have put to shame the coldness 
 and apathy of our Celtic nobility, who could see 
 the remains of the ancient histories and literature 
 of their country sinking into oblivion, without 
 stretching forth a hand or expressing a wish to 
 rescue them from the gulf. 
 
 The example, however, was not without due effect 
 — as has been strikingly testified by the publication 
 of the " Annals of the Four Masters," in five mag- 
 nificent quartos, translated by Dr. John O'Donovan, 
 and published by Hodges and Smith of Dublin in 
 1848 — 1851. The intrinsic excellence and costly 
 tyle of this publication may be regarded as forming 
 I new era in the history of Irish literature. 
 
 To this may be added O'Geraghty's edition of 
 
XXll PREFACE. 
 
 the same work, from the year 1 171, to its conclusion 
 in 1616, translated by Owen Connellan, Esq., 
 Professor of Irish in Queen's College, Cork ; and 
 published under the auspices of Sir William Betham 
 — that eminent antiquary ** to whom Irishmen are 
 so much indebted for his liberal and enlightened 
 encouragement and love of Irish literature." To 
 students of Irish history and antiquities this is 
 indeed a most valuable work, for, independent of 
 the Annals, the notes will be found to contain (as 
 expressed in the preface), " a great mass of 
 materials, and much interesting and important 
 information, not hitherto published, together with 
 collections from various sources, rare books and 
 manuscripts ; the whole forming a compendium of 
 Irish history, from the earliest ages to the English 
 Invasion, with continued illustrations to the end of 
 the annals in the 17th century." 
 
 Though Miss Brooke's volume of " Reliqucs" 
 was well received by the public, no similar collection 
 followed till 1831, when two handsome volumes 
 were published by James Hardiman, Esq. M.R.I. A., 
 entitled " Irish Minstrelsy, or Bardic Remains of 
 Ireland, in the original Irish, with Poetical Trans- 
 lations." Though it may be lamented that this 
 work does not comprehend the Ossianic minstrelsy, 
 it contains much that the friends of Irish literature 
 deem highly valuable, enriched as it is with the 
 poems of Carolan and " Jacobitic Relics," numerous 
 specimens of elegiac, bacchanalian, and amatory 
 songs ; and vindicating the exclusive right of Erin 
 to certain favourite musical airs, which she claims 
 as her own against all rival pretensions, though 
 some such have been advanced. 
 
 *« In 1843, Mr. John O'Daly, when living in 
 Kilkenny, published a collection of Irish Jacobite 
 
PREFACE. XXIU 
 
 songs, which he got metrically translated by the 
 late Edward Walsh, and which extended to 120 
 pages Svo. On his removal to Dublin in 1845, he 
 prepared a very useful little work entitled " Self- 
 instruction in Irish, which he published in 1846, 
 and of which a second edition appeared in 1848, 
 and is now exhausted." 
 
 " In 1849, he edited a collection of Irish songs 
 peculiar to Munster, which he got translated by 
 the ill-fated genius Clarence Mangan, in which he 
 gave the original airs. This edition sold off in 
 the short space of twelve months. A second and 
 enlarged edition appeared in 1850, which also is 
 nearly exhausted." To this may be added, by the 
 same spirited editor, " The Tribes of Ireland, a 
 Satire, by Aengus O'Daly, versified from the Irish 
 by James Clarence Mangan, and an Introduction 
 to the History of Satire in Ireland, by John 
 O'Donovan, LL.D. and M.R.I.A." 
 
 '' Conor Mac Sweeny published several numbers 
 of Irish songs without translations. Of these very 
 few came before the public, as the editor destroyed 
 the entire edition on account of a few errors which 
 occurred in the press." 
 
 In 1845 was published the fifth edition of " The 
 Ballad Poetry of Ireland," edited by Charles Gavan 
 Duffy, consisting, as expressed in the preface to the 
 volume, " neither of the old bardic songs of the 
 country, nor of the street ballads common in the 
 mouths of the people, but of another class chastened 
 and elevated by modern art, but equally indigenous 
 and equally marked with a distinct native character." 
 
 In 1846, Mr. Henry R. Montgomery, a native 
 of Belfast, published a small volume of " Specimens 
 of the Early Native Poetry of Ireland, in English 
 Metrical Translations," by various translators, and 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 accompanied with Historical and Biographical 
 notices. 
 
 Many pieces of ancient Irish minstrelsy have 
 appeared from time to time, in magazines and 
 various periodicals, in connection with romantic 
 tales, historical and antiquarian records, and espe- 
 cially in the various volumes of the Celtic and 
 Irish Archaeological Societies. 
 
 For the translations here presented to the reader, 
 the author bespeaks indulgence. Every written 
 language has peculiarities and beauties of its own, 
 which few or none to whom it is not vernacular, can 
 duly understand or appreciate. Some idioms cannot, 
 and others ought not to be, verbally translated. 
 When the author commenced the task of versifying 
 these lays, his intention was to be as literal as pos- 
 sible ; but though fully sensible of the importance of 
 fidelity to the sense of the original, and of guarding 
 against the danger of diluting it by amplification, or 
 rendering it dry by brevity, he soon found that by 
 rigid adherence to the very letter of the original, 
 the translation would seem bald and often obscure 
 and feeble. He then supposed that some occasional 
 indulgence might be granted to the translator of 
 these Lays, to amplify a thought or description. 
 If such indulgence be allowed to the translation of 
 works whose authorship has never been questioned, 
 it may well be extended to the translation of works 
 whose authors' names are lost in the stream of time, 
 and whose language has become so obsolete as to 
 require the aid of glossaries to be understood. 
 
 As to the varied style of versification into which 
 
 these lays are now translated, the author deems it 
 
 ;nore favourable to the spirit of the original, the 
 
 I'hief requisite of translation, than that of a con- 
 
 inuous sameness of stanza, like that adopted by 
 
PREFACE. XXV 
 
 Miss Brooke, and in which much of our Ena^lish 
 ballad poetry is composed. Lon^ poems in qua- 
 trains, consisting of alternate eight and six syllable 
 lines, are soon felt to be exceedingly monotonous ; 
 and they scarcely allow that force and variety of 
 expression which the varying topics of the subject 
 require. He has, therefore, preferred a more varied 
 style, and thrown most of the poems into sections 
 or paragraphs of different lengths. It would have 
 been an easy task to have clothed them in greater 
 
 Eomp of diction, and translated them into English 
 eroics, rather than into lyric verse. But the 
 reader will be pleased to remember, that the 
 originals were composed to be sung to the music 
 of the harp, the tones of which the skilful harper 
 would vary according to the nature of the subject, 
 " from grave to gay, from lively to severe." 
 
 When Sir Philip Sydney tells us how he was 
 moved by the old song of Percy and Douglas, 
 though "sung by some blind crowder — and ap- 
 parelled in the dust and cobweb {the old rude 
 simple style) of that uncivil age," he asks, " what 
 would it work trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence 
 of Pindar?" To which question, we may with 
 some confidence repl}^, that in such trimming it 
 would be caricatured, and might excite emotions 
 more akin to the ludicrous than the sublime. The 
 strong impassioned thoughts of the Irish bards and 
 warriors, are best expressed in the simplest laconic 
 style, and, like female beauty, are when "unadorned 
 adorned the most." 
 
 Whether any of the Lays in the following collec- 
 tion, or in any other, are the genuine compositions 
 of Ossian, who flourished in the third century, may 
 well be doubted, but it is not unreasonable to 
 conclude, from his universally acknowledged poetic 
 
XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 genius, that he composed many poems, which were 
 long remembered, but which, in the lapse of years, 
 were corrupted and mutilated, till only a few 
 fragments were left. These seem to have become 
 the common property of succeeding bards, each of 
 whom, in his recitations, amplified, curtailed, or 
 interpolated them as he thought proper. When in 
 singing or reciting them, he felt a lapse of memory, 
 he would supply the want, like an improvisatore, 
 by some unpremeditated strains, or the introduction 
 of favourite passages from other poems, and when, 
 like Scott's " Last Minstrel," 
 
 " In varying cadence soft or strong, 
 He swept the sounding chords along, 
 Each blank in faithless memory void, 
 The poet's glowing thought supplied." 
 
 This is in perfect accordance with Macpherson's 
 declaration that " the Highland senachies never 
 missed to make their comments on, and additions 
 to the works of Ossian ;" and again, that " the 
 bards who were always ready to supply what they 
 thought deficient in the poems of Ossian, have 
 inserted a great many incidents between the second 
 and third Duan of Cathloda." No one ever indulged 
 in such liberties more licentiously than Macpherson 
 himself. 
 
 If, in a few instances, the author has given 
 expression to a thought, or heightened a description 
 by colourings of his own, he flatters himself that 
 nothing of the kind has escaped him inconsistent, 
 or out of keeping, with the sense and spirit of the 
 ancient Irish. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, speaking of imitations of the 
 ancient ballad, and of that " learned and amiable 
 prelate Dr. Percy," says that he was ** remarkable 
 for his power of restoring the ancient ballad, by 
 
PREFACE. XXVll 
 
 throwing in touches of poetry so adapted to its tone 
 and tenor, as to assimilate with its original structure, 
 and impress every one who considered the subject, 
 as being coeval with the rest of the piece. It must 
 be owned, that such freedoms, when assumed by a 
 professed antiquary, addressing himself to anti- 
 quaries, and for the sake of illustrating literary 
 antiquities, are subject to great and licentious 
 abuse ; and herein the severity of Ritson was to a 
 certain extent justified. But when the license is 
 avowed, and practised without the intention to 
 deceive, it cannot be objected to but by scrupulous 
 pedantry." 
 
 In conclusion, it may not be irrelevant to remind 
 the reader that these Lays are not to be considered 
 as idle inventions or sports of imagination, but as 
 records of interesting matter in the history of 
 Ireland ; for instance, of the battle of Gavra, and 
 the invasion of the Scandinavian king Magnus. 
 Here the archaeologist and historian may find 
 something to gratify their taste, and guide to 
 curious investigation. Instances are not wanting 
 to show that a bardish song has sometimes led 
 to a rare discovery, as to that of the pieces of 
 gold found near Ballyshannon by the Bishop of 
 Derry, whose curiosity was excited by the song of 
 an Irish harper, in all probability by the following 
 lines in the Lay of Moira Borb, which record the 
 death of a princely warrior, and describe the 
 locality where he was interred : — 
 
 In earth, beside the loud cascade. 
 The son of Sora's king we laid ; 
 And on each finger placed a ring 
 Of gold, by mandate of our king ; 
 Such honours to the brave we give, 
 And bid their memory ever live. — p. 42, 
 ^See the Note, pp. 277, 278. 
 
XXVIU PREFACE. 
 
 These Lays bear internal evidence that they are 
 not the growth of an ignorant and barbarous age. 
 They show that the people of Ireland had made no 
 inconsiderable progress in civilization and refine- 
 ment, and in the useful and ornamental arts — as in 
 vocal and instrumental music — in the fabrication 
 of arms, in the chasing of gems, in works of gold 
 and silver, and in blazonry. The beautiful brooches, 
 rings, torques, golden crescents, and other precious 
 ornaments, which, with various implements of 
 bronze, still continue to be found in the earth, and 
 many of which may be seen in the cabinets of the 
 curious, are so exquisitely wrought and finished as 
 to excite the emulation of modern artificers. The 
 nobles and warriors were in manner courteous, 
 frank, hospitable, '' jealous in honour, sudden and 
 quick in quarrel." Their bearing to persecuted 
 damsels, with their promptitude and bravery in 
 espousing the cause and avenging the wrongs of 
 the weak and oppressed, was equalled only by 
 that of the knights of romance. They expressed a 
 generous praise of the valour of their enemies, and 
 lamented their untimely fate when they fell in 
 battle. Of female beauty they felt the indomitable 
 power, and evinced an enthusiastic admiration. 
 
 As reliques of the minstrelsy which once flourished 
 in Ireland, these Lays have a claim to as much 
 attention as any other objects of antiquity — as 
 much, at least, as is paid to broken columns, 
 illegible inscriptions, and cenotaphs abroad-^or 
 dilapidated round-towers, fractured urns, trilithons, 
 and ogham epitaphs at home. 
 
THE LAY OF MAGNUS THE GREAT, 
 
 Abqcment.— The Poem opens with an address of Ossian blaming Patrick'* 
 want of taste in not listening to his song. Patrick replies that he prefers 
 his psalms to the tales of the Bard, and this provokes Ossian to a rude 
 and angry comparison. Patrick mollifies him by a complimentary 
 answer, and requests him to repeat one of liis Fenian tales. Ossian then 
 proceeds to state, that as the Fenians were pursuing the chase, they 
 saw a fleet of many ships approaching the shore. Finn asks who of his 
 warriors would go and inquire whence they came, and their object in 
 coming to Erin. Bald Conan sarcastically replies, that Fergus, Finn'a 
 favourite son, should be despatched to make the inquiry. Fergus 
 indignantly rebukes Conan for his folly — but cheerfully undertakes the 
 task. In answer to his call whence the invaders came, he is told that 
 they came from Lochlin, and that king Magnus is their chief. Fergus 
 says, that if they come in friendship they wUl be kindly received. 
 Magnus exclaims that they come to take from Finn his dog and hia 
 wife ; and threatens to take them by force. Fergus hurls back a stem 
 defiance, and, returning to Finn, repeats what had occurred. Finn 
 declares that he wiU never comply with such insolent demands. Each and 
 all of the chiefs express their promptitude to meet the king of Lochlin 
 in single combat, but Finn claims that honour for himself. The armies 
 prepare for battle. After a sanguinary conflict, Magnus is overcome 
 by Finn, and bound with thongs. Conan desires to cut off his head — 
 for which he is sternly reprimanded. Finn generously spares the king 
 of Lochlin, and gives him permission either to return to his own country 
 or to remain and live in honour vdth him and the Fenians. Magnus, 
 affected by such generosity, vows never more to wage war with Erin, 
 and laments that he ever left hia native dominions to pursue an enter- 
 prise that has proved so disastrous. The Poem ends with some moral 
 reflections of Ossian, who perseveres in asserting the preference of his 
 war-songs to the melancholy chant of Patrick's psalms. 
 
 B 
 
THE LAY OP 
 
 I. 
 
 OssiAN. — Psalm-singing Clerk ! to taste and sense 
 But small, in sooth, is thy pretence. 
 So listless is thy soul to hear 
 My little tale of the Fenians dear, 
 
 Whose praise our Bards resound ; 
 Ne'er seen hy thee, but known to fame, 
 Of harp and song the glorious theme. 
 
 And o'er the world renowned. 
 
 Patrick. — Good son of Finn let truth be told. 
 Though sweet thy tales of times of old, 
 More sweet is the chant of hymns to me 
 Than all thy tales and thy minstrelsy. 
 
 OssiAN. — Thy drawling chant, priest, shouldst thou dare 
 With tale of Fenian chiefs compare — 
 
 Chiefs of Gadelian hne — 
 My past endurance should I rue, 
 And grieve, that in my vengeance due, 
 
 I made that head no longer thine. 
 
 Patrick. — most renowned the bards among, 
 Thou sweetest of the sons of Song, 
 Hailed as the generous good and brave. 
 Thy kind forgiveness let me crave. 
 Sweet is thy voice, and sweet the tale 
 Of the gallant sons of Innisfail, 
 
 That fondly I would hear — 
 wake thy minstrelsy sublime. 
 And, with the deeds of olden time. 
 
 Now charm th' enraptured ear. 
 
 II. 
 
 OssiAN. — Then list — As on one ruddy morn 
 We pastime took with hound and horn. 
 And as to rouse the game we hied, 
 Far o*er the foam-crest waves we spied 
 
MAGNUS THE GREAT. 
 
 A numerous fleet with snow-white sails, 
 FuU-bosomed by the Northern gales, 
 As bounding o'er the deep they flew. 
 And shoreward near and nearer drew. 
 Swift at the signal trumpet's sound, 
 The gallant Fenians gathering round. 
 From hill and glen — ^from east and west. 
 In seven battalions onward prest, 
 With spear and dart prepared to meet 
 
 (Should Morna's* son command,) 
 The warriors of th' advancing fleet, 
 
 Upon the shelving strand. 
 
 III. 
 
 " What chief," said Finn, "for glorious meed 
 
 Of praise, will to their landing speed, 
 
 To ask the rovers whence they roam — 
 
 Their purpose what — and where their home ? ' ' 
 
 Then Morni's son, bald Conan, cries, 
 
 Conan the fro ward and unwise, 
 
 " Who but some potent lord or king, 
 
 Would cross the billowy main, 
 Or hither yon proud navy bring. 
 
 If not o'er thee to reign ? — 
 But as thy herald fleet employ 
 That gUb-tongued youth — that pretty boy — 
 Well skilled to wheedle, coax, decoy—. 
 Thy Fergus to such office bred- 
 He surely by his wonted art, 
 In peace may prompt them to depart." 
 
 Fergus. — ** My malediction on thy head ! 
 Bald wretch, of spite and malice born ! 
 To mischief ever prone ; 
 
 * " Moma, or Muim Munchaomh, mother of Finn, and daughter of 
 Thady, the son of Nuagatt, an eminent Druid, retained in the family of 
 Cathaoir More. Almhuin, in the province of Leinster, was the native 
 country and inheritance of Thady, upon which account Finn obtained 
 possession of Almhuin, in right of his mother." — Keating, p. 294. 
 
THE LAY OF 
 
 Thy envious jeers and jibes I scorn : 
 
 And now I proudly own 
 That here I stand prepared to go 
 And parley free with friend or foe." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Then, clad in arms, he sought the bay 
 Where moored a thousand gallies lay, 
 And with a voice that through the crowd 
 Of hollow war-ships echoed loud, 
 
 He on them boldly cried. 
 To tell the country whence they came, 
 Their purpose what, their chief, their name ; — 
 
 And thus a voice replied : — 
 ** Great Magnus is the chief we own, 
 The king who sits on Lochlin's throne, 
 Mac-Mehee of the crimson shields, 
 
 With vengeance in his path ; 
 Strong is the sceptre that he wields. 
 
 And terrible his wrath." 
 
 Fergus. — Why hither comes your haughty host. 
 Led by the potent chief you boast. 
 
 King of your speckled fleet ? 
 If you have sought green Erin's shore, 
 As friends, our friendship to implore — 
 
 *Tis well — we proffer welcome meet 
 
 To Lochlin's king renowned. 
 ** We come," cried Magnus, fierce for strife, 
 •* To take from Finn his beauteous wife, 
 
 And Brann his matchless hound."* 
 
 • This demand of the Northern Invaders will remind the reader of the 
 Persians' demand of earth and water from the Greeks as proofs of their 
 submission, and an acknowledgment of the superiority of the Persian 
 monarch. 
 
 In Macpherson's Fingal (Book II., p. 197, Dublin edition), Swaran, King 
 of Lochlin, amplifies the reply thus — "Take Swaran's peace, the peace he 
 gives to kings when nations bow to his sword. Leave Erin's streamy plains 
 to us, and give thy spouse and dog. Thy spouse high-bosomed heaving fair! 
 Thy dog that overtakes the wind ! Give these to prove the weakness of thin« 
 ana ; live then beneath our power." 
 
MAGNUS THE GREAT. 
 
 Fergus. — Ere Finn his matchless Brann will yield, 
 
 Your hosts must bite a bloody field ; — 
 
 Ere from his arms his spouse be reft, 
 
 Shall few be of our thousands left : — 
 
 No ! ne'er shall either hence depart, 
 
 While life-blood throbs in Fenian heart. 
 
 Magnus. — Then, generous Fergus, hear me swear, 
 
 Though haughty be thy word, 
 Brann from the Fenian ranks I'll tear, 
 
 Or thin them by the sword : 
 In spite of all your armed array. 
 My ship shall bear them hence away. 
 
 Fergus. — Great though thou art, a warrior strong, 
 Tho' proud thy vaunts, thy hopes tho' high, 
 
 Tho' glittering legions round thee throng. 
 Thy threats we scorn — ^thy words defy. 
 
 Not thou, nor all thy steel-clad host 
 
 Shall bear fleet Brann from Erin's coast.* 
 
 Back Fergus sped, my brother dear, 
 With sun-bright aspect beaming clear, 
 Ne'er darkened by a shade of fear ; 
 
 * The following passage is a literal translation from the original Iri«h by 
 O'Reilly, See Trans, of the R. I. Academy, voL xvi. p. 321. 
 " Why comes the haughty host 
 Under the king of Loghlainn of speckled ships ? 
 If to seek our friendship, 
 Right good is their coming across the sea." 
 
 Haughtily answered Manus, 
 The supreme king of Lochlainn of speckled ships ; 
 '* I will take his spouse from Fionn, 
 Against his will across the waves, and also Bran." 
 
 " The Fiann wUl give severe battle 
 To thy host, before they give up Bran ; 
 And Fionn will give battle in abundance, 
 Before he surrender his spouse." 
 *' By thy hand, generous Fergus, 
 Though great thy reliance on the Fiann, 
 I will bring with me Bran across the sea, 
 Or combat briskly on his account." 
 
 " From thy hand, though great thy hopes. 
 From thy host, though great thy estimation 
 Of the numbers that you brought across the sea, 
 Never shall you carry Bran beyond the waves." 
 
b THE LAY OP 
 
 And straight to Finn and the Fenian band 
 Declared th* invader's proud demands — 
 " But ne'er shall Lochlin's king return 
 
 From Erin's shore with wife or hound, 
 Till fierce the strife of battle burn, 
 
 And loud our clashing blades resound." 
 " No" — Finn, with kindhng anger said, 
 
 " My noble spouse I'll ne'er resign ; 
 Nor till my limbs in earth be laid. 
 
 E'er cease to call her mine. 
 Nor part I e'er with Brann, till death 
 
 Has closed the portals of my breath. 
 But, son of Morni, shame and wo 
 
 Be ours, if long we linger here, 
 Nor haste to meet th' insulting foe ; 
 
 To stay his wild career, 
 And let the king of Lochlin feel 
 The edge and temper of our steel." 
 
 Gaul. — By this right hand, great Finn, I vow. 
 
 Though numerous ships he boasts. 
 Before me Lochlin's king shall bow. 
 
 With all his mighty hosts. 
 Opposed to him in single fight, 
 
 His head I'll from his shoulders smite. 
 Said Oscar next, with honest rage, 
 
 " Be mine to prostrate on the strand 
 
 This monarch of the eastern land ;* 
 To quell his council saget 
 Of twelve great chiefs and all their clan. 
 Matched with my Fenians man to man. 
 
 "^ Righ inse fotr— king of the eastern isle. Miss Brooke's copy reads inse 
 tore isle of boars. In the Report of the Highland Society, p. 151, the former 
 reading is preferred; and in the justice of this preference, the present 
 translator concurs. 
 
 t The judicial court of Odin consisted of twelve assessors ; and hence the 
 establishment of supreme courts composed of twelve members, who decided 
 on all important matters, in Denmark, Norway, and other northern states. 
 Hence our trials by juries of twelve men. 
 
MAGNUS THE GREAT. 7 
 
 VI. 
 
 A chief in bloody conflict tried, 
 
 Macluay next impatient cried ; 
 
 " This hand proud Lochlin's king shall stay 
 
 With all his strong and dense array" — 
 
 ** And I," said faultless Dermod Dunn, 
 
 " Shall ne'er the van of glory shun; — 
 
 Let me th' invader meet: 
 With him will I the battle try, 
 Till of us twain the one lie slain 
 
 Beneath the victor's feet." 
 
 Says Fillan next — ** A vision true 
 My soul prophetic saw last night ; 
 
 The monarch of the warriors blue* 
 Before me reeled in deadly fight. 
 And severed from the body rolled 
 His grisly head with its casque of gold." 
 
 * Miss Brooke renders Fillan's speech thus— 
 
 " My vision now I call to mind. 
 The starting Fillan cried, 
 I dreamed that with the Moorish kingi 
 Alone the fight I tried." 
 
 t The original is High tUre na hhfear ngorm. "The king of the country 
 of the Moors," literally, of the blue men. " This," says Miss Brooke, " seems 
 a strange passage, and I must confess myself unable to conjecture whence 
 it could have taken rise, or what connection there could have been between 
 the Irish and the Moors." 
 
 The Report of the Committee of the Highland Society states that, " From 
 its being wanting in all the editions that have been received by the Com- 
 mittee, there is reason to regard it as an interpolation : and it is highly 
 probable that it was made in the ninth century, when the Moorish Mussul- 
 mans of Africa, after expelling the Goths from the richest portion of Spain, 
 and reducing the refugee king of Austria to the base condition of furnishing 
 a yearly tribute of a hundred beautlftd damsels, proceeded to invade and 
 possess themselves of Sicily (A.D. 828) ; whence they sailed to the mouth of 
 the Tiber, and appeared before the gates of Rome (846) where they struck 
 dread and horror into the numerous pilgrims who resorted thither from all 
 the Christian kingdoms of the west." 
 
 This is a far-fetched explanation — and the question still remains, how did 
 the Moors happen to form a part of the Scandinavian armies of Magnus * 
 Does fhear gorm necessarily mean Moors ? Gwm signifies blue, azure, sky- 
 coknired; green, verdant, ( Armstrong's GaeUc Dictionary )— an epithet properly 
 given to the steel-clad invaders. By " the monarch of the warriors blue," 
 it seems quite evident that Fillan meant Magnus the leader of the host. 
 Gorm Mhac signifies a hrsive servant,a sturdy domestio, (Armstrong) — and the 
 epithet here is more expressive of their valour than of their personal appear- 
 ance—unless we suppose that, like some of Carleton's heroes, they were 
 " blue-moulded for want of a beating." 
 
THE LAY OP 
 
 '* Joy ! triumph ! glory ! all be ours ! " 
 Said Finn, with blushing ardour warm, 
 
 ** Let Lochlin marshal all her powers, 
 We'll meet them with puissant arm, 
 
 But Magnus for myself I claim 
 
 With him to play war's deadly game."* 
 
 VII. 
 
 Then grasped the Fenians spear and shield, 
 And girt them for the battle field. 
 Our dauntless chieftain towered before ; — 
 A spear each at his shoulder bore, 
 And sped we with no tardy pace. 
 To meet th' invaders face to face. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In arms we spent a sleepless night, 
 Not as we wont remote from fear, 
 
 With music sweet, and waxen light, 
 With saffiroii, wine, and jocund cheer; 
 
 Nor till the second morn arose, 
 
 Beheld we our embattled foes. 
 
 • Thus Achilles claims for himself the glory of slaying Hector — 
 
 TovQ aXX«c eyapL^' airo d^'EKTopog i(T\eo Xeipag 
 
 " Rage uncontroulled through all the hostile crew ; 
 But touch not Hector, Hector is my due. 
 Tho* Jove in thunder should command the war, 
 Be just, consult my glory, and forbear." 
 
 II. XVI., 112-115. 
 
 Macpherson has imitated but feebly the several speeches of the Fenian chiefa 
 on this occasion. 
 
 ♦' Mine," said Gaul, "be the seven chiefs that came from Lano's lake." — 
 "Let Inistore's dark king," said Oscar, " come to the svFord of Ossian's son" 
 — " To mine the king of Iniscon," said Connal, heart of steeL " Or Mudan't 
 chief or I," said brovra-haired Dermid, "shall sleep on clay-cold earth." 
 "My choice (says Ossian) though now so weak and dark, was Terman'* 
 battUng king; I promised with my hand to win the hero's dark-brown 
 shield," " Blest and victorious be my chiefs," said Fingal of the mildest 
 look. " Swaran, king of the roaring waves, thou art the choice of FingaL" 
 
MAGNUS THE GREAT. 9 
 
 IX. 
 
 With rapturous joy our hearts were filled, 
 E'en like the minstrels' harps when thrilled 
 
 Thro' every warlike string, 
 When first, as on the winds it flew, 
 The royal standard rose to view 
 
 Of Lochlin's glorious king:* 
 And as we saw her squadrons wheel 
 All shining bright in burnished steel, 
 Ne'er shone before on Erin's strand 
 A sight so beautifully grand. 
 Close-marshalled on the battle field 
 
 Was many a noble royal-born, 
 With many a chief and many a shield 
 
 Bright-glancing in the ruddy morn ; 
 And many a coat of crimson gleam 
 Warm-glowing in the orient beam ; 
 And many a glaive with hilt of gold ; 
 And many a flag of satin fold, 
 
 Waved o'er the proud array ; 
 And many a spear far-flashing glanced ; 
 On many a helm the white plumes danced, 
 
 Like ocean's feathery spray. 
 And there were battle-axe and slin^, 
 With many a lord and many a king. 
 
 X. 
 
 Finn's sun-burst bannerf high was raised — 
 A sheet of light Gall-grena blazed, 
 
 * The original is Meirge righ LocMann an aig, i.e. according to Armstrong's 
 Gaelic Dictionary, " The standard of the king of Lochlin the glorious." 
 Miss Brooke renders the passage thus : — 
 
 " Before us on the crowded shore 
 Their gloomy standard rose." 
 Probably supposing it to be the celebrated raven standard, to which, 
 however, there is no allusion in the poem. The Norwegian standard was 
 named Landeyda, i. e, the Waster of Lands. — Creighton's and Wheaton's 
 Scandinavia, p. 231. 
 
 t Their standards must have added much to the "pomp, pride, and 
 circumstance" of the embattled forces. Strange that these etriking and 
 neceasai'y appendages of war seem to have been unknown to Homer ; and 
 
 B 2 
 
10 THE LAY OF 
 
 As from its jewelled staff unrolled. 
 Out flashed its sun of flaming gold 
 
 Midst stars of silvery sheen. 
 Next Fullaing Torraid o'er the crowd. 
 Spread as a crimson thunder-cloud 
 
 Shot thro' with bars of green. 
 The banner of great Morni's son 
 Renowned for many a battle won. 
 That ever, when the foe-men fled. 
 The hot pursuit sustaining led. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Now face to face the hosts advance 
 With measured step and levelled lance. 
 Trembles the ground beneath their feet, 
 
 Loud sounds their armour-clang ; 
 And ere in battle shock they meet. 
 
 Their bow-strings shrilly twang. 
 As dense as bird-clouds that have fled 
 
 The wintry tempest, soaring high, 
 Then with ten thousand wings outspread 
 
 Come rushing down the sky. 
 So thick the feathered arrows flew. 
 And quenched their thirst in a bloody dew. 
 Loud as on ice-fields ring 
 
 Dark storms of thunder-hail. 
 So stone-balls from the sUng, 
 
 Rung on the brazen mail. 
 
 though VirgU mentions the sifftia of the Romans, they supply him with no 
 imagery or description like the " meteor flag of England." In the fragment 
 of an Irish poem, entitled the " Sixteen Men," (lent to the author by James 
 Hardiman, Esq., to whom Irish literature is under great obligations), 
 various battalions are described as marshalled under their respectire 
 banners, on which are blazoned or embroidered the heraldic insignia of 
 each with much beauty and variety. 
 
 The standards of the ancient Irish, like their swords, and the swords of 
 the British and Scandinavian heroes, were designated by significant names. 
 The standard of Finn was named Ckillgrena, sun-burst — from the image of 
 the sun with which it was adorned like that of the Persians— rendered by 
 Macpherson " the sun-beam of battle." The standard of GoU Mac Momi 
 was known by the name of FuUaing torraid — sustain the pursuit. Irish 
 regiments in modern times, are occasionally distinguished by names ex- 
 pressive of their impetuous and indomitable valour — as the Fa^ an fteJeoc/i— 
 Ckar4h6-way regiment, well known for its exploits in the Peninsular war. 
 
MAGNUS THE GREAT. 1 1 
 
 And strong as fall the woodmen's strokes 
 
 Re-echoing thro' the dell, 
 When down they hew the forest oaks, 
 
 The battle-axes fell, 
 Like flash on flash of blazing levin. 
 Till helms were crushed and targets riven, 
 And bursting thro* the dense array 
 They onward hewed their crimson way. 
 
 XII. 
 
 FuU weU that day on Lochlin's host 
 The Fenian chiefs fulfilled their boast, 
 Down-cleaving, in their dread career, 
 The broken ranks in front and rear. 
 Then war-famed deeds were done — 
 
 But Lochlin's monarch rash 
 Has met with Cumhal's son — 
 
 Their meeting broad-swords clash. 
 In fierce and bloody strife 
 For victory and life. 
 As round and round they wheel. 
 
 In many a rapid gyre, 
 Bright gleams the stricken steel. 
 
 In sparkling streams of fire ; 
 Like sledge and hammer when they chime 
 On thundering anvil keeping time. 
 From iron's hot-red-hissing bar 
 Shaping the enginery of war. 
 With blows on blows their steel-coats rang. 
 From wounds on wounds the life-blood sprang. 
 Till stunned, by one resistless blow, 
 Down sunk the king of Lochlin low, 
 And Erin's victor round him cast 
 The captive's thong and bound him fast.* 
 
 * Such was the usual practice of our Irish heroes when victors. 
 Macpherson's Fingal, Book V., where our Magnus is metamorphosed into 
 Swaran, the conflict of the two chiefs is thus described : — " When the heroes 
 met in fight there was the clang of arms. There every blow like the 
 hundred hammers of the furnace ! Terrible is the battle of the kings 
 dreadful the look of their eyes. Their dark-brown shields are cleft in 
 
12 THE LAY OF 
 
 XIII. 
 
 When senseless Conan spied 
 
 The king of Lochlin hound ; 
 With ruthless voice he cried, 
 
 ** Fast pin him to the ground, 
 Till, as he lies on his gory bed, 
 His length I shorten by the head.*' 
 ** Bald senseless fool!" with anger warm, 
 Said Lochlin 's king — *' To me 
 More sweet to die by warrior's arm. 
 Than live by grace from thee. 
 Thy noble chief may save or kill, 
 And use his victory as he will." 
 
 Finn. — Heroic prince, 'twas ne'er my joy 
 The vanguished foe-man to destroy. 
 Since chance of war has made thee mine, 
 The right of conquest I resign ; 
 And from this instant free thou art — 
 Free here to dwell — or free to part. 
 Go, measure back the roaring main, 
 And hail thy native shores again — 
 
 But let all discord cease ; 
 Or here abide with honour crowned, 
 Among our Fenian chiefs renowned. 
 
 In bonds of lasting peace. 
 
 Magnus. — While throbs the life blood in my breast 
 This generous deed shall be confest ; 
 
 And from this fateful hour 
 I vow, while life informs my frame. 
 Ne'er more a hostile blow to aim 
 
 Against the Fenian power. 
 And much, illustrious chief, I rue 
 
 That e'er in glory's wild career, 
 
 twain, the steel flies broken from their helms. They fling their weapons 
 down. Each ruslies to his hero's grasp." After a vigorous struggle "the 
 strength of Swaran fell, the king of groves is bound." The wrestling which 
 terminates the conflict is taken from another poem, entitled Bas Chairill, 
 the Death of Can-il — in which, the wrestling precedes the more serious 
 engagement with shield and sword. 
 
MAGNUS THE GREAT. 13 
 
 I left my native mountains blue 
 
 For Erin's shore to steer, 
 And see, upon this bloody plain, 
 Half of my numerous thousands slain. 
 
 XIV. 
 OssiAN. — Such is my tale, thou reverend sage, 
 
 And sweeter to me far 
 To hear the din of battle rage 
 
 And tell of glorious war ; 
 Of Lochlin's fleet and Lochhn's king, 
 And of their gallant darings sing. 
 Than listen to the drowsy strain 
 Of all thy sad psalm-singing train. 
 Oh ! wert thou by the Southern shore. 
 Where Lory's beauteous streamlets pour. 
 By thy right hand, sage, I deem 
 Not small would be thy just esteem 
 
 For the noble Fenian race ; 
 Though poor am I, and stricken old, 
 No children mine, no wife to fold 
 
 Within my fond embrace ; 
 But dull and sad I linger here, 
 Without a sword, a helm or spear, 
 Still listening to th' eternal chime 
 Of psalms that want both sense and rhyme. 
 
 I 
 
DEPARTURE, RETURN, 
 
 AND 
 
 FALL OF MAGNUS. 
 
 Different historians give various colouring to 
 the conduct and exploits of Magnus, but all agree 
 in their account of the final catastrophe. Keating 
 informs us, on the authority of Hacluit's Chronicle^ 
 that, " so impatient was this cruel Dane to put his 
 designs into execution, he landed with his wife, a 
 few of his nobility, and a small number of soldiers, 
 before the body of his fleet approached the shore, 
 and set the country about him on fire. But the 
 rest of the Irish were prepared to receive him, for 
 they had laid ambushes to cut him oflf before the 
 rest of his forces arrived, and surprised him with 
 such success, that Magnus and all his men were 
 destroyed. When the rest of the fleet arrived, they 
 were so astonished with the misfortune of their 
 captain and companions, that they made all the 
 sail they could homewards, and bade a final adieu 
 to the island." 
 
 In the preceding poem Magnus is only vanquished 
 and captured, but not slain. The Bard thought it 
 would redound more to the honour of Finn to act 
 the part of a generous conqueror, and restore his 
 prisoner to liberty, with permission either to remain 
 in Ireland or return to his native country. Magnus, 
 full of gratitude for such generosity, vows that he 
 would never again unsheath his sword against so 
 
MAGNUS THE GREAT. 15 
 
 generous a victor, and laments that he had ever 
 engaged in so disastrous an expedition. Here we 
 might suppose that the adventures of Magnus in 
 Ireland terminated. But we learn from other 
 sources, that he broke his vow, and though he 
 embarked with his surviving troops, to return to 
 Lochlin, he was compelled by their importunity to 
 change his intention, and try, by a new attempt, 
 to recover his lost glory. Of the poem which 
 records this attempt, which in the issue was fatal 
 to Magnus and his followers. Miss Brooke does 
 not appear to have had any knowledge. We are 
 indebted te the researches of the Highland Society 
 of Scotland* for the conclusion, which is printed 
 at the end of the Report, in the original Gaelic, 
 with a literal translation into English, from which 
 the annexed metrical version is made. 
 
 If a genuine copy of this poem is extant in any 
 Irish manuscript collections, Mr. Eugene Curry, 
 to whom the students of Irish literature and 
 antiquities are largely indebted, should he turn his 
 attention to the subject, will discover it, and it is 
 worthy of investigation, for in all the Fenian poems 
 which have as yet become known to the curious 
 inquirer, few surpass or equal this. The onslaught 
 of the Fenians on the army of Lochlin is magni- 
 ficently described, and with all the fire of Bardic 
 inspiration — the comparison of their advance to 
 that of a thunder-cloud fraught with the artillery 
 of heaven — the overthrow of Lochlin's warriors to 
 that of a withered forest on the mountain tops 
 before the sweeping whirlwind — and the fall of 
 Magnus in the whirl of spears to that of a fiery 
 meteor into the roaring vortex of conflicting tides — 
 may well be designated as matchless in sublimity. 
 
 * Kennedy's Editionr—Report pp. 330—332. 
 
16 THE LAX OF ' 
 
 I. 
 
 Now Magnus with his shattered host 
 Was steering on from Erin's coast, 
 Swift o'er the waves his gallies flew, 
 And Erin lessened to their view. 
 
 II. 
 
 His warriors, stung with shame and grief, 
 Now eager pressed around their chief ; 
 And said they felt their bosoms burn 
 Again to Erin to return. 
 " For oh !" they cried, " 'tis better far 
 Again to try the chance of war,* 
 Again in battle's fierce turmoil, 
 To fight for victory and spoil ; 
 Yea better that our bones should lie 
 And bleach beneath a wiutry sky. 
 Than thus to flee with blasted fame ; — 
 Oh grief! oh infamy ! oh shame ! " 
 
 III. 
 
 Their burning words like shafts of fire 
 Thro* Magnus shot, and roused his ire ; 
 And now he swore, from Fenian king 
 That he, both spouse and dog would bring, 
 Or in a glorious conflict fall — 
 And thus they swore both one and all. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Now changed their course, with sail and oar 
 They sought the late forsaken shore. 
 And soon upon the echoing strand 
 We saw their ghttering legions land. 
 On like the roaring waves they passed 
 When swept before the Northern blast ; 
 To the dark heath their march they took, 
 With stern defiance in their look. 
 
MAGNUS THE GREAT. 17 
 
 To know th' invaders* bold intent, 
 
 Our chief his trusty herald sent. 
 
 •* Great Magnus and ye warriors hold, 
 
 Where has your honour flown ? 
 Do ye your plighted faith uphold 
 
 By the left hand alone ? 
 If here as foes ye come, declare 
 Where are your vows, great Magnus, where ? ' ' 
 
 Magnus. — We left them yonder on the grass 
 With dews o'er which the South- winds pass ; 
 And now upon this heath-clad plain 
 We come lost glory to regain. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Such furious onslaught then we made 
 As ne'er before these eyes surveyed. 
 With sword and lance we on them broke 
 Impetuous as the thunder-stroke. 
 As comes a cloud upon the gale 
 Surcharged with lightning, storm, and hail, 
 
 And smites the earth beneath ; 
 So dauntless on our foes we rushed, 
 Their helmets, shields, and corslets crushed, 
 
 And trampled on the heath. 
 And fiercely as our anger burned, 
 Ranks upon ranks we overturned. 
 And like the whirlwind's rapid sweep 
 
 Thro' withered trees that crown 
 The headland rock or mountain steep. 
 
 We struck the warriors down ; 
 And down their fallen ranks we trod , 
 Beneath our feet on the blood-drenched sod. 
 
 VII. 
 
 In the vortex of the battle-field 
 
 Where the bravest fought and the strongest reeled. 
 
18 THE LAY OP MAGNUS THE GREAT. 
 
 Where loudest din of battle rose, 
 Where fiercest rung the storm of blows, 
 Great Magnus fell — as forky levin, 
 Or fiery meteor, falls from heaven. 
 Where tide with tide in conflict meets 
 And rolled by storms in wild recoil 
 The eddying torrents chafe and boil. 
 Engulfing mighty fleets, 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Long, sad, and doleful was the strain 
 Of Lochlin's sons for their hero slain ; 
 But none escaped th' unsparing sword. 
 Unless our mercy he implored, 
 Or skulking from the battle field, 
 Protection found behind our shield. 
 
 IX. 
 
 We too had bitter cause to mourn. 
 When we saw our Fenians hacked and torn, 
 I vow by Finn's most honoured name. 
 To which ne'er clung reproach or shame. 
 Of seven battalions strong and brave 
 We left the third in a bloody grave. 
 
 Note. — In the notes to the Chrcnide of Mcmn it is recorded that Magnus 
 was killed August 24, 1103, in the memorable battle of Moichoba— a plain 
 which Mr. John O'Donovan, our eminent Irish antiquary, determines to be 
 " unquestionably the present Donaghmore (in Upper Iveagh), nearly mid- 
 way between Newry and Loughbrickland." See his translation of Leabhar 
 na g-CearP—Book of Rights, pp. 165, 166. 
 
LAY OF AEGEAN, 
 
 SON OF ANGART OF THE SHIPS. 
 
 Aboumekt.— Ireland, as well as Greece, has had her Helen and her Paris, 
 with ample cause to rue the fatal effects of female beauty ; as may be 
 exemplified by the tale of the fair Blanaid, in the romantic ages of 
 Irish history, and that of Deryorghal, wife of O'Rourke, in its more 
 authentic period. In the Fenian poems also it is recorded that the 
 most fatal contest in which the Fenians were ever engaged was caused 
 by the elopement of the king of Lochlin's wife with Ainlea, one of the 
 Fenian heroes, who had been received as a guest and hospitably enter- 
 tained at the court of Argean, her husband— a warrior of renown. The 
 royal lady having conceived a passion for Ainlea fled with him to 
 Ireland, and found an asylum among the Fenians. The king of Lochlin 
 pursued with a powerful army, landed on the Irish shores, and imme- 
 diately marched to Almhuin, the residence of the Fenian chiel^ 
 determined to wreak his vengeance on the whole of the Fenian race. 
 Ainlea met him in single combat, and was slain — but Argean himself, 
 after performing many feats of valour, fell beneath the sword of Gaul, 
 the son of Mornl, The invading forces, determined to share the fate 
 of their leader, fought till not a survivor was left. The victory of the 
 Fenians, like that of Pyrrhus over the Romans, was so dearly bought 
 that another such would " have utterly undone them." It was one of 
 those victories 
 
 " For which the conquerors mourned so many fell." 
 
 The Fenians never recoTered their loss in this disastrous battle. 
 
 Such is the subject of the following poem. It opens with a brief intro- 
 duction informing us how St. Patrick, after the performance of his 
 religious duties, was accustomed to seek recreation in the society of 
 Ossian, to enjoy his conversation, and hear the sweet sounds of his 
 harp. On one of these occasions, in compliance with the saint's 
 request to hear the most desperate battle in which the Fenians had 
 ever been engaged, Ossian recites the poem of Argean More. 
 
20 LAY OF AEGEAN. 
 
 Allasion is made to the subject of this tale in the poem of " The Chase :"— 
 
 " O'er the tide 
 Two heroes hither bore, 
 
 Of Lochlin, king of ships, the bride, 
 And carnage heaped the shore." 
 
 A copy of this poem, " transcribed letter for letter from the copies now 
 current in the Highlands, so far as they have been corrected by the 
 editor, published at Perth in 1786," is among those published with a 
 prose translation in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal 
 Irish Academy. This copy differs in some important respects from a 
 copy in the library of Dublin University, with which it was compared 
 by Dr. Young — the object of the Perth edition being, apparently, to 
 change the true scene of the poem from Almhuin in Leinster to Albin 
 or Scotland, in violation of truth and consistency, to favour the 
 notorious imposture of Macpherson. 
 
 In addition to the copy in the Transactions of the Academy the present 
 writer has had the use of two different verbal translations— the one 
 kindly lent him by Mr. Hardiman, the other by Mr. Eugene Curry. 
 Each of these copies wants the embassy of the king's daughter to the 
 chief of the invading enemy, which is found in the copy edited by Dr. 
 Young — from which circumstance it may probably be regarded as an 
 interpolation of more modern date than the rest of the poem. 
 
 A considerable part of this poem is borrowed by Macpherson in his " Battle 
 of Lora " — a cento, Uke the rest of his collection, composed of fragments 
 from different sources, thickly interspersed with mists, clouds, meteors, 
 and moonshine, with whistling winds, half-formed sighs, and thin 
 shrieking ghosts — a class of personages of which there are no records 
 in the genuine Irish Minstrelsy. He also shows his tasteful ingenuity 
 in changing the Irish names into others of more euphonious cadence. 
 Thus Argean, king of Lochlin, becomes Erragon, chief of distant Lora— ' 
 Caoilte MacRonain, as the Mac might sound badly, becomes Maronnan, 
 and Ainlea assumes the name of Aldo. He also favours us with the 
 name of Erragon's spouse, whom he calls Lorma — and of the king's 
 daughter "Bosmhina — ^maid of the streamy Morven." 
 
 Macpherson's Erragon is a word of his own coinage, which he derives from 
 Ferg-tJionn, the rage of the waves — "probably," says he, "a poetical 
 name given him by Ossian himself ; for he goes by the name of Annier 
 in tradition." Argean, the genuine Ossianic name, comes from ar, 
 destruction or slaughter, and signifies one who slaughters. Macpher- 
 son's familiarity with the language of Scripture is frequently apparent. 
 Near the beginning of his "Battle of Lora/* he transfers part of the 
 lamentation on Saul to Ossian's on Erragon — " Chief of distant Lora ; 
 How hast thou faUen on our mountains ! How is the mighty low ! ' ' 
 
LAY OF AEGEAN. 21 
 
 I. 
 
 Freed for a time, from studious care, 
 From chant of psalms and drowsy prayer. 
 Rejoiced the sons of Song to meet 
 In hall or bower for converse sweet, 
 And charm away the thoughts that stole 
 In heavy languor o'er his soul, 
 Oft woidd the son of Calfruin hie 
 To hear sweet Ossian's minstrelsy. 
 And list to tale of Fenians bold. 
 Or legend of the days of old. 
 
 II. 
 
 Patrick. — All hail thou honored man of age. 
 E'en, as in years, in wisdom sage, 
 
 In frame and spirit strong ; 
 The hues of youth, both fresh and sleek. 
 Still linger on thy ruddy cheek, 
 
 Sweet sapient son of Song. 
 Of gallant Fenian chiefs to sing, 
 And laud them on the sounding string, 
 
 Thine are the power and will ; 
 Now sing of Finn thy sire renowned, 
 Thou who art ever courteous found. 
 
 Sweet Bard of matchless skill ; 
 And name the conflict most severe 
 In which he ever lifted spear, 
 Since fate has spared thee yet to tell : — 
 Though many and brave thy warriors fell. 
 
 OssiAN. — sage whose joy is psaltery sweet. 
 To thee shall I the tale repeat. 
 
 And how the strife began ; 
 The direst strife e'er the Fenians knew, 
 Since first for Finn a sword they drew. 
 
 Or formed their martial clan. 
 
22 LAY OF ARGBAlf. 
 
 III. 
 
 In A1mhiiin*8 rich and sumptuous hall 
 
 Adorned with gilt and jewelled spears, 
 Had Finn proclaimed high festival 
 
 For his men and noble peers : 
 But, by a luckless chance, were found 
 Two warriors of Drumderga's mound. 
 
 Unasked of all the crowd.* — 
 Against our chief their anger rose : 
 For a ring of the sunt to be his foes, 
 
 In grief of heart they vowed. 
 Young Caoilte, Croncor's witty son, 
 The soul of revelry and fun ; 
 And Ainle rich in manly grace, 
 The hope of Crimthan's noble race. 
 Ne'er slow his trenchant steel to bare. 
 And in ihe strife of heroes share. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Within their galley's sable side. 
 
 Their trusty swords and shields they hide : 
 
 And now, swift-bounding o'er the wave. 
 
 Away have sped these warriors brave. 
 
 To Lochlin of the polished reins ; 
 
 And to the king of her watery plains, 
 
 Great Argean bold and strong. 
 The son of Angart skilled to guide 
 His ships in triumph o'er the tide. 
 
 They tell their heartfelt wrong ; 
 
 » Such slights, like insults, are often more keenly resented than serious 
 injuries. The goddess of' Discord not being invited with the other Deitie-s 
 to the marriage of Peleus with Thetis, threw amongst the guests the fatal 
 golden apple, with the inscription detur pulchriori, let it be given to the 
 fairest. Thence arose the contention of the rival goddesses— the promise of 
 beauty to Paris — the abduction of Helen — the ten years* war of Troy— and 
 the ten thousand calamities of the Greeks. "Such great effects from 
 trivial causes spring." 
 
 t Bael Ainn, BaaPs ring— i e. a year. See the title page of O'Oooaor's 
 Chroniclea of Eri. 
 
LAY OP AEGEAN. 23 
 
 And by their plighted hand agree, 
 
 Each, for a year, his liege to be, 
 
 Stout Croncor's son, of the sharp steel-blade. 
 
 And Ainle ne'er in fight dismay 'd. 
 
 V. 
 
 In Loehlln's house of royal cheer. 
 Soon rolled away a diay and a year ; 
 Nor lacked they aught to glad the soul. 
 Nor music sweet, nor sparkling bowl ; 
 Gay revellers at the festive board — 
 For glory first to grasp the sword. 
 
 Till love their bane became. 
 The beauteous spouse of Lochlin's king , 
 Felt in her breast for Ainle spring 
 
 A fierce unholy'flame. 
 With the long-haired youth of the trenchant brand. 
 She fled, in speed, to Erin's land, 
 And found at Almhuin's royal seat, 
 With the Fenian chiefs, a safe retreat. 
 Such the dire cause from which arose 
 To Erin's sons ten thousand woes. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Soon Lochlin's king, of the bossy shields. 
 
 Is seen on Erin's shore; 
 And soon, wide o'er her fertile fields. 
 
 His glittering thousands pour ; 
 With many a banner flaunting gay ; 
 And, flashing in the sunny ray. 
 Shone many a helm, and many a spear. 
 As on they marched in high career, 
 By thrice six valiant princes led. 
 All men of might to battle bred. 
 Sworn, till the Fenians they had slain. 
 Ne'er to recross the briny main. 
 But every sword can feats perform. 
 Till tested by the battle storm. 
 
24 LAY OF AEGEAN. 
 
 VII. 
 
 By rushy Almhuin's broad-spread height 
 
 That swells o'er Lemster's waste, 
 Where Finn's armed fortress met the sight, 
 
 They pitched their camp in haste ; 
 And thence despatched a herald bold 
 To Cumhall's son of the cups of gold, 
 Demanding if in Almhuin's dome 
 The faithless spouse had found a home. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Then Finn — of just and generous breast — 
 Said Lochlin's wrongs should be redressed, 
 And promised all th' invading host, 
 In peace should they steer from* Erin *8 coast. 
 
 Gifts precious to be told ; 
 To Lochlin's king of the conquering sword. 
 His lovely spouse should be restored 
 
 With her weight of shining gold. 
 But Lochlin's sons of their valour vain, 
 
 This haughty answer give, 
 No gold should tempt them o'er the main 
 
 Till the Fenians ceased to live, 
 And dared them, would they shun disgrace, 
 To arm — and meet them face to face. 
 
 IX. 
 
 To parley with the foe — to bend 
 
 His haughty soul and sooth his care. 
 With precious gifts a maid we send, 
 
 A maid of beauty rare, 
 
 The daughter of the king — 
 Of pearly teeth and dark blue eye, 
 Her soft persuasive voice to try. 
 
 And back good tidings bring. 
 With her we sent a hundred steeds, 
 The strongest and best that Erin breeds, 
 
LAY OF ARGEAN. 25 
 
 No fleeter ever owned a rein, 
 Or scoured impetuous o'er the plain, 
 Rode by a hundred horsemen bold. 
 All clothed in robes of satin and gold 
 
 That like the bright sun shone. 
 As to the camp she hasted fleet, 
 She left her train and went to greet 
 
 Th' invading host alone. 
 Her hand two golden apples* bore ; 
 Bright gems she on her shoulders wore, 
 And on her robe, a spreading tree 
 Was wrought in rich embroidery. 
 
 Argean. — maiden of the tresses fair 
 From Finn what tidings mayst thou bear ? 
 
 Maiden. — If thy false spouse thy shame has wrought, 
 And on thy name dishonour brought. 
 To thee his friendship Finn extends — 
 And me the pledge of his faith he sends ; 
 
 A hostage to remain. 
 If to his profi'ers you agree, 
 Receive his choicest gifts by me ; 
 A hundred sleek and well trained steeds, 
 The strongest and best that Erin breeds. 
 
 Obedient to the rein ; 
 Rode by a hundred horsemen bold. 
 All clothed in robes of satin and gold 
 
 That like the bright sun shine. 
 These shalt thou have — and these beside 
 A hundred girdles long and wide 
 
 Inwrought with skill divine, 
 
 * "M'Pherson transmutes ' The two golden apples' into an arrow of gold ; 
 and then adds, in conformity to )iis system, without any authority from the 
 original, that these were the signs of Moroen' s peace." — Young. 
 
 " She came to the host of Erragon, like a beam of light to a cloud. In 
 her right hand was seen a sparkling shell — ^in her left an arrow of gold. 
 The first the joyful mark of peace— the latter the sign of war.'"— ifac- 
 pherson. 
 
 C 
 
26 LAY OF AR6EAK. 
 
 Strength on the wearer to bestow, 
 In conflict with a stronger foe ; 
 To guard from peril and alarm — 
 Sickness and pain away to charm — 
 To save from travail's pangs severe — 
 To pregnant dames a present dear.* 
 Those shalt thou have — and eke five score 
 
 Of salvers shining bright, 
 Once laid the kings of the world before 
 
 On joyous festive night. 
 Who from them feasts, shall thence, in sooth, 
 Enjoy a sweet perpetual youth. 
 These shalt thou have — and join to these 
 A hundred ships that cleave the seas. 
 
 Impelled by oar and sail ; 
 Each manned with a brave and hardy crew 
 That ne'er from battle's front withdrew, 
 
 But still in arms prevail. 
 
 • The great Scandinavian God, Thor, had a girdle of this description. 
 It "had virtue to renew his strength as often as was needfuL"— I/att€t'» 
 N. Antinq., p. 94. 
 
 •' Such girdles as those mentioned by the maiden were in early use in 
 Ireland."— See Vind.of the Ancient History of Ireland, ^t^. 207-459, and Tniit- 
 tdher's Manchester, p. 369. Macpherson tells us "that sanctified girdles, 
 till very lately, were kept in many families in the North of Scotland, which 
 were bound about women in labour, and were supposed to alleviate their 
 pains, and to accelerate the birth. They were impressed with several 
 mystical figures, and the ceremony of binding them about the woman's 
 waist was accompanied with words and gestures which showed the custom 
 to have come originally from the Druids." 
 
 Sir Jno. Harrington, in a note appended to the 12th Book of his trans- 
 lation of Orlando Furioso, has the following passage : — 
 
 " Some say it is a great practise in Ireland to charme girdles, and the like, 
 perswading men, that while they weare them they cannot be hurt with any 
 weapon : and who can teU whether the divel may not sometime protect 
 some of liis servants ? But one notable example I have heard tending 
 much 10 this effect. Rorie Oge (a notable rebell of Ireland) having taken 
 in a vile and treacherous Parlee, my valiant cosin Sir Henbib Harrington 
 prisoner, had one night his caben, or little hovell where he lay, beset with 
 one hundred souldiers of the said Sir Henbie his band, meaning to rescue 
 their captaine by force, sith the rebels' demaunds for his delivery were such 
 as Sir Henrie himselfe (being his prisoner) would not condescend unto, but 
 would rather hazard his life as he knew he should ; I say these hundred 
 men, well appointed, beset the house strongly, being made of nothing but 
 liardles and durt, yet the villain, ere they could get in, gat up in his shirt, and 
 pave the knight xiiii wounds, very deadly, and after gat thorow them all 
 without hurt, where a mouse almost could not have got betweene : and 
 I have heard it affirmed in Ireland that it was meere witchcraft." — Orlando 
 Furioso, Lond. 1634, p. 94. 
 
 What was Homer's Cestus of Venus but an enchanted, or at least an 
 enchanting, girdle ? 
 
LAY OF AEGEAN. 27 
 
 These shalt thou have — and with them join 
 A hundred chiefs of royal line, 
 Who ever from their martial toil 
 Return enriched with glittering spoil. 
 These shalt thou have — and farther still, 
 
 A hundred hawks of fleetest wing 
 That, rushing from the cliff-girt hill, 
 
 Death to their quarry bring. 
 These shalt thou have — and, five times told. 
 
 Of breeding mares a score ; 
 And of snow-white herds all the valley can hold — 
 
 These shalt thou have and more : 
 So take our gifts, thy spouse receive. 
 
 And our shores in peace, great warrior, leave.* 
 
 XI. 
 
 Aegean. — Illustrious maid, the gifts you bring 
 Are worthy of a noble king ; 
 And brought by thee ! unmatched in grace ! 
 Of peerless beauty, form and face — 
 
 Oh ! could I call thee mine ! 
 But know the wrongs and wounds I feel, 
 By gold are healed not — but by steel. 
 
 Your gifts I must decline. 
 
 • Here the classical reader cannot fail to remark the striking resemblance 
 between this passage and that in Homer's description of the embassy to 
 Achilles in the ninth book of the Iliad, in which numerous magnificent 
 gifts are promised to the inexorable hero if he would relax his anger, and 
 come to the assistance of the Greeks. — See Iliad, Book ix., lines 120-157 , 
 and 262-299. The latter passage is thus rendered by Pope : — 
 
 Hear me, while I number o'er 
 
 The profeiTcd presents, an exhaustless store : — 
 Ten weighty talents of the purest gold. 
 And twice ten vases of refulgent mould ; 
 Seven sacred tripods whose unsuUy'd frame 
 Yet knows no office, nor has felt the flame : 
 Twelve steeds unmatch'd in fleetness and in force. 
 And still victorious in the dusty course: 
 (Rich were the man whose ample stores exceed 
 The prizes purchased by their winged speed) ; 
 Seven lovely captives of the Lesbian line, 
 Skilled in each art, unmatched in form divide. 
 The same he chose for more than vulgar charms 
 When Lesbos sunk beneath thy conqueiing arms. 
 All these, to buy thy friendship, shall be paid; 
 And joined with these the long contested maid. 
 With all her charms, Briseis he'll resign.— 342-358. 
 
28 LAY OF AEGEAN. 
 
 By honor's binding laws I swear. 
 Ne'er to forgive the guilty pair ; 
 
 Nor peace to Finn restore. 
 Till he in thraldom own my sway, 
 And all his herds, a glorious prey. 
 
 Are driven to the shore. 
 
 Maid. — Ne'er, while his veins the life-blood warms, 
 
 Shalt thou, though terrible in arms. 
 
 See captive to thy conquering sword 
 
 The Fenians, or their generous lord ; 
 
 Nor shalt thou e'er their herds command, 
 
 Down-driven to the sea-beat strand — 
 
 Oh ! 'tis unwise our proffered peace 
 
 And gifts of friendship thus to spurn 
 
 Here Argean, must our parley cease — 
 
 No more I plead — but hence return. 
 
 Argean — Sweet maid! all maids surpassing far, 
 As yonder sun each little star 
 
 That gems the brow of night. 
 Thy tresses fair, hke twisted gold, 
 Are down thy ivory neck unrolled, 
 
 In dazzling beauty bright. 
 Thy voice of soft bewitching tone, 
 Has half my stern resolves o'erthrown ; 
 
 Thy eyes such radiance glance 
 As piercing to my inmost soul. 
 Like magic all my thoughts control — 
 
 They thrill me, and entrance. 
 Oh ! stay — all beauteous as thou art, 
 Oh ! stay — and from me ne'er depart, 
 
 Stay and be ever mine. 
 If thou consent with me to live. 
 My sceptre and my crown I give. 
 
 My power and fame are thine ; 
 And ever faithful by thy side, 
 Will I thy fond adorer bide. 
 
LAY OF AEGEAN. 29 
 
 Maid. — Nay — leader of this numerous host 
 In thousands marshalled round our coast, 
 Since thus, unhending and unwise. 
 You all our terms of peace despise — 
 Since vain our counsels to assuage. 
 And charm away your jealous rage 
 And pardon for th' offenders gain ; 
 Farewell — your proifers I disdain, 
 Insulting to my maiden fame ; 
 To thee a foul reproach and shame. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Back to her princely sire's abode 
 In royal state the maiden rode ; 
 
 And soon, in martial mood, 
 With satin banners wide displayed. 
 The Fenian warriors close arrayed 
 
 Before th' invaders stood. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Then ere the conflict fierce began, 
 Ere shields were struck, or man met man. 
 In pride of strength, great Argean cried, 
 That he our bravest chiefs defied 
 
 To meet him hand to hand. 
 Quick at the word, before the rest, 
 To meet the foeman Aiulea prest ; 
 More bold than wise in deadly fight 
 To grapple with superior might ; 
 
 Short was his gallant stand ; 
 For, by the second fateful blow, 
 Down sunk the son of Crimthan low, 
 
 Sheer cloven through the brain. 
 And oh ! it grieves my soul to tell 
 How the gallant Fenians fought and fell. 
 
 And drenched with blood the plain. 
 Till at the solemn close of day 
 In death thrice ten great chieftains lay. 
 
30 LAY OF ARGEAN. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Yet, believe me, generous Sage, 
 
 We quailed not at the conqueror's rage ; 
 
 Resolved, while e'er we owned a spear. 
 
 Ne'er to his proud demands to yield ; 
 But stay him in his proud career, 
 
 Or die upon the battle field. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Then asked our Finn in rising grief, 
 
 ** What noble youth of Innisfail 
 Will dare to meet the slaughtering chief. 
 
 And o'er his might prevail ; 
 Before his sails for home be spread. 
 Or more beneath his arm lie dead ?" 
 Cried Morni's son aloud. 
 
 Our fame's supporter bright, 
 ** Of Argean, fierce and proud, 
 
 Be mine to prove the might. 
 Till well the conquering sword attest 
 Who of us twain can wield it best." 
 
 Finn. — " Take with thee, of our bravest men. 
 To share thy task, a score and ten. 
 Brave chiefs, who in the van of fight 
 Have stood, and ne'er knew fear or flight 
 
 From Cumhail's valiant crew ; 
 Macreit a chief our chiefs among, 
 Ferdonan stout and Lugaidh strong. 
 With princely Oscar, Dermod-dun, 
 And Ossian too my gallant son, 
 
 A band of warriors true. 
 And at each side of your sounding shield. 
 Let a champion brave his claymore wield. 
 To guard you from the dreadful swing 
 Of the gory blade of Lochlin's king." 
 
LAY OF ARGEAN. 31 
 
 Gaul. — " Not two, nor one, with me the fame 
 
 Shall of this contest share ; 
 Alone from Lochlin's king I claim 
 
 Fair glory's meed to bear; 
 And soon, though proud he rears his head, 
 This blade shall in his blood grow red." 
 
 XVI. 
 
 With stern defiance in his look 
 
 Came Lochlin's hero on, 
 His shining steel he threat'ning shook 
 
 At Morni's noble son. 
 Now foot to foot and hand to hand. 
 Each warrior whirled his battle-brand. 
 And loud and quick as the rattling hail, 
 The weapons rung on their sounding mail. 
 From the stricken steel a shower of fire 
 
 Flew sparkling on the blast ; 
 From gaping wounds, on the trampled mire, 
 
 A shower of blood fell fast ; 
 Till Lochlin's warrior king was laid 
 Beneath Mac Morni's vengeful blade. 
 
 xvn. 
 
 Eight days we battled with the foe, 
 
 Till we smote their best and their bravest low ; 
 
 While Gaul his triumph wide to spread, 
 
 And strike their hearts with fear, 
 Raised high the monarch's severed head 
 
 All-ghastly on his spear ; 
 And loud was raised a thrilling cry. 
 
 For Morni's son and his victory. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Back Lochlin's sons to their native home 
 
 Ne'er spread returning sail, — 
 Unless one dived beneath the foam, 
 
 Or soared upon the gale. 
 
32 LAY OF AEGEAN. 
 
 The orient ray of morn bestrode, 
 Or in the sun's bright chariot vode — 
 To bear the tale from Erin's coast, 
 'Scaped not a man of Lochlin's host.* 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Then did I on the bloody field 
 
 No blunt or idle claymore wield — 
 
 But though that hard- fought field we won. 
 
 Our triumph had us near undone. 
 
 Then joy and glory crowned my brow, 
 
 Though poor I am and wretched now. 
 
 * Macpherson gives a different termination to the exploits of Lochlin's 
 sons. His Fingal commands to " stop the hand of death," and pronounces 
 an eulc^ on the fallen hero. " Mighty was he that is low. Much is he 
 lamented in Sora ! The stranger wUl come towards his hall, and wonder 
 ■why it is so silent. The king is fallen, stranger. The joy of his house is 
 ceased. Listen to the sound of his woods. Perhaps his ghost is murmuring 
 there! But he is far distant, on Morven, beneath the sword of a foreign 
 foe." Such were the words of Fingal. " We stopped our uplifted swords — 
 We laid Erragon in a tomb— His ghost appeared to some— an half-formed 
 sigh is in his breast. Blest be thy soul, king of Sora ! thine arm was 
 terrible in war !" The unfortunate lady who was the cause of all the mis- 
 chief, laments the absence of her lover, and invokes him to come from his 
 " sounding hills." " His thin ghost appeared on a rock, like a watery beam 
 of feeble light. She knew that her hero fell. She sunk into the tomb. 
 The daughters of Morven mourned her, for one day jn the year, when the 
 dark winds of autumn returned," 
 
 Thus "the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of 
 Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in a year." 
 
THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 
 
 iGCMENT. — Ossian commences the Lay of Moira Borb without the usual 
 introduction of a dialogue with St. Patrick— but with an expression of 
 grief, excited by the recollection of what he is proceeding to record. 
 While the Fenians were reclining with their chief on a cliff listening 
 to the roar of a neighbouring water-fall, and enjoying the prospect of 
 the sea, they beheld a corrac, or small boat, occupied by only one 
 mariner, a female, approaching the land. Wondering at tliis novel 
 appearance, they hastened down to the beach, to gratify their curiosity 
 by a nearer view, when suddenly they saw a maiden of enchanting 
 beauty and princely mien rise from the corrac and spring ashore. After 
 a friendly greeting they conducted her to Finn, by whom she was most 
 courteously received. On being requested to declare her rank and her 
 object in coming to Erin, she replies that she is the daughter of a king 
 whose dominion lies beneath the waves — that she is a refugee come to 
 claim protection fi*om the Fenians, against the prince of Sora, who 
 would force her to be his bride. Finn, with his wonted generosity, 
 promises that he will be her friend, and defend her against all aggression 
 — and Oscar vows that she shall never be the spouse of her persecutor. 
 Presently the prince of Sora is seen careering over the sea on a fiery 
 steed, clothed in shining mail, and by his noble bearing and splendid 
 attire, fiUing them with astonishment. As he dashes forward to seize 
 the princess, Oscar and Gaul hasten to intercept him. Gaul rends his 
 shield by the stroke of a dart, and Oscar flings from his left hand, a 
 javelin, the shaft of which had been hardened in the fire, and with such 
 indomitable force, that it transpierced the magic steed, and struck him 
 dead. Notwithstanding this disaster, the warrior prince, now on foot, 
 defies fifty of the bravest Fenians, whom he overcomes, captures, and 
 binds. As he easily vanquished all who approached him in close com- 
 bat, they waged a distant fight— until Gaul, who is ready in all such 
 emergencies, to turn the scale, comes forth to meet him, and, after a 
 well sustained conflict, by a lucky thrust, lays his antagonist prostrate. 
 The bard generously laments the fall of the heroic prince, and states 
 that, by command of the king, he was interred with golden rings put on 
 his fingers, as a tribute of respect to his valour. The heroine expressed 
 her gratitude to Finn and the Fenians by remaining a year in the royal 
 mansions of Almhuin. Gaul did not escape from the conflict without 
 wounds which placed him for six months under his leeche's care. 
 
 c2 
 
34 THE LAY OF MOIRA. BORB. 
 
 The Bard, after lamenting the departure of his youth, the ineflScacy of 
 female charms to solace the cares of old age, and the failure of his 
 mental faculties, concludes his " little tale." 
 
 The opening scene of this poem is hj EasRuadh (Ashroe), " a very beautiful 
 water-fall of the river Erne, at Ballyshannon, and the jadncipal salmon 
 leap in Ireland. The scenery is extremely picturesque ; a bold coast of 
 perpendicular rocks is covered to the very edge with the richest verdure, 
 and projects in unequal promontories, as it opens to the sea."— Jiftsa 
 Brooke. 
 
 The word Eos, in the original, " signifies a water-fall, heap, or cataract, 
 where the wat«r is precipitated from an eminence, and of course makes 
 a considerable noise ; and on this idea * Mac bobhair na rtihoiU,,' is trans- 
 lated by Miss Brooke 'deafening son of the heap;' but we have the 
 authority of an ancient Irish manuscript, that the Eas had its name 
 from Ruadh Mac Bobhair, who was there accidentally kiUed by falling 
 from the summit The Scotch Ossian, however, makes his cataract 
 sofUy murmur — ' the fall of Roya that sofUy murmurs.' O'Reilly, p. 253. 
 In a note to the Amuxls of Ireland by the Four Masters, Geraghty's 
 Edition, p. Gi, it is named *' Eas Aodha Ruaidh Mac Baduirn. The 
 cataract of Red Hugh, son of Badum, where Red Hugh, monarch of 
 Ireland, was drowned about five centuries before the Christian sera." 
 
 In the Scotch copy, the pursuer of the lady is called " Dyre borb." In the 
 Irish "Moighre borb." Macpherson differs from both, and calls him 
 "Borbar." Neither the Scotch nor the Irish poem gives any other 
 name for the lady but " Neyn Re heir fa hwne," or " Inghean Righ, thire 
 fo thuinn;" but Mr. Macpherson has supplied these defects, and chris- 
 tened the distressed damsel " Fainasollis. "—O'-BeiHy's Essay, p. 253. 
 
 The Report of the Highland Society remarks that " Miss Brooke's Moira 
 Borb resembles, in many particulars, Macpherson' s Maid of Craca" — 
 and that in the report of the Rev. James M'Gregor will be found "a 
 closer resemblance to Macpherson than is commonly the case ; though 
 in this, as in other instances, where such an opportunity of comparison 
 occurs, the simplicity and distinctness of narrative in the original 
 ancient poem vdll be easily contrasted with tlie general and more orna- 
 mented expression of Macpherson." " The catastrophe of the poem in 
 Miss Brooke diff^ers from that of the similar story in Macpherson, where 
 the lady is killed by a shaft from the bow of her pursuer." This, how- 
 ever, was the fate of the heroine who was pursued by " Ulan, son of the 
 king of Spain," or " Ulan of Sora" — a poem which has a striking resem- 
 blance to Moira Borb. Macpherson ingeniously dovetails into one story 
 those facts and descriptions which properly belong only to another, and 
 thus he makes up his centos from a variety of sources. 
 
THE LAY OP MOmA BORB. 35 
 
 I. 
 
 A little tale have I to tell 
 
 Of Cumliars son, that matchless chief. 
 Which aye must be remembered well. 
 
 Although it wrings my heart with grief. 
 
 II. 
 
 Where fierce Mac-Bovar's cataracts pour 
 Down the dark cliff, with deafening roar. 
 
 We lay, in number few ; 
 When o'er the deep afar we spy 
 A corrac small advancing nigh ;* 
 
 One female all her crew. 
 Round princely Finn were gallant men, 
 Reclined at ease, two score and ten ; 
 Such, lived they now, as might extend 
 Their rule to earth's remotest end ; 
 Alas ! alas ! in death they sleep, 
 And I alone survive to weep. 
 
 III. 
 
 All, sudden to their feet upsprung. 
 
 Save Cumhal's son and Gaul the brave, 
 
 To see the corrac as she flung 
 
 The spray aside, and cleft the wave ; 
 
 Till in the little sandy bay. 
 
 Beside the cataract fall she lay. 
 
 Yet ere she touched the yellow sand, 
 
 Our swifter feet had reached the strand. 
 
 When up arose the maiden bright 
 
 And sprang ashore with speed of light. 
 
 * The corrac was enchanted, as was the bark of Tasso's Rinaldo— 
 
 Una barca mirabile incantata 
 Ch'eUa chiamo la barca avventurosa. 
 
 Enchanted barks, since the launching of the Argo, have been qf great use in 
 the machinery of the poetry of romance. In the Third Book of Macpher- 
 son's Fingal, instead of a corrac, " a white sailed boat appeared far oft'; we 
 saw it like a mist that rode on ocean's wind." 
 
60 THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 
 
 Of puiple was her flowing vest, 
 A jewel glittered on her breast ; 
 Her face shone radiant as the sun, 
 Too dazzling* to be gazed upon ; 
 And such her dignity and grace 
 As spoke a maid of princely race. 
 
 IV. 
 
 When to the tent of Finn she came, 
 
 Conducted by our band. 
 She hailed our chief of far-spread fame 
 
 With greeting sweet and bland, 
 As bland was he in word and look, 
 While by the hand the maid he took ; 
 And with a graceful honest pride 
 Beheld her seated by his side, 
 While Gaul and all our chiefs around 
 No pause from admiration found ; 
 
 But wonder-struck they gazed. 
 No wandering thought their bosoms crossed. 
 Their hearts were gone, their senses lost, 
 
 Enraptured and amazed. 
 O'ercome by beauty's potent spell 
 That opens heaven and conquers hell.t 
 
 • Vultus nimium lubricus (lucidiis ?) aspici.— HoR. 
 
 t Thus the aged senators of Troy were struck witli admiration of Helen, 
 when they compared her to the Inamortals, and said 
 
 AivCjq adayarr^tTi deyQ elg uiira eolkev. 
 
 II. III., 158. 
 
 They cry'd. No wonder such celestial charms, 
 For nine long years have set the world m arms ; 
 What winning graces '. what majestic mien! 
 She mores a Goddess, and she looks a Queen! 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Her angel's face 
 
 As the bright eye of heaven shined bright, 
 And made a sunshine in the shady place, 
 Did nerer mortal eye behold such heavenly grace. 
 
 Spenser, 
 
 " At a party given by Abd-ur-rahman to Mr. Layard, at Nimroud, " the 
 host was in raptures with the beauty of the French lady, and whispered to 
 Mr. Layard— Wallah, she is the sister of the sun ! What would you have 
 more beautiful than that ?" 
 
THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 37 
 
 V. 
 
 Then Finn, of aspect sweet and clear. 
 Said — " Maiden, fondly would we hear. 
 From what strange land you hither came — 
 Your rank, your lineage, and your name." 
 " The daughter of that king am I, 
 Whose realms beneath the ocean lie ; 
 
 And this my story brief, 
 Through every land I speed my way, 
 That sees the glorious light of day. 
 
 In quest of Erin's chief." 
 ** And, daughter, what the cause declare 
 That leads a maid so young, so fair, 
 Alone and far from friendly home. 
 Unguarded through the world to roam?" 
 ** Great chief, all chiefs excelling far ; 
 (Thus spoke the maid of maids the star,) 
 
 To thee I suppliant bend ; 
 Do thou whom none on earth exceeds 
 In generous, high, heroic deeds, 
 
 A helpless maid befriend. 
 Thy kind protection let me know 
 And shield me from a potent foe." 
 " And who, in wrath and vengeance strong, 
 Pursues thee and would do thee wrong ?" 
 
 (The prudent chief replied.) 
 " Dismiss thy terrors — trust my arm — 
 No foe on earth shall do thee harm — 
 
 And in my power confide. 
 When in just cause for aid implored. 
 The Fenians wield no feeble sword." 
 *' A hero bold — a man of might, 
 
 Pursues me o'er both land and sea, 
 Enflamed by love and jealous spite ; — 
 
 The son of Sora's king is he, 
 Great Moira Borb, for such his name — 
 Of weapons keen and far-spread fame. 
 His suit I spurned, with solemn vows 
 Ne'er to become his plighted spouse, 
 
38 THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 
 
 Though great his deeds — his darings high. 
 And often crowned with victory ; 
 But rather o'er wide ocean sail 
 And refuge seek in Innisfail." 
 
 VI. 
 
 Then Oscar holdly forward sprung, 
 He who could curb a monarch's pride, 
 
 And cried with indignation stung, 
 *' Ne'er shalt thou be his bride, 
 
 No — ne'er, while Finn fulfils his vow, 
 
 To Sora's prince a captive bow." 
 
 VII. 
 
 Careering on a fiery steed,* 
 O'er the sea-foam with winged speed, 
 E'en in the royal maiden's course, 
 And urged with more than mortal force, 
 A hero of gigantic mould. 
 Shoreward advancing we behold. 
 
 A dark plumed helm he wore ; 
 Swung by his side a ponderous blade 
 Made music roughly as it played ; 
 
 A full orbed shield he bore, 
 And on its moonlike disk were seen 
 Two polished javelins strong and keen. 
 A chief thus armed and girt for fight 
 Had ne'er before so charmed our sight. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Of noble form — of princely look — 
 
 With majesty he rode — 
 More rapid than the torrent brook. 
 
 The war-horse he bestrode. 
 
 '• Here again Macpherson deviates from the original by saying that Borbar 
 came, not on a fiery steed, but, in a more matter of fact style, in a ship. 
 " Now, like a dreadful wave afar, appeared the ship of stormy Borbar, bis 
 masts high-bended over the sea behind their sheets of snow." 
 
THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 39 
 
 As nigh our wondering host he drew, 
 
 Forth from its sheath his faulchion flew. 
 
 And brandished proudly o'er his head 
 
 A fiery halo round him spread. 
 
 On him our eager looks were bent 
 
 In silent deep astonishment, 
 
 As on he came in splendour bright 
 
 Of sparkling burnished mail. 
 Like the red meteor of the night 
 
 That shoots across the vale. 
 In Erin ne'er before was seen 
 A chief of such heroic mien ; " 
 So skilled in battle's fierce career, 
 To govern steed and handle spear. 
 So proud his looks — as if alone 
 'Twas his to call the world his own. 
 
 IX. 
 
 ** Is that the mighty prince, declare, 
 
 Who hence would force thee, maiden fair ?" 
 
 (Said Finn, our warriors' pride) 
 ** He who fronf far o'er sea and land. 
 Pursues thee, and with ruthless hand 
 
 Would seize thee for his bride ?" 
 
 Maid. — *' Alas ! 'tis he — too well I know — 
 He brings you Fians death and wo ; 
 And, maugre all your firm array, 
 Will bear me hence his prize away." 
 
 X. 
 
 Stept Oscar forth, and Gaul renowned. 
 The foremost still in conflict found. 
 To cross the warrior in his path. 
 And guard the maiden from his wrath : 
 But like the whirlwind's speed, 
 
 Or lightning shaft of fire, 
 Upon his magic steed 
 
 He pass'd them in his ire, 
 
40 THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 
 
 To seize the maid, in furious mood, 
 E'en as by noble Finn sbe stood. 
 
 XL 
 
 Hurled with the force that heroes Avield, 
 
 Forth Gaul his javelin sent ; 
 It struck the warrior's bossy shield. 
 
 And into fragments rent. 
 With equal force by wrath impelled, 
 Its course brave Oscar's javelin held ; 
 
 'Twas from his left hand sped, 
 An(J hardened by the strength of flame 
 Pierced through the gallant war-steed's fra 
 
 And stretched him with the dead. 
 A high achievement great and bold 
 As e'er adorned the times of old !* 
 
 XII. 
 
 Though in his path adventurous crost. 
 With shattered shield and war^steed lost. 
 With madly-brave, unconquered soul, 
 That never knew or brooked control, 
 He challenged of our gallant men 
 The bravest, best, two score and ten, 
 
 To meet him hand to hand. 
 Two score and ten, his might to try, 
 While I with Finn stood watchful by. 
 
 Against him took their stand ; 
 All clothed in brightly burnished mail ; 
 All fierce the victor to assail. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Now loud the din of combat rose, 
 As nobly stood against such foes 
 
 * Not equal, however, to that of Orlando, who killed a horse with his fist. 
 " He turned, and with his fist so smote the horse, 
 As made him ly on ground a senselesse corse. 
 
 Book xxii, Stan. 61. 
 
THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 41 
 
 The prince of high renown. 
 With strength and skill, on right and left, 
 Their corslets, helms, and shields he cleft. 
 
 And struck th' assailants down. 
 Nine chiefs laid prostrate on the ground 
 Victorious he in fetters bound, 
 Though hard the task, and proud the boast, 
 To bind the weakest of our host. 
 But oh ! it grieves my soul to tell, 
 That Flann the son of Morn a fell. 
 Not one, who in that conflict burned, 
 Ungashed, unwounded, back returned ; 
 Nor had a man been left to bring 
 The dismal tidings to our king, 
 
 But all had sunk in night ; 
 Unless they in collected power. 
 Upon him rained an iron shower. 
 
 And waged a distant fight. 
 For none that met him hand to hand, 
 His power terrific could withstand. 
 So quick, so strong, with stroke on stroke. 
 Their arms he into shivers broke. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Then Gaul, great hero of the field, 
 Who ne'er was known to blench or yield, 
 
 Though oft in conflict tried ; 
 Still prizing glory more than life. 
 In single fight, to end the strife 
 
 The haughty foe defied — 
 They met, as meet two torrent floods. 
 Or whirlwinds echoing through the woods 
 And glancing like the lightning's flash, 
 Their swords reverberate clash for clash, 
 And whirled in many a sparkling gyre. 
 Their temper tell in streams of fire. 
 
42 THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Whoe'er that contest fierce had seen, 
 Would say 'twas terrible and keen, 
 So fierce, so strong, each tempered blade, 
 The game of death and glory played. 
 
 Till blood began to flow ; 
 Their shining mail of good steel blue, 
 Was mantled with a crimson hue, 
 
 And crushed by many a blow, 
 Till pierced by one relentless thrust, 
 The prince of Sora sunk in dust — 
 
 Oh ! mournful is the tale. 
 Unhappy land ! oh shame and grief ! 
 To see the fall of such a chief ! 
 
 Alas ! that Innisfail 
 Was e'er seduced by woman's charms. 
 To mingle in the strife of arms. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 In earth, beside the loud cascade, 
 The son of Sora's king we laid ; 
 And on each finger placed a ring 
 Of gold, by mandate of our king ; 
 Such honours to the brave we give. 
 And bid their memory ever live.* 
 
 * The Fenians generously mourned for their slain enemies, Swaran 
 made no vain request when he said to his conqueror Fingal — " Let thy 
 bards mourn those who felL Let Erin give the sons of Lochlin to earth. 
 Raise high the mossv stones of their fame ; that the children of the north 
 hereafter may behold the place where their fathers fought The hunter may 
 say when he leans on a mossy tomb, here Fingal and Swaran fought, the 
 heroes of other years. Thus hereafter shall he say, our fame shall last for 
 ever." 
 
 It was usual with the ancient Irish, as witii other nations, to deposit in 
 the tomb some such articles as indicated the occupation or favorite piu-suit 
 of the deceased, or the honor in which he was held by his survivors. Hence 
 Macpherson's Ossian says to Oscar — " Remember, my son, to place this 
 sword, this bow, the horn of my deer, within that dark and narrow house 
 whose mark is one grey ttone." 
 
 In the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, voL II., p. 40, J. Huband 
 Smith, Esq., gives an account of a tomb found by the sea shore near Lame, 
 which may remind us of the burial place of the prince of Sora. It contained 
 the skeleton of a man with various weapons and ornaments, viz., a sword, 
 the iron head of a lance, an elegantly foi-med pin. " The sword was placed 
 
THE LAY OP MOIRA BOKB. 43 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The daughter of the king who reigned 
 
 In realms beneath the main, 
 In Almhuin's friendly court remained 
 
 With Finn and his princely train, 
 Nor sought her home until the sun, 
 Through heaven, his annual course had run. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Six months did Gaul our chief renowned. 
 In feats of arms still victor found. 
 Repose beneath the leeche's art. 
 And all the skiU the stars impart, 
 Till health his wonted strength restored, 
 And healed the gashes of the sword. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 But what to me can youth restore. 
 Or heal the wounds that I deplore ? 
 
 across the breast of the skeleton, its hUt towards the right hand. These 
 remains, it is stated, may be referred to that remote period when the use 
 of brass or bronze was succeeded by iron and steel, in the manufacture of 
 offensive weapons, while it was yet retained in the lighter works of orna- 
 ment." 
 
 Laoghaire, monarch of Ireland in the fifth century, was interred at Tara, 
 in a standing position, spear in hand, with his shield of valour, his face to 
 the south, as if bidding defiance to the Lagenians, the hereditary enemies 
 of his family. See Dr. Petrie's Essay on Tara, and Notes to Geraghty's 
 Edition of the Annals of the Four Masters, a volume replete with valuable 
 Irish Antiquarian learning. 
 
 In May, 1838, an ancient tomb was discovered in the Phoenix Park, in 
 which were found a flint arrow head, four sepulchral vases containing ashes 
 of burned bone — two perfect skeletons, and under each skull considerable 
 quantities of small shells n^rtta littoralis, each rubbed down to form a second 
 hole, that they might be strung like beads. Were the shells intended to 
 mark the maritime profession of the occupants when living ? But what is 
 a tomb like this compared to that one on the banks of the Suir, which is 
 25 feet long, lined with huge flags, and having at the head and foot enor- 
 mous stones 16 feet high ? This is the resting place of Ceadach the Great, 
 the only son of the king of the hills, who came on " an enchanted horse, 
 by means of which he annihilated space" — to engage the redoubtable cham- 
 pion GoU in single combat. The great Ceadach was pierced to the heart — 
 but the horse, more lucky than the steed of Moira Borb, escaped, and 
 immediately flew to his father's palace. — Trans, of the Kilkenny Arch. Society, 
 p. 19. 
 
44 THE LAY OF MOIRA BORB. 
 
 Alas ! that maiden's blooming face 
 To whole or wounded yields no grace. 
 No healing balm bright eyes bestow, 
 No solace to an old man's woe. 
 But now since Memory's powers decay, 
 
 And strength and spirit fail, 
 Time warns to cease my vocal lay. 
 
 And end my little tale.* 
 
 * Ossian often dwells with melancholy pleasure on the days of his youth, 
 and laments the changes produced on himself by time and the infirmities 
 of age. Macpherson's taste for the pathetic led him to introduce this topic 
 with beauty and feeling. In the conclusion of the " Songs of Selma," the 
 aged bard is represented as thus pouring forth his elegiac strains, in sad 
 remembrance of the past, and gloomy anticipation of the future. — " Such 
 were the words of the bards in the days of song ; when tlie king heard the 
 music of harps, the tales of other times ! The chiefs gathered from all 
 their hills, and heard the lovely sound. They praised the voice of Cona ! 
 (t. e. Ossian) the first among a thousand bards ! But age is now on my 
 tongue ; my soul has failed ! I hear, at times, the ghosts of bards and learn 
 their pleasant song. But memory fails on my mind. I hear the call of 
 years ! They say as they pass along why does Ossian sing ? Soon shall he 
 lie in the narrow house, and no bard shall raise his fame ! Roll on, ye 
 dark-brown years ; ye bring no joy on your course ! Let the tomb open to 
 Ossian, for his strength has faUed. My voice remains, like a blast, that 
 roars, lonely, on a sea-surrounded rock, after the winds are laid." 
 
THE LAY 
 
 CHASE OF SLIEVE GUILLIN 
 
 AaooMENT. — The lay commences by Ossian asking Patrick if he ever heard 
 the tale of the Chase, and on receiving an answer in the negative, 
 accompanied with a request that it may be told truly, he feels indignant 
 at the suspicion that he, or any of Fionna Eironn, could ever deviate 
 from the strictest veracity, and retaliates by declaring how much he 
 prized his former friends, whose virtues he records, beyond Patrick 
 and all his psalm-singing fraternity. Patrick, in reply, exhorts him not 
 to indulge in a strain of panegyric which borders on blasphemy, and 
 extols the power of that great Being by whom all the Fenian race had 
 been destroyed. The mention of his friends' extinction calls forth a 
 fresh burst of indignation from Ossian, and leads him to compare the 
 pleasures of the days gone by, with the melancholy occupations of 
 psalm-singing and fasting. Patrick requests him to cease and not 
 incur the impiety of comparing Finn \vith the Creator of the Universe. 
 Ossian replies in a style more indignant, and after reciting a number 
 of the glorious exploits of the Fenians, asks by what achievements of 
 his Deity they can be matched. The saint, justly shocked by such 
 daring, accuses him of frenzy, and tells him that Finn and his host 
 have been doomed to hell.fire by that God whom he blasphemes ; but 
 this only provokes Ossian to make a comparison between Finn's 
 generosity and the divine vengeance ; and as for himself, it is a sufficient 
 proof of his sanity that he allows Patrick and his friends to wear their 
 heads. Patrick, to end the controversy, requests him to proceed with 
 the promised tale. Ossian complies, and informs him that while the 
 Fenian heroes were feasting in the towers of Almhuin (AUen) Finn, 
 having withdrawn from the company, spied a young doe, and pursued 
 her with his two favourite hounds, as far as Slieve Guillin, where she 
 suddenly disappeared. While he and his hounds are left in perplexity, 
 he hears a sound of lamentation, and looking round espies a female of 
 surpassing beauty, whom he accosts, and, with friendly solicitude, asks 
 the cause of her grief. She replies that she has dropped her ring into 
 the adjoining lake, and adjures him, as a true knight, to dive into the 
 water to find and restore her lost treasure. He complies and succeeds ; 
 and while handing her the ring, is suddenly metamorphosed into a 
 grey and withered old man. 
 
46 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 Meantime the absence of their chief begins to create some fears for his 
 safety in the breasts of the Fenians. Caoilte expresses an apprehension 
 that he is irrecoverably lost, when Conan, rejoicing at the idea, boasts 
 that he will in future be their cliief. The Fenians having laughed his 
 arrogance to scorn, proceed in quest of Finn, and discover the old man, 
 who whispers in the ear of Caoilte the story of his strange metamor- 
 phosis. Conan, on hearing it, waxes valiant, and utters bitter reproaches 
 against Finn and the Fenians. He is rebuked by Caoilte ; but still 
 continuing to vituperate and boast, he is answered at last by the sword 
 of Oscar. The Fenians interfere, and having put an end to the strife, 
 and learned the cause of Finn's misfortune, they search the secret 
 recesses of Slieve Guillin, and at length find the enchantress, who pre- 
 sents a cup to Finn, of which he drinks, and is restored to his former 
 strength and beauty. ^ 
 
 I. 
 
 OssiAN. — son of Calphruin ! thou whose ear 
 Sweet chant of psalms delights to hear, 
 
 Hast thou e'er heard the tale, 
 How Finn pursued the lonely chase. 
 Apart from all the Fenian race, 
 
 Brave sons of Inisfail ? 
 
 Patrick. — royal born ! whom none exceeds 
 In moving song or hardy deeds, 
 That tale, to me as yet untold. 
 Though far renown'd, do thou unfold 
 
 In truth severely wise, 
 From fancy's wanderings far apart : 
 For what is Fancy's glozing art 
 
 But falsehood in disguise ? 
 
 II. 
 
 OssiAN. — ! ne'er on gallant Fenian race 
 
 Fell falsehood's imputation base : 
 
 By faith of deeds, by strength of hand, 
 
 By trusty might of battle-brand. 
 
 We spread afar our glorious fame, 
 
 And victors from each conflict came. 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE QUILLIN. 47 
 
 Ne'er sat a monk in holy chair, 
 Devote to chanting hymn and prayer, 
 
 More true than the Fenians bold : 
 No chief like Finn, the world around. 
 Was e'er to bards so gen'rous found, 
 
 With gifts of ruddy gold. 
 If lived the son of Morni fleet. 
 
 Who ne'er for treasure burned ; 
 Or Duine's son to woman sweet. 
 
 Who ne'er from battle turned, 
 But fearless with his single glaive 
 A hundred foemen dared to brave : 
 If lived Macgaree stern and wild. 
 
 That hero of the trenchant brand ; 
 Or Caoilte, Ronan's witty child. 
 
 Of hberal heart and open hand ; 
 Or Oscar, once my darling boy, 
 Thy psalms would bring me little joy. 
 If lived, the Fenian deeds to sing. 
 
 Sweet Fergus with his voice of glee ; 
 Or Daire, who trilled a faultless string. 
 
 Small pleasure were thy bells to me. 
 If lived the dauntless little Hugh, 
 
 Or Fillan, courteous, kind and meek. 
 Or Conan bald, for whom the dew 
 
 Of sorrow yet is on my cheek. 
 Or that small dwarf whose power could steep 
 The Fenian host in death-like sleep — 
 More sweet one breath of theirs would be 
 Than all thy clerks' sad psalmody. 
 
 III. , 
 
 Patrick. — Thy chiefs renowned extol no more, 
 son of kings — nor number o'er ; 
 But low, on bended knee, record 
 The power and glory of the Lord ; 
 And beat the breast, and shed the tear, 
 And still his holy name revere, 
 Almighty, by whose potent breath 
 Thy vanquished Fenians sleep in death. 
 
48 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 OssiAN. — Alas ! for Ossian — dire the tale ! 
 
 No music in thy voice I hear ; 
 Not for thy wrathful God I wail, 
 
 But for my Fenians dear. 
 Thy God! a rueful God I trow, 
 Whose love is earned by want and woe ! 
 Since came thy dull psalm-singing crew. 
 How rapid away our pastimes flew, 
 
 And all that charmed the soul ! 
 Where now are the royal gifts of gold, 
 The flowing robe with its satin fold. 
 
 And the heart-delighting bowl ? 
 Where now the feast, and the revel high, 
 And the jocund dance and sweet minstrelsy, 
 And the steed loud-neighing in the morn. 
 With the music sweet of hound and horn, 
 And well-armed guards of coast and bay? 
 All, all like a dream have passed away ; 
 And now we have clerks with their holy qualms, 
 And books, and bells, and eternal psalms. 
 And fasting — that waster gaunt and grim, 
 That strips of all beauty both body and limb. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Patrick. — Oh ! cease this strain, nor longer dare. 
 Thy Finn, or Finn's bold chiefs, compare 
 W^ith him who reigns in matchless might, 
 The King of kings enthroned in light. 
 'Tis he who frames the heavens and earth ; 
 
 'Tis he who nerves the hero's hand ; 
 'Tis he who calls ^air fields to birth. 
 
 And bids each blooming branch expand : 
 He gives the fishy streams to run, 
 And lights the moon and radiant sun. 
 What deeds like these, though great his fame, 
 Have e'er adorned thy hero's name ? 
 
 Ossian. — To weeds and grass his princely eye 
 My sire ne'er fondly turned ; 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE GUILLIN. 4& 
 
 But he raised his country's glory high, 
 
 When the strife of warriors burned. 
 To shine in games of strength and skill, 
 To breast the torrent from the hill, 
 To lead the van of the bannered host — 
 These were his deeds, and these his boast. 
 Where was thy God, when o'er the tide, 
 
 Two heroes hither bore. 
 Of Lochlin, king of ships, the bride ; 
 
 And carnage heaped the shore ? 
 When Tailk on Fenians hacked his brand, 
 'Twas not thy God's, but Oscar's, hand. 
 
 That hero prostrate laid ; 
 When rough-voiced Magnus swept the coast. 
 If lived thy God, the Fenian host 
 
 Had triumphed by his aid. 
 When Aillan, Anver's son of fame. 
 Round Tara rolled the bickering flame, 
 Not by thy King's, but Oscar's, glaive. 
 The warrior sank in a bloody grave. 
 When haughty Dearg advanced in pride, 
 With his shields of gold, o'er Lochlin 's tide, 
 Why lingered then thy cloud-borne Lord 
 To save our host from his slaughtering sword ? 
 Oh ! glorious deeds arise in crowds. 
 
 Of the gallant Fenian band ; 
 But what is achieved by thy King of the clouds — 
 
 Where reddened he his hand?* 
 
 Patrick. — Here let this vain contention rest. 
 For frenzy. Bard, inspires thy breast. 
 
 ■ rubente 
 
 Dextera sacras jaculatus arces 
 Terruit urbem. — Hob. 
 
 Heaven's eternal Sire, 
 
 With red right-arm, at his own temples hurl'd 
 His thunders, and alarm'd a guilty world. — Fbancis. 
 Some of Ossian's expressions might justly shock the piety of St Patrick. 
 But let it be remembered that Ossian is no convert to Christianity ; on the 
 contrary, he is opposed to it, principally because it had put an end to his 
 favourite pastimes. 
 
 D 
 
50 TliE LAY OF THE 
 
 Supreme in bliss God ever reigns : 
 
 Thy Finn now groans in hell's domains — 
 
 In penal fire — in lasting chains. 
 
 OssiAN. — Small glory to thy potent King 
 His chains and fires on our host to bring ! 
 Oh ! how unlike our generous chief, 
 Who, if thy King felt wrong or grief, 
 Would soon in arms, with valour strong, 
 Avenge the grief, redress the wrong. 
 Whom did the Fenian king e'er see 
 
 In thraldom, pain, or fear. 
 But his ready gold would set him free, 
 
 Or the might of his victor spear ? 
 This arm, did frenzy touch my brain, 
 
 Their heads from thy clerks would sever, 
 Nor thy crozier here, nor white book remain, 
 
 Nor thy bells be heard for ever. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Patrick. — son of kings, adorned with grace, 
 
 'Twere music to my ear, 
 Of noble Finn and his wondrous chase. 
 
 The promised tale to hear. 
 
 OssiAN. — Well, — though afresh my bosom bleeds, 
 
 Remembering days of old — 
 When I think of my sire and his matchless deeds — 
 
 Yet shall the tale be told. 
 
 VII. 
 
 While the Fenian bands, at Almhuin's towers, 
 In the hall of spears passed the festive hours. 
 The goblet crowned, with chessmen played,* 
 Or gifts for gifts of love repaid ; 
 
 * The game of chess is repeatedly noticed in connexion with various his. 
 torical incidents in the early history of Ireland. TheophUus O'Flanagan, 
 in a note to his translation oi DeirdH, an ancient Irish talc published in the 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE GUILLIN. 51 
 
 From the reckless throng Finn stole unseen, 
 When he spied a young doe on the heath-clad green 
 
 With agile spring draw near : 
 On Sceolan and Bran, his nimble hounds, 
 He whistles aloud, and away he hounds 
 
 In chase of the hornless deer. 
 With his hounds alone and his trusty blade. 
 
 The son of Luno's* skill, 
 On the track of the flying doe he strayed 
 
 To GuiUin's pathless hill. 
 
 transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, speaks of it as a " military game 
 that engages the mental faculties, like mathematical science." O'Flaherty's 
 Ogygia states that Cathir, the 120th king of Ireland, left among his bequests 
 to Crimthan "two chess-boards with their chess-men distinguished with 
 their specks and power : on which account he was constituted master of the 
 games in Leinster." 
 
 In the first book of Ilomer's Odyssey the euitors are described as amusing 
 themselves with the game of chess : — 
 
 nith rival art and ardour in their mein, 
 At chest they vie to captivate the queen, 
 Divining of their loves. 
 In Pope's translation there is a learned note on the subject, to which the 
 curious reader is referred ; and also to a passage iu Vallancey's Essay on the 
 Celtic Language. 
 
 The Welch appear to have been passionately addicted to this game, as 
 appears from the frequent notice of it in the Mabinogion, translated by 
 Lady Chai'lotte Guest. Some of the chess boai'ds described in that work 
 were magnificent, and endowed with magical properties. 
 
 When Peredur entered the hall of the castle, " he beheld a chess board in 
 the hall, and the chessmen were playing against each other, by themselves. 
 And the side that he favoured lost the game, and thereupon the others set 
 up a shout, as though they had been living men." 
 
 Among the thirteen precious things of the Island of Britain was the chess 
 board of Gwenddolen, tlie celebrated beauty of Arthur's court. " When the 
 men were placed upon it, they would play of themselves. The chess board 
 was of gold and the men of silver." " In the romance of Sir Gaheret, that 
 champion is entertained in the enchanted castle of a beautiM fairy, who 
 engages him in a party at chess, in a large hall, where flags of black and 
 white marble form the chequer, and the pieces, consisting of massive 
 statues of gold and sUver, move at the touch of the magic rod held by the 
 player." In the Irish version of Nennius, translated for the Irish Archae- 
 ological Society by James Henthom Todd, D.D., M.R.I. A., additional notes, 
 p. xvi., the Roman Emperor Maximus is described as having a wonderful 
 dream " of a fine city, and in it a hall or palace of great splendour ; and in 
 tlie hall were two bay-haired youths playing chess, on a chess board of 
 silvei-, with chessmen of gold. They were dressed in black, with frontlets of 
 red gold on their hair and precious stones therein. At the foot of the column 
 supporting the haU sat a grey-haired man on an ivory throne, with golden 
 bracelets, chain, and frontlet, and with a golden chess board on his breast, 
 and in his hand a golden wand and a steel saw ; and he was carving chess- 
 men. A maiden sat opposite to him in a golden chair, arrayed in white 
 silk and jewels. Maximus sat down in the chair beside her, and threw his 
 arms round her neck ; and at this moment of his dream awoke." 
 
 This was a dream — but when the emperor conquered Britain the whole 
 of it was realized. 
 * Luno, a celebrated fabricator of swords. 
 
52 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 But when lie came to its hard-won height, 
 
 No deer appeared in view ; 
 If east or west she had sped her flight 
 
 Nor hounds nor huntsman knew. 
 But those sprang westward o'er the sod, 
 
 While Finn still eastward press'd — 
 Why did not pity touch thy God 
 
 To see them thus distress 'd ? 
 
 VIII. 
 
 There while he gazes anxious round. 
 
 Sudden he hears a doleful sound. 
 
 And hy a lake of crystal sheen; 
 
 Spies a nymph of loveliest form and mien :* 
 
 Her cheeks wore the rose's crimson light. 
 
 Her lips the red berry's glow; 
 Her neck, as the sea-cliff's marble,! bright, 
 In the sunny ray, was soft and white 
 
 As a wreath of driven snow. 
 More fair than the water-lily's vest, 
 Or Cana's down, rose her full-orbed breast ; 
 Curling gold were her locks, and her sparkling eyes 
 Like radiant stars in the freezing skies. 
 
 '"■ The reader will understand that the doe has now assumed the form of 
 a nymph of attractive beauty. In a note to the Irish version of Nennius it 
 is mentioned that "fawns and deer occupy a prominent place in Irish 
 hagiography"— (and it may be added in Irish poetry and romance). They 
 were the subjects of many miracles. St. Berach of Cluain Coirphthe, had 
 a deer which was sent to him miraculously to carry his luggage, when he 
 set out in search of a suitable place for the foundation of his monastery. 
 Deer, at the prayer of St. Attracta, were made to can-y timber to build the 
 castle of the tyrant king of Connaught. A fawn, together with other wild 
 animals, lived with St. Kieran of Saigher, "manserunt mitissime apud eum 
 et obidiebant ei secundum jussionem viri Dei in omnibus quasi Monachi " 
 A wild deer came daily to St. Ernania to be milked. A deer brought St. 
 Columbkille his books which he had lost St. Patrick found a deer suckling 
 her tawn in the spot where the northern altar of the cathedral of Armagh 
 now stands, and, taking up the fawn, the deer followed him, ' velut mitis- 
 sima ovis.' On another occasion St. Patrick and his companions passed 
 through the hostile ambuscade of King Lcgaire to Tara, the Saint and his 
 followers appearing to their enemies like eight deer, and the boy Benen, 
 like a fawn, cai-rying a small bundle on his shoulders, which contained the 
 sacred Bible of the saint." 
 
 The Irish version of Nennius, translated for the Irish Archajological 
 Society, Dub., 1848, pp. 183, 184, Note. 
 
 t Literally, as Ume, 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE GUILLIN. 53 
 
 And from them such strange witchery glanced 
 As thrilled each nerve, ensnared, entranced, 
 With magic power and cunning skill, 
 Bending the spirit" to her will. 
 Such witchery, Sage, though cold thou art, 
 Would melt, subdue, and fire thy heart. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Nigh to the nymph of golden hair 
 
 With courteous grace he drew — 
 ** hast thou seen, enchantress fair. 
 
 My hounds their game pursue ? ' 
 
 1"* 
 
 Nymph. — " Thy hounds I saw not in the chase, 
 noble prince of the Fenian race ; 
 But I have cause of woe more deep. 
 For which I linger here and weep." 
 
 Finn. — " 0, hast thou lost a husband dear ? 
 Falls for a darling son thy tear, 
 
 Or daughter of thy heart ? 
 Sweet, soft-palmed nymph, the cause reveal 
 To one who can thy sorrows feel. 
 
 Perchance can ease thy smart ? 
 The maid of tresses fair replied — 
 
 " A precious ring I wore ;t 
 Dropped from my finger in the tide. 
 
 Its loss I now deplore ; 
 
 * This will remind the reader of a similar question by Venus in the first 
 ^neid :— 
 
 Heus inquit, juvenes monstrate mearnm 
 
 Vidistis usquam hie errantem forte sororum 
 
 Succinctam pharetra, et maculosse tegmine lyncis, 
 
 Aut spumantis apri cursum clamore prementem ? — ^n, I. 325. 
 
 Ho, strangers ! have you lately seen, she said, 
 
 One of my sisters, like myself array'd, 
 
 Who crossed the lawn or in the forest stray'd ! 
 
 A painted quiver at her back she bore ; 
 
 Varied with spots, a lynx's hide she wore ; 
 
 And at full cry pursued the tusky boar. — Dryden. 
 
 t An instinctive impulse of gallantry might have induced Finn to comply 
 with the damsel's request — but independently of this he was bound to com- 
 pliance by the lawo of knighthood. The ring lost by th« enchantress might 
 
54- THE LAY OF THE 
 
 But by the sacred vows that bind 
 
 Each brave and loyal knight, 
 I now adjure thee, Chief, to find 
 
 My peerless jewel bright." 
 
 be of inestimable value on account of its occult qualities, such as those 
 possessed by a memorable ring celebrated by Aiiosto, the great poet of 
 romantic poetry — 
 
 Uno anello 
 
 Che fu rubato in India a una Regina — 
 
 «t • « * 
 
 Di tal virtii, che chi nel dito ha quelle, 
 Contra il mal de gl'incanti ha medicina. 
 " A ring there is which from an Indi:m queene 
 Was stole sometime, of price and vii-tue great : 
 This ring can make a man to go unseene, 
 This ring can all inchantments quite defeat." 
 The ring of our enchantress, however, does not appear to have had anj 
 such virtue. The change produced on Finn was caused by the waters of 
 the lake. 
 
 Since the days of Gyges, mentioned in the Clio of Herodotus, certain 
 rings have beeti held in great estimation in romantic, and even in real, his- 
 tory. The ring of Ariosto's Indian queen was to be taken by force from its 
 possessor without losing a moment of time, 
 
 "lest he convey 
 The ring into his mouth and so thereby 
 Out of your sight he vanish quite away." 
 
 Such ring by rendering the wearer invisible, and by ti*ansporting him 
 instantaneously wherever he desired, invested him with a sort of ubiquity 
 and omniscience. In the ancient metrical tale of Florice and Blanchellour, 
 the queen presents her son with a ring of such marvellous virtues — 
 
 " She cast her hand to her fingre 
 
 And drouz thereof a riche ringe ;" 
 and as she presented it to her son, assured him that while he wore it, he 
 should sutler no injury from fire, water, iron, or steel — 
 
 " Ne iron, ne stel schal derie the." 
 
 In true history as well as in fiction, a ring is the instrument of marveUons 
 events. The ring of Essex might have saved his head from the block — that 
 ot Hannibal avenged the calamities he inflicted on the Romans. 
 Cannarum vindex ac tanti sanguinis ultor 
 Annuhis. Jovenal. 
 
 The vengeance due to Cannae's fatal field, 
 And floods of human gore, a ring shall yield. 
 
 Gifford. 
 When ringr-money was in circulation, it had, of course, all the omnipo- 
 tence attributed to gold ; and it can be easily understood how it could work 
 marvels equalling if not surpassing those of the most potent enchanter— 
 Scilicet uxorem cum dote, fidemque, et amicos, 
 Et genus, et formam, regina pecunia donat ; 
 Ac bene nummatum decorat Suadela Venusque. 
 
 Hob. 
 " By this great Empress Wealth is all bestow'd 
 A rich and honest wife, and every good. 
 As beauty, friends, and nobleness of blood : 
 The rich and moneyed man hath every gi-ace. 
 Persuasion in his tongue, and Venus in his face." 
 
 Creech. 
 
CHASE OP SLIEVE QUILLIN. 55 
 
 He feels her adjuration's ties; 
 
 Disrobes each manly limb, 
 And for the smooth-palmed princess hies 
 
 The gulfy lake to swim. 
 Five times deep-diving down the wave. 
 Through every cranny, nook, and cave. 
 With care he searches round and round, 
 Till the golden ring at length he found ; 
 But scarce to shore the prize could bring. 
 
 When by some blasting ban — 
 Ah ! piteous tale — the Fenian king 
 
 Grew a withered, grey, old man ! 
 
 X. 
 
 Meanwhile the Fenians passed the hours 
 In the hall of spears, at Almhuin's towers ; 
 The goblet crowned, with chessmen played. 
 Or gifts for gifts of love repaid. 
 When Caoilte rose and asked in grief, 
 ' ' Ye spearmen, where is our gallant chief ? 
 In chase he went of a mottled doe — 
 
 A borrowed form I ween — 
 A sorceress that may work his wo. 
 
 And change his noble mien ; 
 By witchery's charms, and wicked skill 
 Transform, and brutalize, or kill. 
 Lost, lost, I fear, is the Fenians' boast ; 
 Lost the great leader of our host ! 
 Whom shall we then our chieftain name, 
 To lead to victory and fame ?" 
 Bald Conan spoke — " A sweeter sound 
 
 Ne'er tingled on my ear ; 
 If Finn be lost, may he not be found 
 
 Till end the distant year ! 
 But, Caoilte of the nimble feet, 
 Ye shall not want a chieftain meet ; 
 In me, till the fate of Finn be told. 
 The leader of your host behold i" 
 
56 THE LAY OT THE 
 
 Although the Fenian bands were torn 
 
 With agony severe, 
 We burst into a laugh of scorn. 
 
 Such arrogance to hear. 
 
 XI. 
 
 To urge the quest, we then decree, 
 
 Of Finn and his hounds, the joyous three 
 
 That still to triumph led ; 
 And soon from Almhuin's halls away, 
 With Caoilte, I, and our dark array. 
 
 North to Slew Guillin sped. 
 There, as with searching glance the eye 
 
 O'er all the prospect rolled, 
 Beside the lake a wretch we spy. 
 
 Poor, withered, grey, and old. 
 Disgust and horror touched the heart 
 To see the bones, all fleshless, start 
 
 In a frame so lank and wan ; 
 We thought him some starved fisher torn 
 From the whelming stream, by famine worn, 
 
 And left but the wreck of man. 
 We asked if he had chanced to see 
 
 A swift-paced chieftain go. 
 With two fleet hounds across the lea, 
 
 Behind a fair young doe. 
 He gave us back no answer clear. 
 But in the nimble Caoilte's ear 
 He breathed his tale — 0, tale of grief ! — 
 That in him we saw the Fenian chief ! 
 Three sudden shouts to hear the tale 
 
 Our host raised loud and shrill — 
 The badgers started in the vale, 
 
 The wild deer on the hill. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Then Conan fierce unsheathed his sword, 
 And curs'd the Fenian king and his horde. 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE GUILLIN. 57 
 
 " If true thy tale," he cries, 
 " This blade thy head would off thee smite; 
 For ne'er my valour in the fight, 
 
 Nor prowess didst thou prize. 
 Would that like thee, both old and weak, 
 Were the Fenians all, that my sword might reek 
 In their craven blood, and their cairns might swell 
 On the grassy lea !- -for since Cumhail fell, 
 
 O'ercome in fateful strife, 
 By Morni's son of the golden shields. 
 Our sons thou hast sent to foreign fields, 
 
 Or of freedom reft and life." 
 •' Bald, senseless wretch ! our care is due 
 To Finn's sad state, or thy mouth should rue 
 A speech so vile, and soon atone 
 With shattered teeth and fractured bone:" 
 
 Indignant Caoilte spoke. 
 With equal wrath said Oscar stern, 
 " Audacious babbler ! silence learn — 
 
 What foe e'er felt thy stroke ?" 
 Then Conan thus — *' Vain boy ! be dumb, 
 
 Or tell what deed of fame 
 Did e'er thy Finn, but gnaw his thumb* 
 
 Until the marrow came ? 
 We, not Clan-Boske, did the deed. 
 Whene'er we saw the foemen bleed. 
 Behind thee, Ossian, may thy son 
 A puling, whining, chanter run. 
 
 And bear white book and bell. 
 His words I scorn — in open fight. 
 Which of us twain is in the right 
 
 Let swords, not speeches, tell." 
 Him answered Oscar's trusty steel ; 
 When craven Conan, taught to feel, 
 And trembling for his worthless life. 
 The Fenians prayed to end the strife, 
 
 A note in Miss Brooke's translations informs us that *' Finn was re- 
 
 dge c 
 
 d2 
 
 preached with deriving all his courage from his foreknowledge of events 
 and chewing his thumb for prophetic information " 
 
58 
 
 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 And stay rough Oscar's blade. 
 Between them swift the Fenians rushed. 
 The rising stonn of battle hushed, 
 
 And Oscar's vengeance stayed. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Of Cumhail's son then Caoilte sought 
 What wizard Danan foe had wrought 
 Such piteous change — and Finn replied, 
 
 " 'Twas Guillin's daughter — me she bound 
 By a sacred spell to search the tide 
 
 Till the ring she lost was found." 
 Then Conan spoke in altered mood — 
 
 ** Safe may we ne'er depart, 
 Till we see restored our chieftain good, 
 
 Or Guillin rue his art ! " 
 Then close around our chief we throng, 
 And bear him on our shields along. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Eight days and nights the cayerned seat 
 Where Guillin made his dark retreat 
 
 We dig with sleepless care ; 
 Pour through its windings close, the light. 
 Till we see, in all her radiance bright, 
 
 Spring forth th' enchantress fair. 
 A chalice she bore of angled mould,* 
 And sparkling rich with gems and gold ; 
 Its brimming fount in the hand she placed 
 Of Finn, whose looks small beauty graced. 
 Feeble he drinks — the potion speeds 
 
 Through every joint and pore ; 
 To palsied ago fresh youth succeeds — 
 Finn of the swift and slender steeds 
 
 Becomes himself once more. 
 
 * Quadrangular— the ancient cup of the Irish, called mtadar. Specimens 
 of it may be seen in the Antiquaiian Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. 
 
CHASE OF SLIEYE GUILLIN. 59 
 
 His shape, his strength, his hloom returns. 
 And in manly glory bright he burns ! * 
 
 XV. 
 
 We gave three shouts that rent the air — 
 
 The badgers fled the vale : 
 And now, sage of frugal care. 
 
 Hast thou not heard the tale ? 
 
 The cup of our enchantress produces effects quite the reverse of those 
 ought by the cup of her sister Circe — 
 
 " Who knows not Circe, 
 The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup 
 Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape. 
 And downwai'd Ldl into a grovelling swine «" 
 
 Soon as the potion works, their human countenance, 
 Th' express resemblance of the gods, is changed 
 Into some bnitish form of wolf or bear, 
 Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat. 
 
 Comus. 
 
 Slieve Guillin, the scene of the preceding lay, is said to be the highest 
 mountain in Ulster, with the exception of Slieve Donard, the highest of the 
 mountains of Mourne. In Sir Charles Coote's statistical survey^it is stated 
 that, " Perhaps a bolder prospect is not presented in our island than from 
 its summit, comprising a great extent of country; the lakes and streams, 
 the several towns and well cultivated demesnes, together with the bay of 
 DundaJk, where the declivity is terminated. Nigh the summit is a small 
 amphitheatre containing a lake, and at the hisrhest point, a cairn of stones 
 forming the roof of a cavern, manifestly the work of art, aftbrding a safe 
 retreat to robbers." The cairn is said in Loutluana to be " 300 feet in 
 circumference ; and the cave to be like those dedicated to the Danish gods, 
 and probably to Thor." General Vallancey says that " all our mountains 
 were dedicated to some heathen Deity, and still retain the names ; as SUabh 
 Eachtai (or Hecate), Sliabh Goiline (one of the deities of the Pagan Irish — 
 chief of the Fawns of the Woods, Satyrs, S^'lvan deities), Goiline, a word 
 now used to express the Devil." — Anc. Ilist. of Ireland, pp. 514, 517. 
 
 The learned antiquary thinks the Irish word Sliabh (or Slieve) a moun- 
 tain, is derived from the Chaldee SUilib arsit, combusgit, " because on such 
 high places altars were erected, and the holy fire kept burning, till reformed 
 by the Jire-tower." — p. 463. 
 
 The following legend, on which the Lay of the Chase seems to be founded, 
 has been kindly presented to the author by Mr. Nicholas Kearney. 
 
 " Miluchradh and Aine, or Aigne, two sisters, daughters of Cualan of 
 Cuailgne,of the Tuatha De Danan race, fell in love witli Fionn Mac Cubhaill. 
 Aine declared in the banquetiing hall of Allen, before all the guestF, in order 
 to secure the affection of the hero, that her husband should never become 
 hoary or old. It would appear from the sequel that she succeeded by her 
 announcement, in out-rivalling her sister; for Miluchradh inflamed with 
 jealousy, returned home, and, having summoned the chief Druids of her 
 people to Slieve Guillin, caused them to form a druidic (draoidheacht) lake 
 on the summit of the mountain, to wreak her vengeance on Fionn, and 
 frusti-ate her sister's prediction. The waters of this lake, which was called 
 
60 ' THE LAY OF THE CHASE OF SLIEVE GUILLIN. 
 
 Loch Dogradh, possessed the huadha (extraordinary or magical powers) of 
 changing the hair grey, and rendering the frame old and weak, of all who 
 bathed in them. The wicked Miluchradh having thus made her arrange- 
 ments, waited an opportunity of enticing Fionn into her meshes ; and having 
 found him alone one day on the plain of AUen, she metamorphosed herself 
 into a fawn, the better to beguile him and draw him to her druidic lake on 
 Slieve Guillin. The remainder of the story is told in the poem. 
 
 It is rather singular that a faint notion of the powers said to be possessed 
 by the waters of this lake, is still preserved in the traditions of the people. 
 Old folks used to tell how some men were found daring enough to make an 
 attempt to drain the lake, despite the warnings and admonitions of their 
 more cautious neighbours to deter them — how a sudden wave splashed the 
 most determined man among the labourers, just on the eve of accomplishing 
 their object, while engaged on the brink of the lake, and how his auburn 
 locks suddenly assumed a silvery hue! Another man was splashed on 
 another occasion, but the hair of only one side of his head was changed, 
 while the other still remained raven-dark as before. This is analagous to 
 the case of Fionn ; for, when he drank of the druidic coma or cup, half his 
 hair only assumed its original colour; the Fenians then cried out that both 
 colours became him well, and they advised him to forego the demand of 
 having the colour wholly restored, and that it remained so until the day of 
 his death. It seems that the notion still holds its place in popular belief, 
 for a native of Forkhill, now residing in Dublin, told me about a man who 
 met a similar fate about 20 years ago, while endeavouring to remove a stone 
 on the margin of the lake. A 11 these strange doings are said to be performed 
 by the supernatural agency of Miluchradh, better known as the CailUach 
 Biorar, who is considered to be the guardian of the lake, and to reside to 
 this day in a cave in the mountain. She is stiU much dreaded by the people 
 in the vicinity. 
 
 This must be the fount alluded to by Giraldus Barry, though he states 
 that it is in Munster, which is another of his mistakes. " Est fons in Momo- 
 nia cujus aquis, si quis abluitur, statim canus efficitur." — Vid. Camb. Evers. 
 p. 128, Ed. Celt. Soc— [N. K.}" 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHASE OF GLENNASMOL. 
 
 Gi/EN OF THE Thbush— 80 Called from the number, or, as has been said, 
 from the remarkable size, of that sweet bird of song, probably the missel- 
 thrush, the largest of the genus, by which it is frequented. This romantic 
 glen is six or seven miles distant fi-oni Dublin, by the base of the dark and 
 lofty mountain of Kippure, and the sources of the river Dodder. It is 
 celebrated as the scene of some of the Fenian heroes' adventures, and 
 pai'ticularly for the chase of a remarkable deer, the subject of one of the 
 Ossianic minstrel's lays, which is here presented to the reader. For a 
 literally verbal translation of this lay from the original Irish, the present 
 versifier is indebted, as for many similar obligations, to Mr, Eugene Curry, 
 Irish amanuenuis to the Royal Irish Academy. He is also indebted to Mr. 
 Nicholas Kearney, for a manuscript translation into English heroic verse 
 by Matthew Graham, of the same poem, under the title of the Giantess. 
 In a prefatory advertisement, that translator says that this poem " is in 
 the mouth of almost every person who can speak the Irish language either 
 complete, or in part ;" and laments the inadequacy of any translation to 
 match the expressive beauty of the original. Most translators say this of 
 the works which they translate ; and it is no doubt true that in every lan- 
 guage there are certain beauties of expression which cannot be transferred 
 and which can be seen and appreciated in their rrative dress only. As to 
 these Fenian tales they would not move gracefully in English heroics. 
 Such a dress would be too cumbersome — Uke the armour of Saul on the 
 limbs of the stripling David. Chevy Chase would be sadly metamorphosed 
 if fused into the heroics of genuine Epic song. 
 
 DUAN FIRST, 
 
 Abopment. — Patrick expresses the delight he feels in hearing the tales of 
 old. Ossian, to gratify his wish, immediately proceeds to inform him 
 how the Fenians had assembled, one rosy morn, to pursue the chase in 
 Glennasmol— when they started a deer of singular appearance, having 
 one side white as snow, the other black as coal. The hounds were 
 immediately slipped, but had not long enjoyed the sport, till, with the 
 
62 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 deer, they all vanished from the view. Wondering at their sudden dis- 
 appearance, Finn consults his oracular thumb — and, in reply to some 
 observations of Conan, declares that they shall never behold any of the 
 hounds returning except Brann ; who, soon after, comes back in a 
 miserable plight, portending, by piteous moans, that a sad disaster had 
 befallen the Fenians. Presently they behold a lovely female, who, 
 approaching them, says she comes from the Princess of Greece, who 
 had arrived at a neighbouring isle with her fleet richly laden with 
 precious stores, and had provided a stmiptuous banquet, to which she 
 invited the Fenian chief and his heroes. They readily accept the 
 invitation. When the banquet was concluded, and Finn was retiring, 
 a woman of gigantic stature stood before him, crowned and robed like 
 a queen, but of coai'se and disgusting features— one side fair and the 
 other dark as night. The piincess comleously addressing Finn, declares 
 that her ships, her treasures, her maidens, all are his, and herself his 
 spouse for life. Finn makes a brief reply, declining to accept her 
 proffered love. He says he cannot take for his wife a woman whom 
 he had that morning beheld in the shape of a doe ; and ends his reply 
 by asking if his hounds were yet Uving. She answers tliat, with the 
 exception of Brann, they were all bereft of life — that she had slain a 
 multitude of his men, and would not depart till she had glutted her 
 vengeance in the slaughter of the Fenians. To accomplish her design, 
 she began to practise her incantations, charmed the Fenians to sleep, 
 and then cut off the heads of a hundred men. 
 
 I. 
 
 Patrick. — Ossian, 'tis music to my ear 
 Thy tales of olden time to hear ; 
 And chief of glorious victory won, 
 
 In many a hard-fought field, 
 By Oscar, thy heroic son, 
 
 Ne'er known to flee or yield. 
 
 Ossian. — The Fenians, on a festive day, 
 
 Assemhled all in trim array, 
 
 Finn with his son, young Fergus fair, 
 
 Ossian, and Oscar, Ossian's pride. 
 With Dermuid of the dark-brown hair. 
 
 Bald Conan, and more chiefs beside. 
 Ere from the cliffs the orient sun 
 The mists to scatter had begun. 
 To Glennasmol, to urge the chase 
 We onward sped with rapid pace. 
 
CHASE OP GLENNASMOL. 63 
 
 His dogs, impatient to be freed. 
 
 In leash each Fenian led. 
 Sgolan and Brann of matchless speed, 
 
 To feats of hunting bred, 
 Our noble Finn, serene and mild. 
 Held in strong check tho* fierce and wild. 
 And as they raised their joyous cry, 
 Our hopes of gallant sport rose high. 
 
 IL 
 
 Soon passed we, with our merry men, 
 O'er the green hill that tops the glen, 
 Where woods, in verdant bloom arrayed. 
 Give rich variety of shade ; 
 Sweet birds their carols soft prolong, 
 Far cliffs repeat the cuckoo's song ; 
 And oft, as down the valley floats 
 The music of the thrush's notes, 
 The hunter, though in full career, 
 Stops short, in extasy to hear. 
 
 III. 
 
 Then, through the glen's deep-winding rounds, 
 We loosed with speed our nimble hounds : 
 To slip his twelve Finn was not slack — 
 His twelve, the noblest of the pack, 
 Whose voice we heard more sweetly ring 
 Than tones from harp's melodious string. 
 
 IV. 
 
 We started soon a hornless doe, 
 
 Strange sight ! for her one side 
 Was whiter than the driven snow, 
 
 Or swan upon the tide ; 
 The other of a coal-black hue ; 
 And fleet as fleetest hawk she flew. 
 
64 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 V. 
 
 Then every man unleashed his hounds — 
 
 Finn slipt his Brann with speed ; 
 And on they sprang with rapid bounds, 
 
 Still hoping to succeed. 
 But while we watched their hurried flight, 
 They all evanished from our sight. 
 Finn stood perplexed with strange amaze. 
 As on their course he fixed his gaze, 
 For ne'er before, since first she ran. 
 Had chase escaped his matchless Brann.* 
 
 • Brann — a mountain stream — Finn's favourite hound, so called on account 
 of his rapidity and strength. He was celebrated above aU his contempora- 
 ries for success in the chase — for when " a thousand dogs flew off at once, 
 grey-bounding through the heath ; a deer fell by every dog ; three by the 
 white-breasted Bran." He, or rather she, for Brann was feminine,' was 
 wortliy to be regarded as the friend or rival of Cavall, King Arthur's dog, 
 who " left all the other dogs behind him, and turned the stag," as we are 
 informed in " Geraint the son of Erbin," one of the Mahino^ion heroes. In 
 the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin (1808) is the following 
 description of Brann literally translated from the Irish :— 
 
 Yellow legs had Brann, 
 
 Both her sides black and her belly white, 
 
 A speckled back over her loins, 
 
 And two crimson ears very red. 
 
 But this is as nothing compared to the description of John M'Donnel's 
 hound, in the " Foray of Con O'Donnel"— «• a spunky and delightful legend," 
 as it is justly termed by the Literary Gazette of October 5, 1850, in its notice 
 of" Ballads, Poems, and Lyrics, by Denis Florence M'Carthy : — 
 
 " As fly the shadows o'er the grass, 
 
 He flies with step as light and sure ; 
 He hunts the wolf through Trostan pass. 
 
 And starts the deer by Lisanoure. 
 The music of the sabbath bells 
 
 O'Con, has not a sweeter sound 
 Than when along the valley swells 
 
 The cry of John MacDonnel's hound. 
 
 His stature tall, his body long, 
 
 His back like night, his breast like snow. 
 His fore leg pillar-like and strong. 
 
 His hind-leg like a bended bow ; 
 Rough curling hair, head long and thin. 
 
 His ear a leaf, so small and round. 
 Not Bran the favourite hound of Fin 
 
 Could rival John MacDonnel's hound." 
 
 Finn's two celebrated dogs, Sgeolan and Brann, were of the canine race 
 only in appearance, being the son and daughter of lollan Eachtach, son of 
 the King of Ulster, and Tuirn, a lady of great personal charms, wlio had 
 been united to lollan, on the express condition that slie should be returned 
 to Finn, her near relative, whenever he should think proper to claim her— 
 a condition which the prudent Finn deemed necessary, because he was 
 
CHASB OP GLENNASMOL. 65 
 
 VI. 
 
 As was his wont, when sore distressed, 
 His thumb oracular he pressed 
 Between his teeth ; — when Conan came 
 And asked where had the piebald game 
 Slunk out of view: — had treacherous bogs 
 Down swallowed all the sweet-mouthed dogs ? 
 Finn answered straight — oppressed with care, 
 " Bald Conan, by thy hand I swear. 
 Not one of all the generous pack, 
 Save Brann, we e'er shall welcome back." 
 
 VII. 
 
 In cheerless melancholy mood 
 
 To lose their hounds, the Fenians stood 
 
 And then, too late, began to know 
 
 No chase for them was the hornless doe. 
 
 aware that lollan was under the influence of a potent Leannan Sighe, or 
 familiar spirit, named Osdealbh, who might incite him to treat his spouse 
 unkindly. But his precaution was fruitless, for during Tuirin's pregnancy, 
 the Leannan Sighe, under an assumed name and character, contrived to 
 meet her, and striking her with her dreadful draoidheact (druidlcal) wand, 
 metamorphosed her into a female hound, that, in due time, brought forth a 
 twin offspring. Osdealbh was prevailed on by lollan to restore Tuirn to 
 her proper shape, and she proposed to give the human frame to each of her 
 progeny. But Finn, to whom they were presented, said he preferred having 
 them as they were, and accordingly they retained their canine form, with 
 human understanding, and became the illustrious dogs Sgeolan and Brann. 
 For an ample account of the romance, of which this is but a meagre out- 
 line, the curious reader is referred to the Feis Teacha Conan Cinsleibhe. 
 
 Mr. Nicholas Kearney, who has kindly supplied the matter of this legend, 
 tliinks that in it "more is meant than meets the ear;" and that from 
 numerous Irish topographical terms, into the composition of which the 
 words cu, cou, &c. (dog or hound) enter — and from their connection with 
 various traditions, something bordering on the worship of the Egyptian 
 Anubis was once prevalent in Ireland. Here is fine game started for our 
 Archaeologists. The learned Jacob Bryant gives much information on the 
 subject, and tells us, on the authority of ^lian and Plutarch, that the 
 people of ^Ethiopia had a dog for their king — that he was " royally treated,'-' 
 and worshipped with a degree of religious reverence. There have been 
 many kings, and priests too, less worthy than dogs of royal honours and 
 religious veneration, 
 
 0' Donovan informs us that " The old Irish used the word Cu, a dog, or 
 hound, to denote a hero or fierce warrior, and in this sense it frequently 
 entered into the composition of names of men, as Cu-Mara, i. e. dog of the 
 sea ; Cu Uladh, dog of Ulster ; Cu Mumhan, dog of Munster. In the same 
 sense the Latins used Catullus, Cato, and the Greeks Cyrus." 
 
66 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Anon, slow moving o'er the green 
 With limping pace, poor Brann was seen 
 In dismal phght, fatigued and spent 
 With froth and mud and mire hesprent. 
 Small joy had she her friends to meet ; 
 When, falling at her master's feet, 
 She sent forth many a piteous moan. 
 To make her sad disasters kno^vn. 
 *' Alas ! poor Brann, thy wretched case 
 Portends, to all the Fenian race, 
 Some danger near" — said Finn aloud; 
 When answered thus the Fenians proud — 
 
 ** No danger far or near 
 From foes that ever crossed the wave. 
 Though great their force — their spirit brave. 
 
 Do we hold Fenians fear ; 
 But now in sorrow deep we mourn 
 To think our friends will ne'er return. 
 Nor e'er again the joyful sounds 
 Hear of om* sweet swift-footed hounds." 
 
 } 
 
 IX. 
 
 While thus they grieved — advancing nigh, 
 
 A beauteous female form we spy. 
 
 Her step, her mien, her noble face, 
 
 Were clothed with dignity and grace, 
 
 And told her born of princely race, 
 
 Her hair, in ringlets half-unrolled, 
 \ Deep-flowing shone like twisted gold, 
 / So long that, as she nearer drew, 
 
 From the grass it swept the pearly dew.* 
 
 ■" The hair of the Fenian heroines was deemed an essential requisite of 
 their beauty. Hence we often find their long curling and twisted locks 
 mentioned in the minstrels' descriptions. In this their taste corresponded 
 with that of the Greeks, Romans, Arabians, Jews — and indeed of all who 
 have any perception of the beautifuL Sharon Turner says that among the 
 Saxons long hair was highly " valuable and reputable." In Aldhelm's 
 poem of Holofemes, Judith is perpetually mentioned with epithets allusive 
 to her hair — as 
 
 The maid of the Creator, 
 
 With twisted locks. 
 
CHASE OF GLENNASMOL. 67 
 
 Her brow majestic vaulted high, 
 Looked down upon her azure eye 
 
 That seemed to swim in light : 
 Her cheeks were of the crimson glow 
 That the quicken's berries round them throw, 
 
 .All dazzHng to the sight, 
 And from her mouth sweet music broke, 
 When thus to noble Finn she spoke : 
 
 X. 
 
 ** To thee — to thy heroic bands, 
 And all who own thy high commands, 
 
 A fond request I bring, 
 Finn, to come to the royal dome, 
 Where now my princess makes her home, 
 
 The daughter of a king — 
 The king of Greece. She for a while 
 Rests here unknown in Erin's isle. 
 Ten hundred ships, a gallant fleet, 
 
 Her sire his daughter gave ; 
 And in them many a maiden sweet 
 
 Has ploughed the eastern wave. 
 In yonder isle, the shore beside, 
 They float upon the glassy tide, 
 Deep-laden with a precious store 
 Of satins, silks, and shining ore. 
 With other wealth more rich and rare 
 Than thou canst guess, or I declare. 
 
 The curious reader may see, in a small volnine of Romances, by J. D. Israeli, 
 in a note too long for quotation here, a variety of passages from different 
 authors, descriptive of this " most seducing ornament of beauty," viz., the 
 hyacinthine, clustering, crisped, curled, silken locks and glossy ringlets — 
 Vaurie, crespe e lunghi e d'oro. As the Apostle Paul says, " if a woman have 
 long hair, it is a glory to her" — our minstrel's Gi'ecian damsel's golden 
 hair, which was so long that, "from the grass it swept the pearly dew," 
 would have appeared to all whose taste harmonized with the Apostle's 
 peculiarly glorious. 
 
 Guiniver, the wife of King Arthur, was named the " golden-haired 
 queen." When Boadicea addressed her army about to engage in fierce 
 conflict with the Romans, she is described as having " the tresses of her 
 yellow hair hanging to the skirts of her dress." 
 
68 THE L\T OF THE 
 
 Yes, many a cask of rosy wine, 
 
 And many a spit with haunch of deer, 
 And many a horn that gems entwine 
 Full to the brim, thy heart to cheer, 
 On thee, Finn, await. 
 Many the ships that line the strand ; 
 Many the gay pavilions stand, 
 With brilliant lights and lustres fair, 
 For thee, Finn, they now prepare 
 All drest in regal state." 
 
 XI. 
 
 This said — the maiden turned away — 
 
 We followed soon in close array. 
 
 And to the island-shores we sped 
 
 Where the beauteous Grecian maiden led : 
 
 There met we, as we hoped to meet, 
 
 A warm and gracious welcome sweet 
 
 From each kind-hearted Grecian maid. 
 
 For us the sumptuous feast was laid, 
 
 Delicious viands — goblets crowned 
 
 With sparkling wine, went round and round, 
 
 And all was such as well became 
 
 Our great illustrious chief of fame. 
 
 XII. 
 
 When now our hunger was repressed 
 With fare the choicest and the best. 
 
 Uprising, with a sudden start. 
 Cried Finn — *' to take a moment's rest, 
 
 I from the board depart." 
 While yet he spoke, in troubled mood 
 A female large before him stood, 
 Of form and features coarse and rude 
 Her hair like beaded sea-wreck spread 
 Around her large mis-shapen head. 
 And fell, like tangled briars, down. 
 Compressed beneath a golden crown. 
 
 :■} 
 
CHASE OF GLENNASMOL. 69 
 
 Her sides — the one was snowy white, 
 The other black as the collied night. 
 A robe of rich resplendent sheen 
 
 Across her shoulders flung, 
 Trying to hide her awkward mien, 
 
 Down to her buskins hung — 
 Her features all were foul and grim, 
 Giant her frame, both body and limb. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 With hands cross-folded o'er her breast. 
 Our king she proudly thus addressed : 
 " King of the Fenian warriors dear, 
 To me thou art most welcome here. 
 My ships now rocking on the brine. 
 My gold — my treasures — all are thine ; 
 Thine my fair maidens, and for life, 
 Am I thy dearest, loving, wife. 
 Illustrious warrior ! here in me, 
 
 Come from a distant land ; 
 You Greece's royal daughter see; 
 
 Who gives you now her hand ; 
 One who since first her life began 
 Before ne'er proffered love to man. 
 To you, great chief, renowned in war, 
 She brings great treasures from afar. 
 Thine are her silver, gold, and gems. 
 Her truncheons, swords, and diadems, 
 With power to stretch thy sceptre forth 
 O'er all the world from south to north." 
 
 XIV. 
 
 She ceased — and gravely thus replied 
 
 Our loved and noble chief: 
 ** Lady ! thou ne'er canst be my bride — 
 
 This is my answer brief. 
 Despite thy flowing robe, I know 
 This morn thou wast a hornless doe ; 
 
70 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 And thee we chased o'er moor and knoll 
 Through the brown scars of Glennasmol. 
 And now I ask thee to declare, 
 Breathe yet our hounds this vital air ?" 
 
 XV. 
 
 *♦ No — by thy hand great Finn I vow. 
 
 They lie of life bereft ; 
 But one of all is living now, 
 
 Thy Brann alone is left. 
 And many a stalwart warrior bold, 
 Who bravely fought, lies stark and cold, 
 Down stricken by my trenchant blade. 
 When hosts against me stood arrayed : 
 Nor shall I now depart from thee. 
 
 Till o'er thy Fenian train 
 I claim a glorious victory. 
 
 And heap with dead the plain. 
 Till this right hand, though proud the boasts. 
 And great the strength of the Fenian hosts, 
 Has cleft their serried phalanx* down. 
 And shorn them of their fair renown." 
 
 XVI. 
 
 She then a magic rite began, 
 
 With music's potent spell ; 
 Through the Fenians' breasts chill horror ran, 
 
 And fainting down they fell.t 
 
 • The reader will remember that it is a Grecian heroine who spealts — 
 and though serried phalanx is not in the original, it is in the military lan- 
 guage of Greece, and therefore, not inappropriate to the character. 
 
 t " The extent to which the belief in magic was carried, even by the most 
 enlightened, during the middle ages, is really wonderful, and we cannot be 
 surprised at its being frequently employed in the macliinery of Romance, 
 when an historian like Froissart gravely tells us of castles that were lost 
 and won by means of optical deceptions. In the case he cites they were 
 produced by an enchanter, ' a conning man in nigromancy,' who was witli 
 the army of the Duke of Anjou and the Earl of Savoy, then lying before the 
 city of Naples. Tliis magician proposed, by his art, to put into the power 
 of these two princes the castle wliich they were besieging, and which he 
 boasted having already delivered to Sir Charles de la Paye, who was then 
 in possession of it. Shocked, however, at his treachery towards his former 
 
CHASE OF GLENN ASMOL. 71 
 
 Strong was the charm she o'er them cast, 
 Till she bound them in strong fetters fast ; 
 Then forth her flaming sword she drew, 
 
 To us a fearful sight ! 
 Such lightning flashes round it flew, 
 
 And with resistless might 
 Descending, shortened by the head, 
 A hundred men on their gory bed. 
 Oh ! direful tale — oh I cruel deed ! 
 That thus our gallant men should bleed. 
 
 And ne'er have lifted spear. 
 Not crossed a sword — not winged a dart, 
 But slaughtered lie by magic art, 
 
 Like a herd of prisoned deer ! 
 
 employer, they assured him that he should ' never do more enchantments 
 to deceyve hym, nor yet any other,' and repaid his offers of service by 
 causing him to be beheaded on the spot." — Note to Geraint, the son of Erbin, 
 in the Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Ghiest. 
 
 One of the most common effects of ancient magic was to deprive those 
 who were brought under its influence, of all spirit and strength. Thus in 
 the metrical romance of the n)arriage of Sir Gawaine, when King Arthur 
 came to Tearne Wadlinge, and thus spoke out his challenge : — 
 
 Come forth, come forth, thou proud barone. 
 Or yielde thyself my thraUe ; 
 
 he felt himself quite unmanned, for 
 
 " On magicke grounde that castle stoode 
 
 A nd fenced with many a spelle ; 
 Noe valiant knighte could tread thereon, 
 
 But straite his courage felle. 
 Forth then rush'd that carlish knight, 
 
 King Arthur felte the charme ; 
 His sturdy sinewes lost their strengthe, 
 
 Downe sunke his feeble arme." 
 
 Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHASE OF GLENNASMOL, 
 DUAN SECOND. 
 
 Argument.— Ossian, in continuation of his tale, informs Patrick that all 
 the Fenians, except Conan, Oscar, and himself, were overcome by magic 
 spells— that Finn hadrecourse to supplication — and let the princess know 
 that, being already espoused to Gaul's sister, he would be the victim of 
 that warrior's resentment should he espouse another. The princess 
 is peremptory — declares she will strike off the head of Gaul, and eke 
 the heads of all the Fenians, unless they hail her queen. The fleet now 
 advances towards the shore, and being spied by Gaul, he anticipates 
 some great calamity. Caoilte goes to the beach to make inquiry, and 
 is horror-struck on beholding the hideous form of the princess, but 
 nevertheless asks her name and her object in coming to their shores. 
 She answers that unless she is at once received as queen and wife to 
 Finn, she will put Gaul and all the Fenians to the sword, Gaul, on 
 hearing this, immediately arrays a formidable force, and after sustain- 
 ing the loss of a thousand men, arms himself to meet the princess. 
 They fought three days, and left the strife undecided. Meantime Finn, 
 Dermuid, and Ossian, were detained in the island, under the custody of 
 fifty maidens. One of these, who kept watch in turn to prevent escape, 
 was of a generous disposition, and lent a willing ear to the flattering 
 speeches of Dermuid, a perfect adept in the art of winning woman's 
 love, who promised to espouse her if she would imloose their chains. 
 This agreement being ratified, Conan, envious of their happiness, 
 approaches the maiden stealthily, and, with one sweep of his sword, 
 cuts off her head. Dermuid would have instantly avenged this ruthless 
 deed, had not Oscar swiftly interposed. They then rush out to the field 
 where lay their slaughtered companions. While Gaul was preparing 
 for the fight, Oscar prevailed on him to let him try one pass at arms 
 with the formidable heroine. Oscar soon ended the contest by sending 
 a dart, with resistless force, through her body — an act which gratified 
 all the Fenians, except Gaul, who regretted that he had allowed another 
 to have the honour of achieving a victory which he might have gained 
 for himself. In this, as in many others of the Fenian lays, it is a pri- 
 mary object with the Bard to magnify the exploits of Oscar. 
 
THE LAY OP THE CHASE OF GLENNASMOL. 73 
 
 I. 
 
 'Tis glorious, in a well-fought field, 
 
 Where man meets man in mortal strife, 
 
 Breath for our country's good to yield, 
 For glory sweet to barter life — 
 
 But not without the clash of arms. 
 
 To fall by incantation's charms. 
 
 •} 
 
 II. 
 
 Our Fenian warriors, young and gay, 
 Who to the isle had bent their way. 
 On the cold ground beside us lay 
 By magic spells of life bereft — 
 But I, to tell the tale, was left, 
 With Finn, magnanimous and kind, 
 Bald Conan, of a cheerless mind, 
 Young Oscar, my heroic son. 
 And, woman's darling, Dermuid Dun. 
 
 III. 
 
 With grief, in this eventful hour, 
 
 Finn bent before superior power. 
 
 By stern necessity compressed. 
 
 He thus the sorceress addressed : 
 
 " Great princess ! hear thy suppliant's prayer, 
 
 And let thy anger cease ; 
 spare my people, daughter, spare ! 
 
 And let us dwell in peace. 
 Soon, lady, would I call thee mine, 
 And in firm bonds of wedlock join. 
 Did not blind Gaul the act oppose. 
 And rank me with his direst foes. 
 Should I resign my present wife 
 For thee, blind Gaul would seek my life : 
 For her he loves with heart-love strong. 
 As high his kindred dear among. ' ' 
 
 £ 
 
74 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 *' Then hear me" — thus the sorceress said — 
 *' From Gaul the head I'll strike ; 
 
 And soon from this my vengeful blade 
 May the Fenians fear the like — 
 
 Yes — all shaU feel my weapon keen, 
 
 Unless they choose and hail me queen." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Now bent the ships their snow-white sails. 
 To catch the rising land-ward gales ; 
 And soon they reached the shelving strand, 
 Where Gaul sustained his high command. 
 When he the haughty fleet espied 
 
 Advance in proud array, 
 ** Some dreadful tale of wo," he cried, 
 
 " I fear those ships convey ; 
 111 tidings of our absent king. 
 And of our Fenian chiefs, they bring. 
 But who will to their landing go 
 And bring back tidings — weal or wo ?" 
 *• I," Caoilte cried, " will speed alone. 
 And soon shall make their purpose known." 
 
 Then forth the generous Caoilte sped 
 With light and nimble-footed tread. 
 And reached, in time, the pebbly strand. 
 To see the bold invaders laud. 
 But when he saw their cruel queen — 
 Her giant bones, her hideous mien. 
 Her fierce and stern forbidding face, 
 Devoid of every human grace — 
 He shuddered on her form to look. 
 And his manly heart in his body shook : 
 Yet found he power to ask her name, 
 And whence, and why, she thither came. 
 She quick returned this bold reply : — 
 ** Daughter of Greece's king am I. 
 
CHASE OF GLENNASMOL. 75^ 
 
 With full ten hundred warriors brave, 
 
 I come to prove your might ; 
 From me let Gaul this answer have, 
 
 Blind Gaul renowned in fight. 
 To him and tp his Fenians say, 
 That Erin's champions all I'll slay, 
 Unless they me select for life 
 Their queen — and Finn's, your chieftain's wife." 
 This message stern to carry back 
 Swift-footed Caoilte was not slack. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Then Gaul, incensed — of warriors bold 
 Selects a hundred, ten times told — 
 
 The bravest of the brave. 
 They fought — they fell — ten hundred more, 
 Ere set of sun, lay stretched in gore, 
 
 Beneath the slaughtering glaive. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Next morn, with early morning light, 
 Came forth great Gaul prepared for fight : 
 A helm of massive strength he wore : 
 
 And on his arm a shield, 
 Round, bossy, strong, and tough, he bore. 
 
 Bright blazing o'er the field ; 
 And, in his better hand a blade 
 Of tempered steel, with gold inlaid, 
 And, as it glanced in azure flame. 
 To mortal strife he dared the dame. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 They met — three days they bravely fought, 
 Three nights, no food, no rest they sought ; 
 With thrust for thrust, and blow for blow. 
 
 Each so maintained the game. 
 That neither o'er a vanquished foe 
 
 The victory might claim. 
 
76. .. THE LAY OF THE 
 
 IX. 
 
 We who were in the isle detained, 
 Were still in magic fetters chained, 
 
 AVith Finn and Dermuid Dun : 
 A band of fifty maidens fair 
 Was o'er us placed, to watch with care ; 
 
 But all, save only one. 
 Retired awhile their eyes to close, 
 And find in sleep a soft repose. 
 
 X. 
 
 This maiden was of generous race, 
 Of lovely mien — of winning grace ; 
 With eyes that love's own fires illume. 
 Just ripening into woman's bloom. 
 Her, Dermuid, whose bewitching wile, 
 
 Whose flattering tongue and winning art. 
 Could well a gentle maid beguile. 
 
 And find smooth access to her heart, 
 Thus fond addressed — *' Thou maid divine. 
 Oh ! might 1 call such beauty mine ! 
 Oh ! dearer to my heart than life. 
 The right to truly call thee wife. 
 Such graceful ringlets as bedeck, 
 Soft flowing down, thy polished neck ! 
 Such teeth — than pearls more clear and white ! 
 Such cheeks in rosy lustre bright ! 
 Such eyes as in enchantment roll ; 
 And spread their witchery o'er my soul ! 
 Thy charms all women's charms surpass. 
 Of every form — of every class — 
 No, ne'er in woman kind, I vow. 
 Such matchless charms I saw till now ! 
 Oh ! that these fettered limbs were free. 
 That hence I might escape with thee." 
 •* Could I but think thy words sincere," 
 
 In whisper soft and low, 
 The maid replied, *' I would not fear 
 
 To free thee from this wo ; 
 
CHASE OF GLENNASMOL. It 
 
 Soon would I burst the galling chain 
 From thee and all thy Fenian train." 
 ♦* Then hear me, sweetest maiden fair — 
 
 Oh ! come and set us free, 
 No guileful words are mine, I swear, 
 
 My spouse thou aye shalt be, 
 As long as lives my Fenian name. 
 Or throbs the life-blood in ray frame." 
 
 XI. 
 
 Quick she dissolved the magic spell. 
 And from our limbs the fetters fell ; 
 Our wonted life and strength returned ; 
 With love's warm raptures Derrauid burned ; 
 He clasped the maiden to his breast, 
 And on her balmy lips impressed 
 Such grateful kisses, warm and sweet, 
 As give fond lovers when they meet. 
 
 XII. 
 
 But Conan bald, that wretch accursed. 
 Of cowards vile the vilest, worst, 
 By stealth approached the peerless maid. 
 And, with his keen remorseless blade. 
 
 Smote oif her lovely head.* 
 Oh ! shameful, ruthless, horrid deed I 
 For this should villain Conan bleed, 
 
 And rot with dastards dead. 
 And soon would Dermuid's vengeful steel 
 Have made the bald-pate coward reel, 
 
 And closed all farther strife : 
 But Oscar, who his danger spied. 
 Forth springing, turned the sword aside, 
 
 And saved his worthless life. 
 
 * This act of Conan, so ungrateful and so atrocious, admits of no palliation 
 — nor is it easy to imagine how the bard could admit into his song so gra- 
 tuitous a deed of cruelty — unless he felt himself obliged to introduce Conan, 
 according to the usual practice of the Fenian bards, as committing some 
 gross outrage, or flagitious act of madness. 
 
78 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Now rushing forth, without delay, 
 To the battle field we bent our way. 
 
 Where the giant dame had fought : 
 Upon the mossy blood-drenched sod. 
 O'er mangled heaps of slain, we trod, 
 
 And mourned the woes she wrought : 
 On their stark corses while we gazed, 
 A long and loud lament we raised. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 There Gaul we found, the good, the true. 
 Prepared the combat to renew. 
 But Oscar longed, in single fight, 
 To prove the woman- victor's might ; 
 And begged of Gaul to grant him grace 
 To look the sorceress in the face. 
 " There lives not one," thus Gaul replied, 
 " In blooming Erin's circuit wide ; 
 
 Not one from sea to sea. 
 To whom I will resign my claim 
 To combat with the giant dame. 
 
 Or share the task with me. 
 Till ample vengeance shall be paid 
 For all the slaughter she has made.** 
 
 XV. 
 
 But Fergus came his will to bend, 
 Fergus, the poet's generous friend. 
 Who loved to scatter gold among 
 The learned and sweet-voiced sons of song 
 With tongue persuasive he implored 
 The haughty Gaul, that Oscar's sword 
 Might be allowed one pass to try 
 With the dame that dared our hosts defy. 
 
CHASE OF GLENNASMOL. 79 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Gaul's will obtained — forth Oscar went, 
 
 And near her as he drew, 
 With lion force his spear he sent — 
 
 It pierced her body through — 
 Deep wounding many a vital part, 
 Draining the life-blood from her heart. 
 Down, like a beacon tower beneath 
 The thunder's bolt, on the trodden heath, 
 With such a crashing sound she fell — 
 With such a loud and hideous yell, 
 
 As roused the mountain deer ; 
 As shook the woods, the rocks, the floods. 
 
 And filled the world with fear. 
 But the Fenians raised a joyous cry 
 For Oscar and his victory. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 In this gigantic woman's fall, 
 I fear the pleasure was but small 
 
 Of Morni's gallant son. 
 He grieved to have resigned the chance — 
 That not by his, but Oscar's, lance. 
 
 The victory was won : 
 A deed that gave to Oscar's name 
 A glorious and immortal fame. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 THE BATTLE OF GAVRA. 
 
 As the battle of Gavra was one of the most sanguinary ever fought in Ire- 
 land, and as it furnished a copious theme to the bards and historians of 
 succeeding times, it may not be uninteresting to the reader to have some 
 account of that memorable and disastrous event — an event long remembered 
 and bitterly deplored by the bards and senachies of Ireland. 
 
 Moghcorb, son of Cormac Cais, who reigned King of Leath Mogha, or 
 southern division of Ireland, was a prince extolled for bravery and for his 
 public and private virtues. His mother, according to O'Halloran, was a 
 Danish princess. At her instigation he prepared a fleet and army, invaded 
 Denmark, and having gained a signal victory, returned with wealth and 
 glory to his own country. The fame of his exploits excited the jealousy of 
 Cairbre Liftechair, king of Leath Con, the northern division of the island ; 
 and he took up arms to reduce Munster under Ids dominion, though ha^^ng 
 no legitimate title to its possession. It is aflSrmed in the Annals of Tiger- 
 nach, that he fought seven battles against the Lagenians in vindication of 
 his claims. There were other causes, however, to exasperate the monarch, 
 and lead him to aim at the complete extinction of his rival potentate. 
 
 It is highly probable that long prior to any formidable invasion by the 
 Danes, that adventurous and piratical people had not only occasionally 
 visited Ireland, for the sake of commerce or plunder, but had fonned settle- 
 ments in some of the principal maritime cities. To prevent the frequent 
 occurrence of their piratical expeditions, the princes of the country raised 
 the militia of their respective provinces for the express object of watching 
 and guarding the coasts. This miUtia was known by the name of the Fiova 
 Eiionn, and being well armed and disciplined under their respective leaders, 
 all of them men of tried valour, they were ever ready to take the field, at 
 the call of danger. Of these military men there were two principal septs, 
 between whom there prevailed strong rivalship and contention. The one 
 sept, or clan, named Clanna Boisgne, was commanded by Finn, the son of 
 Cumhal, commonly known by the name of Fin MaoCool, a chief of invin- 
 cible strength and valour— the other, Clanna Morni, by Gaul, the son t>f 
 Morni, one of the most celebrated warriors of his age and country. These 
 were of the province of Connaught, in the pay of the prince of that country. 
 The Clanna Boisgne were in allegiance to Cairbre Litfeachair, king of Lein- 
 ster, the Ard High, high king or monarch of Ireland. 
 
 Of Finn, the leader of the Clauna Boisgne, much has been said and written 
 
OJ THE LA.Y OF THE 
 
 that is altogether fabulous and incredible. He became to the Irish what 
 King Arthur was to the ancient Britons, the subject of innumerable legends 
 — of enchantments, gigantic feats of strength and valour, having little or no 
 foundation in fact. By some he has been described as a giant — by some, in 
 the rank of historians, as a Dane — by others as a Caledonian— by Macpherson 
 as the monarch of woody Morven, a kingdom in Terra incognUa — whereaa 
 those who are best acquainted with the genuine and authentic annals of 
 Irish history, prove incontestibly that he was a true-bom Irishman ; that 
 Almhuin, now the Hill of Allen, in the county of Kildai-e, was his principal 
 place of residence — that he was the son of a noble chief named Cmnhal 
 (pronounced Cool) who was the son of Treanmor, the son of Farlagh, the 
 son of Conn, the son of Gorrie, the son of Boisgnea, and that he was the 
 father of the celebrated bard Ossian, who was the father of Osgar, who fell 
 in the battle of Gavra, and with whom, it is presumed, this genealogical line 
 terminated. 
 
 The original of the following verses, is supposed to have been written by 
 Ossian himself in his old age, and addressed to St. Patrick :— 
 
 From Boisgne first host-leading Gorrie sprung ; 
 
 From Gorrie, Conn in lays of victory simg : 
 
 The generous Farlagh boasts a sire in Conn, 
 
 And in Treanmor a brave and gaUant son. 
 
 Next from Treanmor the festive Cumhal came ; 
 
 From Cumhal Finn of great prophetic fame. 
 
 The last of all th' illustrious line behold 
 
 In Ossian, son of Finn, now poor and old. 
 
 Oh ! did the Fenians breathe this vital air. 
 
 Thou son of Calfruin, ne'er would I repair 
 
 Thus to thy cell, nor pass the weary time 
 
 In listening to the dull eternal chime 
 
 Of thy church notes. — When in Maynoothe's sweet bowers, 
 
 My Caoilte passed with me the happy hours. 
 
 No want we knew — but now behold me, Sage, 
 
 With generous pity, worn by care and age. 
 
 The sole survivor of a numerous line, 
 
 Thus left in want and solitude to pine. 
 
 General Vallancey seems to think that our Irish Finn is a character 
 altogetlier imaginary, drawn from the Persian Asfendyar, sumamed Rui- 
 tan, or body of brass, on account of his great strength — often alluded to as 
 one of the greatest heroes of Persia. He says that *' the Irish Fiand or 
 Fiann is a word of oriental origin, and that it signifies troops for the defence 
 of a country— that the Italian Fante and the French Fantassin are derived 
 from our Fiana, as is also the English infantry. The Persian Asfendyar is 
 grandson of Lohorasb, Fionn is the grandson of Treinemor, a mighty mo- 
 narch. Asfendyar is killed by Rostam, in the cause of buJiuram, an oppres- 
 sive tribute. Fionn MacCuU opposes the Boroimh, or royal tribute laid on by 
 the king of Leinster." * 
 
 « VmdUcation of the Ancient History of Ireland, pp. 855—358. The mode in which the 
 learned Antiquary pursues his argument, is niar\'ellously entertaining. Verily he seems to 
 have talten a lesson on " comparisons" from that ingenious and renowned dialectician, 
 Captaia Fluellea, on whose name the pages of Shakespeare have conferred luunortality. 
 
BATTLE OF GAVRA. 83 
 
 Let us now hear Mac Curtin, an author held in no small estimation by 
 Irish historians : — 
 
 " In this Cormuc's time, flourished that famous champion Fionn, the son 
 of Cumhall, a wise and wariike man. He was general of the Irish militia, 
 consisting of seven battalions, that is 21,000 men ; (the Lagenian, or Irish 
 militia, caUeAFianaErionn,) and when happened wars at home, or occasion 
 to have an army abroad, they were raised to nine battalions. This Fionn 
 was neither Giant, nor Dane, nor other foreigner, as no more were any of 
 his commanders, captains, or soldiers ; he was but of the ordinary stature 
 of other men, though some foreign authors say he was a Giant of 15 cubits 
 high. He was an Irish-Man both by birth and descent, lineally sprung from 
 ^uadha-neacht, king of Lenster, of the posterity of Herimon ; the' Hector 
 Boetius, in his History of Scotland, and Hanmer, in his History of Irland, tell 
 several false relations of him and his army ; this proceeds from their mis. 
 takes in the true histories of Irland ; for the Irish had several romances as 
 Bruighean and Chaorthuinn, Cathfionntragha, &c., as well for the children 
 and youth for school books, as for to entertain leasurable hours; and every 
 man of common sense among the Irish could distinguish such from their 
 true Chronicles, and real Histories. Its allowed that Fionn and his army 
 were the best warriors in Irland in their time, and were kept in constant 
 pay by the monarchs, princes, and other nobility of the kingdom, for to 
 guard their coasts from abroad and keep all quiet at home ; with power to 
 suppress a rebellion, or withstand an invasion or succour Dal-Riada in 
 AVbain, now caUed Scotland." 
 
 " No man was received into this army or militia, but such as should per- 
 form ten conditions, that none could possibly do, but such as had a store 
 of strength, courage, valour, and agility, almost incredible to be in any 
 human body,"* — Mac Curtin's Brief Discourse in Vindication of the Anti- 
 quities of Ireland, collected out of many authentic Irish Histories and Chro- 
 nicles, and out of Foreign Learned Authors, pp. 113, 114, Dublin, 1717. 
 
 If men in possession of power are too much inclined to make it subser- 
 vient to their cupidity and ambition, we need not be surprised to hear that 
 the Fenians abused their privileges, and became the oppressors of the coun- 
 try of which they were the appointed guardians. Hanmer gives a striking 
 description of the modes in which the Danes, whom he evidently confounds 
 and identifies with the Fiana Erionn, tyrannized over the people, and at 
 length rebelled against their sovereign.! 
 
 " In the time of Karbre Lifeacher, monarch of Ireland, the Danish Cap- 
 taines with their bands and garrisons, waxed insolent and outragious, they 
 weighed not what prince or people said, they gi-ew strong and rich, not 
 caring what they did : they brought up fond customs of their owne devising, 
 oppressing the people, and disdaining the gentle admonitions of the kings 
 and nobilitie of the land. Among themselves they decreed, that no maid 
 should marry vrithout their license, that none should hunt the hare, otter, 
 foxe, wolfe, matterne, or deare, but should pay them what they pleased to 
 rate it at, and that none should use any other pastime without their pri- 
 
 * The curious reader may see those conditions mentioned in Keating. 
 
 t Hanmer depends much on the " Book of Howth" — an authority not to be totally 
 rejected, though justly characterised by Mr. J. O' Donovan as " a repertory of Anglo-Irish 
 traditions and legends." Ho gives us a list of the names of the principal coait-guard officer! 
 and their stations— commencing with that of " Osker Mac Oshen Mac Fin, who with hi» 
 souldiers kept tlie haven of Dublin." 
 
84: THE LAY OF THE 
 
 vitie. The kings and nobilitie of the land called a Parliament, endevoming 
 to reforme these abuses, charging them to surcease from their outrages, or 
 to leave the land. The Danes answered that they came in with the sword, 
 held by the sword, and with the sword would be driven away." 
 
 The conflict, however, was not between the Danes and the Irish, but 
 between the monarch and his rebellious subjects. The immediate cause of 
 the rebellion is not very clearly ascertained ; but it was probably on account 
 of severe measures adopted by Cairbre to correct the disorderly conduct of 
 the Fenians, and particularly his exaction of the Boromean tribute.* The 
 Clanna Boisgne, under the command of Oscar, son of Ossian, and grandson 
 of Finn, having revolted from their allegiance, entered into the service of 
 Mogh Corb, king of Munster, the friend and near relative of their leader, 
 for he had espoused the daughter of Finn, the sister of Ossian. Cairbre, 
 incensed at their conduct, threatened war against their protector, unless he 
 expelled them from his dominions. This Mogh Corb refused. Cairbre 
 determined to carry his threats into execution. War was proclaimed, and 
 both parties prepared to end their dispute by a decisive battle. 
 
 Cairbre collected a powerful army, consisting of the men of Meath, the 
 troops of Connaught, commanded by their king, Aoidh Caomh, (or Hugh, 
 son of Garaidh Glundubh,) the Fenians of the Clanna Morni, " a military 
 tribe of the Firbolgs of Connaught," and nine Catha or battalions from 
 Ulster. 
 
 To oppose Cairbre was the army of Munster, commanded by Mogh Corb 
 (" chief of the chariot"), and his son Fear Corb {" the man of the chariot"), 
 the Clanna Deaga, the valiant Dalcassians, the Fenians of the Clanna 
 Boisgne, with the men of Leinster, and a considerable number of allies 
 from Britain, Denmark, and Norway. 
 
 " Tenne thousand stalworth souldiers (Danes), under the command of the 
 King of Denmark's son, with their Irish allies, made up 28,700. The kings 
 of Ireland with their forces, were three score and five thousand." Thus the 
 two armies amounted to the number of 93,700, which is scarcely credible. 
 This account, however, amply justifies the declaration of our Fenian bard, 
 that Cairbre had a great superiority of numbers. 
 
 It was agreed that the battle should be fought in the valley of Gabhra 
 (Gavra), about half a mile distant from the celebrated hill of Tara.t On 
 the appointed day, the army of Mogh Corb marched towards the field, eager 
 for conflict. *' The kings, in like sort, with their forces, hearing that their 
 enemies approached, set themselves in battaile array, and came to a place 
 where they all kissed the ground.f readie to dye one with another, and gave 
 (after their manner) such a crie, as if heaven and earth met together, and 
 therewith somewhat amazed their enemies, so that the place to this day is 
 called Balle-Nangartha, in English Garretstowne," 
 
 * The Boroimhe was " a fine or tribute paid by the nobility of Leinster to Tuathal, sir- 
 named the fruitful. It consisted of COO cows, 600 hogs, 600 sheep, 600 ounces of silver. 600 
 mantles, and COO tuns of iron, yearly, which was paid during the reigns of 40 kings succes- 
 sively"— Mac Curtin, 93. 
 
 ■f Hanmer says the " battaile was appointed to be fought at Amaghery OrgalUn, now 
 called MarjralUn, in Westmeath, thougli the field be called Ardkagh, wluch is, by Interpreta- 
 tion, a set field." To our Irish bards and senachies the battle is luxown only by the nanie of 
 Gavra. 
 
 t This may remind the reader of a similar fact in the field of Bannockbum. See " Bruce's 
 InvoaioD," by the Author, pp. 68— lOt). 
 
BATTLE or GAVRA. S5 
 
 The two armies fought with indomitable valonr and with various success, 
 diiring the length of a summer day. In the heat of the engagement, Cairbre 
 and Oscar met. The former, with a poisoned spear, contrary to the laws 
 of legitimate warfare, inflicted on his antagonist a mortal wound ; and after 
 receiving a deadly thrust from the spear of Oscar, was slain by Simon, the 
 son of Kirb of the race of the Fotharts (Ogygia, p. 246). The principal 
 leaders on both sides, with 30,000 men, were slain. Of 20,000 Fenians who 
 entered the field, 18,000 fell, and thus was the Fenian power annihilated. 
 This battle was fought A.D. 296 ? 
 
 DUAN FIRST. 
 
 Argument. — This lay commences, as usual, with a dialogue. Patrick re- 
 quests Ossian to inform him who were esteemed the bi'avest of the 
 Fenians, and being answered, he inquires farther who gained the 
 victory in the battle of Gavra. Ossian replies that neither of the 
 opposing parties could boast of a great triumph. He then proceeds to 
 enumerate the forces and principal leaders of both armies, viz., the 
 Fenians from Binn-Eadair (Ilowth) ; from Alba (Scotland) ; and from 
 Lochlin, led by Oscar and his subordinate officers. To oppose them 
 came Cairbre, the monai-ch — Hugh, the son of Garaidh — and the King 
 of Connaught. Cairbre asks MacGeraidh if he would meet Oscar in 
 single combat. MacGeraidh declines, because Oscar had the reputation 
 of being invincible. He is rebuked by Cairbre for cowardice, and for 
 not embracing the present opportunity of being avenged on the Clanna 
 Boisgne for the murder of his father — Cairbre caUs a council of war — 
 Barron makes a gallant speech, in which he enumerates the grievances 
 they had suffered from their enemies, and it is resolved to make the 
 most determined onslaught upon them, and conquer or die. 
 
 I. 
 
 Patrick. — Ossian, hospitable, bland, 
 Of generous heart and liberal hand, 
 
 A kind response I crave : 
 Who of the gallant Fenian host, 
 Were ever thought, and vaunted most 
 
 As bravest of the brave ? 
 
 Ossian. — Great Finn, of noble Trenmore sprung ; 
 My Oscar, fearless, strong, and young ; 
 And Ossian, I, now stricken old, 
 Were deemed the boldest of the bold. 
 
86 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 Patrick. — And who, in glorious deeds of fame, 
 Might next — the fourth distinction — claim ? 
 
 OssiAN. — Four were the bravest of our clan. 
 
 In every fight who led the van ; 
 
 Swift-footed Fillan, Luay's son, 
 
 Cairoll the mild, and Dermuid Dun. 
 
 These never, in the battle field, 
 
 To victor's arm were known to yield ; 
 
 But strangers still to fear. 
 Quick to advance — and never slow — 
 They joyed to grapple with the foe, 
 
 And greet with sword and spear. 
 
 Patrick. — And who beside, as warriors good, 
 
 Among the Fenians, chieftains stood, 
 
 In past or present times to aid 
 
 Your cause, in glittering arms arrayed ? 
 
 Ossian. — Great Art, and Gaul, and Garay strong. 
 
 Ere Gavra's rueful fight. 
 Full well avenged each Fenian wrong. 
 
 And well sustained their right. 
 Baedan, and Barron too, were found 
 Among our Fenian chiefs renowned ; 
 With Rocha's chieftain, ^dan fair. 
 Still prompt his falchion keen to bare. 
 E'en Conan, of the evil tongue, 
 Where clash of swords the loudest rung. 
 With trenchant steel and winged dart, 
 Performed a stalwart champion's part. 
 And Simon too, though named the last, 
 Was ne'er in deeds of war surpast. 
 Brave Simon, son of Kirb, the pride 
 
 Of the noble Fothart race ; 
 Who fought with Oscar side by side. 
 
 Nor feared a host to face, 
 But ever foremost in the field. 
 Rejoiced his battle-axe to wield. 
 As Erin's monarch knew too well, 
 When by its crushing blows he fell. 
 
BATTLE OF GAYBA. 87 
 
 II. 
 
 Patrick. — Sweet son of Song, my thanks receive 
 
 For what you now unfold ; 
 And let it not thy spirit grieve 
 
 To dwell on times of old. 
 Say — who from Gavra's field of gore. 
 The fair renown of victory hore ? 
 
 OssiAN. — Of either host, alas ! hut few 
 
 Were left to tell, I ween : 
 Yet I remain — yet seem to view 
 
 The dire horrific scene ; 
 Sad visions pass hefore my eyes ; 
 My Oscar dead before me hes ! 
 Oscar dear ! my son ! my son ! 
 Would that with thine my course were run ! 
 Would that for thee, my boast, my pride, 
 On Gavra's field thy sire had died ! 
 Rampant as lions, in the morn. 
 
 They marched in proud array ; 
 At eve, of all their glory shorn, 
 
 Pale, stark, and cold, they lay. 
 Small was the triumph to behold 
 Our warriors lie so stark, so cold, 
 So wounded, gashed, and maimed, and rent, 
 And all with blackening gore besprent. 
 
 III. 
 
 When by Ben-Eadair's rocky height 
 
 Our men we numbered for the fight, 
 
 Three hundred Fenians held command. 
 
 Each o'er his own heroic band. 
 
 Of those thrice ten could kindred claim 
 
 With Finn, of far illustrious fame. 
 
 Who ever in the battle field. 
 
 First poised the spear or struck the shield. 
 
bo THE LAY OF THE 
 
 The British king, to aid our cause, 
 
 His noble warriors lent ; 
 And Alba, bound by friendship's laws. 
 
 Her clans to join us sent ; 
 And Lochlin, from the frozen North, 
 Sent many a hardy champion forth, 
 Who with our Fenians close allied, 
 In Gavra's conflict fought and died. 
 
 IV. 
 
 My Oscar's Fenians to oppose. 
 Advanced a host of mail-clad foes, 
 
 By Erin's monarch led. 
 Great Cairbre, of the Liffey named, 
 For many a high achievement famed, 
 
 And of his foes the dread. 
 There Osgar, son of Garay,* came 
 To earn th' immortal meed of fame, 
 
 With twice five hundred men ; 
 
 * 08CA.B appears to have been a favourite name, as we find three heroes 
 in this battle designated by that appellation. The AiacGaray here adiiresscd 
 by Cairbre, was not Hugh, as stated m the translation from the Irish poem 
 in the Four Masters, but Osgar the son of Gaiay, or Gcraidh, as the word 
 is spelled in the original. Hugh had joined the Clanna Boisgne against 
 Garay his father, who was one of the Clanna Morni, and having slain him, 
 cast himself in remorse into the sea and perished. Garay was an object of 
 the Fenians' determined hostility, which he had provoked by an atrocious 
 act of cruelty. One day, during the absence of the Fenians from the palace 
 of Almhuii), tiie Princess Ailbe, bent on sjome contrivance to entertain the 
 ladies of the court, said to them—" Should a body of invaders happen to 
 land, they could easily carry away all the wives of the Fenians, since none 
 remains to protect us but those who are enfeebled by age. Garay, indeed, 
 would be the first to lift a hand in our defence, but since he is fast asleep, 
 let us make his hair fast to the wall, and then raise the war cry." This 
 was accordingly done — and the war-cry of invasion raised ; which aroused 
 Garay so suddenly that the effort stripped ofi" the hair and skin of his head. 
 In the fury of revenge he shut up the Fenian ladies in the palace, and having 
 fired it in seven places, aU of them were consumed. In revenge of this bar- 
 barous deed, the Fenians hunted Garay from mountain to valley, till at last 
 he fell by the hand of his own son. The murder is attributed by Cairbre 
 to the descendants of Trenmor, and is mentioned by him to stimulate Osgar 
 MacGaray to revenge. 
 
 The substance of this note was kindly communicated by Mr. Nicholas 
 Kearney. 
 
 The mode in which Garay lost his hair may remind the reader of a 
 similar misfortune which had nearly befallen a bacchanalian worthy (men- 
 tioned by Sir Jonah Barrington), who laid down his head to sleep against 
 a newly plastered wall, which, hardening while he slept, held him fast by 
 the hair, till he was freed by his friends, without whose aid he would have 
 found it possible to effect his liberation only by the loss of his scalp. 
 
BATTLE OF GAVRA. S^ 
 
 And Connaught's king brought all his might, 
 Arrayed to meet us in the fight, 
 
 From many a hill and glen. 
 From Ulster five battalions bold 
 Came with the troops of Meath enrolled — 
 A host of strong embattled powers, 
 In numbers far surpassing ours.* 
 
 V. 
 
 While now the chiefs their ranks arrayed, 
 King Cairbre to MacGaray said, 
 '• Dar'st thou, brave chief, in Erin's right. 
 Young Oscar meet in single fight ?" 
 
 MacGaray thus replied : 
 '* No warrior lives who can withstand 
 Young Oscar's strong resistless hand" — 
 And hence the well-known adage rose, 
 ** Oscar no mortal dares oppose." 
 
 Then wrathful Cairbre cried ; 
 " Hast thou from Alba come afar, 
 To join the ranks of Erin's war. 
 
 Yet feel it no disgrace — 
 No shame — to say, from dastard fear. 
 Thou dar'st not cross a sword or spear 
 
 With a youth of Trenmor's race ? 
 Thy wrongs thou shouldst remember well ; 
 By Trenmor's sons thy father fell ; 
 And now is come the wished-for day. 
 The Clanna-Boisgne to repay — 
 
 • The warriors of Ireland are thus described in Sir John Harington's 
 translation of Orlando Furioso, Book x., Sts. 74, 75 : — 
 
 " Then come the Irishmen of valiant harts. 
 And active limbs, in personages tall, 
 They naked use to go in many parts. 
 But with a mantle yet they cover all : 
 Short swords they use to carry and long darts, 
 To fight both neare and farre aloofe withall. 
 And of these bands the Lords and leaders are 
 The noble Earles of 0}-mond and Kildare. 
 Some sixteene thousand men or thereabout 
 Out of the Irish He at this time went." 
 
THE LAY OP THE 
 
 For all their crimes, both new and old, 
 Let vengeance riot uncontrolled." 
 
 VI. 
 
 His chiefs to council Cairbre brought ; 
 
 For victory and fame. 
 One spirit in their bosoms wrought. 
 
 Fast kindling into flame. 
 By past renown in Erin's wars, 
 By earth and air, sun, moon, and stars, 
 They vowed — their swords from point to hilt. 
 Should in their foemen's blood be gilt. 
 And all resolved, among the slain 
 To fall, down-trampled on the plain. 
 Rather than let the Fenian host 
 Their sway, one hour, in Erin boast. 
 
 VII. 
 
 ** Remember," Barron cried aloud — 
 •* Their deeds so insolent and proud, 
 How on our fathers' necks they trod, 
 Defying all — both man and God. 
 Remember great heroic Conn, 
 
 So oft with victory crowned ; 
 Learned Cormac, too, his glorious son ; 
 
 And Art, that king renowned. 
 Who, on Macruim's disastrous day. 
 Among our slaughtered warriors lay. 
 All whom their evil counsels swayed 
 They robbed, insulted, mocked, betrayed. 
 Remember, too, in bygone times, 
 How groaned the land beneath their crimes ; 
 Their scorn of liberty and right. 
 Their imposts forced in law's despite ; 
 Oppressions, burnings, rapines, blood, 
 The land o'erspreading like a flood ; 
 Our children from their parents rent. 
 Oar warriors into exile sent, 
 
BATTLE OP GAVRA. 91 
 
 Our maids far hence by ruffians torn, 
 Our widowed mothers left forlorn. 
 What province in our beauteous land, 
 Where'er the Fenians held command, 
 
 But mourns their cruel reign ? 
 And while we live beneath their curse, 
 Our state must grow still worse and worse ; 
 Nor shall we Erin prosperous see, 
 Till from that curse her state we free ; 
 
 And all our rights regain — 
 Till Almhuin's towers be wrapt in flame. 
 Till blot we out the Fenian name. 
 And all that would our land enslave. 
 We crush in one promiscuous grave.'* 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In accents fledged and barbed with fire, 
 The chief thus roused his warriors' ire: 
 And as outflow his winged words. 
 They half unsheathed their beamy swords, 
 With fiery looks and burning breath, 
 Impatient for the work of death. 
 They vowed, with fierce unbridled rage, 
 Exterminating war to wage ; 
 Till of the ruthless Fenian train, 
 
 Should none alive be left ; 
 Or they, down-stricken with the slain, 
 
 Should lie of life bereft. 
 And since they all were doomed to die, 
 *' What death more glorious," loud they cry, 
 *' Than now, against our country's foes, 
 On Gavra's field our lives to close?" 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OP 
 
 THE BATTLE OF GAVRA 
 DUAN SECOND. 
 
 Akgdment. — "When Oscar saw the royal armies arrayed, and the noble 
 martial bearing of Caii-bre at their head, be was struck with admira- 
 tion, and vowed that he would meet him in single combat. At this 
 juncture an unhappy contest arose among the chiefs for the honor of 
 precedency in leading the van. Oscar claimed the honor for himself, 
 Beine, the son of Breasal, insisted that he had an equal claim. Lughaidh 
 said that he and CuiroU would lead. The latter, by a spiteful cast of 
 his javelin, struck Beine dead, for which he is justly reprimanded by 
 Oscar. A battle ensues between the rival chiefs, and two hundred of 
 the Fenians are slain. They then prepare to meet the common enemy 
 — the standard is raised— Fergus sings the battle song. The Fenians 
 suffer a severe loss, by a body of the enemy's reserve, led by Geraidh, 
 who, after a gallant fight, is with diflaculty rescued by his men. Cairbre 
 rushes to oppose Oscar, whom he wounds with a poisoned spear. 
 Oscar, before he falls, inflicts a mortal wound on Cairbre, who is then 
 slain by Simon, chief of the Fotharts. Seven princes of blood royal fell 
 — the field covered with slain — the precious spoils collected. The bard 
 laments the disasti'ous results of the battle, by which the Fenians were 
 completely destroyed. The body of Oscar is conveyed on the shields of 
 the survivors, from the spot where he feU to the side of the great Gavra, 
 and there interred with the other slain chiefs. 
 
 I. 
 
 When Oscar saw, not distant far, 
 The foemen's shining ranks of war 
 Advancing close in serried might, 
 In arms with flashing splendour bright : 
 
THE LAY OF THE BATTLE OP GAVRA. 93 
 
 Their polished helms and bossy shields 
 Shot loDg reflections o'er the fields. 
 And dense as stalks of ripening corn. 
 Their spear-points, radiant in the morn. 
 
 Like constellations shone. 
 And many a banner floating gay 
 Waved proudly o'er the long array ; 
 Like comets, when their sparkling hair 
 Streams through the azure depths of air 
 
 And forms night's crimson zone : 
 Or boreal streamers, when they glance 
 Along the gold-paved heaven's expanse. 
 And fiery steeds, and flaming cars, 
 To battle rush among the stars. 
 
 II. 
 
 As Cairbre towered his guards before, 
 
 Right kingly was his look ; 
 The monarch's royal crown he wore, 
 
 And a seven-barbed spear he shook. 
 As on he strode with a warrior's stride. 
 
 Might all, admiring, own 
 His was the right those hosts to guide, 
 
 And sit on Erin's throne. 
 
 III. 
 
 Him, Oscar, now advancing nigh. 
 Beheld with admiration high. 
 And said, 'twould be a glorious thing 
 To meet in conflict such a king. 
 Nobler to die by hero's sword, 
 Than live the conqueror of a horde 
 
 Of men of no renown. 
 And then he vowed that day to test 
 What spirit ruled the monarch's breast, 
 
 If worthy of a crown ; 
 To lay him prostrate on the heath, 
 Or fall himself — his sword beneath. 
 
94 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 IV. 
 
 But soon among our Fenians rose, 
 That first and last of Erin*s woes, 
 Discord — sad source of bitter strife, 
 That poisons all the sweets of life ; 
 That reason, justice, truth, defies ; 
 Asunder rends all nature's ties. 
 
 And love to hatred turns ; 
 Makes man a savage fierce and wild ; 
 Against the parent arms the child ; 
 
 And, while his anger burns. 
 With venom barbs the patriot's dart, 
 To fester in his country's heart ; 
 And rolls, in one commingling flood. 
 The peasant's and the noble's blood. 
 
 V. 
 
 'Twas thus a fatal strife began 
 
 Our fiery chiefs among ; 
 When Oscar asked to lead the van 
 
 With his Fenian squadrons strong, 
 The son of Breasal, Beine bold, 
 A chief of giant strength and mould, 
 Said he, with Oscar, claimed the right 
 To lead his Britons to the fight. 
 
 Nor would that right resign. 
 Next Luay's son, a chief renowned. 
 In many a combat victor found, 
 Said he, with Cuiroll, side by side. 
 The vaward of the fight woidd guide ; 
 
 ** That right," he cried, " is mine." 
 With sudden jealous fury stung. 
 His fatal spear fierce Cuiroll flung. 
 Unspent through Beine's heart it sped, 
 And stretched him instant with the dead. 
 
BATTLE OF 6AYBA. 9*5 
 
 TL 
 
 Then Oscar wild with rage and grief, 
 
 Aloud demanded of the chief — 
 
 *' Thou son of Finn of Cumhal's line, 
 
 Why hast thou slain my friend and thine ? 
 
 Oh ! shameful, foul, inglorious deed ! 
 
 Is death like this our champion's meed ?" 
 
 From Cuiroll ireful answer broke, 
 
 And thus in furious mood he spoke : 
 
 ** If thou be Ossian's son, I rue 
 
 That Breasal's son, not thee, I slew." 
 
 VII. 
 
 My son, inflamed with burning ire, 
 
 The instant combat claimed. 
 And, at the word, in conflict dire. 
 
 Their clashing falchions flamed. 
 With Fillan and Fiachra, I, 
 In Tain upraised an earnest cry 
 
 To stay th' inglorious strife ; 
 But ere we could their fury quell. 
 Two hundred gallant Fenians fell, 
 
 Untimely reft of life. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 This combat o'er — our banners high 
 We raised broad-streaming to the sky. 
 Waving defiance to the pride 
 Of foes that had our arms defied. 
 We Fenians and the warrior bands 
 Who dwelt in Leinster's fertile lands. 
 King Cairbre's host in arms to face. 
 And all the Olanna Morni race. 
 
96 
 
 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 IX. 
 
 Then Fergus, sweetest son of Song, 
 Illustrious he our bards among. 
 To rouse the courage of the fight. 
 
 His battle-strain began ; 
 Thrilling the soul with fierce delight. 
 
 The echoing chorus ran : — 
 " On ! Oscar, on ! thou warrior good. 
 As e'er in front of battle stood ; 
 Thou cleaver of the heroes' shields, 
 
 Stern shearer of their crest. 
 Renowned in Erin's foughten fields. 
 
 Of all her chiefs the best. 
 From Hugh, who wears the Connaught crown- 
 From Liffey's monarch win renown — 
 From Clanna Morni's warriors bring 
 The golden torques of lord and king. 
 On ! Oscar, on ! behold the hour 
 To crush the tyrant monarch's power. 
 As rushing down the depths of air. 
 The eagle swoops the flying hare. 
 
 Upon them, in thy wrath ! 
 As fire-cloud swept before the gale, 
 Surcharged with thunder, lightning, hail, 
 
 Fierce havoc in its path. 
 On ! Oscar, on ! and let them feel 
 The vengeance of thy gory steel. 
 Dash on through cataracts of blood ; 
 On ! as the ocean's roaring flood ; 
 Or conflagration red that sweeps 
 The furze clad hills, and pine-crowned steeps ; 
 And through the bristling dense array. 
 Resistless hew thy crimson way. 
 On ! on ! and be the battle cry 
 A glorious death, or victory ! " 
 
BATTLE OP GAVRA. 97 
 
 X. 
 
 As loud th' inspiring war-song rose, 
 We burned to grapple with our foes. 
 They too, with banners flaunting high, 
 Like meteors in the troubled sky. 
 Came on — till all, with one consent, 
 
 Our ranks approaching near. 
 Stopped short — and to the ground down-bent 
 
 Their knees — but not in fear — 
 Then kissed the earth, a solemn tie. 
 That there death- stricken they would lie. 
 More wilhng than the victory yield, 
 Or flee inglorious from the field. 
 Then rising with such rusthng sound 
 As shakes the woods and forests round, 
 When wintry mountain-torrents sweep. 
 Midst shower-storms, roaring to the deep ; 
 Or such as echoes loud and strong 
 
 Around the sea-girt land. 
 When surges fret and foam along 
 
 The densely-pebbled strand ; 
 They raised, at once, so dread, so high. 
 
 So terrible their battle-cry ; 
 As if some dread earth-shivering roar 
 The vaulted skies asunder tore. 
 Stunned by the din, the birds in flight 
 O'erhead fell, from their airy height. 
 Dead — as though some death-bearing dart 
 Had shot like hghtning through their heart. 
 
 XI. 
 
 We too with equal ardour burn. 
 Their fierce defiance loud return, 
 And on, with measured step and fleet. 
 Advance their bristling front to meet. 
 The trumpets clang, the bowstrings twang. 
 
 The flint-barbed arrows fly ; 
 The slings' dense hail smites brazen mail. 
 
 Like stone-showers from the sky. 
 
98 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 And now, more near, spear crossing spear, 
 
 Through targe and gorge is driven : 
 On right and left proud helms are cleft ; 
 Bossed shields transpierced and riven. 
 And oft, and oft, with rattling clang 
 The falling Avarriors' armour rang: 
 And where in ranks they densest stood, 
 Broad lanes, as through a stately wood. 
 Were hewn — and far around were spread 
 In heaps the dying and the dead. — 
 Blood crimsons all the plain ; 
 
 Shields clash, swords flash ; 
 And now the hattle roars amain. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The adverse hosts, while life remained. 
 As heroes all, their cause sustained. 
 
 With hand and heart, right-well. 
 With foot to foot — with shield to shield 
 They met, more prompt to die than yield- 
 
 And where they fought they fell. 
 But ah ! it wrings my heart with wo. 
 To tell the triumph of the foe : 
 How in that onslaught Connaught Hugh 
 A thousand of our Fenians slew ; 
 How Leinster's warriors sunk in gore. 
 With Alba's clans, to rise no more ; 
 Like leaves that in the forest brown, 
 By wintry storms are stricken down. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 As ocean's heaving billows roll 
 O'er sunken rock and sandy shoal; 
 Or as on birds of feeble wing. 
 
 The falcon rushes fierce and strong ; 
 So Oscar rushed on Tara's king. 
 
 So dashed the breaking ranks among ; 
 
BATTLE OF GAVRA. 99 
 
 And with unsparing vengeance spread 
 The reeking field with heaps of dead, 
 Till Garay's men, in frenzied mood. 
 Who had till now at distance stood 
 
 Reserved, till danger spoke ; 
 In bristling ranks of sword and spear, 
 To stay brave Oscar's fierce career, 
 
 Forth like a whirlwind broke. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 They met as angry cloud meets cloud. 
 When thunders bellow long and loud ; 
 From stricken steel, in fitful flash. 
 The lightnings darting flash on flash. 
 
 Illumined all the glen ; 
 Till Garay, faint with wounds and toil, 
 Sunk down upon the blood-drenched soil. 
 
 Scarce rescued by his men. 
 From Oscar's blade, ne'er known to yield 
 In single fight or battle-field. 
 
 XV. 
 
 When Cairbre saw how Oscar's blade 
 Among his ranks such carnage made, 
 He chafed and foamed — and, wild with rage, 
 Sprang forward, eager to engage. 
 
 And quell the hero's pride. 
 With skilful aim his dart he threw, 
 That with unerring vengeance flew. 
 
 And wounded Oscar's side. 
 That dart was formed with barbarous skill, 
 Whome'er it struck to surely kill — 
 Keen-barbed, with poison's deadly bane 
 Anointed thrice, the blood to stain. 
 And carry from the wounded part 
 The dire infection to the heart. 
 
100 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Ere sunk the generous Oscar low, 
 
 Unnerved beneath that cruel blow, 
 
 At Cairbre, with a rapid bound, 
 
 He sprang, and smote him to the ground ; 
 
 And Simon, chief of Fothart's line. 
 With fiercest indignation flushed 
 At Cairbre's deed, upon him rushed, 
 
 And cleft him to the chine. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 We Fenians too, sad cause of grief ! 
 Deplored the death of many a chief. 
 Two hundred knights of fair renown, 
 Were in that conflict cloven down. 
 With thousands of our Fenian host 
 Thrice six illustrious chiefs we lost, 
 
 Each worthy of a crown. 
 With streams of blood was Gavra's plain 
 Deep-drenched, and strewed with heaps of slain. 
 With shields and spears, and splintered mail, 
 And limbs of heroes stark and pale. 
 Oh ! 'twas a sad and rueful sight — 
 The wrecks of that disastrous fight. 
 But few, alas ! remained to tell 
 What numbers of our Fenians fell. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The battle o'er — at close of day, 
 
 We culled, midst many a groan, 
 The relics of the proud array 
 
 That erst so brightly shone ; 
 Torques, brooches, rings, and precious gems, 
 With jewelled spears and diadems : 
 Memorials sad, in future times. 
 To tell, perchance, in foreign climes, 
 
BATTLE OP GAVRA. lOl 
 
 Of Erin rich in beauty's charms, 
 
 Her taste and skill in arts and arms : 
 
 Memorials, too, of Erin's woes, 
 
 When midst her chiefs fell discord rose, 
 
 Maddening their hearts with desperate rage, 
 
 Such fierce inglorious war to wage — 
 
 To waste in broils and party strife, 
 
 The sweetest, dearest, joys of life. 
 
 Rebels to nature's strongest laws — 
 
 Fell traitors to their country's cause, 
 
 To kindle in their father-land 
 
 An inextinguishable brand, 
 
 To sacrifice, in jealous spite. 
 
 To private wrong the public right. 
 
 Consume her strength, her life-blood drain, 
 
 And round her clench th' invader's chain. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 In Gavra's sad eventful hour, 
 Was broken down the Fenian power ; 
 And ne'er from that disastrous fight, 
 Has shone the day or gloomed the night. 
 In which we wept not, and deplored 
 The fearful ravage of the sword 
 
 That wrought such bitter grief : 
 For not within earth's spacious round, 
 Was e'^r a king or warrior found 
 
 To match our peerless chief ; 
 Nor e'er did an invading host 
 In thousands swarm on Fola's coast. 
 That back we drove not through the waves. 
 Or weltering heaped in bloody graves. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Upon our spear-shafts gently laid, 
 Was Oscar to a mound conveyed, 
 That far around the Fenians all 
 Might know, and mourn their hero's fall. 
 
102 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 North of great Gavra's side we chose 
 A heath-field for his last repose, 
 
 There formed his narrow bed ; 
 There likewise, for two chiefs of fame, 
 Who bore the noble Oscar's name, 
 
 The couch of death we spread. 
 For Oscar, prince of Lochlin, one. 
 And one for Oscar, son of Glonn ; 
 And for Macluay, champion true 
 As e'er a sword for conflict drew, 
 And who most richly could reward, 
 With golden praise, his minstrel bard. 
 
 My heart surcharged with bitter pain, 
 Now bids me cease my mournful strain, 
 That for such kind indulgence prays 
 As pity grants to sorrow's lays. 
 
 Note. — It has been asked why Finn, the son of Cumhal, was not present 
 at the battle of Gavra, and it may be deemed a conclusive and satisfactory 
 answer to say that he was dead twelve years prior to that event. It is also 
 stated, in an old Irish poem, that he was then journeying to Rome — and a 
 popular tradition assigns as another reason, that he was then in the South 
 leaping over the chasm of Brise Bloige, a feat which he was bound to per- 
 form annually. 
 
 In a romance called Feis Teigh Conain Cinnsleibhe, Finn informs us, that 
 the first day after the death of his foster mother, who was slain by the 
 Clanna Momi, he came to LiMchra DeagJiaidh, in the South. His clothing, 
 at that time, was composed of the skins of deer, from which circumstance 
 he was called GioUa na Croicean, i.e., " The Wight of the Hides." Seeing 
 two large assemblies of people, one of men, and another of women, standing 
 on the opposite sides of a deep and dangerous chasm, he inquired the cause 
 of their meeting in that locahty, and was informed that the prince of Kerry 
 Luachra, was in love with the princess Danait of Sighe JDaire, and she being 
 an admirer of gymnastics, declared she would have no man for her husband 
 till he had leaped across the chasm. The people had assembled to see the 
 accomplishment of that task by the prince, but he failed in every attempt. 
 Finn was then informed that the fair Danait would accept any other candi- 
 date for her love, who should fulfil the condition. Finn immediately tucked 
 up his deer-skin garment, and with a nimble air- cleaving bound, sprang 
 over the chasm — and with another bound sprang back again. Danait, in 
 admiration of his activity, threw her arms around his neck, kissed him 
 thrice, tore off his deer-skin robe, had him arrayed in more becoming 
 apparel, and bound him by a solemn vow {geasa) to an annual repetition of 
 the same achievement. 
 
BATTLE OF GAVRA. 103 
 
 The following Lay is taken from the Report of the Highland Society of 
 Scotland. It is accompanied by the Gaelic original, the orthography of which 
 will appear to the merest novice in the Irish language, to be exceedingly 
 corrupt. Mr. Eugene Curry will perhaps be able to discover in the Irish 
 manuscripts of the Royal Irish Academy, some genuine copy of this Ltiy, 
 which is by no means destitute of poetical merit. 
 
 " The Author of this is Fergus the Bard." 
 
 " Tell lis Fergus, 
 
 Thou bard from Erin's heroes, 
 
 How it fared with our people 
 
 In the battle of Gavra of wounds." 
 
 " Not good, son of Cumhal, 
 
 Is mv report from the battle of Gavra. 
 
 The beloved Oscar will not survive, 
 
 He who subdued the mighty. 
 
 Nor will the seven sons of Caoilt, 
 
 A band terrible as an host. 
 
 The yoimg heroes of Fingal fell. 
 
 Adorned with a robe of fiime. 
 
 The sons of Louach fell, 
 
 The six sons and the father. 
 
 The youth of Albion fell. 
 
 Slain are the heroes of Britain. 
 
 Fallen is the king of Leithlen's son, 
 
 Who always gave us his aid. 
 
 Generous and hardy was his heart ; 
 
 Strong at all times was his arm." 
 
 "But tell me, bard! 
 
 The son of my son, and of my loins, 
 
 Oscar, how did he hew down the terrible battle ?" 
 
 " It were hard to relate, 
 
 Great were the task to tell, 
 
 The numbers slain in that battle, 
 
 Who fell by the arms of Oscar. 
 
 Not swifter the cataract of a river. 
 
 Nor a hawk darting on a flight of birds ; 
 
 Nor stronger the force of the foaming tori'ent. 
 
 Than Oscar in that battle. 
 
 He was, at last, like a bi'anch 
 
 That opposes a furious wind. 
 
 Or like a tree which budding green 
 
 Resists the stroke of the woodman. 
 
 When he perceived the king of Erin 
 
 In the midst of his host, 
 
 Forward Oscar rushed. 
 
 As rolls a wave to the shore. 
 
 As Cairbar saw him approach, 
 
 He wielded his keen spear, 
 
 And pierced him through with its point 
 
 Our chief cause of woe ! 
 
 Nor yet did Oscar turn, 
 
 But forward pushed to Erin's king : 
 
 A wound with might he gave, 
 
 Which proved the strength of his blade. 
 
 He struck Art, the son of Cairbar, 
 
 With the second stroke. 
 
 So fell that hero. 
 
 Graced with his royal crown. 
 
 I am Fergus the bard, 
 Who have traversed many lands : 
 Alas ! that I survive the heroes, 
 To relate the tale of woe ! " 
 
FATAL RESULTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE BATTLE OF GAVRA, 
 
 In a subsequent conference, Patrick asks Ossian what were the conse- 
 quences of the battle of Gavra, and how the shores of Erin were to be 
 guarded from foreign invasion when all her Fenian defenders were 
 slain. In reply, he is informed that the country was left in a very 
 deplorable state, and might have been easily conquered by the arms of 
 any bold invader. 
 
 Patrick. — When fell tlie gallant Fenian host. 
 What powers were left to guard the coast, 
 Should bold invaders, on the strand 
 In armed and plundering legions, land ? 
 
 Ossian. — Had lord or king then dared assail 
 The verdant fields of Innisfail, 
 
 Yea, dared her crown to claim ; 
 An easy conquest he had made 
 Without the spear's or falchion's aid ; 
 For left was none, with sword or spear. 
 To stay a conqueror's proud career. 
 
 Or ask him whence he came. 
 In Banba's fair and ample round. 
 Was not a prince, or hero, found, 
 Who with courageous heart and hand, 
 Could shield from chains his father-land. 
 No, by thy truth, was none, I swear. 
 But men oppressed with age and care ; 
 Maids, widows, mothers, who deplored 
 The cruel ravage of the sword. 
 And youths, who ne'er had learned to wield 
 A hostile blade, or strike a shield. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 THE DEATH OF OSCAR. 
 
 Argument.— Ossian, it may be supposed, in compliance with the request of 
 Patrick, as usual, says that though his heart is oppressed with grief, 
 he will record the death of Oscar, his son, and of King Cairbre, at 
 the battle of Gavra. He speaks of Cairbre as inflamed with wrath, 
 shaking his poisoned spear, and the raven as foreboding Oscar's death. 
 With the design of provoking a quarrel, Cairbre proposes to exchange 
 the head of his spear for that of Oscar, which was probably held in 
 high estimation for having nine barbs on its point of steel, and being 
 the favourite spear of his father.* Oscar declines the proposal with 
 the irritating reply that Cairbre would not have made it, but in the 
 absence of Finn and the Fenians. Cairbre retorts that though the 
 Fenians were present, he would, in defiance of them all, take, as his 
 own, whatever he chose to ask— and to Oscar's declaration, that if they 
 existed but in half their fonmer force, he should never possess a foot of 
 ground in Erin, he threatens that, on the next day, he will pursue the 
 chase, and drive to his own place of residence the herds of Almhuin. 
 Oscar declares that he will drive them back again— and on the follow- 
 ing morning, to anticipate Cairbre, he drove twelve fat beeves from 
 each of the provinces around Tara, the royal palace. Here is abruptly 
 introduced a short episode — in which Oscar addresses a prophetic 
 Nymph of the well, and asks what will be the issue of the approaching 
 conflict. On being told that it would be fatal to some of the chiefs, he 
 requests her not to divulge it, lest it should dispirit his men. The 
 Fenians soon met Cairbre with his forces in battle array— and Oscar 
 performs many signal acts of valour, while passing through the ranks 
 of fight in search of the king. At last they meet, and Cairbre with his 
 poisoned lance pierces the body of Oscar, who inflicts a desperate 
 wound on Cairbre's forehead, and strikes him to the ground, where, as 
 he lies, he calls on Art to hasten to his assistance. Him, in the act of 
 aiming his dart, Oscar lays prostrate, and the royal crown being seized 
 by the Fenians, is broken on the stump of a tree, and the fragments 
 scattered on the dust. Oscar, suffering intensely from his wounds, 
 calls on the Fenians to bear him from the field, and the Bard, in a 
 
 * Macpherson informs us that " Cormac, the son of Arth, had given the spear, wliich is 
 here the foundation of the quarrel, to Oscar, when he came to congratulate hini upon 
 Swaran'8 beuig expelled from Ireland i" 
 
 f2 
 
106 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 brief apostrophe to the hero, laments that his death is nigh. Finn, who 
 was celebrated for his medical skill, comes to give him all the relief in 
 his power, and to express the hope that his remedies may succeed now, 
 as on former occasions, in healing his wounds. Oscar replies that all 
 such hopes are vain. He is borne on shields to the residence of Finn, 
 and is deeply and pathetically deplored by all his friends and followers. 
 The lay concludes with Finn's lamentation for the death of his son, 
 and the Bard's declaration that no time could ever efface or mitigate 
 his grief. 
 
 Dr. Young says that " the death of Oscar in the first book of Macpherson's 
 Temora is grounded on this poem, and many passages of it are literally 
 translated; but great liberties, as usual, have been taken with the 
 original" Trans. R. I. A.., voL I., p. 106. Macpherson, indeed, admits 
 that he had a copy of it in his hands— but, as usual, he misquotes it, 
 changes Almhuin of Leinster, into Albin, his Scotland, and invents 
 names and facts to suit his purpose. Oscar, in the genuine Irish poem, 
 says that Cairbre would not make his proposal to exchange spears, if 
 Finn and his Fenians were present, but in Macpherson's poem, Cairbre 
 says to Oscar, " are thy words so mighty because Fingal is near * 
 Pingal with aged locks from Morven's hundred groves. He has fought 
 with little men. But he must vanish before Cairbre like a tliin pillar 
 of mist before the winds of Atha." 
 
 This is one of the most imaginative of the lays ascribed to Ossian. The 
 transitions are abrupt and sudden. The unpremeditated expression of 
 the feeUngs of the Bard, as the various incidents spontaneously occurred 
 to his mind. 
 
 To-night, though grief mj bosom wring, 
 Yet will not Ossian cease to sing. 
 Oscar, my son, and Cairbre brave, 
 At Gavra found a bloody grave. 
 
 IL 
 
 In ire fierce Cairbre 's hand is high 
 
 As he shakes the poisoned spear, 
 And the raven says with an anguished cry. 
 
 That Oscar's death is near. 
 And in his breast these thoughts have stirred, 
 *' Am I the black ill-boding bird.* 
 
 • Scepe sinistra cava prccdixit ah ilice comix. 
 
 Ritson in his " Ancient Songs — ^from the time of King Henry the Third to 
 the Revolution," has one entitled " The Three Ravens, a Dirge— -From 
 Ravenscroft's Melismata. Lond. 1611, 4to. It will be obvious that this 
 
DEATH OF OSCAR. 107 
 
 Those five their table cheer enjoy ; 
 No battle-fears their hearts annoy. 
 Their cheeks to-morrow, on the field, 
 A feast will to the raven yield." 
 
 Oscar. — Let not the Fians hear the tale, 
 Lest idle fears their hearts assail. 
 
 III. 
 
 Cairbre. — Exchange we lances* — not, I mean, 
 The polished shafts, but steel-barbs keen. 
 
 Oscar. — Nay, just I deem not such demand, 
 For the seven blunt-barbs of thy willow wand 
 
 To ask my keen-edged nine. 
 This nine-barbed ash, in days of yore 
 Oft shone the Fenian ranks before ; 
 
 With life I'll hold it mine. 
 
 ballad is much older not only than the date of the book, but than most of 
 the other pieces contained in it." 
 
 There were three ravens sat on a tree. 
 They were as blacke as they might be : 
 The one of them said to his mate, 
 " Where shall we our breakfast take ?" 
 
 Sir Walter Scott remarks it as a singular circumstance that the little song 
 of " The Twa Corbies," written down by tradition from a lady, and published 
 in his " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," should coincide so very nearly 
 with the ancient dirge called The Three Ravens ; and that at the same time 
 there should exist such a difference, as to make the one appear rather a 
 counterpart than a copy of the other." 
 
 May not the soliloquy of the solitary raven, in the Irish poem, foreboding 
 the death of Oscar, and while contemplating the chiefs at their repast, 
 enjoying the thought that on the following day, they would themselves be 
 the i-aven's food, be justly supposed more ancient than either of the other 
 two compositions, in which the prophetic character of the ill-boding bird 
 (uax-Tig kqkjjv) is unnoticed ? As it is usual with imitators to amplify, and, 
 if they can, improve the first simple idea, we might conclude, independently 
 of external evidence, that the Irish Raven can boast a higher antiquity than 
 the Twa Scotch Corbies and The Three Ravens of the Old English Dirge, 
 
 •' Macpherson says, " It was a custom among the ancient Scots to ex- 
 change arms with their guests, and those arms were preserved long in the 
 different families, as monuments of the friendship which subsisted between 
 their ancestors." 
 
 He thus amplifies Cairbre's speech : — 
 
 " Oscar," said the dark-red Cairbre, " I behold the spear of Erin. The 
 spear of Temora glitters in thy hand, son of woody Morven ! It was the 
 pride of an hundred kings. The death of heroes of old. Yield it, son of 
 Ossian, yield it to car-borne Cairbre!" 
 
108 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 If nigh me now my Fenians stood, 
 Or Finn, my sire, still just and good, 
 Of such exchange we ne'er should hear 
 As Oscar's lance for Cairbre's spear ! 
 
 Cairbre. — Yea, tho' the Fenians stood around, 
 
 And thy noble sire beside, 
 As many and strong as they e'er were found 
 
 In the days of their loftiest pride, 
 By virtue of this arm alone, 
 Whate'er I asked should be my own. 
 
 Oscar. — Were the Fenians by in half their prime 
 With my sire, thy boasts were vain. 
 
 Of ground not a foot in green Erin's clime 
 Should ever own thy reign. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Forth red-haired Cairbre's anger broke. 
 And furious were the words he spoke ; 
 Loud boasting, on the following morn. 
 To urge the chase with hound and horn, 
 And, far from Almhuin's fields away, 
 To drive the herds as his rightful prey. 
 As fierce was Oscar's bold reply, 
 That he his hunting skill would try. 
 And, back to Almhuin's fair domain, 
 Kepel the stolen herds again. 
 
 In banquet hall the Fians spent 
 The night, till coming morn ; 
 
 But Cairbre gave his fury vent 
 In words and looks of scorn : 
 
 With equal anger Oscar burned, 
 
 And back his looks and threats returned. 
 
DEATH OP OSCAE. 109 
 
 VI. 
 
 Our host arose with the mottled dawn. 
 And away we sped o'er the dewy lawn ; 
 
 And as our souls decreed, 
 From each fair province of the land 
 Twelve lusty beeves, with spear in hand, 
 
 We drove away with speed. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Oscar. — maid, who in the crystal well* 
 
 Dost rinse thy garments fair ; 
 What fortune, truly to us tell. 
 
 Shall we in conflict share. 
 Say, shall we triumph o'er the foe. 
 
 Or vanquished, unavenged, lie low ? 
 
 Maid. — By you five hundred shall be slain ; 
 The king himself shall bite the plain. 
 
 By death-wound from the spear. 
 He too, who next him stands in power, 
 Shall wounded fall. A fatal hour 
 
 To all your host is near.t 
 
 Oscar. — maid, this tale prophetic hide 
 From Rosg-Mac-Roi and all beside 
 
 Who face our martial clan ; 
 Nor let our Fians hear the tale. 
 Lest fear should o'er their hearts prevail. 
 
 Dispirit and unman. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 As to a glen's straight gorge we drew. 
 The valiant Cairbre met our view. 
 Prepared, with all his gallant band. 
 To meet our warriors hand to hand. 
 
 • " Oscar is here supposed, while marching off with his booty, to meet a 
 young woman early in the morning, whom he conceives endued with the 
 gift of prophecy. It is an opinion still prevailing in Ireland, that the first 
 woman you meet with in the morning is a witch." — Dk. Young. 
 
 t Venit summa dies et inelucUMle tempw. 
 
110 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 Five score of champions, strong and brave, 
 From Alba fenced with many a rock, 
 
 Who crossed in Cairbre's cause the wave. 
 The Fians met in battle shock, 
 
 And fell, by Oscar's steel -blade's swing, 
 
 As fierce he rushed at Erin's king. 
 
 Five score stout heroes, who ne'er knew 
 A backward step in battle field, 
 
 Well armed with swords of azure hue. 
 Were quickly forced to yield, 
 
 Down stricken by the steel-blade's swing — 
 
 As Oscar rushed at Erin's king. 
 
 Five score keen archers skilled to send 
 The arrow hissing from the bow. 
 
 Who came their aid in fight to lend 
 To Cairbre, were laid low ; 
 
 Struck prostrate by the steel-blade's swing 
 
 Of Oscar rushing at the king. 
 
 Five score tall stalwart spear-men strong, 
 From the land of snow and hail. 
 
 With danger's deeds familiar long. 
 Found all their valour fail ; 
 
 And fell beneath the steel-blade's swing 
 
 Of Oscar rushing on the king. 
 
 Five score illustrious chiefs, the best 
 
 Of red-haired Cairbre's power, 
 The might of Fenian arms confest 
 
 As they met in evil hour, 
 And felt with what impetuous force 
 
 His blade could Oscar swing, 
 To shear them down in his crimson course, 
 
 As he rushed on Erin's kins:.* 
 
 * Thus fell five times five score, or five hundred, of his foes, by the sword 
 of Oscar, according to the prophecy of the Maiden of the Well. 
 
DEATH OF OSCAR. Ill 
 
 IX. 
 
 When dark-red Cairbre saw, with grief, 
 Man fall on man, and chief on chief, 
 By Oscar's sword, with furious look 
 The poisoned spear* in his hand he shook, 
 
 And hurled, with dextrous aim, 
 On his right knee as Oscar bent. 
 Straight on the poisoned weapon went 
 
 Sheer through his manly frame.f 
 But Oscar, with his nine-barbed steel. 
 
 On the forehead's hairy bound 
 Struck Cairbre red, and made him reel 
 
 Sore-wounded to the ground. 
 
 X. 
 
 Cairbre. — Up ! Art, arise ! thy brand 
 Firm-grasping, boldly smite — 
 
 * At the reading of a paper in the Royal Irish Academy, Nov. 30, 1848, 
 on some antiquarian relics in the collection of the Eari of Rosse, the Rev. 
 Dr. Robinson, novy president of that institution, said " that the practice, he 
 feared, of using poisoned weapons was not unknown among the ancient 
 . Irish, as, indeed, it seems to have prevailed among all the Celtic and Iberian 
 tribes. Thus in the poem on the death of Oscar, the spear of Cairbre is 
 expressly said to be poisoned, and nothing seems to require a figurative sense 
 of this epithet to be understood." 
 
 The use of poison, and of poisoned w^eapons, is noticed not unfrequently 
 in Irish history. When the Cruitbneans landed at Inbhear Slaine, they 
 had to fight against a tribe of Britons named Tuatha Fidga, who fought 
 with such arms. A Druid taught them to neutralize the poison by bathing 
 in the milk of white-faced hornless cows. Oilliol Glum, to whose shame 
 the story must be told, ran his spear through the body of a young lady with 
 such force that, striking a stone, the iron point became bent. He endea- 
 voured to straighten it with his teeth, and the metal being strongly imbued 
 with venom imparted to his breath a smeU too nauseous to be endured. 
 Mung Fion, sister of King Criomthan, prepared a dose of poison for him 
 to take him out of the way of her son's succession to the throne. She suc- 
 ceeded in her design, but, like Caesar Borgia, tasted the fatal cup, and died 
 by her own wicked contrivance. Some savages are said to dip their arrows 
 into the poison of the Upas tree, which imparts to them a deadly fatality. 
 Those who know with what venom or " leporous distilment," the ancient 
 Irish imbued their weapons, will do well to keep the secret, especially since 
 poisoning is a crime by no means of rare occun-ence. 
 
 t Macpherson is unjust to Cairbre in representing him as taking a stealthy 
 and cowardly advantage of his antagonist. 
 
 " Cau'bre shrinks before Oscar's sword. He creeps in darkness behind a 
 stone. He lifts the spear in secret ; he pierces my Oscar's side. He falls 
 forward on his shield ; his knee sustains the chief. But still his spear is in 
 his hand. See gloomy Cairbre falls ! The steel pierced his forehead, and 
 divided his red hair behind." — Temora, Book I. 
 
112 THE LAY OP THE 
 
 Where stood thj father, stand ! 
 
 If thou survive the fight, 
 In peace and glory mayst thou reign 
 O'er Erin's fair domain ! 
 
 XI. 
 
 Another spear my Oscar flung, 
 
 Well aimed with skill and strength ; 
 
 On Art's bright mail it loudly rung, 
 And stretched him at his length, 
 
 E'en while his own swift dart was sped, 
 
 With erring aim, at Oscar's head. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The royal crown on the stump of a tree 
 
 They placed, to tell his victory. 
 
 By a hill's red side, on the swelling ground, 
 
 They raised a firm and even mound, 
 
 And, on the trunk of an aged oak. 
 
 The golden crown in pieces broke, 
 
 Then down the glittering fragments cast. — 
 
 Of his glorious deeds, this was Oscar's last. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Oscar. — Lift, lift me up — ye Fians kind ! 
 These heavy garments quick unbind ; 
 In such sad office, ne'er before 
 Did I your friendly aid implore. 
 Oh ! bear me to the sunny hill. 
 To fragrant heath and cooling rill. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Ah ! son of victory, too true 
 
 Thy second wound has told ; 
 Death claims thee as his due — 
 
 Too late thy grand-sire bold 
 
DEATH OP OSCAR. 113 
 
 Comes with his gallant fleet, to give 
 His friendly aid and bid thee live. 
 The Fians to Finn fond greeting gave ; 
 
 But he hailed them not again, 
 For he hied with the hope his son to save ; 
 
 Alas ! that hope was vain. 
 To the hill of tears he sped his way, 
 Where, wounded to death, his Oscar lay. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Finn. — Upon Dundalgan's field of strife 
 
 In greater peril was thy life, 
 
 My son — when healing herbs I brought, 
 
 And staunched thy wounds with speed ; 
 A cure my potent medicine wrought. 
 
 And may again succeed. 
 
 OsOAB. — 'Tis past all skill, father dear, 
 
 In anguish though you mourn. 
 Red Cairbre's poisoned seven-barbed spear 
 
 Has through my vitals torn. 
 But him I pierced on the forehead fair. 
 
 With my nine-barbed points of steel. 
 And gave such wound as no leache's care, 
 
 Nor earthly power can heal. 
 
 Finn. — In greater peril was thy life. 
 
 Upon Ben-Eadair's field of strife, 
 
 My son — when healing herbs I brought. 
 
 And staunched thy wounds with speed ; 
 A cure my potent medicine wrought, 
 
 And may again succeed. 
 
 Oscar. — sire, the pangs that I endure. 
 Are past all skill — beyond all cure ; 
 No leach on earth can stem the tide 
 That oozes from my wounded side. 
 
114- THE LAY OF THE DEATH OP OSCAR. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Then raise we Oscar's noble frame 
 
 Gently upon our shields — and bear, 
 Till to the house of Finn we came 
 
 Oppressed with heavy care. 
 Our dogs beside us howling crept ; 
 
 Deep groaned each warrior chief ; 
 The Fians all deep-sorrowing wept ; 
 
 Rent was my heart with grief. 
 No mother, for her darling son, 
 
 Rained tear-drops from her eye ; 
 No brother, for a brother gone, 
 
 Sent forth a bitter cry ; 
 For Oscar, all their sorrows shed ; 
 All wept the noble Oscar dead. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Finn. — Beloved ! beloved ! my Oscar mild ! 
 
 Beloved of all whom most I prize ! 
 Son of my son ! my darling child ! 
 
 Ne'er more shall Oscar rise ! 
 Pants as a bird's my stricken heart, 
 Fluttering in wo from thee to part ! 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 To Finn time brought no sweet relief. 
 
 Nor gave his sorrows rest ; 
 While life remained, the grief of grief 
 
 Ne'er vanished from his breast ; 
 Nor could the world his loss repay. 
 Though all were brought to own his sway. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF 
 
 OSSIAN'S COURTSHIP OF EVIRALLIN. 
 
 (Eamhuir Alluin, i.e. the heautif id precious gem. — E.G.) 
 
 The following account of this Lay is extracted from the first volume of the 
 Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Polite Literature, p. 62 :— 
 
 " Ossian, when advanced in years, being oppressed with extreme hunger, 
 had recourse to a young woman who had often supplied him with milk. 
 She made him some proposal which did not suit the delicacy of his feelings ; 
 and, on his refusal, she called him an old dog. This song was his reply to 
 her on this occasion. We cannot too much admire the ingenious and poetical 
 manner in which Mr. Macpherson has introduced this little poem as an 
 episode, in the fourth Book of Fingal." 
 
 Abgument. — The Bard gently rebukes the maiden who had applied to him 
 an opprobrious epithet, and reminds her, tfiat though he was now old 
 and feeble, he was once an object of esteem and admiration, both as a 
 lover and warrior. He makes good his assertion by giving an account 
 of the mode in which he obtained the hand of the beautiful Evirallin. 
 On a certain occasion, he, with his gallant compeers, went on a warUke 
 expedition, and, on their way, called at the mansion of Bran, from 
 whom they met a courteous reception. On his asking the cause of their 
 visit, Caoilte replied that they came to ask his daughter to accept 
 Ossian as her husband. Bran, justly estimating the honour of this 
 overture, introduces the company into the Grianan Corr, or sunny 
 reception hall, where sat Evirallin of the golden locks, in all her 
 beauty — 
 
 " A mutual flame was quickly caught. 
 Was quickly too revealed;" 
 
 And Evirallin became the wife of the Bard. The scene now suddenly 
 changes— war succeeds to love— the warriors proceeded on their march 
 to Drum-da-horc, where Cormac, the enemy whom they meant to attack, 
 lay with seven bands of armed men, whose leaders are named and 
 characterised, as are also those of the Fenians. As a prelude to the 
 general conflict, a duel is fought by two of the adverse champions, 
 Ogar and Daol, in which Daol is slain. The engagement then com- 
 mences, and terminates in the defeat of Cormac, whose head is cut off 
 by Ossian, and from an eminence exposed to the view of the army. 
 
116 THE LAY OF OSSIAN*S 
 
 I. 
 
 Not me, in thy discourteous mood, 
 But one of manners coarse and rude. 
 Call dog, vain girl ! The time has been 
 When, with the noblest, I was seen 
 In battle's front to show my breast. 
 Though now by grief and age oppressed. 
 What time we went to see the fair 
 Bright Evir of the golden hair ; 
 White-handed maid, whose love in vain 
 The haughty Cormac sought to gain. 
 
 II. 
 
 To Lego's lake we bent our way ; 
 Twelve warriors formed our whole array. 
 But hearts more brave beneath the sun 
 In earth's wide circuit, beat not one. 
 Our firm resolve now wouldst thou know ? 
 'Twas this — to battle with the foe. 
 
 Or swift compel to fly. 
 Bran, Leacan's son, with greeting bland. 
 Gave frank warm welcome to our band, 
 
 His home approaching nigh. 
 " What cause your steps has hither led ?" 
 
 He asked in friendly guise. 
 ** To ask your daughter fair to wed" — 
 
 Young Caoilte thus replies. 
 
 Bran. — " As spouse for whom, ye Fenians brave. 
 Would you my gentle daughter crave ?" 
 
 Caoilte. — " For Ossian — him supreme among 
 The sweetest of the sons of Song." 
 
 Bran. — ** Thou noble chief, renowned in fight, 
 Such honour high I may not slight. 
 And let me add, in truth, 
 
COURTSHIP OF EVIRALLIN. 117 
 
 Had I twelve daughters passing fair, 
 And rich in all endowments rare, 
 
 Your Ossian is the youth 
 That from them all might choose a wife, 
 To be the solace of his life. 
 Such is his high and honoured name 
 Among the Fenian sons of fame.*' 
 
 III. 
 
 The sun-bright court of polished stone* 
 Was to our warriors open thrown ; 
 And there, in all her blooming grace. 
 Of matchless beauty, form, and face. 
 
 Was lovely Evir seen. 
 Amazed we saw, a maid so fair. 
 With clustering locks of golden hair, 
 
 And hailed her as a queen. 
 
 * Note.— In the Appendix to the Report of the Highland Society, contain- 
 ing a comparison of passages extracted from ancient Gaelic poem8.and parts 
 of Macpherson's Fingal, we meet a description of Evirallin's reception 
 chamber thus translated :— 
 
 The chamber so highly prized is opened. 
 
 It was covered above with the down of birds. 
 
 Its doors were yellow with gold, 
 
 And the side-posts were of polished bone. 
 
 Dr. C. O'Connor, ind^ant that these lines, and those descriptive of Finn's 
 standard, " full studded with stones in gold," should be ascribed to Ossian, 
 expresses his indignation thus : — 
 
 "Quid si nee Carthaginis Arces, nee moenia surgentia ibi videret, nee 
 Templum Junonis, aerea eui surgebant limina, at certe splendidiora videret 
 Finni insignia, et aulam, cui portse lucentes auro, et gemmis fxdgentet, quae 
 Pygmalionis ipsius opes, his versibus, a quodam Ludimagistro compositis, 
 manifeste indicarent — 
 
 ' Insignia Finni, ferox eorom intextus, 
 Omnino omata Margaritis in auro !' " 
 
 Report, p. 248. 
 
 " Aperitur Regia magnifica, 
 
 Cujus laqueare coopertum phtmis avium! 
 
 Portae ejus aurofulvo celatae, 
 
 Et postes ex ossttnis limatis .'" — p. 236. 
 
 O'Connor, Rer. Hib. Scrip. I., p. cxxvi — vii. 
 
 If the learned Doctor thought such magnificence not accordant with the 
 age and country of Ossian, he was surely under a great mistake. There are 
 many descriptions, both in ancient Irish historical, and poetical, records, 
 more indicatory of wealth and splendour, than those which have fallen 
 under his sarcastic animadversion. 
 
118 THE LAY OF OSSIAN's 
 
 On me she smiled with look henign. 
 On me her love bestowed — 
 With mutual flame our bosoms glowed, 
 
 And she was wholly mine. 
 
 IV. 
 
 ***** 
 
 On deeds of high achievement bent. 
 To Drum-da-horc we boldly went. 
 Where Cormac for our coming lay 
 With seven armed bands in dense array. 
 Of triumph sure they thither came, 
 
 In all their shining pride. 
 Like to a bright and bickering flame 
 
 Along the mountain side. 
 
 V. 
 
 Eight champions strong to conflict bred, 
 Of Firbolg race, great Cormac led ; 
 Stout Durra, marked with many a scar ; 
 The son of Toscar, famed in war ; 
 Macalla, Taog, Freasdal young, 
 A chief from Erin's monarchs sprung : 
 Daire ne'er in action slow or cold, 
 And stalwart Daol tough and bold ; 
 Great Cormac's standard-bearer he. 
 Ne'er known to blench, to yield, or flee. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Eight champions, too, your Ossian leads. 
 
 All equal in heroic deeds. 
 
 MuUa, MacScein, and Fial strong. 
 
 And Schelecha, a chief among 
 
 The Fenian host ; with Fillan paired 
 
 Rough Carol of the bushy beard ; 
 
 Dunrivan, who, still undismayed. 
 
 Could wield in fight no gentle blade ; 
 
 And Ogar, with his warlike band, 
 
 Against the Firbolgs took their stand. 
 
COURTSHIP OF EVIRALLIN. 119 
 
 VII. 
 
 Eager for fight, upon the green. 
 
 Two champions sprang the hosts between ; 
 
 And there engaged in open space, 
 
 Ogar and Daol,* face to face, 
 
 And well each chief sustained his part 
 
 With ward and thrust, with strength and art. 
 
 Such contest storms with ocean wage. 
 
 When forth they sally in their rage. 
 
 And by the hoarse-resounding shore. 
 
 The thundering billows chafe and roar. 
 
 So fight, as foreign bards have sung. 
 
 Two lions fierce with fury stung ; 
 
 And while they fought with equal skill 
 
 To push, to parry, and to ward. 
 The blood, in many a crimson rill. 
 
 Soon tinged the grass-green sward. 
 Till grappled close, in pressing need. 
 His skein brave Ogar seized with speed, 
 Deep plunged it in his foe-man *s side, 
 And nine times sluiced life's crimson tide ; 
 Yet Daol fought all drenched with gore — 
 Then fell — to rise no more. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 As sledges on the anvils sound, 
 And stun the rustics gathered round. 
 
 So did their contest dire 
 Both armies stun — till foes with foes 
 Comminghng fought — blows answered blows, 
 
 * In Dr. Young's copy of the original Gaelic, Toscair, it is presumed, has 
 by mistake been substituted for Ogar — for Toscair and Daol were both in 
 tfie army of Cormac. Moreover the names of the duellists are the Ogar and 
 Dala of the fourth book of Macpherson's FingaL " Ogar met Dala the 
 strong, face to face, on the field of heroes. The battle of the chiefs was 
 like wind, on ocean's foamy waves. The dagger is remembered by Ogar, 
 the weapon which he loved. Nine times he drowned it in Dala's side. 
 The stormy battle turned. Three times I broke on Cormac's shield : three 
 times he broke his spear. But, unhappy youth of love! I cut his head 
 away. Five times I shook it by the lock." 
 
120 THE LAY OF OSSIAn's COURTSHIP OF EVIRALLIN. 
 
 And Ossian, with resistless might, 
 Swept through the densest ranks of fight, 
 
 A hurricane of fire. 
 Full fifty hossy shields he cleft, 
 And on the blood-drenched mountain left. 
 And Cormac, too, with fracturing stroke. 
 Full fifty swords in fragments broke. 
 But ere night's sable shades were spread. 
 Had I from Cormac shorn the head. 
 By the grisly locks that head I shook, 
 As my station on a mound I took. 
 That the warrior chiefs of Innisfail 
 Might see — and loud our victory hail. 
 Stout should have been the chief, and bold — 
 Sharp, too, his steel — who then had told 
 
 That I should fall thus low. 
 Thus helpless, friendless, lie forlorn, 
 Of all my former glories shorn. 
 
 Thus sunk in want and woe. 
 Well would my keen avenging blade 
 Such coarse rude insult have repaid. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 THE CHASE OF SLIEVE-NA-MAN, 
 
 Sdiabh-na-Mban, pronounced Slieve-na-yfan, is a mountain in the county 
 of Tipperary, a few miles distant from the Jioney-vale of Clonmel. It is 
 marked in the Ordnance Surrey, as 2,364 feet in height, and is a very con- 
 spicuous object to a wide extent of the surrounding country, which, Mrs. 
 Hall says, " may be emphatically called an Ossianic locality." According 
 to our learned antiquary. General Vallancey, it was once, as its name 
 indicates, sacred to the Sun, the universal object of heathen worship. 
 
 " Mann, i.e. Deus. Dia Main, Dia Neimh, i.e. The God of Heaven, the Sun ; 
 (thus, A. Bishop Cormac, in his Gloss.) This was the Amanus of the Per- 
 sians (Strabo) — written by the Old Tersians, Mana, (Hyde, p. 178) Ammon 
 nomen Jovis apud ^gyptios. He was named Orbson by the Old Irish, a 
 conoiption of Ormoz. This deity spread from North to South, in the Orien- 
 tal world. * * « There are several mountains in Ireland dedicated to 
 Mann." — Vallancet's Vindication of the Ancient History of Ireland, pp. 
 607, 508. 
 
 The legend connected with the following Lay had its origin, probably, in 
 the ambiguity of the term Mhan, which signifies women. When the worship 
 of Man, the Sun, ceased, the mountain still retained its name, but lost its 
 primitive meaning. Then it became an object of inquiry, to know why it 
 was called /Siieue-no-iffean— the women's mountain. Invention being set 
 to work, the words JPionna Eirion— the fair, or beautiful (women) of Erin, 
 were added; and, as Mr. and Mrs. Hall's Ireland informs us, tradition 
 assigns the following legend as the origin of the appellation : — 
 
 *' Fin-Mac- Cual wishing to take a wife, and being puzzled 'whom to 
 choose* among the fair daughters of his land, caused all the beautiful 
 women of Ireland to assemble at the foot of this mountain, declaring that 
 whoever first reached the summit should be his bride. Fin then proceeded 
 to the top of the mountain, and having taken his seat on the Druid's altar 
 that crowns it, made a signal to the group of anxious fair ones that waited 
 his signal below. Away, away, they went, through wood and heath, and 
 furze, over crag and mountain-stream ; all obstacles appeared nought with 
 such a prize in view. But only one was destined to win. Graine, the 
 daughter of Cormac, monarch of Ireland, arrived first at the summit, 
 claimed the hand of the Fenian chief, to whom she was accordingly united. 
 Such is the romantic origin of the name of this mountain. Slieve-na-man 
 
 G 
 
122 THE LAY or THE 
 
 is also celebrated in tradition as having been the scene of the most cele- 
 brated hunting-match of the Fenians, the best description of which is con- 
 tained in an ancient poem in the possession of Mr. Wright, ascribed to 
 Ossian, and taken from a collection made in the neighbourhood of the very 
 mountain referred to in it. It is in the form of a dialogue between the Bard 
 of Almhuin and St. Patrick. The reader will perceive the close coincidence 
 between it and part of the conclusion of the sixth book of Macpherson's 
 Fingal." 
 
 This account is followed by a " strictly literal" translation of the poem, 
 with the exception of the two concluding stanzas. There is a copy of the 
 original in the manuscript eoUections of the Royal Irish Academy, which 
 Mr, Eugene Curry kindly translated for the author. The passage in Mac- 
 pherson's Fingal, in which a "close coincidence" with the Irish poem has. 
 been observed, is the following :— 
 
 " Call," said Fingal, " call my dogs, the long-bounding sons of the chase. 
 Call white-breasted Bi-an, and the surly strength of Luath. ■•' <= Blow the 
 horn that the joy of the chase may arise, that the deer of Cromla may hear 
 and start at the lake of roes. The shrill sound spreads along the wood. 
 The sons of heathy Cromla arise. A thousand dogs fly off at once, grey- 
 bounding through the heath. A deer fell by every dog ; three by the white- 
 breasted Br&n."— Fingal, Book vi. 
 
 In the Irish poem, the number of hounds is three thousand, which Mac- 
 pherson himself seems to have thought beyond credibility, and reduced the 
 number to one thousand. Dr. C, O'Connor wonders that so extravagant a 
 fiction should be ascribed to Ossian. 
 
 '■ Miior sane viros alioquin doctos, a partium studiis ita abreptos fuisse, 
 ut ea qucE scquuntur de Finni venatione figmenta Oissino tribuenda cen- 
 serent :— 
 
 Solvimus ter mille canes 
 
 Celeriores et ferociores, ' 
 
 Et occidit quisque Canis dtios cervos!" 
 
 Report of the Highland Society, EdirJb. 1805, p. 268. 
 
 " Fausta quidcm dies ! Prospera venatio I ,^neas esuriens septem, tantum 
 cervos in Libya occidit. Miser! si sorte ei evenisset Scotiam adire !" — Reb. 
 HiB. SCKIPT. I,, p. cxxvi. 
 
 The good Doctor should have remembered that we are now in the land 
 of romance, and the very extravagance of the fiction is a sufficient guaran- 
 tee against its being mistaken, or intended to be received, as a reality. 
 
 The chase of the wild boar was one of the most dangerous and exciting 
 pastimes of the Ossianic heroes, who are occasionally designated by Mac- 
 pherson as "stern hunters of the shaggy boar." In their conflicts with 
 this formidable animal they were sometimes worsted. "Dargo, king of 
 spears, fell before a boar ;" but to slay the monster, was an achievement 
 worthy of the song of the bard. " Trenmor pursued the boar that roared 
 through the woods of Gormal ; many had fled from its presence, but it 
 rolled in death on the spear of Trenmor." The honour of killing such game 
 v»as s'o highly prized that it "became a subject of deadly contention. " In 
 strife met two kings in Ithorno, Culgorm and Suran-dronlo : each fi-om his 
 echoing isle, stern hunters of the boar • They met a boar at a foamy stream : 
 
CHASE OP SLIEVE-NA-MAN. 123 
 
 each pierced him with his spear. They strove for the fame of the deed ; 
 and gloomy hattle rose." 
 
 It was also a point of honour to be the first to throw a dart, or inflict a 
 wound, on the object of attack. Macpherson informs us that a war arose 
 between Starno and Torcul Torno, in consequence of the latter having 
 committed a breach of privilege in killing a boar before Starno, to whom 
 that privilege belonged, as he was a stranger and an invited guest. Torcul 
 Torno was slain, and his party totally defeated. This fact may remind the 
 reader of the cruel punishment inflicted by Alexander the Great on Her- 
 molaus, for anticipating him in casting a javelin at a boar. " Hermolaus 
 puer nobilis ex regia cohorte, quum aprum telo occupasset, quem rex ferire 
 destinaverat, juasu ejus verberibus adfectus est." — Q. CuHius, viii. 6. 
 
 Of the formidable nature of this animal, and how worthy it was deemed 
 of being pursued and attacked by kings and heroes of old, we may judge 
 from its being one of the twelve labours of Hercules to capture the Ery- 
 raanthian boar, and present him alive to Eurystheus, who fainted at the 
 sight— from the history, told by Herodotus, of the Mysian boar, in the 
 encounter with which the son of Croesus fell by an ill-aimed blow intended 
 for the beast— and from the history of the Calydonian boar, that kept a 
 whole province in alarm, till wounded by an arrow from the bow of the 
 courageous Atalanta, and slain by Meleager, who, gallantly and chival- 
 rously, attributed the honour of the conquest, as became a high-minded 
 chevalier, to the fair lady, saying, " Meritum feres virtutis honorem — a com- 
 pliment justly due to her valour, and worthy of being immortalized in the 
 song of Publius Ovidius Naso, the most fertile in fancy and beautiful in 
 description, of all the Ausonian bards. 
 
 So fond of this pastime were our Ossianic heroes, that for lack of sub- 
 stantial boars, they "pursued boars of mist, along the skirts of winds." 
 
 The wild boar famishes a striking comparison to poets. Homer compares 
 Idomeneus waiting the attack of ^neas to a wild boar that waits 
 
 " a coming multitude 
 Of boisterous hunters." 
 
 "Virgil, too, compares Mezentius, surrounded by enemies, to the same animal 
 when immeshed in the hunters' toils, and assailed from a distance by their 
 missiles, which he shakes from his brawny sides, gnashing his teeth, and 
 snorting defiance. 
 
 " Speaking of boars," we must not forget or overlook the most renowned 
 of all the brindled tusky brood, even him who was brought captive by the 
 little Cupids, to plead his defence for killing the beloved of Aphrodite, and 
 who spoke in his defence with such aff^ecting eloquence, that the goddess 
 was melted to compassion, and took him into " her train" — as is sweetly 
 sung by the sweetest of pastoral poets, in an Idyl beginning thus, as " done 
 into English by M. J. Chapman, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge." 
 
 " Cypris when she saw Adonis 
 Cold and dead as any stone is ; 
 All his dark hair out of trim, 
 And his fair cheek deadly dim. 
 Thither charged the Loves to lead 
 The cruel boar that did the deed." 
 
124 
 
 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 The race of wild-boars, with that of the wolf, of the bear, aud of the gigan- 
 tic deer (cervus megaceras), has long been extinct in Ireland. It still exists 
 in some parts of the European continent, and furnishes a subject of great 
 excitement, not devoid of peril to the hunter. Frazer's Magazine for Octo- 
 ber, 1846, contains an animated account of a boar-hunt in Britanny, con- 
 nected, hke the chase of Slieve-na-man, with the chase of the deer. For 
 the gratification of our sporting friends, the following extracts from it are 
 offered to tlieir perusal : — 
 
 " On a stout roadster was mounted a stalwart fellow, with black mous- 
 tache, and a shaggy beard reaching to his chest. In his hand he carried a 
 heavy hunting whip, and on one side of his demipique saddle hung a bunch 
 of hounds' bells, balanced on the other by a knot of couples. He wore a 
 casqti^t de chasse, and his long green velvet frock was secured by a broad 
 leathern belt, in which was a coteau de chasse, in a silver-mounted scabbard, 
 and fastened by a buckle embossed with a shield of a large silver boar's 
 head. A French horn hung over his left shoulder, and passed under the 
 opposite arm, crossed by a leather thong, bearing a short, stout javelin, or 
 spear, which was slung across his buck leather pantaloons, fitting tight to 
 liis athletic person, aud Hessian boots of the same untanned material, 
 formed the costume of a mounted garde de chasse. Behind this formidable 
 personage trooped some thirty couple of hounds, wayworn and weary, as 
 was betrayed by their lolling tongues. 
 
 " The hounds were of a peculiar breed, much larger than our fox-hounds, 
 and altogether unlike them ; powerful in bone, and for the most part of a 
 brindled colour, shaggy in coat, with long and sweeping ears. If they have 
 a fault, it is that they are rather too long upon their legs for the bulk, but 
 with a sagacious head and strong instinct, and course shown in the expres- 
 sion of the eye ; generous beasts, capable and willing to do. 
 
 •' Two hounds followed (the hunters) which were not for hunting, but for 
 dealing with the boar at close quarters — shaggy haired and of a grey colour, 
 much larger than a mastiff, and with his ensanguined eye and hanging 
 jowl, the most powerful beasts I had ever beheld, and very fierce. The 
 hounds were furnished with iron collars with sharp steel spikes, and were 
 formidable as tlie betes fauves they were intended to contend with. For 
 once there was a truce to impertinence in the names they bore ! The 
 sounding titles of Hector and Achilles were not bestowed upon a kitten or 
 a poodle. 
 
 " At last the horn gave notice that the game was afoot. The sharp cock 
 of my rifle sounded like music in my ears. I heard the game approach ; it 
 came thundering along, shaking the hollow and turfy ground more like a 
 hull than a deer, which I expected. It proved instead to be a boar of enor- 
 mous size, with an eye of fire, churning at the tusks, with mane erect, and 
 rapid but unwieldy gait. He dashed snorting by, and such was my surprise 
 at this first introduction to the grisly beast that I did not fire, and he 
 escaped scot-free." » • « 
 
 Again "the hounds gave notice that there was something in the wind. 
 It is a boar! Look to the hounds! See how their eyes kindle and their 
 hair bristles up ! a token that it is no trifling enemy. They would not so 
 honour a stag ! 
 
 " Presently the monster appeared, having outstripped his pursuers. He 
 came along at a leisure trot ; the hounds couched close to the earth ; he 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE-NA-MAN. 125 
 
 Stopped some sixty paces from ns ; we were concealed fiom his view, but 
 he seemed conscious of danger, and as if speculating from what quarter it 
 might come. 
 
 We fired simultaneously, and the bnite rolled over, rending the earth and 
 tearing the branches in wild and ungovernable fury. The hounds launched 
 upon him like lightning, and pinuing him by the throat and muzzle, they 
 rolled over and over together in the death struggle. The boar was soon 
 throttled, and lay upon his back with his muzzle covered with foam, and 
 his eye still scintillating, like a half extinguished coal." 
 
 Argument. — The Bard, in compliance with Patrick's request to be informed 
 of the greatest hunt in which the Fenian heroes had ever been engaged, 
 proceeds to inform him that the chiefs assembled one early mom at the 
 celebrated mountain of Slieve-na-man to pursue the chase. He describes 
 their dress and arms ; and eulogises Finn as excelling all other heroes 
 in valour and courtesy. The chiefs, having taken their appointed sta- 
 tions, waited till they heard the signal sound that the game was afoot. 
 When they saw the horns of the deer, as they first appeared rising to 
 view over the slope of the hill, they slipped the hounds, and pursued 
 the game with eminent success. The chase of the deer was immediately 
 succeeded by the more dangerous chase of the wild boai', which 
 proved disastrous to the hounds, as ten hundred of them were goi-ed to 
 death by the tusks of the boars, who resolutely maintained their ground 
 till they were attacked and cut down by the weapons of the hunters, 
 who avenged the slaughter of their dogs, and gained a complete, though 
 hardly contested victory. The Lay ends by the Bard's declaring his 
 preference of the music of hounds in chase, to the chanting of psalms 
 and the ringing of Patrick's bells. 
 
 I. 
 
 OssiAN. — E'er peered the sun from his eastern bower, 
 Or beamed on the world in beauty and power, 
 Three thousand chiefs of the Fenian race, 
 
 To arms and battles bred, 
 O'er Slieve-na-man pursued the chase. 
 
 By Finn and Oscar led. 
 
 Patrick. — Ossian ! music tunes thy voice ! 
 May the soul of Finn in bliss rejoice ! 
 Now tell me true, when the Fenian clan 
 
 Pursued that chase severe. 
 What numbers fell on Slieve-na-man 
 
 Of the nimble-footed deer ? 
 
126 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 Tell what the arms and proud array 
 Of all who on that glorious day, 
 Went forth with hound and spear. 
 
 II. 
 
 OssiAN. — Then list — to chase the rapid game. 
 
 Each gallant Fenian warrior came 
 
 With two fleet hounds ; — a satin vest 
 
 Was buckled o'er his manly breast; 
 
 A coat of polished mail he wore ; 
 
 His hand two glittering lances bore ; 
 
 His helmet, dazzling to behold, 
 
 Was rich inlaid with gems and gold ; 
 
 His shield, of bright and emerald green, 
 
 Had oft in fight victorious been ; 
 
 And, by his manly side 
 Was hung, a blade of tempered steel. 
 That oft had made his foe-men reel, 
 
 And tamed their martial pride.* 
 
 III. 
 
 But who, in princely port and grace, 
 Could match the chieftain of our race ? 
 In vain excursive might you roam 
 Where'er is wafted ocean's foam, 
 With keen and searching eye to find 
 A chief like Finn — so brave — so kind. 
 
 • In "the Historic Tale of the death of the children of Usnach," the 
 dress of Naisi is thus described, as literally translated from the Irish in the 
 " Transactions of the Gaelic Society," p. 175, Dub. 1808 : — 
 
 " Splendid was his vesture fair. 
 
 Among the mighty of Alba's host ; 
 
 A cassock of bright purple, rightly shaped, 
 
 With its fringe of brilliant gold. 
 
 A garb of satin, — precious ornament. 
 
 Wherein were an hundred polished gems ; 
 
 For whose fair fitting, brightly shone, 
 
 Fifty hooks of silver. 
 
 A sword of golden hilt graced his hand, 
 
 Two blue-green javeUns of brightful point ; 
 
 A dirk with ospreys of golden gleam. 
 
 And a hilt of silver on it." 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE-NA-MAN. 127 
 
 IV. 
 
 Soon westward to the mountain named 
 Of Erin's maids for beauty famed, 
 
 We turned with rapid pace ; 
 There Almhuin's chief had found delight, 
 When summer days were long and bright, 
 
 Full oft to urge the chase. 
 To a verdant mound we came, that stood 
 O'er a dingle coped with a leafy wood. 
 Where many a bird of sweetest song 
 Was heard the yerdant bowers among. 
 And the cuckoo's love-inviting voice, 
 From cliff and tree, bade the world rejoice. 
 
 There Finn, with Brann, his station took, 
 And cast around his watchful look, 
 
 Till bursting on his ear. 
 Rose the hunter's cry — and far beneath \ 
 From furzy copse and purple heath » 
 
 Sprang the boars and the startled deer. 
 
 \ 
 VI. 
 
 Each chieftain at his post, with glee 
 Heard rustling sounds from brake and tree ; 
 Nor moved — till on the mountain side 
 The antlers of the deer they spied ; 
 Uprising like a fleet's dense masts 
 
 When tilting o'er the flood ; 
 Or branches by rough wintry blasts 
 
 Left naked in the wood. 
 With loud and cheering sounds. 
 
 Upon the antlered throng 
 We slipt the eager hounds. 
 
 Three thousand fleet and strong. 
 High-bounding, panting to pursue. 
 Tempestuous on the game they flew. 
 
128 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 vn. 
 
 Oh ! 'twas a grand and glorious sight I 
 It thrilled the soul with sweet delight 
 That host of fleet-foot hounds to see, 
 When from their leashes loosed and free. 
 Urged to the chase by many a cheer, 
 They sprang to reach the flying deer ; 
 While, all in groups, our merry men, 
 From copse and wood, from hill and glen. 
 Upraised a shout, that, spreading far, 
 Proclaimed, begun the sylvan war. 
 Such pack of hunting-dogs, I ween. 
 Was ne'er before in Erin seen ; 
 So full of life, so sweet of tongue, 
 As bounding rapid on they sprung. 
 
 And forth in concert broke. 
 Then loud, and loud, and louder still. 
 From mural rock and cairn-crowned hill. 
 From wooded isle, from stream, and lake, 
 From hollow glen and mountain brake. 
 
 Echo to echo spoke. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 As numerous as the birds that fly 
 The freezing blasts of a wintry sky ; 
 And with their sounding pinions sweep 
 The bosom of the azure deep. 
 And round the shores, in creek and bay. 
 Crowd flocks on flocks in dense array ; 
 The deer, in scattering thousands, ran 
 Along the slopes of Slieve-na-man. 
 
 As fleet the hounds pursued, 
 Till each had made a noble prey ; 
 Till two fat deer beside him lay 
 
 In smoking blood imbrued. 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE-NA-MAN. 129 
 
 IX. 
 
 That hunting o'er — another chase — 
 
 'Twas on the wild boar's savage race — 
 
 We soon began, prepared to brave, 
 
 With dart, and spear, and slaughtering glaive, 
 
 The fierce indomitable rage, 
 
 That dared our gallant chiefs engage. 
 
 Soon many a strong and nimble hound 
 
 Lay maimed and weltering on the ground. 
 
 With his gorge of shining gold, 
 All torn, and gashed, and steeped in gore. 
 By cruel tusk of rabid boar ; 
 And, ere the noon of day was past, 
 Ten hundred hounds had chased their last. 
 But we, with rage of vengeance flushed. 
 Upon the boars impetuous rushed. 
 
 Though hungry, gaunt, and bold. 
 
 Baited by dogs, the porcine brood, 
 Close gathered in a circle, stood 
 Like warriors that await the charge 
 Of coming foes with spear and targe. 
 Their post the strongest took in front 
 To bear the conflict's fiercest brunt. 
 
 Like chiefs in battle line. 
 The weaker in the centre, all. 
 Whene'er they heard their leaders' call. 
 
 Prepared the fight to join. 
 Their wrath they stirred by mutual cries ; 
 Glared, sunk in blood and fire, their eyes,* 
 
 * Ardentesque oculos suffectl sanguine et igni. 
 
 ViBG., ^n, II. 
 
 Sanguine et igne micant oculi, riget horrida cervix 
 Et setEe densis similes hastilibus horrent. 
 Fervida cum rauco latos stridore per armos 
 Spuma flult : dentes sequantur derrtibus Indis ; 
 Fulmen ab ore venit : frondes aiflatibus ardent. 
 
 Ovid, Lib. VIII. 
 
 g2 
 
1?0 THE LAT OF THE 
 
 And while their savage fury burned, 
 
 The boiling foam in their jaws they churned. 
 
 As still more near we onward prest, 
 
 More furious grew their look ; 
 On each ridged back, like warrior's crest,* 
 
 Their stiffening bristles shook. 
 Their long white tusks projecting far, 
 Like scythes of warrior's battle-car. 
 Or, like the plough's deep-furrowing share 
 In grassy glebe, can cut and tear 
 Whate'er it strikes — or rend and gash. 
 Like cloud-borne thunder's angry flash — 
 
 The hunters scoured the thickets ; foremost ran 
 The questing hounds, behind them came the youths. 
 Sons of Autolycus, with whom advanced 
 The illustrious prince Flysses, pressing close 
 The hounds, and brandishing his massy spear. 
 There hid, in thickest shades, a huge boar lay. 
 * « « * » • 
 
 Hunters and dogs approaching him, his ear 
 The sound of feet perceived ; upridging high 
 His bristly spine and glaring fire, he sprang 
 Portli from the shrubs, and in defiance stood 
 Near and right opposite. Ulysses first 
 Assailed him with his elevated spear, 
 Ardent to wound him ; but the boar, his thrust 
 Preventing, galled him first above the knee. 
 Much flesh, obliquely striking him, he tore 
 With his rude tusk, yet reached not to the bone. 
 But him Ulysses piercing in the brawn 
 Of his right shoulder, urged his weapon through. 
 He, screaming, feU, and died." 
 
 Homer's Odyssey XIX., Cowper. 
 
 * Oppian, the Greek poet, in his Cynegetics, Book III., describes the boar 
 thus :— 
 
 Horrent on his neck 
 His hair stands bristling like the helmet's crest. 
 With fervid panting oft he gnashes fierce 
 His ivory teeth, and churning loud his foam, 
 Distils it on the ground. 
 
 This fame reports, that in the boar's white tusks 
 Is lodged a secret and destructive fire : 
 By feet attested thus— whene'er a crowd 
 Of hunters round him pressing with their dogs 
 Of fearless daring, beat him to the ground; 
 Or with long spears in many a bold attack 
 Have triumphed o'er him — if one standing nigh 
 From his own head extract a slender hair. 
 And with it touch the fallen monster's teeth, 
 It curls as if it felt the force of fire. 
 And in the dogs, where'er the wounding tusks 
 Assailed them in the conflict, may be seen 
 On each scorched side the vestiges of flame. 
 
CHASE OF SLIEVE-NA-MAN. 131 
 
 Gashed many a limb : — with many a stroke, 
 
 The spear-shafts into shivers broke ; 
 
 Ground them — and crushed, as they would crush 
 
 The pithless reed or trembling rush.* 
 
 Had not our hunters, skilled to face 
 
 All perils of the wild-boar chase, 
 
 Been ever nigh, with strength and art. 
 
 With two-winged axe and keen-barbed dart, 
 
 To curb the brindled monsters' pride, 
 
 And turn their onslaught fierce aside ; 
 
 Some chieftains, and their merry men, 
 
 Would ne'er have urged the chase again. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Yet pressed we boldly on the foe. 
 
 And the strongest prostrate laid ; 
 With thrust, and stab, and slash, and blow, 
 
 A fearful havoc made. 
 With dart and spear their sides we gored, 
 
 And sluiced their life-blood with the sword ; 
 Till, like a battle-field, the plain 
 Was heaped with mountains of the slain. 
 But, had our weapons not proved true, 
 
 Nor strong our Fenian clan. 
 Might Erin long have cause to rue 
 
 The chase of Slieve-na-man. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Sage, thou whose hands dehght to hold 
 That shepherd crook inlaid with gold. 
 And starred with jewels sparkling bright. 
 Clear- glowing in the crimson light. 
 Thou now hast heard my tale. 
 
 * " He (the boar) grinds the tough red spear, 
 As if it were the soft reed or rush of Lego." 
 
 Gaelic Poem. 
 
132 THE LAY OP THE CHASE OF SLIEVE-NA-MAN. 
 
 Oh ! how it thrills my son! to hear 
 Of Fenians bold and bounding deer. 
 
 On the hills of Innisfail ! 
 To me more sweet the music swells 
 
 From hounds in rapid chase, 
 Than chant of psalms and ring of bells. 
 
 From all thy cleric race. 
 
 Note. — To the gentle reader who has honoured our boar^xcursion thus 
 far with his company, it may not be uninteresting to hear how one of the 
 most renowned of the Fenian heroes, Dermuid O'Duibhne, who was dear 
 to Graina, as Adonis to Venus, died of wounds inflicted by the bristly hide 
 of a boar which he had slain. The story may be seen in Smith's Gaelic 
 Antiquities, and is recorded thus : — 
 
 " We climb Golbnn of green hills, where the branchy horns of deer are 
 seen in mist, and where He thick the mossy beds of roes. From echoing 
 rocks we start the boar, the red deadly boar of Golbun. We pursue him 
 with all our dogs ; but he leaves them weltering in blood behind. 
 
 *♦ Who, said the king, shall kill the boar of Golbun ; the boar that 
 is red with the blood of heroes ; that has slain so many of our hounds ? 
 His shall be a spear, the gift of a king ; a shield with all its studs ; and the 
 herbs of the secret stream, to heal his wounds. 
 
 •' Mine, replied Dermid, shall be the gift of the king ; or I fkll by the 
 bristly foe, and lose the fame of the song. 
 
 " He spoke and flew over the heath in the glare of steeL * * The boar 
 flies before him, but not so fast. His path is marked with wreaths of foam. 
 * * See! they ascend Drimruath : the spear of Dermid almost reaches 
 the foe. It falls heavy on its sides j it marks them with red streams. But 
 see ! with fury red-glaring in his eye he turns. As it were a bulrush or 
 slender reed of Lego, he grinds the hard tough spear of Dermid. 
 
 " With all his tenible might, the chief Ufts his spear. The head is lodged 
 in the rough breast of the boar. His sword is in the hero's hand. Its cold 
 
 {>oint pierces the heart of the foe : — the boar with all his blood and foam, 
 s stretched on earth. 
 
 " We rejoiced to see Dermid safe ; we rejoiced all, but Connan. Measure, 
 said that little soul, the boai- which thou hast slain. Measure him with thy 
 foot bare, a larger hath not been seen. 
 
 " The foot of Dermid slides softly along the grain; no harm hath the 
 hero suflFered. 
 
 " Measure, said Connan, the boar against the grain ; and thine, chief of 
 spears, shall be the boon thou wilt ask. 
 
 " The soul of Dermid was a stranger to fear ; he obeyed again the voice 
 of Connan. But the bristly back of Golbun's boar, sharp as his arrows, 
 and strong as his spear, pierces with a thousand wounds his feet. His 
 blood dyes the ground ; it flows in wandering rills through the gi-ass. The 
 herbs of the mountain are applied; but their virtue fails. Dermid falls, like 
 a tall pine, on the heath." 
 
 There is a tradition in Ireland, that it was prophesied Dermuid should 
 lose his life by a boar, and that he was invulnerable except in the sole of 
 his foot. Conan knew this, and induced him to make the experiment which 
 proved fatal. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 THE DEATH OF CARRIL, 
 
 A GAELIC POEM, 
 
 FIRST PRINTED, WITH A TRANSLATION VERBATIM INTO ENGLISH. IN THE 
 APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OP THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY," pp. 236, 236. 
 
 Abgcment.— ZiteroKy copied from, Kennedy's MS. 
 
 " The manner by which the death of this femous hero was brought about 
 is very tragical, whose story is related traditionally as follows : — Gaul 
 being the most experienced warrior of all the bands of Fingal, and the 
 only one living of the royal race of Clan Moirne, of whom he held , 
 command under the famous flag and special advice of Fingal, and who 
 upon all occasions, and at all solemnities, was honoured and regarded 
 above any man of either clan. Gaul having always occupied the seat 
 next to Fingal, and enjoyed the best and most delicious messes, espe- 
 cially a roast or coUop (called mir-mora), over and above the wont 
 ratio of all the grand bands, created him in his declining years ill-will 
 and aversion by the ambitious sons of Fingal, in particular Carril. 
 This mir-mora, or rather mircorra, was a favourite mess of Fingal and 
 Gaul, which was but a choice coUop chopped and mixed ynth marrow 
 and herb seeds. This mir-mora, and every other reward conferred upon 
 Gaul, was claimed by Carril, finding himself the bravest and most 
 accomplished champion among the sons of Fingal, seeing Gaul aged 
 and unfit for distant services, disputed his birth (right?) by dint of 
 arms. The invincible Gaul and inveterate Carril entered the lists, and 
 engaged each other in wrestling, whereby they could not decide the 
 cause upon that day, both being equally overcome. The day following 
 they met well clad in armour, furnished with sword and lance (against 
 the persuasion of Fingal), whereby they showed much courage and 
 bravery, and Gaul gave the decisive stroke to Carril, who has been 
 lamented by Fingal for many days. Gaul tied and hid himself in a 
 
 * The Committee of the Highland Society, say of thia poem that they have^' never seen 
 it any where but in the collection of Kennedy. Though with a simplicity bordering on 
 rudeness, it is extremely striking in the Gaelic, but very difficult to be translated."— 
 Report, p. 128. 
 
134 THE LAY OP THE 
 
 cave, full of grief and sorrow, not choosing to rely upon the friendship 
 of Fingal till his days of mourning elapsed. The poem opens at their 
 engagement, and ends by Fingal and the bard's lament over Carril's 
 corpse." 
 
 I. 
 
 The feast was spread in Tara*s hall, 
 
 Where harp and cruit harmonious rung. 
 And wine-cups cheered the festival, 
 
 'Till strife among the Fenians sprung. 
 Words of warm wrath two warriors spoke. 
 And forth in fierce defiance broke ; 
 Carril, the chief of noble mien, 
 
 And Gaul, renowned in fight ; 
 To prove, by wrestling on the green, 
 
 Superior skill dnd might. 
 
 11. 
 
 • * 
 
 The ground, beneath their firm-set tread. 
 Was pressed as by dense weights of lead ; 
 And high the panting of each chest. 
 The strife of heroes loud confest ; 
 While round them, in no joyous mood, 
 In sad suspense the Fenians stood. 
 
 III. 
 
 As keen they strove, with tugs and wheels, 
 The turf was ploughed beneath their heels, 
 And many a weighty clod and stone 
 Updug, and to a distance thrown. 
 And neither, at the evening hour, 
 Could boast superior skill or power. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Next morn again the champions met, 
 And each the other firmly grasped; 
 
 Firm planted, foot to foot they set, 
 Again in stern embraces clasped 
 
DEATH OF CARRIL. 135 
 
 They pulled, and pushed, and twined, and turned. 
 And fiercer still the conflict burned. 
 Till gushed the sweat-foam o*er each breast : — 
 But victory yet was unconfest.* 
 
 Then each the contest to decide, 
 
 And soothe, perchance, his wounded pride ; 
 
 Resolved to prove by sword and shield 
 
 Who best his deadly arms could wield ; 
 
 Brave Carril oft in combats seen. 
 
 And Gaul of tempered weapons keen. 
 
 * Macpherson describes the wrestling of Fingal and Swaran thus :— 
 
 " Each rushes to his hero's grasp : their sinewy arms bend round each 
 other : they turn from side to side, and strain and stretch their large spread- 
 ing limbs below. But when the pride of their strength arose, they shook 
 the hills with their heels. Rocks tumble from their places on high ; the 
 green-headed bushes are overturned." — See Note to the Lay of Magnus, p. 11. 
 
 Parts of this description exemplify the turgid and the bathos ; and may, 
 possibly, remind the reader of some modem Sapphics in Latin, which, after 
 describing the conflagration that is seen, in prophetic trance, drying up the 
 channels of the mighty deep, melting down the Alps and the Andes, and 
 wrapping the world in devouring flame, complete the catastrophe by saying 
 that the tiowers and white lilies also perish — 
 
 Pereuntque flores 
 
 Liliaque alba. 
 
 In the 28rd Book of the Iliad, the reader may see the following descrip- 
 tion of a wrestling match between Ajax and Ulysses :— 
 
 " Scarce did the chief the vigorous strife propose, 
 
 When tow'r-Uke Ajax and Ulysses rose. 
 
 Amid the ring each nervous rival stand.*. 
 
 Embracing rigid with implicit hands : 
 
 Close-locked above, their heads and arms are mixt ; 
 
 Below, their planted feet, at distance fixt : 
 
 Like two strong rafters which the builder forms 
 
 Proof to the wintry wind and howling storms, 
 
 Their tops connected, but at wider space 
 
 Fixt on the centre stands their solid base. 
 
 Now to the grasp each manly body bends ; 
 
 The hmnid sweat from every pore descends ; 
 
 Their bones resound with blows : sides, shoulders, thighs. 
 
 Swell to each gripe and bloody tumours rise. 
 
 Nor could Ulysses for his art renowned, 
 
 O'erturn the strength of Ajax on the ground ; 
 
 Nor could the strength of Ajax overthrow 
 
 The watchful caution of his artful foe."— Pope. 
 
136 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 VI. 
 
 Then front to front the warriors drew. 
 And fierce and loud the combat grew. 
 As met their swords in furious clash. 
 Bright glancing like the lightning's flash, 
 
 And sparkling streams of fire. 
 The noble Fenians standing near. 
 Were sorely grieved their blows to hear, 
 
 And mourned their deadly ire. 
 With splintered steel the ground was strewn, 
 Their shields to pieces hacked and hewn 
 Till breathless, sad the tale to tell — 
 Prone to the dust, young Carril fell. 
 Carril the beautiful, the kind, 
 Of noble port — of generous mind. 
 Remorseless, cruel was the blow 
 That laid the youthful champion low. 
 
 VII. 
 
 •*My son! my son! my darling child, 
 
 Beloved, magnanimous and mild!" 
 
 Cried Finn — while anguish wrung his breast, 
 
 And dark his spirit sunk depressed. 
 
 As hides the radiant sun his head, 
 
 By sudden thunder-clouds o'erspread. 
 
 **Sad, sad thy death — a cruel dart 
 
 That deeply wounds thy father's heart ! 
 
 Clenched are thy teeth of whiteness fast. 
 
 Closed are thy eyes in lasting sleep. 
 Away thy manly strength has passed, 
 
 As bud and branch when tempests sweep. 
 No more advancing to the field, 
 
 My son, our battle's boast and pride. 
 Wilt thou e'er strike the sounding shield. 
 
 Or combat by thy father's side. 
 
DEATH OF CARRIL. 137 
 
 VIII. 
 
 " Would that some distant stranger's hand 
 
 Had wrought this mighty wo ! 
 Or monarch, who the world commands. 
 
 Had struck the fatal hlow ; 
 Soon should his vanquished legions tell 
 That I avenged thy fate, full well. 
 
 IX. 
 
 ** Blest, graceful Carril ! be thy name. 
 Illustrious in the songs of fame. 
 For triumphs, in far distant lands. 
 Achieved by thy victorious hands. 
 Of Erin's warriors none could vie 
 With thee, in gentle courtesy. 
 The pride wert thou of Tara's hall. 
 
 Still foremost in the chase. 
 In mirth and glee supreme o'er all 
 
 The noble Fenian race ! 
 
 X. 
 
 ** would that in some glorious strife 
 Of heroes thou hadst lost thy life ! 
 
 Youth of the auburn hair ! 
 Soon would the sons of Cumhail move 
 In fields of carnage red, to prove, 
 
 For thee, a vengeance rare. 
 But now, in agony of wo. 
 They mourn their darling champion low. 
 ' Sad, sad thy fate ! ' they well may cry, 
 * Not in some battle field to lie. 
 But thus to fall in single fight ! 
 For private wrong, not public right. 
 To vanish like a cloud of night 1' 
 
138 THE LAY OP THE DEATH OP CARRIL. 
 
 XL 
 
 " For thee will Sora's maids deplore — 
 For thee their grief in tear-showers shed ; 
 
 As mists that drop their watery store 
 Upon the cloud- wrapt mountain's head ; 
 
 And pour upon the passing gale 
 
 Their long, deep, melancholy wail. 
 
 XII. 
 
 *' The champion erst so tall, so strong, 
 So full of life our chiefs among. 
 Now lies devoid of arms and dress. 
 Pale, cold, and stark, and motionless, 
 Within a dark and narrow cell 
 Beneath the sward, for aye, to dwell. 
 Alas ! alas ! for such a grief 
 What power on earth can give relief I 
 
 XIII. 
 
 " Along the pebhly strand to roam. 
 To breast the storm-swept ocean-foam. 
 
 Great was his joy — his joy to cheer. 
 With voice melodious sounding far, 
 The hounds to chase the full-grown deer. 
 
 And speed the sylvan war. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 " hero ! cheerful, generous, kind, 
 
 Of open hand, of soul refined. 
 
 Beloved of friends ; — among thy foes, 
 
 Whene'er thy martial spirit rose, 
 
 A torrent from its mountain source 
 
 Down roaring with resistless force. 
 
 But who can all thy virtues tell ? 
 
 Chief of sharp blades, farewell ! farewell ! " 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COMBAT OF FUATH AND CONAN. 
 
 The fame of that eminent worthy, Conan Maol, had extended to the Scot, 
 tish Highlands — for in Smith's Gaelic Antiquities, in the poem of Manos, 
 we find him sustaining the character which he enjoys in the genuine Irish 
 minstrelsy, though he is treated with marked neglect by Macpherson, 
 When Manos (Magnus the Great) demanded "the combat of heroes, the 
 combat of heroes he shall have, said the boastful Conan. I will bring to 
 my king the head of the chief." But the exploits of the hero must not be 
 told in creeping prose. Let the harp of Innisfail be strung. Let the voice 
 of song be heard. Raise, ye bards, the fame of the valiant Conan. 
 
 " Does Manos hero's combat crave?" 
 
 The boastful Conan cried, 
 " A hero's combat he shall hare, 
 
 I'll tame that monarch's pride. 
 Me let him meet — he soon shall feel 
 A sample true of Erin's steel ; 
 His head in triumph will I bring, 
 A grateful present, to our king." 
 
 To match the vaunting Conan's boast. 
 Came Fuath forth from Lochlin's host, 
 By Manos sent — for weapon keen 
 That prince ne'er drew on foe so mean. 
 But Fuath was vain Conan's peer. 
 In cunning trick, in gibe and jeer ; 
 Still last to meet in field of strife, 
 Still first to flee from risk of life. 
 
 Of him the tale is told. 
 That near a stream, by clear moonlight. 
 He saw a chief of towering height. 
 
 In mien and gesture bold. 
 Who higher still was seen to rear. 
 Above his crest, a long barbed spear. 
 On him did Fuath fear to look ; 
 Like trembling aspen leaf he shook ; 
 And, lest such foe should come more nigh, 
 Resolved with greyhound speed to fly. 
 He turned, and swiftly off he flew ; 
 As swift he saw the foe pursue. 
 
140 THE LAY OF THE COMBAT OF FUATH AND CON AN. 
 
 Till, trying o*er the stream to bound, 
 Trembling, he stumbled to the ground ; 
 And with him fell, without a blow. 
 Beneath his arm the dreaded foe. 
 Of such unhoped for victory proud, 
 A shout of triumph raised he loud ; 
 
 And thus the chief addressed. 
 " There, gallant hero ! prostrate lie ; 
 For mercy plead not — thou must die — 
 
 This steel shall search thy breast." 
 Then, though still trembling and afraid. 
 He raised his tarnished rusty blade. 
 Prepared his fallen foe to slay, 
 As prostrate on the ground he lay — 
 And found that from no foe-man dread, 
 But his own shadow, he had fled ! 
 
 Such warrior now in Lochlin^s cause, 
 His sword against our champion draws : 
 Him Conan saw with growing fear, 
 And trembled as he drew more near; 
 Yet, feigning valour, on he prest. 
 And touched the feather in his crest 
 With outstretched sword — then turned with speed, 
 To see if Finn had marked the deed. 
 While Fuath, swifter than the wind. 
 With trenchant steel comes close behind. 
 And with unsparing vengeance shears. 
 From valiant Conan, both the ears. 
 
 With cries that made the welkin ring. 
 Shorn Conan meets the Fenian king. 
 And at his feet, as low he falls. 
 For great revenge imploring calls. 
 " Finn, here turn thy pitying eye. 
 Behold thy bravest hero die ; 
 Avenge my death — and let my tale 
 Draw showers of grief from Innisfail." 
 
 Note. — It may have been from the circumstance mentioned in these lines 
 that Conan became distinguished by the epithet maol, which is generally 
 rendered hold; but it also signifies homiest, blunt, and, probably, in his 
 case, earlett. Fwnth meaqs a scarecrow, spectre, apparition, <bc. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 CONFLICT BETWEEN GAUL MACMORNI 
 AND LUGAIDH LA6A, 
 
 OTHEBWISE ENTITLED 
 
 Laoi an duim — The Lay of the Fist. 
 
 If such contests arose among the leaders of the Greeks as are recorded in 
 the Iliad, we need not be surprised to find similar disseniions among the 
 Fenian heroes. Those in whose bosoms dwells a high sense of honour with 
 a love of glory, are "jealous and quick in quarrel." Old resentments are 
 easily revived, and new causes of offence as easily created. A misplaced or 
 ill-timed word may sting like a wasp, and an unhappy allusion, like a spark 
 of fire falling on combustible matter, soon kindle a devouring flame. 
 
 Lugaidh Laga, a principal actor in the following lay, was the brother of 
 Oilioll Olum, king of Munster. According to MacCurtin, he was the chief 
 champion of Ireland, " a foolish man," who had nothing to boast of but 
 great bodily strength, and ferocious courage. In the bloody and decisive 
 battle of Criona, in the county of Meath, he distinguished himself by cutting 
 off the head of the three brothers named Fergus ; and previously by slaying 
 Art, the father of king Cormac, at the battle of Mucroimhe, in the county 
 of Galway. Gaul had incurred liis vengeance by having killed his brother 
 in the battle of Moylena, and it seems that Lugaidh Laga was eager to 
 embrace the first occasion he could find of showing how deeply he resented 
 that action, though it had occurred only among those incidents allowed 
 by the principles of war to be justifiable. 
 
 Argument. — A great festival was proclaimed to be held in Tara, to which 
 MacCon, the king, invited his princes and nobles. Among the most 
 illustrious guests was Gaul MacMorni, a chief distinguished as much 
 by the chivalrous graces of courtesy as by his valour in the field. 
 Lugaidh Laga was seated at the festive board near Gaul, whom he 
 accosted with the invidious question, whether he had ever appeared in 
 such a high and honourable assembly before. Gaul replied that he had 
 often spent whole nights in the festive entei tainments given by Conn of 
 the hundred battles, and in society not less numerous, nor less elevated in 
 
142 THE LAY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN 
 
 rank, than that in which he was at present seated. Liigaidh. passionate 
 and resentful, chose to consider this reply as intended to exalt Gaul's 
 former society above the present, whose superiority he assorted. Gaul, 
 irritated by such comparison, answered proudly, by reminding Lugraidh 
 that Conn had been often victorious in battle, and particularly that he 
 had slain the two kings Mogha Neid and Mogha Nuadht. True, replies 
 Lugaidh ; but I took ample vengeance for that deed by slaying Art 
 Mac Con. Gaul retorted vrith a bitter sarcasm, saying that he had 
 gallantly fulfilled the vow which he had made, by cutting off the head 
 of a dead peasant, and presenting it to the king as the head of Art 
 Mac Con, whom he pretended he had slain in battle. This was too much 
 to be endured ; the bravray fist of Lugaidh fell like a sledge on the 
 forehead of Gaul, leaving an indelible mark. Gaul returned the blow 
 with interest, and felled his assailant to the ground. The chiefs spring 
 to their feet, and aU is uproar and confusion. Gaul unsheatlies his 
 sword and challenges Lugaidh instantly to single combat. The monarch 
 commands peace, and forbids farther hostilities, until the cause be 
 fairly examined and judged by the chiefs. Conan makes a foolish 
 speech, for which he is sternly reprimanded by Oscar, who defies all 
 the powers of Tara ever again to insult or injure MacMomi. Gaul 
 passes over the Shannon with a strong military guard, and in a brief 
 space of time, is restored to his wonted health. Lugaidh's fractures 
 and contusions being of a more severe description, required a longer 
 time to heal, and indeed he never recovered from the effects of the 
 quarrel which he had rashly provoked. 
 The lay gives a picture of the manners which sometimes prevailed at the 
 royal feasts of Tara, and may remind the reader of the celebrated 
 hattle of the Lapithse and Centaurs. 
 
 I, 
 
 Proud of Mac Con's, our monarch's, call, 
 Away we sped to Tara's hall ; 
 And many, the royal smile to share. 
 Were the gallant chiefs assembled there. 
 There was the princely Cormac found. 
 Friend, brother, of our king renowned ; 
 With many a Fenian chief of fame, 
 Who might the right and honoiu: claim 
 To sit at Tara's festive board ; 
 Distinction purchased by the sword ; 
 In ancient as in modern time, 
 Too oft the prize of blood and crime. 
 There, too, from Cruchau's western land. 
 Came one of generous heart and hand ; 
 
GAUL MACMORNI AND LUGAIDH LAG A. 143 
 
 Of aspect fair, of noble mien, 
 Of cheery mind and brow serene, 
 
 By whom all hearts were won ; 
 A warrior bold, of skill and power. 
 Of arms and courtesy the flower ; 
 
 Great Morni's gallant son. 
 
 II. 
 
 With warriors o'er the sparkling bowl, 
 
 In Tara's hall with pride. 
 Sat Luay of impetuous soul. 
 
 Brave Morni's son beside. 
 A chief was he of giant mould. 
 
 Of brawny limbs and chest ; 
 A spirit fierce and uncontrolled 
 
 Was in his looks exprest. 
 In broils he found supreme delight — 
 Still loved fierce passions to excite ; 
 
 But ne'er was known to bless. 
 With strength, his instrument of ill, 
 He joyed to batter, bruise, and kill. 
 
 To plunder and oppress. 
 With wounding taunt and rabid joke, 
 He strove dire quarrels to provoke. 
 As now he sat Mac Morni nigh — 
 Gay Breasal and young Fergus by — 
 The rash-tongued Luay thus began — 
 While indignation round us ran. 
 
 III. 
 
 *' Say, mighty Gaul, hast thou e'er been, 
 Before, in such assembly seen ? 
 
 To you the sight is rare — 
 With princes, nobles, heroes true, 
 Such as in Tara now you view. 
 
 Whom couldst thou e'er compare?" 
 
1 44 THE LAY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN 
 
 Gaul — ** With many a hero great and good, 
 Who boldly first in conflict stood, 
 
 And chiefs of princely line ; 
 With Conn, renowned in a hundred fights, 
 To pass in revelry the nights, 
 
 chief, was often mine — 
 Yea, oft with warriors good and true 
 As now in Tara's halls I view." 
 
 LuAY — ** Much as your glorious Conn you prize, 
 
 Great Gaul," thus Luay sternly cries, 
 
 *' Ne'er were his men than ours more brave, 
 
 On battle field or roaring wave. 
 
 More numerous are our good steel swords, 
 
 More numerous far our chiefs and lords. 
 
 Of a hundred fights I deem but small 
 
 The glory — to have lost them all ! 
 
 Let Bearnan Eile's pass* proclaim 
 
 The honour of your monarch's name." 
 
 With swelling chest and aspect proud, 
 The son of Morni answered loud — 
 ** Let not malicious rage and spite 
 The glory of our monarch blight. 
 In foughten fields he won a score 
 Of victories, told ten times o'er,t 
 
 And bore great spoils away. 
 
 * " Conn understanding how the most part of the other provinces of 
 Ir&lcmd, together with the province of Munster, had owned Eugenius as their 
 sovereign and deliverer, gathered all his power and came against Muyister 
 to destroy the same, and bring Eugenius under his power. Eugenius on the 
 other side gathered all the forces of Munster and came to meet Conn at 
 Beaman-eile, now called the Devil's-Bit, in the county of Tipperary, where 
 he met Conn, and not only there gave him battel, but also broke and 
 defeated him and his army in that, and in nine engagements more, with the 
 slaughter of most part of his men, and loss of his chief commanders ; and 
 at last constrained him to come to a division with Mm about the kingdom." 
 —MacCurtin, pp. 100, 101. 
 
 t " Conn sirnamed of the hundred battels, of the posterity of Herimon — . 
 fought 100 battels in Munster, 100 battels in Ulster, and 60 battels in Len. 
 tier."— MacCurtin, p. 98. 
 
 " Mogha Neid the king of Munster fell in battle against Conn of the hun- 
 dred fights. Eugenius, commonly called Mogha Nuaghatt, i.e. the strong 
 labourer, fell in the battle of Maighleana in ConnacM, after having defeated 
 Conn at the Devil's-Bit."— Jd. 
 
€IAUL MACMORNI AND LTJGAIDH LAGA. 145 
 
 By him in battle-field were slain 
 Two royal chiefs — the Moghas twain — 
 All Erin owned his sway." 
 
 LuAY — ** Thy king, forsooth, in petty strife. 
 From Neid and Nuad reft the life, 
 A deed avenged full well, 
 
 On mighty Art Mac Conn ; 
 E'en by this hand that Monarch fell; 
 
 And death awaits his son. 
 If e'er in arms I Cairbre meet, 
 I'll stretch him dead beneath my feet.'* 
 
 Gaul — " Yes — as you stretched upon the plain 
 Great chiefs — that rose and fought again ! 
 When erst you cross'd the briny way." 
 
 With scorn Mac Morni said, 
 **You vowed great Art Mac Conn to slay. 
 
 And well your vows you paid. 
 When from the trunk of peasant dead 
 For Conn's you bore the severed head."* 
 
 IV. 
 
 The clenched and brawny hand 
 
 Of Luay, anger-stung, 
 Like sledge, or oak-root brand, 
 
 On Gaul's broad forehead rung. 
 The fair smooth polished skin it tore. 
 And sluiced th' astonied heroe's gore. 
 Long as this vital air he drew. 
 His forehead wore a livid hue. 
 
 • O'Flaherty, in his Ogygia, informs us, that Lugad Laga, pursuing 
 Artiu" after the battle (of Mucrom), stood at a brook in Aidhnia, and attack- 
 ing him there, tumbled him to the earth, and as he lay almost breathless, 
 cut off his head and brought it to the conqueror." It seems to have been 
 questioned whether it was really Artur whom Lugad decapitated, and 
 hence the sarcasm of Gaul in the poem. O'Flaherty adds — " Who gave the 
 fatal blow, or who cut off the head, ought not to admit of the smallest 
 inquiry or controversy. But the brook has got the name of Turloch-airt, in 
 commemoration of this action, which it retains to this very day, being 
 situate between Moyvoela and Kilcoruan." 
 
 H 
 
146 THE LAY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN 
 
 V. 
 
 While fiercely hot his anger burned, 
 The quick crude onslaught Gaul returned. 
 As loud as falling sea-cliff *s note, 
 Stern Luay's bearded cheek he smote, 
 
 With firm-knit hand and dread ; 
 The sounding jaw loud-crackling rung. 
 The teeth from fractured sockets sprung,* 
 
 Down Luay sunk as dead; 
 
 * Such was the effect of the blows given to Dares by Entellus — 
 
 duro crepitant sub vulnere malse. 
 
 crassumque cruorem 
 
 Ore ejectantem mixtosque in sanguine dentes. 
 
 Ulysses punisTied Iras thus. The hero 
 
 " rising to the stroke, 
 
 His jaw-bone dashed ; the crashing jaw-bone broke : 
 Down drop'd he stupid from the stunning wound ; 
 His feet extended, quiv'ring, beat the ground ; 
 His mouth and nostrils spout a purple flood ; 
 His teeth all shattered, rush immix'd with blood." 
 
 Ocfy. xviil, 112. 
 
 The blow given by Pollux to Amycus was & finisher: — 
 
 " Then Pollux with firm steps approaching near, 
 Vindictive struck his adversary's ear ; 
 Th' interior bones his ponderous gauntlet broke ; 
 Flat fell tlie chief beneath his dreadful stroke : 
 The Grecians shouted with wild rapture fir'd. 
 And, deeply groaning, Amycus expir'd." 
 
 Fawkes's Apol. Rhodius., Book II. 
 
 Though the Irish sometimes indulged themselves in the manly sport of 
 wrestling, it does not appear that pugilism was one of their entertainments. 
 They had not reached such a pitch of refinement as to have schools for the 
 Fanoy, with stated sets-to for glory and gold in the pugilistic ring, though, 
 in a more advanced stage of civilization, some Irish worthies have shown 
 as great a fondness for milZing and being miUed, as any bruisers for the 
 championship of England. In set fights they prefer the shillela to the fist, 
 and that is an instrument which they can use with surprising dexterity — 
 as, on proper occasions, they can also wield the fist with the force of a bat- 
 tering ram. 
 
 In a copy of " The Lay of the Fist," the effect of the blow given by one of 
 the antagonists is thus described :— 
 
 " He broke the cheek-bone of the hero 
 
 And shook to the pole his nerves. 
 
 The five senses he wounded, 
 
 Within the frame of the hero ; 
 
 From that to the knees, though untouched, 
 
 The fist bent the brave man. 
 
 The great-actioned fist went clearly 
 
 Unto the wrist of the ai'm into the groun(J. 
 
GAUL MACMORNI AND LUGAIDH LAGA. 147 
 
 And as he rattled to the ground. 
 
 His crashing ribs gave a hollow sound. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Then all th' assembled warriors rose, 
 Tumultuous raged the storm of blows ; 
 Unsheathed were skeans, fair features marred, 
 And limbs with wounds all gashed and scarred ; 
 Distained were Tara's walls with gore 
 And warriors fell — to rise no more. 
 Some to their arms impatient flew. 
 And as the conflict fiercer grew, 
 
 Gaul grasped his bossy shield. 
 O'er Luay swiftly while he bared 
 His good sharp sword, he boldly dared 
 
 The hero to the field. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Scarce could our men of might control 
 The maddening rage of Luay's soul. 
 Impatient as he chafed, and cried, 
 The strife that instant to decide. 
 But sage Mac Con of counsel wise, 
 
 Bade all the tumult cease ; 
 And hoped, perchance, by friendly ties. 
 
 To bind the foes in peace. 
 " Our court," he said, ** by equal laws 
 Shall hear, and justly judge the cause ; 
 But let not Conan, bold and rude. 
 His judgment on our minds intrude." 
 
 Gaul struck another fist 
 On the son of Eugene in a hurry, 
 And broke five teeth in his head, 
 And five ribs in his very stout body." 
 
 Who has not read or heard of the single mortal and immortal stroke 
 of an Irish knight's battle-axe, that severed from the body the mailed thigh 
 of an armed equestrian vearrior ? Fag mx beleach ! 
 
148 THE LAY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEK 
 
 'viii. 
 
 Then Conan cried — ** Sweet friends, should I 
 This new and wondrous law-suit try, 
 No man in Leinster's realm, I swear, 
 His head should on his shoulders wear. 
 Nor son of Munster, from the pond 
 
 Of Inverdevlin to the bay 
 Of Monia, and its shores beyond, 
 
 E'en to the warrior's broad high-way. 
 But all should die — and ne'er, I vow, 
 
 Should by Leigh Con the boast be made, 
 That on our gallant lUan's* brow 
 
 Momonian hand was rudely laid." 
 Such speech young Oscar's patience tried. 
 And thus in flaming ire he cried ; 
 ** A speech so vile thou soon shouldst rue, 
 
 Bald Conan, prone to ill; 
 Should I thee pay requital due — 
 
 Thy heart's blood I would spill. 
 Yes — looted in sleep on the heathy field, 
 Beneath my warrior spear and shield, 
 
 Should I repose, thou boaster vain, 
 If thy dull head, with folly drunk, 
 I smote not from thy craven trunk. 
 
 Though all the monarch's train, 
 Momonia's pride, Lagenia's boast, 
 All marshalled in one mighty host 
 Before me stood, and all their might. 
 Were in a point condensed for fight, 
 
 And bent on me alone. 
 Hence, if thou canst, just vengeance flee ; 
 I stoop not now to wretch like thee : 
 
 But here to Tara's throne. 
 And all its clans of wide-spread fame. 
 Defiance fearless I proclaim ; 
 MacMorni's head again to scar, 
 By treacherous blow or open war, 
 
 • niaa— a name of Gaul. 
 
GAUL MACMORNI AND LUGAIDH LAGA. 149 
 
 Till safe with pride again he stand 
 In Cruchan of the western land."* 
 
 IX. 
 
 O'er Shannon's broad majestic tide, 
 
 To the leache's and the sick-man's hall ; 
 Great Gaul passed westward, there to bide 
 
 Till time should health recal. 
 Five hundred spears in dense array 
 Of Morni's clans secured his way, 
 And ere the moon twice filled her round, 
 His wonted strength the hero found. 
 
 To the house of the sick by Cathair's wave,t 
 The health-bestower's aid to crave — 
 For pangs his vitals tore — 
 
 ♦ Cniaclian, now Croghan, a fair tovni in the county of Roscommon, 
 province of Connaught. Tliis was a royal residence of the ancient capital 
 of that province, founded, as we learn from Keating, by Eochaidh, monarcli 
 of Ireland, prior to the commencement of the Christian era, with the view 
 of confirming his authority in that part of his dominion. Having consulted 
 the Druids, as was customary on all important occasions, they agreed that 
 Druim-na-Druidh, which had long been celebrated for its cave and its 
 mysteries, should be selected as the site of the intended edifice. The plan 
 was drawn by the most eminent architects, and the work prosecuted with 
 such expedition, that the ditch, which was very large and surrounded the 
 whole pile, was finished in the space of one day. The palace, when com- 
 pleted, was named Rath Eochaidh. Meev, his queen, on the death of her 
 husband, bestowed it on her mother, who was named Cruachan Crodhearg, 
 and thence it obtained the name of Bath Cntachan, which name, says our 
 venerable authority, it retains to this day. Seward, in his Topographia 
 Hibernica, Dub. 1795, states that the only remains of the ancient city are 
 " the celebrated Rath, the Naasteaghan, where the states of Connaught 
 assembled, and the sacred cave. Near Croghan stands Relig-na-Biagh, or 
 the resting place of the kings. * * It consists of a circular area of about 
 200 feet in diameter, surrounded with a stone ditch greatly defaced. The 
 body of Dathias, the last of the heathen kings, was brought from the Alps, 
 where he fell by the stroke of a thunderbolt, and was interred here, 
 A.D. 429. 
 
 t The Fenians, as well as the warriors of Homer, could boast of chiefs 
 like Podaluius and Machaon, of whom the muse might affirm that 
 
 " To these his skill their parent-god imparts, 
 Divine professors of the healing arts." 
 
 Finn himself was well skilled in the arts of sargery and medicine. 
 
 O'Halloran informs us that Connor, king of Ulster, when pnrsuinjr the 
 Conaciaus, " received a violent fracture on the skull by a ball, darted from 
 
150 THE LAY OP QATJL MACMORNI AND LUGAIDH LAGA. 
 
 Strong Luay went ; and many a day 
 Beneath the leache's hand he lay, 
 
 Yea, thrice six moons and more. 
 Nor till the hour he breathed his last. 
 Away his cruel pangs had past. 
 
 a Cran-Tubal, or sling, and of which wound he recovered by the operation 
 of the trepan, performed by his chief surgeon, Fighnin, called Feathach, or 
 the Skilful. This, he continues, is not the only testimony our history bears, 
 of the eminence of our ancient physicians and surgeons. In the bloody 
 battle of Criona, fought in the beginning of the third century, Teige, the 
 son of Cein, the son of OilioU, of the house of Heber, being deeply wounded, 
 and the barbs of some spears lodged in different parts of his body, producing 
 exquisite pain, he sent to Munster for the celebrated surgeon Finighn, 
 called Feath-glic, or the Learned and Dextrous, who with his three Daltadh, 
 or eleves, soon relieved him by removing these extraneous bodies. It 
 appears that physic, like the other learned professions, was hereditary in 
 families ; and that the most celebrated of this body attended the army. So 
 much superior in knowledge to the rest of their brethren were these mili- 
 tary surgeons deemed, that to this day, to express an incurable, we say, 
 JVt thogJMh leagha na hhifionn, e ! The physicians of the royal militia could 
 not raise him." — O'HaUoran's History of Ireland, 4to, vol. I., p. 188. 
 
 One of the three principal edifices in Ulster was " The Royal Hospital of 
 Broinbhearg, which signifies the house of sorrow and aflBiction ; for here 
 the sick and wounded were provided for and supported till they were per- 
 fectly cured."— Keating, I., 218. 
 
THE LAY • 
 
 BEANN GULBAN, 
 
 The mountain of Beann Gulban (corrupted to Ben Bulbin), from which the 
 following Lay takes its title, is situated near the town of Sligo, the City of 
 Shells, in the county of the same name. It forms one of those lofty and 
 commanding elevations on which the Fenians were wont to assemble, and 
 in which the lovers of mountain scenery delight. In the survey of that 
 county, we are told that the traveller from Ballyshannon to Sligo by the 
 sea coast, sees " the beautiful mountains of Ben Bulbin" rising before him 
 to a lofty height, and looking, " in every variety of figure and aspect, 
 though in the end of October, green as a new billiard table." 
 
 Miss Owenson (Lady Morgan), in her " Patriotic Sketches," W. Bennet, 
 in his " Six Weeks' Tour," and the " Angler in Ireland," speak of Ben Bul- 
 bin and its magnificent scenei-y in terras of high admiration. Inglis also 
 expatiates on the rich and varied picturesque beauties of the prospect from 
 the " Cairns" which top the hill ; and the enchanting views roimd Loch 
 Gilly; but none expresses his feelings of delight more warmly than an 
 accompUshed tourist, whose famiUarity with the lakes and mountains of 
 Cumberland and "Westmoreland, stamps superior value on his judgment, 
 and peculiarly qualifies him to speak of the beauties and sublimities of 
 nature. Mr. Curwen, describing a scene in which Ben Bulbin is particularly 
 conspicuous, says, " The declining rays of the sun, irradiating the surface 
 of the sea, presented to our view an extensive sheet of buniished gold ; and, 
 in reflecting its warm and glovdng tints over the nearer objects, completed 
 the magic of a scene which would have kindled enthusiasm and rapture 
 in the coldest and most insensible individual. The first sensation with 
 which I became affected was astonishment — this was succeeded by the 
 inspiration of unbounded admiration ! The effects of both can never be 
 effaced from my recollection. Reluctantly did I bid this delightful prospect 
 farewell ; and nothing but the rapid approach of night could have compelled 
 us to quit a scene of such novelty and fascination." 
 
 Again, when speaking of the "highly picturesque beauty" of Hazlewood 
 and the " beautiful islands of Lough Gilly," he adds — " Impressive, however 
 as are the several views of the lake, the magnificence of Benbulb made 
 stronger impressions of admiration on my mind. The singular grandeur 
 
152 tflE LA^ OP 
 
 of 80 Stupendous a mountain, springing upright and majestically from a,tt 
 humble plain, in the midst of a vaUey highly cultivated and tolerably well 
 wooded, was like nothing I had seen before, and most probably shall never 
 again behold." — Observations on the State of Ireland, &c.,'by J. C. Curwen, 
 Esq., M.P., Lond. 1818. 
 
 The Penny Cyclopccdial article Sligo, eays that " Knock-na-righ (the 
 king's hill) is 1,057 feet high, and Ben Bulbin, one of the loftiest of the 
 group, rises to the height of 1,722 feet. The northern face of this mountain 
 18 nearly perpendicular, while on the south side, a more gradual slope leads 
 to the summit, which is a table- land of some extent." 
 
 The " GoLBUN of Green-hills," mentioned in Smith's Erse legend of 
 Dei'mid, p. 132, is no other, it is presumed, tlian our Irish Beann Golban. 
 
 Argcment. — In an address to Patrick in the opening of this poem, is a 
 description of rural scenes and occupations, which once afforded no 
 small delight to the bard— the remembrance of which fiUs him, in his 
 forlorn old age, with melancholy. He then proceeds to relate that, in 
 days gone by, when the Fenians were pursuing their various sports on 
 the hill, Conan and MacLuay were engaged in the game of chess, and 
 the chiefs standing by, in silence, watching the progress of the game, 
 when they were startled by the sudden sound of a blow inflicted on the 
 ear of Conan by the iron fist of his antagonist. Conan immediately 
 sprang up to seize his arms, and ceased not from Lis rage till he was 
 bound. Little Hugh, indignant at the insult offered to his friend, told 
 Mac Luagh that he should repent it ; and Mac Luagh, in consequence 
 of being under a vow, refuses to give " satisfaction." The chiefs espouse 
 diflferent sides, and a general conflict ensues ; the progress of which is 
 interrupted by the appearance of a gigantic warrior bearing in his 
 hand a harp, at the sound of which their swords drop harmless to the 
 ground. Conan interrogates the giant, asking his name and country. 
 The giant boldly replies, and then, by the sound of his magical harp, 
 throws the whole Fenian host into a profound sleep (mesmeric ?) from 
 which they awoke after the lapse of a moon, and resolved to march in 
 battle array to the cold regions from which the giant had come. They 
 meet the giant advancing and glaring on them, like a Cyclops, with his 
 solitary eye. Little Hugh and the other warriors make a gallant charge. 
 Oscar acts nobly; but Gaul, the hero of the field, when the Fenians are 
 nearly vanquished, has recourse to his harp, and, by its magical power, 
 surrounds them vrith a sudden darkness, which saves them from the 
 foe. At last they obtain a complete victory, and quit the field without 
 the loss of a single man. 
 
 Note.— The only copy wMch the author has seen of this Lay was lent to him by Mr 
 Hardiman, accompanied by a verbal translation into Englisli. The original was taken, as 
 Mr. Uardiman informs us, " from the recital of a mountain sliepherd, at Partry, in the 
 county of Mayo. Metrical fragments, to tlio number of several thousand verses, had been 
 committed to memory by the reciter in his early youth, amidst his native hills, where they 
 have been transmitted from sire to son, through countless tKHQTaXiom."— Irish MimtreUj/, 
 //..p. 885. 
 
BEANN GULBAN. 153 
 
 I. 
 
 OssiAN — Beann Gulban, thou art sad to-day, 
 Thou that wast erst of aspect gay, 
 
 And lovely to be seen ; 
 son of Calfruin, then 'twas sweet 
 To find a soft and mossy seat 
 
 On its lofty summit green ; 
 To see the rapid huntsmen spring, 
 To hear the mountain echoes ring. 
 
 II. 
 
 Thou hill of battles, stained with gore, 
 
 How oft thy fortress strong around, 
 Where dwelt a hero bold of yore, 
 
 Rose music sweet of horn and hound ! 
 The bittern round thee boomed at night. 
 The grouse, loud-whirring in her flight. 
 Peopled thy heath, and every tree 
 Rang with the small birds' melody. 
 
 III. 
 
 Yes — 'twas delight to hear the cry 
 
 Of hounds along the valley sweep ; 
 To hear the rock's wild son* reply 
 
 From every cliff and steep ; 
 To see the chiefs of the Fenian band, 
 To slip the greyhounds, ready stand ; 
 And groups of maidens young and fair. 
 That plucked, as they went, the flowrets rare. 
 And berries of every form and hue. 
 Of crimson blush or of glossy blue. 
 From bramble and bush, and cresses young, 
 That by the crystal streamlets sprung. 
 And passing sweet was the voice of their song. 
 As the fair-haired damsels roved along. 
 
 * Mac Alia, the son of the rock, i. e. echo. 
 
 h2 
 
154 THE LAY OF 
 
 IV. 
 
 Sweet, too, by source of lonely stream. 
 
 To see aloof the eagle sail ; 
 To hear her solitary scream 
 
 Burst startling o'er the vale. 
 To hear the otter's whining note ; 
 
 Or, mid the hollow mountain rocks, 
 
 The harking of the wary fox ; 
 Or mellow song of blackbird float 
 From bower and grove, o'er wood and lawn, 
 To evening hour from early dawn. 
 
 With joy it thrilled my heart, I vow, 
 To sit upon that mountain's brow, 
 
 And all the glorious landscape view ; 
 The seven brave Fenian bands around. 
 In war, in peace, still faithful found ; 
 
 But now my friends are few. 
 Then many and gay, in the summer ray, 
 
 They frolicked and they shone ; 
 With autumn's blast away they past ; 
 
 And I am left alone. 
 My fate with tears may dim your eye, 
 And wake your tender sympathy. 
 
 VI. 
 
 As on that hill we Fenians lay. 
 And passed in various sports the day, 
 Conan and Luay's son of shame,* 
 Of chess pursued the earnest game ; 
 
 The source of bitter wo ! 
 When all the chiefs in silence round. 
 Were startled by the sudden sound 
 
 Of a dire and wrathful blow, 
 
 This Mac Luay was the incestuous offspring of one of Finn's sons. 
 
BEANN GULBAN. 155 
 
 That on the ear of Conan rung 
 Loud as the sledge on anvil flung ; 
 Struck bj a hand of iron mould, 
 By Luay's son, the rash, the bold. 
 
 VII. 
 
 By sudden fury stung, 
 
 To arms swift Conan sprung, 
 Nor ceased his ire till fast we bound 
 A binding chain his limbs around. 
 Uprose in haste the little Hugh, 
 
 In frame a child — a man in heart,* 
 And cried — ** That insult thou shalt rue, 
 
 Luay's son, though strong thou art." 
 But, struck with fear, Mac Luay said. 
 That a sacred vow on his soul was laid — 
 The coward's plea, to hide his shame 
 Beneath the gloss of a specious name. 
 Not high can I the warrior prize. 
 
 Who fears in honour's cause to fight ; 
 Who from a present danger flies, 
 
 Yet dares to wrong, insult, and smite. 
 To crush the fallen still more low, 
 But grapple with no equal foe. 
 When little Hugh let forth his rage. 
 
 Confusion paled Mac Luay's brow, 
 He blenched — and by this hand, sage. 
 
 He ne'er fulfilled his vow. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 But Davar's son — sad cause of grief ! 
 Arose in haste to his friend's relief — 
 
 From Hugh's fierce ire to save. 
 And quickly crouding o'er the ground. 
 Forth from the well-armed ranks around. 
 
 Came many a warrior brav^. 
 
 * Like Homer's Tydeus, " Whose little body lodged a mighty mind." 
 
156 
 
 THE LAY OF 
 
 For Morni's tribe they boldly stood. 
 And Garray soon, in battle good. 
 With Gaul of many a warlike deed. 
 Were thinning down the ranks with speed. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Of Duane's tribe, against the foes 
 Of little Hugh, ten hundred rose ; 
 When I, with Caoilte by my side. 
 
 The green-topped standard raised, 
 And Boisgne's clan in bannered pride. 
 
 And marshalled order blazed. 
 Then quick advancing o'er the fields, 
 We raised a thousand crimson shields — 
 But Oh ! it grieves my soul to tell 
 What numbers of the Fenians fell. 
 
 While yet the conflict raged, behold ! 
 A warrior of gigantic mould. 
 Advancing from the East we view; — 
 A horror strange he round us threw ;. 
 With hellish incantations armed. 
 Away our manly strength he charmed. 
 
 That none might longer stand ; 
 Of coal-black dye were his youthful cheeks. 
 His teeth like snow-clad mountain-peaks ; 
 
 And in his brawny hand 
 He bore a harp, at whose dread sound 
 Our swords dropped harmless to the ground. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Then senseless Conan thus began : 
 '* Giant! I lay thee under bann 
 Of strong enchantment, with your harp 
 That sounds so fiercely loud and sharp, 
 
BEANN GULBAN. 157 
 
 Unless you quickly tell your name, 
 And what tlie country whence you came." 
 *' My name, chief, I'll ne'er deny — 
 The hold Garv-Glunach's son am 1, 
 
 And giant Sturrave hight; 
 From cold and icy realms afar. 
 That lie beneath the Northern ^r, 
 
 I come to prove your might ; 
 Though strong your arms, and proud your boast, 
 I hurl defiance at your host." 
 
 XII. 
 
 Then from the harp's rude-clashing wire. 
 He brought such soul- appalling sound, 
 
 That all were ready to expire — 
 And sunk in trance profound. 
 
 Unnerved and void of sense we lay. 
 
 Until a moon had rolled away. 
 
 Us, of our arms the giant reft — 
 
 Nor sword, nor spear, nor buckler left. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 At length the Clanna Boisgne woke, 
 
 And clad in arms once more ; 
 That Sturrave soon should feel their stroke. 
 
 Linked hand in hand, they swore. 
 Again we marshalled well our powers, 
 And forward to Dunmana's towers. 
 
 We marched in pomp of war ; 
 In crouds the great, the lowly, came 
 To see great Gaul and Finn of fame 
 
 From regions round afar ; 
 And soon at Almhuin's palace stood 
 A numerous host of warriors good : 
 The royal standard high was raised. 
 And bright in arms our warriors blazed. 
 
158 
 
 THE LAY OF 
 XIV. 
 
 Straight to the dreary realms of cold, 
 
 We passed in firm array. 
 Alas! that e'er so rashly hold, 
 
 We thither bent our way ! 
 That e'er we ttuched strong Ludar's shore, 
 Or saw the land of Eachair More! 
 
 XV. 
 
 There came against the Fenians true, 
 
 A hand of gallant men, 
 Whom stout Treitleathan with him drew 
 
 From Uvar's woody glen ; 
 With Truitrean first in battle shock. 
 And Croma of the mountain rock. 
 Advancing quick with giant stride 
 
 The huge Garv-Glunach* soon we spy, 
 Clothed in a wild beast's shaggy hide,t 
 
 And glaring with the horrid eye 
 That in his forehead's centre shone 
 Dismaying all it looked upon. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 But little Hugh, whose mighty heart 
 
 No fear could e'er appal. 
 Cries out "Garv-Glunach! e'er we part. 
 
 One of us two must fall" — 
 
 "■ Garv-Glunach, i. e. the fierce valiant man. 
 t Horridus in jaculis et pelle Lybistidis ursae, 
 
 ViKG. 
 
 Of a rough Lybian bear the spoils he wore, 
 And either hand a pointed jav'lin bore. 
 
 Detden. 
 
 lumen 
 
 Ingens quod torva solum sub fronte latebat, 
 Argolici clipei aut Phoebese lampadis instar. 
 
 ViBG. 
 
 His eye that midst his frowning forehead shone 
 Like some broad buckler, or the blazing sun. 
 
 Pitt. 
 
BEANN GULBAN. 159 
 
 And Singean, Morni's gallant boy, 
 And Conan who in strife found joy, 
 Said, ** Be it ours his sons to stay. 
 And try our broad-swords how they play." 
 
 XVII. 
 
 But ere they met, before the rest, 
 Had rash Mae Luay onward prest, 
 And singly braved to desperate fight 
 Both Ludar's and the giant's might. — 
 When such unequal strife we try, 
 Alas ! what chance of victory ! 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Said Aimhlin*s tribe — **With rush of war 
 We'll stay the clan of Macoivar ; 
 And with our keen and trenchant steel. 
 We'll cleave them down from head to heel.'* 
 ** That task," cried Oscar bold, " be mine 
 
 And with my single spear, 
 Before the ruddy morning shine, 
 
 I'll stay the wild career 
 Of fierce Treitlethan with the men 
 He brings from Uvar's woody glen." 
 
 XIX. 
 
 With Croma of the mountain rock. 
 Great Gaul now rushed to battle shock, 
 
 Gaul of the harps renowned ; 
 Behind his broad and bossy shield. 
 And arm that never knew to yield, 
 
 We to the conflict bound — 
 Now foot to foot the Fenians close 
 In combat with their giant foes. 
 And ere the morning dawned in heaven, 
 'Twere hard to tell what blows were given, 
 What shields were cleft, what helmets riven. 
 
160 THE LAY OP 
 
 XX. 
 
 Soon by his red and conquering blade 
 
 Great Gaul rough Croma slew ; 
 Behind his shield's protecting shade 
 
 Who fought — no danger knew. 
 Whoe'er of all the Fenian band. 
 In peril stood from dart or brand, 
 Before him, in the point of need. 
 
 With lifted shield and spear 
 Rushed swift-foot Gaul with greyhound's speed. 
 
 And saved his soul from fear. 
 To Morni's tribe his aid he brings, 
 
 And bounds the foe to meet, 
 More swift than hungry weasel springs, 
 
 On timid cony fleet — 
 More swift o'er Boisgne's clan to cast 
 His shield, than speeds the vernal blast. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 When sore oppressed by giant might, 
 Our warriors scarce maintained the fight, 
 With well-strung harp of magic power 
 And dulcet tone — in our evil hour. 
 He came, and by its potent spell 
 A sudden darkness round us fell, 
 
 To guard us from the foe.* 
 Though numerous were their sons and brave. 
 We left, by many a bloody grave. 
 
 Their widows sunk in wo. 
 
 * At Venus obscuro gradientes acre sepsit, 
 Et multo nebuLe circum dea fudit amictu, 
 Ceraere ne quis cos, neu quis contingere possot. 
 
 ViRG. 
 
 They march obscure, for Venus kindly shrouds 
 With mists, their persons, and involves, in clouds ; 
 That, thus unseen, tbeu- passage none might stay. 
 Or force to tell the causes of their way. 
 
 Dbtdsw. 
 
SEANN GTTLBAN. 161 
 
 With lucky stars to Erin's shore, 
 Their arms in triumph oiF we bore ; 
 Nor in such feat, — of all our train 
 Mourned we a warrior lost or slain. 
 
 Note. — Whether this Lay has any allusion to some historical event, the 
 writer has not ascertained. It may have been intended to show that as no 
 foreign invaders could overcome the warriors of Erin in fair battle, neither 
 could all the powers of enchantment, while they had such champions as 
 Oscar and GauL The early history of Ireland abounds in marvellous feats 
 achieved by the influence of magic. The Tuatha de Danans, in exercise of 
 this art, could be matched only by the notorious Thessalian enchantress, 
 Erictho, by whom we might suppose they had been instructed, particularly 
 in the means of reanimating the dead — 
 
 si tollere totas 
 Tentasset campis acies, et reddere bello : 
 Cessissent leges Erebi, monstroque potenti 
 Extractus Stygio populus pugnasset Averno. 
 
 LccAN, lAb. VI., 63a— 636. 
 
 " At whose strong bidding (such is her command) 
 Armies at once had left the Stygian strand ; 
 Hell's multitudes had waited on her charms. 
 And legions of the dead had risen to arms." 
 
 Rowe's Jjucan. 
 
 -" The Tuatha de Danans, 
 
 By force of potent spells and wicked magic, 
 
 And conjurations horrible to hear. 
 
 Could set the ministers of hell at work, 
 
 And raise a slaughtered army from the earth. 
 
 And make them live, and breathe, and fight again. 
 
 Few could their arts withstand or charms unbind." 
 
 In Keating's History of Ireland, from which these lines are extracted, we 
 are told that when the Tuatha de Danans, came to the coast of Ireland, 
 " they had recourse to their enchantments, to screen them from the obser- 
 vation of the inhabitants ; and accordingly by their magic skill, they formed 
 a mist about them for three days and three nights, and marched through 
 the country without being discovered by the Firbolgs till they came to a 
 place called Sliabh an Jaruin," whence they sent a message to the Firbolgs 
 to meet them in battle, or deliver up the kingdom. In the ensuing battle, 
 the Firbolgs, unable to withstand the enchantments of the Tuatha de 
 Danans, were discomfited, with the loss of ten thousand men, " or, as his- 
 torians with more probability, inform us, of a hundred thousand, on the 
 spot." 
 
 "So expert were they in the black art, and the mystery of charms and 
 enchantments, that the inhabitants of the country where fiiey lived, distin- 
 guished them by the name of gods." 
 
 " Tviatha De. — The people of Gods, or the people of (i. e. dear and sacred 
 to) the Gods. When the Druidic college could no longer maintain in Britain 
 its vast power and mysterious rites, it removed them to Erin, their only 
 sure asylum. They obtained superiority in that island more by their 
 treasures, arts, and learning, and the engines of religious awe, and as gods 
 or divine men, a tribe sacer interpresque Decrum, than as men by arms and 
 numbers. At this date the druidical magic was systematically organized 
 in Ireland. They have been called Danann, either falsely from the more 
 modern Dani, or ancient Danai : but rather from dan, art, poem, song (see 
 
162 THE LAY OP BE ANN GULBAN. 
 
 Keating, p. 48, Connor's ed.), which derivation, if it do not express the 
 Druids, sufficiently expresses the Bards." 
 
 "The time of the removal of the hierarchy was after the unsuccessful 
 wars of Cynobeline's sons against the Romans, of which events the capture 
 of Caractacus, in A.D. 50, was the cardinal point," — The Irish version of 
 the Historia Britonum of Nennius, additional Notes, p. c. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CATTLE-PREY OF TARA, 
 
 QUARREL BETWEEN CORMAC, THE MONARCH, AND 
 FINN AND THE FENIANS, AT AN ENTERTAINMENT 
 GIVEN BY HIM AT TARA. 
 
 THE POEM IS ADDRESSED BY OSSIAN TO CAOILTE. 
 
 DUAN FIRST. 
 
 Akgument.— The Lay opens with an address of Ossian to Caoilte Mac 
 Ronain, the foster son and favourite of Finn, asking him if he remem- 
 bers the day when they last met in Tara's hall, at a banquet given by 
 the monarch. He then proceeds to show how the quarrel between 
 Cormac and Finn originated. The former, in consequence of past 
 grudges and contentions with Finn, desires him to withdraw altogether 
 from his court. Finn indignantly replies — speaks of his past achieve- 
 ments—justifies his conduct in exacting the tribute which he holds to 
 be due to him by right of conquest — and declares that he wiU not aban. 
 don his claims though opposed by all the forces with which Cormac 
 can oppose him. Gaul, supposing that Finn's speech contained reflec- 
 tions on the valorous conduct of those by whom CumhaU, the father of 
 Finn, was slain, vindicates their courage, and affirms that none of the 
 Clanna Boisgne dared to meet Conn in battle. Finn desires Garray to 
 give them a faithful account of the manner in which CumhaU fell in 
 the field of Cneuca. Garray complies by stating that he fell after many 
 gallant achievements, fighting boldly, when surrounded by enemies. 
 Finn rephes in terms laudatory of Garray's generosity in giving ample 
 praise to CumhaU, though his enemy ; and adds that Garray has reason 
 to rejoice that he and his allies had gained the battle of Cneuca ; but 
 that if Finn and the Fenians had been present, the result would have 
 been different. Garray rejoins, that if Finn had been present, he would 
 have met the same fate as CumhaU, his father, for whose death he had 
 obtained ample vengeance. Finn retorts, that he would not deem the 
 
164 THE LAY OF THIS 
 
 death even of Gaul any compensation for the loss of Cumhall ; and that 
 his vengeance would not be appeased till he had met and cut down all 
 the forces which Garray eould bring into the field. The monarch then 
 proposes that, to put an end to the contest, it should be decided by the 
 spear. Osgar immediately falls in ynth this proposal, and challenges 
 the bravest of Finn's enemies to meet him in single combat. Cairbre 
 accepts the challenge, and the combat seemed to be about to com- 
 mence, when Ossian, with a view to restore harmony, desires the 
 principal bard to record, with harp and song, some tale of their ances- 
 tors ; and by his compliance, a temporary cessation of mutual provoca- 
 tions is effected, and the company retire to rest for the night. 
 
 I. 
 
 Ossian. — Dost thou remember, Caoilte kind, 
 Of open hand and generous mind, 
 When to proud Tara's well-fenced towers 
 We led, of yore, the Fenian powers ? 
 The youngest of the clans were we, 
 Then full of mirth and festive glee, 
 
 Though now in grief we pine. 
 At royal Cormac's splendid board,* 
 With viands rich and goblets stored, 
 
 We quaffed the rosy wine. 
 Yes, son of Croncur, Ronan's son. 
 Of the gay revellers thou wast one. 
 The chief of all thy tribe, I vow — 
 What then befel I tell thee now. 
 
 * The Irish bards and romance writers expatiate with delight on the 
 splendour and magnificence of the royal feasts of Tai'a. O'Halloran informs 
 us that " on the side-board of Cormac, on public festivals, were displayed 
 150 cups of massy gold and silver ; 150 of the Clanna-Morni, or Connaught 
 knights, constantly attended on his person ; and 1,050 soldiers mounted 
 guard every day on all the approaches to the palace — which were five — to 
 l)oint out to the public with greater dignity where the monarch resided. 
 Besides his state bed, were 150 beds in the apartments of the palace onJy, 
 to lodge such as were in immediate attendance. An open table was con- 
 stantly kept for 1,500 persons ; and he regulated the great officers of his 
 court, and determined their number, which was invariably continued to the 
 dissolution of the monarchy in the twelfth century." — Vol. I., page 260. 
 The curious reader may see another description of the palace of Tara in the 
 third volume of Vallancey's Collectanea. It states that it " contained 1,000 
 guests daily, besides piinces, orators, and men of science ; engravers of 
 gold and silver, carvers, modellers, and nobles. The quantities of meat and 
 butter that were daily consumed surpass all description. There were 27 
 kitchens, and 9 cisterns for washing hands and feet — a ceremony never 
 dispenaed with from the highest to the lowest." 
 
CATTLE-PREY OF TARA. 165 
 
 II. 
 
 When wine had flushed the monarch's heart, 
 Great Cormac, son of princely Art, 
 The son of Conn, whom fame delights 
 To name the chief of a hundred fights, 
 Sought olden quarrels to renew ; 
 
 And said to Finn, my sire — 
 *' Finn ! here no longer meet our view, 
 
 But from our court retire. 
 Such is our sentence on thy crimes, 
 And violent deeds, in bygone times," 
 Finn thus replied — " Great Cormac, I 
 In every strife won victory. 
 Though brave and potent were the foes. 
 That clad in arms against me rose ; 
 And justly was the tribute due 
 That from the vanquished clans 1 drew. 
 With ten battalions strong and bold — 
 The tale, though shameful, must be told — 
 To crush great Cumhall, when you came 
 With Meath's illustrious sons of fame, 
 Say, were you not, on battle field, 
 My claims, in justice, forced to yield ? 
 If Connaught's chiefs, with you allied. 
 And Munster's warriors stood aside ; 
 Ne'er, Cormac, mighty as thou art, 
 
 Would I my claims forego ; 
 Nor from my well- won rights depart, 
 
 E 'en for a stronger foe : 
 No — not for all the numerous host 
 That potent Phelim e'er could boast." 
 
 III. 
 
 Then out the son of Morni cried. 
 That warrior oft in conflict tried, 
 
 •' To thee belongs the shame, 
 Such charges grave as these to bring, 
 In presence of our noble king, 
 
 Against his father's fame. 
 
166 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 Finn, no cldef of Cumhall's race, 
 Dared meet the monarch face to face ; 
 Right well to thee the fact is known, 
 No king e'er sat on Erin's throne, 
 More great than ours — no, never one 
 In arms could match the mighty Conn.*' 
 
 IV. 
 
 Said Finn to Garray seated there: 
 
 " Since thou wast in the fight. 
 Wilt thou, Garray, now declare, 
 
 In truth's and honour's right. 
 When swept the hattle o'er the plain, 
 How was my sire, great Cumhall, slain ?" 
 
 Garrat. — " A hundred stalwart warriors bold. 
 And be that sum twice ten times told, 
 
 Dared Cumhall to engage ; 
 With early morn was the fight begun, 
 Nor ended with the setting sun ; 
 
 So fiercely burned their rage. 
 From Croaghan of the warlike west, 
 Leath Luchra's warriors on him pressed ; 
 Before him hundreds stood combined ; — 
 Hundreds made onslaught fierce behind ; 
 With sword, and lance, and bearded dart, 
 
 We hedged him densely round. 
 Until we saw the life-blood start 
 
 From many a gaping wound. 
 But well did his grey sword that day. 
 It's temper prove on their dense array. 
 From Crimthan of the curhng hair. 
 
 It lopped the youthful head ; 
 And Leath Luchra, young and fair. 
 
 Beneath its vengeance bled. 
 In *Cneuca's fight the crimson steel 
 Of CumhaU made the bravest reel ; 
 
 * Cumhall, the father of Finn, fell by the hand of Gaul Mac Morni, in the 
 battle of Gneuca, a well-known locality in the county of Dublin, named 
 
CATTLE-PREY OF TARA. 167 
 
 Nor could we stay his slaughtering course, 
 
 Till both in front and rear 
 We gathered in collected force. 
 
 And closed his dread career. 
 Like torrents met with adverse shock, 
 In whirling eddies round the rock, 
 That, though firm-fixed for ages past. 
 Is base-worn doomed to fall at last. 
 Oh ! ne'er let jealous rage defame 
 The glory due to Cumhall's name ; 
 He fell, as Erin's warriors all, 
 In fighting fields rejoice to fall." 
 
 Finn. — " Since thus on Cumhall you bestow 
 The praise that to the brave we owe, 
 
 And generous souls desire ; 
 Garray ! just meed of thanks receive, 
 Cordial and frankly as I give, 
 
 For my great and glorious sire. 
 Though hate to Trenmore's race you bear. 
 Yet to be just you nobly dare. 
 Dare even here your voice to raise 
 In hated foeman's honest praise. 
 On battle field and roaring wave. 
 The brave man ever loves the brave ; 
 Is even to the valour just 
 That lays his triumphs in the dust. 
 Although it grieves my soul to own 
 The doleful fact, it must be known, 
 That you, on that disastrous day, 
 The bloody triumph bore away : 
 And well may you rejoice to know 
 That then you triumphed o'er your foe ; 
 
 Castleknock. O'Halloran's History of Ireland, vol. I., p. 233, gives the fol- 
 lowing account of that memorable event : — " The battle, as usual, was fierce 
 and bloody, and well maintained for some hours ; but the superior abilities 
 of Gaul, the son of Morni, master of the knights of Connaught, and general 
 to the imperial ai-my, with the number and bravery of his knights, at length 
 prevailed ; the allied troops, closely pressed, gave way on every side ; when 
 Cumhall, seeing aU lost, at the head of his guards, attacks Gaul, sword in 
 hand. He fell by the hands of this invincible leader, and every one of his 
 knights shared the same fate." 
 
V^S THE LAY OF THE 
 
 For had we in the conflict been, 
 The victory had been ours, I ween." 
 
 Garray. — " Nay, tho', great Finn, you had been there, 
 
 As Cumhall only had you sped ; 
 By sun, and moon, and stars, I swear, 
 
 As Cumhall you had lost your head. 
 But amply has your filial ire 
 With wounds and death avenged your sire. 
 On Banba's verdant fields, a flood 
 Your sword has shed of heroes' blood : 
 You spared of Conn's brave clansmen few ; 
 You gallant Leath Luchra slew. 
 Of all our sons the pride and boast ; 
 
 His loss is Erin's woe: 
 That hero worth a numerous host. 
 
 By one man's arm lies low." 
 
 Finn. — Were I e'en matchless Gaul to slay, 
 
 With all his warlike line, 
 His death, I vow, would ill repay 
 
 The loss of sire like mine. 
 Not e'en the fall of Finchair's chief, 
 Great Leath, could assuage my grief. 
 In Cumhall's dear and honoured name, 
 A greater vengeance yet I claim ; 
 Nor, Garray, will I now conceal 
 
 What spirit rules my breast ; 
 Till you, and all your clansmen, feel 
 Th' unsparing sharpness of my steel, 
 
 That vengeance ne'er shall rest.'* 
 
 V. 
 
 Then Cormac, as he quaffed his wine. 
 Proposed a fatal sad design. 
 By none of all the chiefs approved. 
 Who nigh him stood, or round him moved. 
 ** This contest, mighty Finn ! to close. 
 And tame your rampant pride, 
 
CATTLE-PREY OP TARA. 169 
 
 We now, in Garray's name, propose 
 
 That spears the cause decide." 
 Then Osgar, who ne'er felt a fear, 
 Cried out aloud — '* A chief stands here 
 Who dares, with javelin, sword, or spear. 
 To meet the chief of loftiest boast 
 And strongest arm in Garray's host ; 
 That vaunting race ! who proudly claim 
 More glory than adorns their name. 
 
 At Tara's festive board. 
 If Finn, perchance, may Osgar hold. 
 For speech like this, too rashly bold — 
 Let deeds decide — by deeds exprest, 
 Be glory's claims — the only test 
 
 Of valour is the sword." 
 Then Cairbre, son of Erin's king. 
 Cries out, ** I back defiance fling, 
 And dare the bravest of your band. 
 To come and meet me hand to hand." 
 
 VI. 
 
 OssiAN. — This Osgar heard — and chafed with rage, 
 
 Impatient, eager to engage ; 
 
 And hard had been the task to stay 
 
 Their conflict, e'en one little day, 
 
 So fierce their anger burned. 
 But at the instant, up I stood. 
 And to Ciothruah, mild and good. 
 
 The bard of Erin, turned ; 
 And bade him, by his minstrel spell. 
 The gathering storms of passion quell. 
 
 VII. 
 
 He heard, obeyed — with magic art 
 He touched the chafing warriors' heart ; 
 And, in a tale of olden time. 
 Rehearsed the glorious deeds sublime 
 
170 THE LAY OF THE CATTLE-PREY OF TARA. 
 
 Of chiefs Milesian, who of yore, 
 Their gallies moored on Erin's shore ; 
 Chiefs from whose blood fraternal springs 
 Th' illustrious race of Erin's kings. 
 He sung the dire unnumbered woes 
 That from her sons' contentions rose — 
 How states and kingdoms, just and wise, 
 To grandeur, power, and glory rise, 
 
 And how decline and fall: 
 What virtues union can impart ; 
 How discord rends a nation's heart, 
 Saps all her strength — her life-blood drains, 
 Subverts her right, and forges chains 
 
 Her spirit to inthral. 
 He sung of beauty's magic powers, 
 Of courteous knights and ladies' bowers, 
 In strains so sweet, they gently stole 
 In soft enchantment o'er the soul; 
 Bade for a time all discord cease. 
 And soothed fierce passions into peace. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The chieftains praised the minstrel's skill. 
 Bent their proud spirits to his will ; 
 Upon him heaped a precious store 
 Of broidered robes and imaged ore, 
 
 His genius to reward. 
 And much did Finn rejoice to see 
 The chiefs of high and low degree. 
 
 So generous to the bard. 
 But though the fiery chiefs represt 
 The fury stirring in their breast ; 
 'Twas but a half-extinguished fire 
 That soon would rage with flaming ire. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 ov 
 
 THE CATTLE-PREY OF TARA, 
 
 QUARREL BETWEEN CORMAC, THE MONARCH, AND 
 FINN AND THE FENIANS, AT AN ENTERTAINMENT 
 GIVEN BY HIM AT TARA. 
 
 THE POEM IS ADDRESSED BY OSSIAN TO CAOILTE. 
 
 DUAN SECOND, 
 
 Akgument.— On the following morning, when the chiefs, who espoused the 
 cause of Finn, were assembled in consultation, it was resolved that 
 they should evince a determination to assert their rights by making a 
 foray, and driving off the royal herds of Tara. Fillan proposed that 
 they should at once take possession of that fortress. Ossian deeming 
 this too hazardous an enterprise, till the whole of their forces had been 
 collected out of the walls of the fortress, they marched forth in military 
 array, and proceeding to the mansion of Angus, a young chieftain, 
 sprung from the Tuatha De Danans. of great power, and skilled in 
 magical arts, they besought him to be their friend and ally in the foray 
 which they were ready to commence. They had already sent forth their 
 forayers to collect the herds, that, when occasion required, might be 
 driven away. Meantime the chiefs again assembled in the royal palace, 
 when the monarch- apprized of their doings, rose up and pronounced a 
 severe sentence on Finn, and said that he must now remain a prisoner. 
 The chiefs heard the monarch in profound silence, till Osgar, stung with 
 resentment, rose and declared, that while he could wield a sword, Finn 
 should not be held in captivity. He called on his friends to show their 
 resolution by their deeds ; and they, instantly unsheathing their dag- 
 gers, each of them slew his antagonist, and they proceeded immediately 
 to drive off the herds which had been previously collected. In their 
 progress they met a young warrior on a high-spirited charger, whom 
 they soon recognized to be Angus, a most efficient friend and assistant. 
 Presently they beheld Cormac and Cairbre pursuing them. The Bixt««m 
 
172 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 Fenian chiefs then formed their ranks in martial order, with their 
 banners, on which were displayed their respective armorial bearings. 
 A battle ensues — the pursuers are defeated — Cairbre is wounded, and 
 Cormac taken prisoner and bound. To mortify him, he is desired by 
 some of the conquerors to carry the cauldron of the army ; but this was 
 an indignity which the generous mind of Finn could not suffer the 
 monarch to undergo ; and to show that he would rather bear it him- 
 self, was taking it up, when Fillan, to put an end to such design, with 
 a resistless stroke of his claymore, cut the cauldron in twain. The Lay 
 concludes by saying that Finn obtained all the rights for which he con- 
 tended, and Cormac was established in peace on his throne. 
 
 Of the original of this Lay, the writer has seen two copies verbally trans- 
 lated. The copy which he has adopted was kindly lent to him by a 
 dLstinguished Irish scholar. The other, which was taken from the oral 
 dictation of a Conn aught peasant, wanted the whole of the first duan, 
 and was in other respects very deficient — a striking instance of the 
 great importance and necessity of collecting and comparing all the 
 different copies which can be procured of our ancient Irish composi- 
 tions — a task worthy of some competent and properly qualified Irish 
 Aristarchus. 
 
 Next morn belield the strife resumed ; 
 Again with rage our warriors fumed, 
 Each fanning in each breast a flame 
 That thrilled and fired the glowing frame. 
 When met in council, 'twas agreed 
 To levy war with all our speed — 
 To let deceitful Tara know. 
 In cause of Finn, we feared no foe ; 
 
 Defied, we dared defy. 
 And sixteen warriors laid their plan, 
 The bravest of the Boisgne clan. 
 
 Their might in arms to try ; 
 On Tara's lands to make a prey. 
 And drive the choicest herds away.* 
 
 * In early ages, as the principal wealth of the chiefs and rulers consisted 
 of flocks and herds, the driving them off from their owners was resented as 
 the greatest injury, and became the immediate cause of an appeal to arms. 
 Achilles in the Ihad assigns as a reason for declining to wage war against 
 the Trojans, that they never made a foray on his cattle. 
 
 " The distant Trojans never injured me ; 
 To Phthia's realms no hostile troops they led, 
 Safe in her vales n)y warlike coursers fed," 
 
CATTLE-PREY OF TARA. 173 
 
 II. 
 
 With us the Clanna-Morni stood, 
 
 And valiant Gaul of cheerful mood ; 
 
 And Ronan's clansmen — men of worth, 
 
 With whom we sent our questers forth, 
 
 From hill and glen — with goad and thong, 
 
 To drive the bellowing herds along ; 
 
 Though Fillan urged with instant speed 
 
 To do a great and glorious deed. 
 
 The work of vengeance to begin. 
 
 And by surprise the fortress win. 
 
 This I advised not, till the last 
 
 Of all our host had safely past 
 
 Through Tara's gates. — With spears upraised- 
 
 Their points with banderolles emblazed, 
 
 That brightly shone like fiery stars 
 
 Portending sanguinary wars ; 
 
 We sped, and, with our merry men. 
 
 The echoes woke of hill and glen, 
 
 Of mountain, rock, and cave. 
 Oh ! ne'er in Erin's ample round. 
 Could chiefs to equal ours be found, 
 
 So beautiful, so brave. 
 
 V 
 
 So Pope readers the passage. Cowper, more faithful to the original, says, 
 
 " No Trojan ever drove 
 My pastures — steeds or oxen took of mine ; 
 Or plundered of their fruits the golden fields 
 Of Phthia the deep-soiled." 
 
 Old Nestor gives the following description of a foray in which he was 
 principal actor :^ 
 
 Oh ! for the vigour of those days again 
 When Elis for her cattle which we took 
 Strove with us, and Itymoneus I slew, 
 Brave offspring of Ilypirochus ; he dwelt 
 In Elis, and while I the pledges drove, 
 Stood for his herd, but fell among the first 
 By a spear hurled from my victorious arm. 
 Th6n fled the rustic multitude, and we 
 Drove off abundant booty from the plain 
 Herds fifty of fat beeves, large flocks of goats 
 As many, with as many sheep and swine. 
 And full thrice fifty mares of brightest hue, 
 All breeders, many with their foals beneath. 
 
 CowPEK's Iliad XL, 807—819. 
 
174 THE LAY OF THB 
 
 III. 
 
 To Angus* now our steps we bend, 
 
 The son of Deaga, who abode 
 
 In mansion, bj our chosen road. 
 Our cause to ask him to befriend. 
 Though once in adverse ranks we fought. 
 His generous aid we now besought ; 
 Bade all past wrongs forgotten lie, 
 And by a strong and mutual tie. 
 In this our cause, both just and true, 
 Our former friendship to renew. 
 And begged that, in our foray, he 
 Our helper and our guide would be. 
 This done — by youthful Angus led. 
 O'er Tara's fair demesnes we spread ; 
 
 0*er pasture, heath, and fen ; 
 And soon saw gathering in a crowd, 
 Dense as a murky thunder-cloud. 
 
 Dark- shadowing hiU and glen. 
 The kine that in the vallies lowed, 
 The steers that on the hills abode. 
 From copse and lawn, from crag and knoll. 
 Like dark-brown torrents when they roll 
 
 A deluge to the plain ; 
 The fattest beeves from crib and stall. 
 High-fed for feasts in Tara's hall, 
 A sleek, sharp-horned, stern-visaged throng, 
 Impelled by goad and spear along. 
 
 Came rushing on amain. 
 With hoofs loud-clattering o'er the ground. 
 With many a high and frolic bound. 
 With butting horn and bellowing roar 
 
 That round the welkin rung. 
 
 * Angus, usually called Aongus Og, was son of Dagdae of the Tuatha-de- 
 Danan race. He was a celebrated Druid, and respected as a person of great 
 power and influence. His principal residence was situated on the banks of 
 the Boyne; he was also said to reside occasionally in Lochlin and in Tir 
 Tamgain (Canaan), like Mananan Mac Lir. He was the foster-father and 
 tutor of Diarmuid Dunn, the Fenian chief, and his guardian and protector 
 in all diflSculties and dangers. His name frequently occurs in the writings 
 of our bard» and romance writers. — N. K. 
 
CATTLE-PREY OF TARA. 175 
 
 The drovers spurred them on before, 
 
 And lays of victory sung. 
 But them we charged, with watch and ward. 
 The gathered herds to keep and guard. 
 Till hack we came with all our powers. 
 To take them thence to Almhuin's towers. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Again in Tara's royal hall. 
 
 Behold our chiefs assembled all ; 
 
 Again in revelry and play. 
 
 As was our wont, to spend the day ; 
 
 When Erin's monarch, whom the laws 
 
 Empowered to hear and judge his cause — 
 
 A learned judge was he ; 
 Rising in majesty severe. 
 Said — " Now, Finn ! our charges hear. 
 
 And eke our firm decree. 
 Arraigned for treason there you stand, 
 Eor crimes against your father-land. 
 
 Her sceptre and her crown ; 
 A prisoner here, to tame your pride. 
 In servile chains you must abide. 
 Since in our royal laws despite, 
 You still obstruct your monarch's right. 
 
 His laws you trample down. 
 Our herds you make your lawless prey, 
 And drive our choicest beeves away ; 
 What can you more — but boldly own 
 Your right to sit on Erin's throne ? 
 
 Such treason shalt thou rue. 
 No more on Tara's fair demesnes. 
 No more in Tailtean's fertile plains. 
 
 Dare thou the chase pursue. 
 In Meath, through Usnath's heathy dells. 
 In Almhuin that o'er Leinster swells, 
 Great Finn of hosts ! no more be found 
 In quest of game with horn and hound. 
 But here, in Tara's walls remain 
 To spend thy rage and hug thy chain." 
 
176 THE LA.T OF THE 
 
 V. 
 
 No murmur from the chieftains broke 
 
 The silence deep, while Cormac spoke. 
 
 But Osgar, wrung with pain and grief, 
 
 Young, dauntless, wound-inflicting chief, 
 
 Uprising with a sudden bound. 
 
 That made proud Tara's walls resound. 
 
 Cried out aloud — ** While e'er this hand 
 
 Can grasp a spear or wield a brand ; 
 
 Or while you fifteen warriors bide 
 
 Still firm and faithful by my side. 
 
 No power on earth, though great and strong, 
 
 Shall e'er on Finn inflict such wrong. 
 
 Up ! warriors, up ! let daggers show 
 
 What fealty to our Finn we owe." 
 
 VL 
 
 Then loud and fierce the tumult grew — 
 Our sixteen daggers forth we drew. 
 And each his adverse champion slew, 
 Of those who stood king Cormac near. 
 To guard the throne from harm and fear. 
 Distained were Tara's walls with gore ; 
 Blood streamed along the rushy floor. 
 Until the gates were opened wide ; 
 Then forth we strode in martial pride, 
 
 A firm determined band. 
 We passed the ramparts circHng mound. 
 And from the open region round, 
 
 From Tara's fertile land. 
 Ten hundred beeves, a matchless prey, 
 With goad and spear we drove away. 
 All that the herdsmen's power and skill 
 Could lure or drive from plain or hill : 
 And on to Almhuin's fortress strong. 
 We drove the bellowing herds along. 
 But ere we came where Tailtean sees 
 Her banners floating in the breeze, 
 
CATTLE-PREY OF TAR A. 177 
 
 Close on our rear we saw advance, 
 
 With bossy shield and bearded lance, 
 
 Cormac and Cairbre — flushed with rage. 
 
 Impatient, instant fight to wage ; 
 
 The herds to rescue, to efface 
 
 Th' insulted monarch's late disgrace; 
 
 Hoping, with eager barbarous joy, 
 
 The Clanna Boisgne to destroy, 
 
 And for their slaughtered warriors' sake. 
 
 In blood their burning vengeance slake. 
 
 VII. 
 
 While forward still we pressed with speed, 
 
 A youth we met of beauty rare. 
 
 With pearly teeth and auburn hair. 
 Approaching on a mettled steed ; 
 His mane, high curved o'er sinewy chest, 
 Toss'd proudly like a warrior's crest; 
 His soHd hoof, black, horny, round. 
 Made music as he pawed the ground. 
 Fiery his eye — and such his pace 
 As showed him matchless in the race. 
 His rider seemed a courteous knight, 
 AU sheathed in shining armour bright ; 
 
 And nearer as he drew, 
 Much did our hearts rejoice to see 
 That Angus, our young friend, was he. 
 
 Our ally firm and true : 
 A chieftain of De-Danan line, 
 And skilled in magic arts divine. 
 Fame said that, by his skill, again 
 To life he could restore the slain. 
 He on that day, with lash and goad. 
 Propelled our prey along their road ; 
 And when our beeves, oppressed with toil. 
 Sunk lame and helpless on the soil, 
 On car and sledge his herdsmen fleet 
 Conveyed them to a safe retreat. 
 
 i2 
 
178 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 When weak and faint our soldiers lay. 
 
 His ready aid was nigh, 
 To help them on their weary way. 
 
 And leache's aid apply. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Now grasping firm our spears, we turned 
 
 To face th' advancing foes ; 
 And all our souls with ardour burned 
 
 In battle shock to close. 
 Loose floating to the breeze we raised 
 
 Our sixteen standards high, 
 With rich armorial signs emblazed,* 
 
 Of many a various dye. 
 Our Finn's, of princely Heremon sprung, 
 By all our bards and minstrels sung — 
 Was of a silken tissue white, 
 Resplendent in the sunny light, 
 Full sixteen ells its ample fold, 
 When from its jewelled staff unrolled. 
 Displayed a sun of burnished gold ; 
 And round it many a silvery star. 
 With long reflections beamed afar. 
 
 A mountain ash with berries red. 
 That raised in brilHant hues its head, 
 Was by the gallant Osgar borne, 
 Still first to lead the hope forlorn. 
 
 * Ollam Fodla {pron. Ollav Fola), the fortieth monarch of Ireland (A. M. 
 8082), is highly eulogized by our Irish writers as a prince eminently distin- 
 guished by learning, wisdom, and extraordinary endowments, and, accord- 
 ing to Keating, of the strictest virtue that was ever seated on a throne. 
 Anxious for the continual improvement and prosperity of his country, h« 
 instituted the great convention of Tara, 
 
 " That great assembly where the nobles met 
 And priests, and poets, and philosophers, 
 To make new laws and to correct the old, 
 And to advance the honour of his country." 
 
 In a state so accustomed to settle aU disputes by the sword, and in which 
 the right to the throne was so frequently contested, the support and disci- 
 pline of armies was a subject of indispensible necessity. In the great trien- 
 nial convention it was " enacted that every great lord, or chief commander, 
 should have a particular coat of arms assigned him, according to his de- 
 serts, whereby he might be known to the antiquaries, and other men of 
 knowledge, either by sea or land, when he appeared in arms, or otherwi8«." 
 
CATTLE-PREY OP TARA. 179 
 
 On Dermod's flag a dark green yevr 
 A sable shadow round it threw — 
 
 A chief of princely race 
 Was Dermod, ever bland and kind, 
 Beloved by all of womankind 
 
 For courtesy and grace. 
 On great Mac Morni's flag, behold, 
 In glowing tints, a piper bold ; 
 
 War-music his delight. 
 He seems, upon the tented plain, 
 To rouse in high heroic strain, 
 
 The spirit of the fight. 
 On Fillan's flowing silk, a tree 
 Was sprigged in rich embroidery : 
 This the device — upon its field 
 Nine spears beside a bossy shield. 
 
 Two hounds in chase, graced Luay's flag ; 
 Mac Luay's showed a bounding stag ; 
 Our little Hugh's a furze-bush bore, 
 With golden blossoms garnished o'er ; 
 With prickles armed on every side 
 Dense as the urchin's spiny hide. 
 Where'er this flag the onslaught led, 
 The bold pursuers turned and fled ; 
 Though fierce and furious their attack 
 To win the spoils of Tara back. 
 Of silken tissue wide and long. 
 
 Twice ten full ells and four; 
 That beauteous rose our ranks among, 
 
 Was the flag that Ronan bore ; 
 High waving o'er our warriors proud. 
 Like a sun-shot, brilliant, crimson cloud. 
 Twelve ells of silk, of scarlet dye, 
 Warm as the orient morning-sky, 
 
 Formed Caoilte's banner bright. 
 The upright Colla's flag upon. 
 Of twisted gold two circles shone, 
 Such as our victor-champions bring 
 From fallen chief and vanquished king, 
 
 When slain in single fight. 
 
180 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 A filea's wand of magic powers. 
 
 Twelve baskets, with a store 
 Of mellow fruit and fragrant flowers, 
 
 The flag of Fergus bore; 
 Renowned, as Erin's bard, among 
 The sweetest of the sons of song. 
 'er six broad stripes of purest lawn. 
 
 Or linen white as snow ; 
 A warrior with his claymore drawn. 
 
 Who seemed to brave the foe 
 That near him stood in arms arrayed, 
 Feardonan's ensign fair displayed; 
 A chief that fearful combat waged 
 Where'er the battle fiercest raged. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Near as we saw their ranks advance 
 With flashing sword and levelled lance. 
 We forward sped with steps as fleet. 
 And met as adverse torrents meet. 
 
 When swoln with melting snow, 
 O'er ragged rock" and fissured steep 
 They rush, with many a headlong leap, 
 
 And in the glen below, 
 Each dashing each, in wild recoil, 
 Their whirling eddies foam and boil. 
 The woods, and rocks, and hills around, 
 Aloud reverberate the sound. 
 
 Now swords crossed swords, and storms of blows 
 In wound-inflicting contest rose. 
 
 As man encountered man : 
 Soon widely covered was the field 
 With many a fallen crest and shield ; 
 
 The blood in torrents ran. 
 Each fought, as if on him alone 
 The fortunes of the day were thrown ; 
 
CATTLE-PREY OF TARA. 181 
 
 Yea, all with such a brave delight, 
 A3 Erin's warriors ever fight. 
 But oh ! it wrings my heart with pain 
 To tell the numbers of our slain — 
 
 Slain by no foreign foe ; 
 For then with glory they would lie — 
 But by fraternal hands to die, 
 
 This is a tale of wo ! 
 To none it gives an honest fame — 
 No glory — but inglorious shame. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Though royal Cormac well sustained 
 
 The honour of his crown, 
 When near him few alive remained 
 
 He too was stricken down. 
 Upon him close we pressed around, 
 And soon the royal captive bound, 
 For it was aye our chieftain's care 
 The lives of vanquished foes to spare. 
 Prince Cairbre, too, upon the plain. 
 Beside a hillock of the slain,' 
 
 Was faint and bleeding laid. 
 Him gently placed we on his shield. 
 And bore him from the crimson field. 
 
 To seek the leache's aid. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Our haughty victors then, to show 
 How they could bring a monarch low. 
 
 Their servile toils to share, 
 To Cormac gave a stern command, 
 The cauldron of the Fenian band 
 
 Upon his neck to bear. 
 Finn grieved that in a task so mean 
 His once loved monarch should be seen 
 And, with a generous kind intent, 
 Himself beneath the burden bent : 
 
182 THE LAY OF THE CATTLE-PREY OF TARA. 
 
 Till Fillan, stung with shame and grief 
 
 In such low task to see his chief, 
 
 Sheer through the cauldron's hrazen round 
 
 So whirled his shining blade.. 
 That many a foot beneath the ground 
 
 Its trenchant edge was stayed. 
 In twain the massy cauldron cleft 
 We mid the spoils ungathered left. 
 Then was the sun-burst banner raised, 
 
 That oft from Cona's turrets high, 
 In all its glory bright emblazed, 
 
 Waved the proud sign of victory. 
 'Twas Finn's to dictate terms of peace ; 
 
 Secure the rights he named his own ; 
 To bid intestine discord cease. 
 
 And fix the monarch on his throne. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF 
 
 TALC MAC TRONE. 
 
 OMENS OF HIS APPROACH. 
 
 " Tailc-Mac-Tbeoin signifies The Firm, son of the Mighty." A Duan, or 
 part of the Lay of Talc Mac Trone, was published by Theophilus O'Flana- 
 gan in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society, Dublin, 1808, with a versified 
 translation by Mr. William Leahy. It is given as a " genuine effusion of 
 the genius that produced the poems attributed to Ossian," with which 
 however, it may be fairly presumed, the genuine Ossian had no concern. 
 It is added that " vast numbers of these poems are stiU preserved in Ireland, 
 written and by rote. They are even stiU the great source of long nights' 
 entertainment in the Irish parts of Ireland ; together with the old romances 
 or Fenian stories (sgeUi fianaidecta), upon all the exploits of the Fenian 
 heroes, or ancient Irish militia." 
 
 DUAN FIRST. 
 
 Abocment. — The Lay commences with a request fi-om Patrick to Ossian, 
 to inform him how the strife, which was the subject of a former conver- 
 sation, commenced, Ossian replies that the Fenians had assembled, 
 as usual, on a green hill, when the Druid of Tara suddenly arising in 
 their assembly, said that he observed certain signs in the clouds prog- 
 nostic of some approaching calamity. Finn replied, as became an 
 intrepid warrior, that he had no fear of any such portents ; but on 
 having his attention directed to them more particularly, he perceived 
 that the signs were ominous. He expressed his fears to Oscar, who at 
 first thought with Finn that they should be disregarded ; while some of 
 the Fenians pursued their various sports, and others expressed their 
 apprehensions by their melancholy aspect. Conan treats their fears 
 with ludicrous scorn. The more prudent Druid advises that one-half 
 of their host should retire to rest, and the other half should keep watck 
 
 // 
 
184 THE LAY OF 
 
 and ward. Finn, in compliance with this advice, desires Oscar to 
 watch during the night, and in reply to an objection of Oscar as to 
 Finn's retiring to repose, says that night is the season in which he 
 enjoys prophetic visions. He then desires Dermuid Dun and Gaul to 
 be companions to Oscar. Conan is asked to take his station on a 
 neighbouring dun, or fortified eminence, whence his voice of alarm, in 
 case of an enemy's approach, could be heard in the most remote part 
 of the camp. Conan absolutely refuses compliance, in spite of the 
 remonstrances of MacLuay and Dermuid, but, by the persuasion of 
 Oscar, is at last induced to go, being accompanied by little Hugh, and 
 Finn's two favourite dogs Sgeolan and Brann. 
 
 Patrick. — Ossian, sweetest voice of Song, 
 Thy tales of olden time prolong, 
 And tell us now — for thou canst tell — 
 How rose the strife — what warriors fell ? 
 
 Ossian. — With Finn, our chieftain wise and good, 
 
 We Fenians, all in joyous mood, 
 
 Had met upon yon verdant hill 
 
 To play at games of strength and skill ; 
 
 When sudden Tara's Druid rose, 
 
 Prophetic of impending woes. 
 
 And cried, in anguish strong — 
 «' Dark fears my boding soul oppress, 
 That soon some sad and dire distress 
 
 Will come our ranks among." 
 " What wo," said Finn, our fearless chief, 
 " Can us befal, what cause of grief? 
 We ne'er from face of danger flee, 
 Nor dread a foe by land or sea." 
 
 Druid. — " Yet trust me, chief renowned in war. 
 The mischief is not distant far. 
 Behold yon clouds of crimson dye, 
 With threats dense-crowding in the sky ; 
 Upon the gathering storms they ride 
 In close battalions side by side." 
 
TALC MAC TRONE. 185 
 
 II. 
 
 With eyes upturned, my noble sire 
 
 Beheld the sanguine omen dire, 
 
 Dense clouds of mingled blood and fire ; 
 
 ** Too true," he cried, ** those signs portend 
 
 Sad woes that o'er our host impend." 
 
 In haste to Oscar then he spoke: 
 
 ** Brave warrior, as thou art, 
 I fear, against some awful stroke, 
 
 Thou now must arm thy heart ; 
 Behold, careering in the air, 
 Yon clouds of red portentous glare." 
 
 Oscar. — " Great chieftain of puissant arm, 
 What should we dread of grief or harm 
 
 From omens in the sky ? 
 And we — the potent Fenians — here, 
 Who never bowed our souls to fear. 
 
 But dare all foes defy." 
 
 III. 
 
 With musing thoughts and eyes upraised, 
 
 Long on the storm-borne clouds we gazed ; 
 
 But some in frolic mood were seen 
 
 Light-capering on the grassy green ; 
 
 Apart sat others on the hill 
 
 With rueful visage, boding ill. 
 
 Then out bald Conan loudly spoke : — 
 
 *' A cloud who blenches to behold. 
 Dear comrades, 'tis a pretty joke 
 
 To rank him high with heroes bold ! " 
 Next spoke the Druid, grave and wise — 
 " Great CumhaU's son, I this advise : 
 Let half the host find strength in sleep. 
 And half in arms their station keep ; 
 And each, in turn, keep watch and ward. 
 The camp against all foes to guard." 
 
186 THE LAY OF 
 
 Then loud the Fenian trumpet blew, 
 
 Re-echoing far through hill and vale : 
 The Fenians round their chieftain drew, 
 
 All clad in burnished mail. 
 Then Finn his Oscar thus addressed ; 
 
 " Brave, generous youth, our shield and boast. 
 Here wilt thou till the morning rest. 
 
 To watch the foe and guard our host ? 
 While I my eyes in slumber close, 
 And give my frame a brief repose." 
 
 Oscar. — " If bold invading foes you dread 
 
 Ere purple morn arise. 
 Should Fenian chieftain hide his head. 
 
 Or close in sleep his eyes ?* 
 Great chief, may such inglorious tale, 
 Ne'er shame the sons of Innisfail !" 
 
 Finn. — " Oh ! well thou knowest, or shouldst know, 
 
 That Finn ne'er feared, nor fears a foe ; 
 
 But, in the tranquil hour of night. 
 
 He sees full many a vision bright. 
 
 And, gifted with a prophet's eye. 
 
 Sees far into futurity." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Then Finn, in accent mild and bland, 
 
 Asked Dermuid Dunn if he would stand 
 
 By Oscar's side, till morn arose. 
 
 To guard the camp from coming foes. 
 
 ** 'Twas ne'er my way," the chief replied. 
 
 From foeman's path to turn aside. 
 
 ' Thus the Dream accosts Agamemnon in the Second Book of the Iliad : 
 
 " Canst thou with all a monarch's care opprest, 
 Oh Atreus son ! canst thou indulge thy rest ? 
 Ill fits a chief who mighty nations guides, 
 Directs in council, and in war presides. 
 To whom its safety a whole people owes, 
 To waste long nights in indolent repose." 
 
 POPB. 
 
TALC MAC TRONE. 187 
 
 With Oscar, to my soul most dear, 
 
 Will I no danger shun ; 
 With him no warrior's arm I fear, 
 That ever brandished sword or spear, 
 
 No, none beneath the sun."* 
 
 Finn. — " Wilt thou, too, Gaul, in arms renowned, 
 
 To great achievements born, 
 With Oscar pace our tent around. 
 
 Till blush the orient morn ? — 
 To guard a camp or tower from harm, 
 No bulwark like a hero's arm."t 
 
 Gaul. — " Gladly will I strict vigil keep, 
 
 Till shines the morning light, 
 In happy dreams your senses steep ; 
 
 Sweet visions charm your sight ! " 
 ** I too," cried Fillan, ** ready stand, 
 With watchful eye and trusty brand. 
 Obedient to our chief's command. 
 Lest friend or foe, with entrance rude. 
 Upon his precious rest intrude. 
 While in his tent entranced he lies, 
 Rapt in sublimest ecstasies." 
 
 Finn. — " Bald Conan, thou whose voice from far 
 
 Sounds like the trumpet-blast of war. 
 
 On yonder dun thy station hold. 
 
 Fast by the promontory bold. 
 
 And if a coming foe you spy, 
 
 Shout till the rocks and woods reply." 
 
 * Ajax, about to meet Hector in single combat, boasts thus : — 
 
 •' Lives there a chief whom Ajax ought to dread, 
 Ajax, in all the toUs of battle bred ? 
 From warlike Salamis I drew my birth, 
 And born to combats fear no force on earth." 
 
 Iliad VII., 235.— Pope. 
 
 t The classical reader may recollect a similar sentiment in the Persians 
 of JBschylus, in (Edipus Tyrannus, and in Thucydides, but none more pithy 
 than the declaration of the Irish chieftain who said that he preferred 
 
 A castle of bones, 
 
 To a castle of stones. 
 
1 88 THE LAY OF 
 
 Con AN. — ** If to that dun alone I go, 
 Sheer through me let a dart be sped — 
 
 If there I go to spy the foe, 
 
 Back may I come — stark dead!" 
 
 *' Bald Conan, shame !" MacLuay cries, 
 
 With anger flashing from his eyes — 
 
 ** Is this an answer meet to give 
 
 To him beneath whose rule we live — 
 
 Who may our prompt obedience claim. 
 
 Our lord, our king of deathless fame? 
 
 Bald Conan, shame ! away, away ! 
 
 And, as our king commands, obey." 
 
 Conan. — *' If Finn be lord and king, I own 
 
 It ill becomes such chief sublime. 
 
 Me to despatch alone, alone. 
 
 Yon promontory bold to climb. 
 
 And watch till some huge champion grim 
 
 Has hacked my body limb from limb." 
 
 Dermuid. — " Conan, none our host among, 
 Has voice like thine, so sweet, so strong ; 
 
 And when a foe you spy. 
 None such a shout can send afar, 
 Our sons to marshal for the war 
 
 And tell what foe is nigh." 
 
 Conan. — " Enough," said Conan, " cease your strain, 
 
 Sweet Dermuid of the velvet paws. 
 With me such coaxings all are vain, 
 
 In vain you urge your cause. 
 Alone I move not to the coast. 
 For Finn and aU the Fenian host." 
 
 Oscar. — Said Oscar then *' In such a task. 
 Some friendly aid you well may ask. 
 Then Conan hear — our little Hugh, 
 A warrior ever bold and true. 
 Shall thy companion be ; 
 
TALC MAC TRONE. 189 
 
 With Brann, with Sgeolan, and the rest 
 Of our strong hounds — the fleetest, hest — 
 Shall bear thee company." 
 
 OssiAN. — Moved by his words, forth Conan strode 
 With Hugh, and took the mountain road ; 
 While Brann, in many a frolic bound. 
 With Sgeolan, ran the chiefs around ; 
 Till in the dun that topped the steep 
 They stood — both watch and ward to keep. 
 
 The matter being thus settled, Finn retired to his 
 couch. In his slumbers he was disturbed by distressing 
 dreams, in which he saw little Hugh headless, and Gaul 
 in desperate strife with a fierce warrior, viz., Talc Mac 
 Trone. Awaking, he called the Druid to interpret his 
 dreams. The Druid informed him that the country 
 would soon be invaded, but that Hugh and Gaul would 
 not be slain. Presently a loud shout was heard. Conan, 
 followed by the hounds, came running with all speed 
 (leaving Hugh behind) to announce that the invaders 
 were nigh. Interrogated by Oscar, where he had left 
 little Hugh, Conan replies that he left him in a cave, 
 and that his only concern was for his own safety. Oscar 
 proceeds to the cave, and finds him in a state of debility 
 and exhaustion, for which he accounts by the peril of 
 his situation, when at a remote distance from the 
 Fenians, 
 
 The invader, whose approach is here announced, was 
 Talc Mac Trone, the hero of the following Lay : — 
 
THE LAY 
 
 or 
 
 TALC MAC TRONE. 
 
 HE COMBATS WITH OSCAR AND IS SLAIN. 
 
 DUAN SECOND. 
 
 Abgdment. — Patrick requests Ossian to gratify him by repeating one of his 
 tales of the times of old. Ossian replies that it is painful to remember 
 departed joys, and then proceeds to describe the HiU of Slaughter, 
 where Finn and his men being one day assembled, beheld a lady of 
 surpassing beauty approaching them. She was courteously accosted 
 by Finn, who desired to know the cause of her coming. She informed 
 him that she had been forcibly united in wedlock to one whom she 
 describes as a monster rather than a man— that she had sought of 
 many protection from his cruelty, but found none. Finn declares that 
 he will be her guardian while he has breath. Talc is observed ap- 
 proaching, and to be in form and aspect what she had represented. 
 He challenges the bravest of the Fenians to combat, and is answered 
 by Oscar, who, after a desperate coniiict, gains the victory. The lady, 
 on beholding the field of battle, expires of grief, and the hill is named 
 the Hill of Slaughter. 
 
 I. 
 
 Patrick. — Sweet Ossian, who with thee can vie 
 In all the arts of minstrelsy ? 
 What hand like thine such music hring, 
 To charm the ear, from sounding string ? 
 Or with such magic power control 
 Each thought and moTcment of the soul ? 
 Oh ! yes, thou canst creations bright 
 From nought to being call ; 
 
THE LAY OF TALC MAC TRONE. 191 
 
 With fair enchantments daze the sight, 
 
 And every sense enthrall ; 
 Canst hid the past hefore our eyes 
 As vivid as the present rise ; 
 And, hy thy minstrel witchery hold. 
 Transport us to the days of old. 
 Or on Time's cloudy forehead scan 
 The future weal or wo of man. 
 
 Again, great bard, resume thy tale 
 Of the gallant sons of Innisfail ; 
 Rehearse how Talc to Erin came, 
 And what hefel his beauteous dame. 
 
 OssiAN. — sage, in whose fair hand is placed 
 A snow-white crook with jewels graced ; 
 Sad, son of Calphruin, 'tis to dwell 
 On sorrows past, and sad to tell 
 
 Of joys for aye gone by ; 
 Their memory bids my tear-drops start, 
 Divides in twain my bleeding heart, 
 
 And wrings with agony. 
 
 II. 
 
 Yon hill — the Hill of Slaughter — view ; 
 Just is the name it bears, and true : 
 Fair- swelling to the western sky 
 It lifts its green-grass summit high. 
 The Fenian host, of nimble steeds. 
 With Finn, of high heroic deeds. 
 
 As wont, assembled there ; 
 When lo ! in shining radiance, bright 
 As the glorious sun in his lofty height. 
 
 Approached a lady fair. 
 She walked majestic as a queen ; 
 Her silken robe, of crimson sheen, 
 
 Waved lightly in the wind. 
 Her locks, on neck and shoulder flung. 
 In glancing wavy ringlets hung 
 
 With threads of gold entwined. 
 
192 THE LAY OF 
 
 Her taper waist a girdle crossed, 
 
 With bright and sparkling gems embossed — 
 
 But oh ! her eyes were brighter far 
 
 Than sparkling gem — than morning star. 
 
 Soft on her cheek such dimples played ! 
 
 Of every heart they capture made ; 
 
 While from her lips of rosy hue, 
 
 More soft and sweet than honey dew. 
 
 Her accents fell. Her looks expressed 
 
 Some sorrow harboured in her breast. 
 
 As nigh she came she bent her knee 
 
 To all with gentlest courtesy, 
 
 But chief to Finn. Of Finn she prayed, 
 
 In this her trying hour, 
 That he would grant her friendly aid, 
 
 And shield her by his power. 
 
 III. 
 
 " queen of matchless form and grace, 
 To Finn declare thy name and race," 
 
 (Thus said the Fenian lord,) 
 ** sweeter is thy voice to me 
 Than sounds of sweetest melody. 
 
 Or harp's harmonious chord." 
 
 Lady. — " Great chief, Naivnua is my name. 
 
 The cruel Garva's child ; 
 He rules in Greece, well known to fame, 
 With tyrant sway — -oh ! grief and shame. 
 
 To Talc, a monster wild, 
 Maugre my prayers, and tears, and cries. 
 He linked me fast in wedlock's ties." 
 
 Finn. — " What drew thee from thy husband's side ? 
 
 Illustrious queen, declare ; — 
 To me thy secret soul confide. 
 
 And, by thy beauteous hand, I swear. 
 
 Long as I breathe this vital air, 
 No wrong shall thee betide." 
 
TALC MAC TRONE, 193 
 
 IV. 
 
 ** Then hear the cause for which I fled — 
 That o'er my cheek of native red 
 Has dismal hues of sorrow spread. 
 
 Talc is a wretch, of men the scorn, 
 
 The hate of every woman born. 
 
 In face and form, but more in mind, 
 
 A savage of the fehne kind ;* 
 
 ♦ Talc Mac Trone must be altogether an imaginary hero, raised up by 
 the genius of the bard to show the superiority of the Fenians in his over- 
 throw. There is, however, some histoi-ical foundation for the description 
 given of his form and features. The Irish, like the English and other 
 nations, frequently designated their kings by names descriptive of some- 
 thing remarkable in their history or appearance. England had her Long, 
 shanks, Ironsides, Crook-back — Ireland her Black-knee, Long-hands, 
 Cathead. Cairbre Caitcheann, says Keating, was so called because "his 
 ears were of an uncommon shape, and resembled the ears of a cat." This 
 was enough for the bard. He had only to give his hero a black visage and 
 a caudal appendage, with which the description is completed in a MS. copy 
 of the original, thus literally rendered : — 
 
 " I had great cause to look on him with hatred, 
 For his visage is as black as coal ; 
 This man of deformed figure has 
 The ears, head, and tail of a cat." 
 
 Mr. O'Flanagan's classical taste led him to reject the literal meaning, and 
 to suppose that the description of Talc was suggested by the artificial 
 adornment of the helmet having for the crest the head of a wild cat grin- 
 ning like the boar's on the casque of Ulysses {Iliad X., 263.) 
 
 -" WithoiU, in order spread 
 
 A boar's white teeth grinned horrid o'er his head." 
 
 He adds— " The skin of the Lion-Cat in Persia, described by Dr. Goldsmith, 
 as larger and more fierce than even the wild one, may have covered the 
 helm of the eastern warrior, as he very probably was a Persian prince." 
 
 Talc Mac Trone, though no beauty, was greatly surpassed in some of his 
 most forbidding features by others of the dramatis personce of romance. In 
 one of the adventures of Sir Colgrevance, as stated by himself at one of 
 King Arthur's annual entertainments, he said that as he was proceeding 
 through a forest he saw 
 
 "The fowlest wight, 
 That ever yit man saw in light," 
 
 and the description given of the monster certainly justifies the epithet. He 
 had an enormous head ; his forehead was broader than " atwa large span :" 
 
 " His face was ful brede and flat. 
 His nose was cutted als a cat ; 
 His browes war like litel buskes 
 And his tethe like bai'e tuskes ; 
 A ful grete bulge opon his bak, 
 There was noght made withouten lac : 
 His chin was fast until his brest." 
 
 With this lovely creature, of a size more than gigantic, Sir Colgrevance was 
 disposed to fight ; but it harmlessly entered into conversation with him, 
 assuring him that it was a man, and was the keeper of the savage beasts in 
 the forest. 
 
194 THE LAY OF 
 
 Long have I roamed both far and wide. 
 To courts and camps preferred my prayer, 
 
 Sought lords of power, and kings beside, 
 To guard me with parental care : 
 
 To all but to the Fenian train, 
 
 I prayed for aid, but prayed in vain." 
 
 Said CumhaU's generous son — *' In me, 
 
 Young daughter fair, behold 
 The chief who will your guardian be. 
 
 Till his arm in death lies cold, 
 And the seven brave bands of the Fenian pride. 
 Are lying all slaughtered by his side." 
 
 Naivnua. — *' noble Finn, alas ! I fear, 
 The deed will never match the word; 
 
 Such might is in the maddening spear, 
 Such terrors in the sword 
 
 Of him I flee — No mortal force 
 
 Seems able to arrest his course. 
 
 From realm to realm, o'er weak and strong. 
 
 On conquest bent, he sweeps along ; 
 
 Such his black path as lies behind 
 
 The raging flame and the whirling wind." 
 
 Finn. — " lady fair, with the golden hair, 
 
 These idle fears dispel ; 
 Yon sun's radiant eye, no power can espy 
 
 Too strong for the Fenians to quell." 
 
 VI, 
 
 Soon near-advancing o'er the lea, 
 With a hurried step, bold Talc we see ; 
 And, dire to tell ! his head and face 
 Were like the wild-cat's savage race ; 
 To Finn no greeting kind be made. 
 But he named his spouse and he shook his blade, 
 And challenged to the fight. 
 
TALC MAC TRONE. 195 
 
 We sent ten hundred warriors forth. 
 All clad in arms, all men of worth. 
 Of whom might each a leader he 
 To guide a host to victory,* 
 But none escaped his might. 
 
 Patrick of the cheerless creed, 
 We saw our hravest warriors bleed, 
 A hundred chiefs, told ten times o'er, 
 All sunk in death, lay stretched in gore. 
 
 VII. 
 
 OssiAN. — With the mingled pride and trembhng grief 
 Which fathers only know, 
 
 1 heard my Oscar pray the chief 
 
 To let him meet the foe. 
 Said Finn — ** My son, I fear you ask. 
 For strength like yours, too hard a task- 
 Yet go — achieve the arduous deed — 
 And deathless glory be your meed." 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Five days they in the conflict stood, 
 Five nights they took no rest nor food ; 
 Deeds of heroic fame were done — 
 Talc fell — and victory crowned my son. 
 
 Then three loud shouts we gave. 
 For the Fenians slain a shout of wo. 
 Two shouts of triumph o'er the foe, 
 
 O'er Talc and his bloody grave. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Mournful the tale I now must tell 
 Of what the noble dame befel — 
 
 • Sex et trecenti milites, omnes patricii, omnes unias gentis, quorum 
 neminem ducem sperneret egregius quibuslibet temporibus senatns, ibant, 
 unius familiae viribus Vejenti populo pestem minitantes. 
 
 Fabii caesi ad unum omnes — trecentos sex perisse satis convenit, 
 
 T. Liv., lib. ii. 
 
196 THE LAY OF TALC MAC TRONE. 
 
 When she saw the carnage-covered plain 
 Bedewed with blood and heaped with slain, 
 Pale turned her cheek — ^her spirit fled. 
 And she slept with death on his gory bed. 
 Thus after all her sorrows dire 
 In youth and beauty to expire ! * 
 
 Heart-rending was the view. 
 The hill that saw our warriors fall 
 The Hill of Slaughter still we call, 
 
 A name, alas ! too true. 
 
 * The name given to the heroine of this Lay, in the Transactions of the 
 Gaelic Society of Dublin (1808) is Nivra — in Irish, " Niamh-ntuidh-crothac," 
 which signifies, " Splendid youthful form." 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OP 
 
 TALC MAC TRONE 
 
 MEARGACH OF GREEN SHARP BLADES COMES TO 
 REVENGE ON THE FENIANS THE DEATH OF TALC 
 MAC TRONE, HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW. 
 
 DUAN THIRD. 
 
 Aegument.— After the fall of Talc the Fenians were not suifered to enjoy a 
 long respite from their warlike toils. Another chief as formidable as 
 Talc came with threatening aspect to the field in quest of vengeance for 
 the death of his kinsman Talc, and his wife, both of whom he had been 
 led to suppose were destroyed by treachei*y. Being interrogated by 
 little Hugh as to the object of his approach, he replies that he would 
 inform none but the chief of the Fenians. "When led to the presence of 
 the chief he inquired if it was by his hand that Talc was slain, and was 
 told in reply that he must declare his own name before he could be 
 informed. He then declared himself to be Meargach of the green 
 sharp-sword, a hero whom no blade could wound. Oscar, feeling 
 indignant to hear such vaunts, says, that unless he be guarded by some 
 enchantment, he could overcome him in single combat. Finn, after 
 extolling the valour of Talc, tells how he fell by the hand of Oscar. 
 Meargach then tauntingly inquires wherefore they had murdered his 
 wife. Finn disclaims and repels the foul charge— says that she died of 
 grief, and concludes by informing Meargach, that if he came in search 
 of vengeance, an opportunity will be granted to him of seeking it either 
 in single combat, or in a general engagement of the two armies. 
 
 I. 
 
 OssiAN. — As bj the hill's green slope we lay 
 To pass the sluggish hours away ; 
 A warrior tall, in crested pride, 
 Approached with haughty martial stride. 
 
198 THE LAY OF 
 
 To Finn and to the Fenian train. 
 He gave no greeting good ; 
 
 But looking round in high disdain. 
 He asked in furious mood, 
 
 " Where is the leader of your host. 
 
 Your great defender, pride, and hoast V 
 
 II. 
 
 Then asked stout-hearted little Hugh, 
 " Pray, mighty warrior ! who are you ? 
 Declare from what far land you came — 
 Your business here — your rank — your name." 
 
 Meargach. — Until your leader great I see, 
 I tell no mannikin like thee. 
 
 Little Hugh. — '* Then I to Finn will be your guide- 
 
 I know his station well ; 
 'Tis by a nook in the hill's green side. 
 
 Near where the champion fell." 
 
 III. 
 
 The warrior followed in the rere. 
 
 While Hugh sped on before, 
 E'en to the Hill of Slaughter, where 
 
 Great Talc was stretched in gore. 
 And thence not far our Finn was seen, 
 Known by his princely air and mien, 
 When Hugh exclaimed — ** Strange warrior bold. 
 Our Fenian chief you now behold. 
 
 The bulwark of our isle — 
 If here you come with dark intent, 
 On mischief and on vengeance bent. 
 We all your might in arms defy — 
 We dread no power beneath the sky. 
 
 But at your vengeance smile." 
 
TALC MAC TRONE. 199 
 
 IV. 
 
 Meargach to Finn. — ** Art thou then he — renowned 
 
 afar — 
 Great Finn — invincible in war ? 
 The stalwart knight whose slaughtering glaive 
 Has stretched great Talc in a bloody grave ? 
 No warrior true, of honest fame, 
 Will e'er deny his deeds or name." 
 
 Finn. — *' First thy own name and tale unfold — 
 Then what you ask shall all be told." 
 
 Meargach. — " My name and tale I'll ne'er deny — 
 Meargach of sharp green blades am I. 
 No champion's might in arms I dread — 
 No sword e'er in my blood grew red." 
 
 By such high boasting sharply stung, 
 
 Up lion-hearted Oscar sprung, 
 
 And cried — '* What charm thy frame surrounds, 
 
 To guard thee thus from swords and wounds ? 
 
 Does thy own hand protect thee so. 
 
 Against the arms of every foe ?" 
 
 Meargach. — " No champion that e'er sprung to birth, 
 Or moved upon this ridge of earth. 
 
 Though great in deeds of war, 
 Has with his trusty spear or sword. 
 With edge or point my body gored, 
 
 Or on me left a scar." 
 
 Oscar. — ** Great Meargach of the sharp green blade, 
 
 If here you come to prove our host, 
 We shrink not from your arm dismayed, 
 
 Not long shall be your boast. 
 Know, Meargach, one who now stands here, 
 Could search your liver with his spear." 
 
200 THE LAY OF 
 
 Meargach. — " Brave words, in sooth ! thou man of 
 might ! 
 
 How true I'll understand, 
 When the Fenians I with vengeance smite, 
 
 And meet thee hand to hand." 
 
 Oscar. — ** If to your hand you trust alone, 
 
 And to the vigour of your arm. 
 Not to some power to me unknown, 
 
 To some infernal charm ; — 
 I vow, great champion, ere we part, 
 I'll sluice the life-hlood in your heart." 
 
 Meargach. — " Brave words again ! hut first me tell 
 How Talc, my nohle kinsman, fell. 
 By whom his dear illustrious wife 
 Was foully here bereft of life.'* 
 
 Finn to Meargach. — "Before the valiant Talc was 
 
 slain, 
 A thousand warriors bit the plain. 
 
 He dealt such deaths around ; 
 And more were falling, till the spear 
 Of Oscar checked his fierce career. 
 
 And brought him to the ground ; 
 Nobly they fought — great deeds were done, 
 Talc fell — and victory crowned my son." 
 
 Meargach. — ** But was it not a burning shame 
 
 To slay his all-accomplished dame ? 
 
 A princess rich in every charm 
 
 That might a murderer's rage disarm. 
 
 Finn. — " On none of all the Fenian race 
 Falls, or can fall, such foul disgrace. 
 Nor let it ever be denied — 
 By her own act the princess died. 
 When she beheld such heaps of dead 
 All ghastly pale in their gory bed, 
 
TALC MAC TRONE. 201 
 
 And Talc, her hero, midst the slain, 
 Grief swelled and burst her heart in twain. 
 
 This we aver — and now in peace. 
 Safe to your native land return ; 
 
 Or if you wish not strife to cease, 
 But still for vengeance burn, 
 Here stands full many a Fenian chief. 
 Whose trenchant blade may end your grief. 
 Or if you single fight decline. 
 Let both our hosts in battle line 
 Meet face to face, and bravely try 
 To gain the victory — or die." 
 
 The latter proposal was most accordant with Mear- 
 gach's desire of vengeance, and it was agreed that both 
 armies should engage on the following day. One day, 
 however, did not suffice to end the contest: the hosts 
 fought for ten successive days; and on the last day 
 Meargach fell by the hand of Oscar, and victory remained 
 with the Fenians. The war, however, was not yet 
 terminated. Meargach had two sons, one of whom, by 
 name Ciardan, comes to avenge his father's death. 
 Oscar's wounds prevented him from engaging in a fresh 
 combat, but Mac Brodeen's son, Longadawn, met him 
 and was slain, with 300 of the Fenian warriors. Gaul, 
 wlio was always found most efficient in every extremity, 
 met and slew Ciardan. Another champion of the enemy 
 next advanced, in brilliant arms, and challenged the 
 bravest of the Fenians to meet him. This was Liagan, 
 Ciardan's brother. Two heroes, in succession, accepted 
 the challenge, and both were slain. Notwithstanding 
 his prowess, a third ventured to try his fortune against 
 him : this was no other than the celebrated Conan-Maol, 
 or the Bald, with some of whose " sayings and doings" 
 the reader may be already acquainted, and whose 
 exploits deserve to be recorded, not in vulgar prose, but 
 in bardick song: — 
 
202 THE LAY OF 
 
 Next, Conan to the conflict came — 
 Small love had he of honest fame ; 
 And though of valour great his boast, 
 No man had less in all our host. 
 His heart, to fox and deer akin, 
 He lodged beneath a wolf-dog's skin,* 
 And joined to craft, his favourite vice. 
 Buffoonery and cowardice. 
 When Liagan he beheld advance — 
 
 •' Come on,'* he cries, *' thou great Mac Trone ! 
 Come — smell the odor of my lance. 
 
 But why not come alone ? 
 When one meets one 'tis equal match, 
 But two to one is no fair scratch ; 
 Therefore, my sweet and gentle sir, 
 Against your odds I must demur — 
 Dismiss your friend — do be so kind — 
 That follows like your shade behind. 
 Or, if a foe, you hazard more 
 From foe behind than foe before." 
 
 He said, when Liagan turned to spy 
 What friend or foe was following nigh. 
 Then crafty Conan's faulchion keen, 
 
 Swift as the lightning's flash, 
 The head swept from the shoulders clean. 
 
 With one puissant slash. 
 Erect the trunk a moment stood 
 Upspouting rivulets of blood ; 
 Then prostrate fell, with such a sound 
 As shook the hills and woods around. t 
 
 The death of Liagan and victory of Conan did not end 
 the strife. Other combats followed, till at last they 
 
 * A dog in forehead, but in heart a deer." 
 
 t Thus in the ballad of Hardyknute, when "Bauld Thomas pierced a 
 boaster's bairded cheek" :— 
 
 " Swith on the harden'd clay he feli 
 Right far was heard the thud." 
 
TALC MAC TRONE. 203 
 
 were suspended by the approach of Aile, a bloomiDg 
 queen, the wife of Meargaeh of the azure sword, and 
 mother of Ciardan and Liagan. When she beheld her 
 husband and sons cold in death, she burst forth into 
 passionate lamentations, mingled with praises of their 
 virtues, and doleful complaints that it was by treachery 
 they were overcome. Grania, the wife of Finn, comes 
 to console Aile, and assures her that they fell in fair 
 combat, and that Finn was of too noble a nature ever to 
 sanction treachery. As the hostile warriors were still 
 in the field, she courteously asks Aile if she would wish 
 to see a single combat, or would prefer an engagement 
 between the two whole armies. Aile, " brighter than 
 the sun," replied that she would rather behold a conflict 
 between thirty warriors, on each side, contending for 
 fame and victory. Accordingly the proposed number is 
 selected from Aile's friends, and on the other side, 
 •* thirty Fenians brave, who oft had cohorts nobly slain.'' 
 They met, and fought till only three Fenian chiefs were 
 left alive. Then Grania, thinking that Aile had wit- 
 nessed enough of the superiority of the Fenians, admo- 
 nished her to return home with the remnant of her host. 
 But Aile, still thirsting for vengeance, declared she 
 would never return till Finn had yielded, or every man 
 of her host were slain. The trumpet sounded to the 
 charge — 
 
 And such a dreadful fight I ween, 
 
 As man encountered man, 
 Was ne'er before in Erin seen. 
 
 E'en since the world began. 
 
 Only three of Finn's enemies survived the battle, and 
 they, with Aile their blooming queen, took to their ships 
 and departed, but whither our record sayeth not. The 
 hill on which the battle was fought was named the ** Hill 
 of Carnage," a name to which it was justly entitled — 
 Knockanaur — in the barony of Irraghticonnor. 
 
THE LAMENTATION OF AILE, 
 
 THE BEAUTY OF BRIGHT ASPECT. 
 
 In Barron's Magazine, entitled " Ancient Ireland," published in Dublin, 
 1835, there is a copy of this poem in Irish, accompanied with an English 
 prose translation, in an equal number of stanzas. Ala is there stated to be 
 the wife of Morga, not of Meargach, of the azure sword ; and " her lament is 
 over her two sons and their father, who were killed in battle. Properly 
 speaking, it is not a whole poem, but merely a portion of a long epic poem, 
 of which it forms but one of the episodes. It is, however, perfect in itself, 
 and quite fit to be published separately. In fact, the different parts of this 
 epic poem have been preserved in this way, and are generally transcribed 
 in separate pieces, and called by different names, acccwding to the prominent 
 character or subject of each piece. In the same manner we learn that the 
 different books of the Iliad of Homer were for a long time detached and 
 scattered separately, and so sung through the different provinces of 
 Greece."— P. 103. 
 
 The Lay of Talc Mac Trone may be considered as consisting of several 
 distinct parts. First, the Druid's observance of omens in the sky, and his 
 fears of some approaching calamity ; second, the approach of Talc Mac 
 Trone and his conflict with Oscar ; third, the coming of Meargach to avenge 
 his death ; fourth, the overthrow of Ciardan and Liagan, the two sons of 
 Meargach ; and finally, the " Lamentation of Aile" (or Ala) for the loss of 
 her husband and her two sons. In Barron's Magazine (Dublin, 1835), the 
 latter poem is said to be connected with Ulan of Sora, as the persecutor of 
 the lady who fled for protection to the Fenians. Moira Borb, in the lay 
 bearing that title, was the son of Sora's king, who came on an enchanted 
 steed in quest of his fair fugitive, and is not to be confounded with Talc, 
 though in some respects the one lay has a marked resemblance to the other. 
 A translated copy of Talc Mac Trone was kindly presented to the author 
 manyyears ago by Mr. Owen 0*Connellan,ti-anslator of Garraghty's Edition 
 of the Annals of the Four Masters, Professor of Irish in Queen's College, 
 Cork, a scholar to whom he takes this opportunity of gratefully acknow- 
 ledging that he is under many similar obligations. 
 
 Abguuent. — The Lay of Talc Mac Trone concludes with the Lamentation 
 of Ala, in which she pathetically deplores the untimely fate of her 
 husband and sons, of whose valour she held such high notions that she 
 deemed them invincible in fair conflict. She, therefore, bitterly accuses 
 Finn of having employed deceit and treachery to overcome them. In 
 the opening apostrophe to Meargach, she says that he fell without a 
 
THE LAMENTATION OF AILE. 205 
 
 wound, and not gloriously in battle. Too well had she anticipated his 
 disastrous fate, from the various omens which preceded his departure, 
 such as the appearance of armies passing in martial array through the 
 dark glens of the sky, and the low moans of the spirit of the hills. 
 She deplores the loss of all her past delights, and wishes for death to 
 terminate her sorrow. Again she reflects on the past, and dwells with 
 painful recollection on the numerous intimations she had received of 
 her approaching calamity — as the ominous forgetfulness of his hounds 
 and the sports of the chace — the crimson colour of the stream that 
 rolled by her castle walls — the screams of the eagle — the withering of 
 the neighbouring trees — the wailing of the hounds — her fearful visions, 
 and particularly that one in which her tower seemed to have sunk into 
 the earth, and a lake of blood to have risen in its place. AU these signs 
 too plainly indicated the calamitous fate of the friends she deplored. 
 
 Meargach ! hero of the green sharp blade, 
 Beneath thy arm fell many a gallant foe ; 
 
 But now in dust inglorious art thou laid, 
 
 Slain by no wound, but brought by treachery low. 
 
 For thee — by wiles o'ercome, not slaughtering glaive, 
 For thee, thy wretched spouse pours bitter tears ; 
 
 And for her sons — the beautiful, the brave, 
 Who still were foremost in the strife of spears. 
 
 Far didst thou come across the roaring main, 
 Far from the land of beauty and of bloom. 
 
 In quest of glory from the Fenian train. 
 To meet, by foul deceit, an early doom. 
 
 Too well I knew that danger dread was nigh. 
 
 When cloud-bornelegions camped on heaven's highway. 
 
 When through the glens far winding up the sky. 
 They led in marshalled files their long array. 
 
 By the low moans that swelled upon the wind, 
 Poured by the spirit of the hills, I knew. 
 
 Not distant far my sorrow I should find. 
 
 The grief of griefs that darts my bosom through. 
 
206 THE LAMENTATIOK OF AILE. 
 
 Too well I knew ill-omened was the day, 
 
 That from my arms my blooming heroes tore ; 
 
 By the red blood-drops on their cheeks that lay, 
 That ne'er again should I behold them more. 
 
 Now bitter wo is mine — my shield ! my tower ! 
 
 All stricken down — all — all my joys are fled: 
 Grief is my food — dark terrors round me lower, 
 
 And sleepless sorrows hover o'er my head. 
 
 Since with my sons in death my husband lies, 
 What now to me are beauty, riches, fame ? 
 
 All joys, all glories, all that mortals prize, 
 Fond mother, sire, and all of dearest name ? 
 
 A long and sad farewell to past delights. 
 
 To bowers, to maidens, chiefs of noble race ; 
 
 To games, to banquets, festive days and nights. 
 The echoing hills, the soul-dehghting chace. 
 
 Oh ! that some shaft would pierce my wo-worn heart. 
 And with my warriors stretch me side by side ; 
 
 Ne'er from them more, not e'en in death to part. 
 Not e'en in death, loved hearts from hearts divide. 
 
 Don't you remember, when you stretched your sail 
 And steered from home ? You'll ne'er return, I cried ; 
 
 Oh ! ne'er approach the shores of Innisfail, 
 
 Ne'er with the Fenians let your might be tried. 
 
 Each morn the raven's deep and hollow croak 
 
 Prophetic told of some disaster nigh ; 
 Your hounds forgetting, nought of them you spoke. 
 
 But careless left in slips to howl and cry. 
 
 Red grew the foam upon the swelling flood, 
 That rolls swift-rushing by the castle wall ; 
 
 And as it crimsoned to the hue of blood, 
 I saw, alas ! that you were doomed to fall. 
 
THE LAMENTAHOK OP AILE. 20^ 
 
 When to our fort th' ill-boding eagle came, 
 And round it flew in many an airy wheel, 
 
 Clear I foresaw that on our sons of fame. 
 Would fall the vengeance of devouring steel. 
 
 When the tree withered that beside us grew, 
 
 'Twixt branch and leaf, till all its bloom was gone ; 
 
 That soon your arm would feeble prove, 1 knew. 
 Against the treacherous wiles of Cumhall's son. 
 
 The day you sailed, with many an anxious look. 
 Your course I followed o'er the foamy brine; 
 
 Before your ship, high flight the raven took, 
 That you would ne'er return a fatal sign. 
 
 Too well the mournful cry and lengthened wail 
 Of your loved hounds, that rose with early morn ; 
 
 Declared that never more, o'er hill and dale, 
 
 The chace would you pursue with hound and horn. 
 
 My broken rest, my floods of scalding tears. 
 
 Terrific visions in the dreary night, 
 Sad omens — told mine were no idle fears. 
 
 That your loved aspects ne'er would greet my sight. 
 
 Lonely I stood, forsaken and forlorn, 
 
 A dismal spectre horrible to view, 
 My head and arms seemed from my shoulders torn — 
 
 Alas ! alas ! that vision proved too true. 
 
 Down sunk our tower, and in its place outspread 
 A lake of blood, and then I knew too well, 
 
 My heroes' life-blood was untimely shed. 
 And that by Fenian treachery they fell. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF 
 
 DEARG MAC DREITHEAL, 
 
 (DARGO THE SON OF TORCUL ?) 
 
 In the Catalogue of the Irish Books and Manuscripts of the Royal Irish 
 Academy, there is a copy of this poem, entitled Laoid an Deibg Dana, i. e. 
 The Poem of the Bold Bed, which Mr. Eugene Curry, the learned Irish writer 
 of that catalogue, says " is a Fenian poem of good antiquity, consisting of 
 370 verses." There is also another copy, " a fine Finian poem, entitled the 
 poem of Derg son of Droithchill (Torcuil) consisting of 232 verses, by Fergus 
 the son of Finn. It is written in very pure Irish." There is also a poem 
 in Smith's Gaelic Antiquities, bearing the name of "Dargo the son of 
 Druivel," evidently a corruption of the Irish title, and having few points of 
 identity vrith the genuine Irish poem. In style it is an echo of Macpherson, 
 with numerous ghosts, " virgin ghosts," and " sporting ghosts ;" with a long 
 address to the moon, to tlie M?/-wasted moon, and the fta//-appearance of 
 the morning. It opens with "a sound which comes by halves" to the ear 
 of the bard ; and concludes with some sage reflections on the state of 
 departed heroes, whose ghosts "meet in peace, and ride together on the 
 tempest's vring. There Lochlin and Morven meet at the mutual feast, and 
 listen together to the song of their bards." 
 
 Abgcment. — The bard declares his intention to sing the exploits of Dargo, 
 the eastern chief, who came to malie a conquest of Erin ; and commences 
 by informing us that as two of the coast guards, Roinea and Caol, were 
 at their post on the beach, they observed a galley approaching, on the 
 deck of which stood a warrior, from whose arms and dress they con- 
 cluded that he must be a formidable invader. Roinea expresses some 
 fear, and Caol manfully replies that he fears no enemy on earth. Tlie 
 galley reaches the strand ; the warrior springs ashore, clothed in shining 
 mail ; and on being accosted by the two young heroes, informs them 
 that he is well known to fame, and is come to claim the sovereignty of 
 Erin. Caol replies that Erin has many a warrior able and ready to 
 frustrate all such pretensions, and on Dargo's saying that he wished to 
 see one of them, Caol unsheathes his sword, and after a gallant fight, 
 
THE LAY OF DEARG MAC DREITHEAL. 209 
 
 is vanquished and bound. The same fate befals his companion. Dargo 
 proves himself to be a generous enemy, for he unbinds the two chiefs, 
 but imposes on them a vow not to wield a sword against him for a year. 
 He then proceeds with his two captives to Tara, where he is asked his 
 object in coming to Erin. He answers as before, and on being checked 
 for such presumption, challenges a hundred to fight. He conquers, and 
 binds them alL Cormac, in alarm, despatches a herald for Finn, who 
 arrives with his host of 3,000 men. Dargo stiU proves victorious, and, 
 after a severe struggle with Fillan, overcomes and binds him. Cormac 
 then calls on Gaul, the son of Morni, to take the field, and promises a 
 large reward for his services. Gaul forgives the wrongs he had suffered 
 from Cormac, buckles on his arms, and, after a long and well-contested 
 conflict, slays his antagonist. 
 
 I. 
 
 The high achievements I unfold 
 
 Of Dargo — champion great and hold, 
 
 Who came, with potent hand, 
 From where the fair-haired warriors hide, 
 And crossed the deep resounding tide ^ 
 
 To Erin's lovely land. 
 As he launched his galley on the main, 
 He sung, in loud exultant strain, 
 That homeward he ne'er would the billows plow, 
 Till he made the Fenian heroes bow. 
 
 II. 
 
 On Erin's shore two warriors good, 
 From foreign foes to guard it, stood. 
 
 Young Roinea of the seas ; 
 And Gaol, Neifin's son the strong ; 
 Each grasped too lances tough and long,- 
 
 And shook them in the breeze. 
 When, bounding on the wat'ry way. 
 They spy, in starry red array, 
 * High on the galley's side. 
 The chief, and nearer as he drew. 
 Still growing larger to the view. 
 
 In all his glittering pride. 
 
210 THE LAY OF 
 
 III. 
 
 RoiNEA. — " If that be lie of far-spread fame. 
 Who roves along from coast to coast, 
 The slayer bold of many a host, 
 
 Who Erin comes to claim, 
 
 As sure as here he speeds his way. 
 
 To us he brings a fateful day."* 
 
 Caol. — " On let him come ! small care to me 
 Whoe'er the haughty champion be, 
 For while this good ash spear I wield, 
 I dread no foe by flood or field." 
 
 RoiNEA — ** May deeds, my brave heroic friend. 
 Upon your valiant speech attend ! 
 
 I'll own, when these prevail, 
 And prostrate by your shining blade. 
 The warrior of the seas is laid. 
 
 You tell no idle tale." 
 
 IV. 
 
 The friends sat with impatience high 
 
 Long by the silvery foaming deep — 
 But ere they closed their eyes in sleep. 
 The sea-king's bark was nigh. 
 On the staff of his spear, with an agile bound, 
 He sprang from her prow to the wave- washed ground 
 And high across the glistering sand 
 He drew his gallant ship to land. 
 
 On his lofty brow thick-clustering rolled 
 His locks like crisped and curling gold ! t 
 Of the morning's orient hue, 
 
 • Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus. 
 
 t " The hair was an essential ornament of the free Celtic warriors ; for 
 which reason Clovis got the narne of Chevelu, as then ruling over a free 
 
DEARG MAC DREITHEAL. 2] 1 
 
 Was the ruddy glow of his manly cheek, 
 And his sparkling eyes, that seemed to speak, 
 
 Were gems of the darkest hlue. 
 Such portly frame, such strength of limh. 
 
 In open battle plain, 
 Of hundred warriors stern and grim, 
 
 The onset could sustain. 
 With proud defiance in his look. 
 Two massy spears in hands he shook : 
 His shield was o'er his shoulder hung ; 
 Beneath a ponderous claymore swung, 
 That oft in conflicts long and rude, 
 Had down the steel-clad warriors hewed. 
 With many a rare and precious stone 
 His jewelled helm bright-sparkling shone ; 
 And o'er the strand, with a warrior's stride. 
 Marched the Prince of the eastern world in pride. 
 
 VI. 
 
 His arms young Roinea braced more tight ; 
 
 While Caol grasped his spear — 
 And to the haughty sea-borne knight. 
 
 With rapid step drew near. 
 And cried — *' adventurous chief declare 
 Your lineage, with the name you bear. 
 
 And what the native land you boast. 
 In us two Fenian chiefs you see, 
 The sons of lords of high degree, 
 
 Two guardians of the coast." 
 
 people. In Ireland he <;oald not appear in arms, nor was he permitted to 
 appear candidate for any employment in the state who wanted his hair. 
 The celebrated Cucullin, being foiled in single combat, his adversary cut off 
 his hair, as a further reproach to a knight who had falsijied his word ; and 
 we are told he remained concealed for nearly a year, till his hair grew again. 
 Cormac in the third century, when he became candidate for the monarchy, 
 his hair was intentionally burned at a public entertainment, and he, for 
 that time, was obliged to relinquish his claim," — Note to the Ode of OoU., 
 Trans. JR. I. A., vol. ii. — See also Walker's Hist. Essay on the Irish Dres$, 
 p.U. 
 
212 THE LAY OF 
 
 Dargo. — ** The eastern world from which I came, 
 
 chiefs, is not unknown to fame. 
 
 And not unknown am I. 
 Son of the fair-haired nation's king, 
 To Erin's shores I conquest bring, 
 
 And claim her sovereignty." 
 
 VII. 
 
 " A lofty claim! thou warrior bold," 
 
 In scorn said Neifin's son; 
 " Rule thou shalt ne'er in Erin hold, 
 
 While breezes blow — or waters run." 
 
 Dargo. — " Tho' champions two ye boldly stand, 
 
 Tho' great in arms your skill, 
 Who shall prevent this conquering hand 
 To seize — to hold green Erin's land. 
 
 And rule her as I will?" * 
 
 Caol. — *' Though we should yield — know Erin boasts 
 Full many a champion in her hosts, 
 Who, by the strife-deciding sword, 
 Would teach thee homage to her lord." 
 
 Dargo. — *' One would I see — who dares with me 
 
 A brief encounter try, 
 This trenchant steel, will make him reel" 
 
 *« That one behold am I" — 
 Cried Caol, as his sword he drew, 
 And on the sea-borne warrior flew. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Now fierce in fight both warriors burned. 
 And blow for blow was quick returned. 
 Aloud re-echoed o'er the field 
 The stricken mail and the sounding shield ; 
 Till each the other round the waist. 
 With a giant's iron grasp embraced. 
 
DEARG MAC DREITHEAL. 213 
 
 And they tugged and strove with strength and art, 
 
 With sinewy limb and uuqiiailing heart ; 
 
 And fierce and fiercer the combat grew, 
 
 Till Dargo in ire his foeman threw. 
 
 With a rattling clash on the blood-stained ground, 
 
 And fast in the captive's fetters bound. 
 
 IX. 
 
 With grief and fury deeply stung 
 
 To see the foe prevail. 
 Young Roinea fearless forward sprung. 
 
 The victor to assail. 
 Then many an active feat was done 
 To thrust — to ward — to strike — to shun — 
 Till Dargo, by his dextrous play, 
 
 Tripped Roinea to the ground ; 
 Reft all his shining arms away, 
 
 And fast in fetters bound. 
 
 X. 
 
 The captives cried — " 'tis a glorious deed — 
 And glory great shall be your meed ; 
 
 Two warriors to have tied! 
 High-minded chief, loose our chain, 
 And let us follow in your train. 
 
 Where'er you rove or bide." 
 Then Dargo, ever generous found. 
 The fetters of the chiefs unbound ; 
 And a solemn vow for a year they made 
 Against him not to unsheath a blade. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Away is Dreitheal's victor son 
 
 To Teamor with his captives gone ; 
 
 That house of royal state. 
 With many a brown silk banner hung. 
 Where counsellor sage, and life-guard young. 
 
 Round high-born Cormac wait. 
 
214: THE LAY OP 
 
 CoRMAC. — " No sword unsheath, ye warriors strong, 
 Nor from the stranger dread a wrong." 
 
 Uprose the courtiers, one and all. 
 To greet him in the council hall ; 
 Then to a seat of honour led ; 
 When thus the good king Cormac said, — 
 
 " Fair chieftain, we would know the cause. 
 That thus thy steps to Teamor draws." 
 
 *• I come, great king, to seek renown — 
 In this fair isle to win a crown. 
 
 That shall he called my own ; 
 And by my sword the first, last, best. 
 Of monarch's pleas,* my right attest 
 
 To sit on Erin's throne." 
 
 " Such thoughts presumptuous, mad and vain, 
 Have powerful lords beyond the main 
 
 Oft harboured in their soul ; 
 But Erin, while she owns a son — 
 Or while her hfe-blood's channels run. 
 
 Shall stranger ne'er control." 
 
 " Since my demands, you thus despise, 
 monarch," Dargo thus replies, 
 " I dare a hundred to the fight. 
 Opposed against my single might." 
 
 XII. 
 
 A hundred warriors rose 
 
 At Cormac 's potent word ; 
 Loud rung the storm of blows, 
 
 And sword encountered sword. 
 More warm, more fierce, the combat grew ; 
 Man heaped on man the chief o'erthrew, 
 
 * Ultima ratio regvnn. 
 
DEARG MAC DREITHEAL. 2ii 
 
 Till all the hundred down he cast, 
 And tied in binding cordage fast ; 
 Two hundred more, the truth to tell, 
 Beneath his conquering weapons fell. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 When Teamor's king such wond'rous deeds 
 
 Beheld — amazed — away 
 For Finn, a herald swift he speeds — 
 
 And for his armed array. 
 Next morn, behold ! with early dawn, 
 Three thousand warriors cross the lawn, 
 In bright and shining armour drest. 
 With burnished shield and nodding crest ; 
 All men of might- — all men of fame, 
 That never met reproach or shame. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The march, with joy did Cormac hear 
 
 Of the host from Almhuin's plain, 
 And welcomed with a gladsome cheer 
 
 Mac Morni's gallant train. 
 And said, *' the fair-haired nation's son, 
 
 Since to our land he came. 
 Three thousand agile feats has done. 
 
 Our wonder and our shame." — 
 Then Finn, the sea-borne chief addrest — 
 *' Proud are the thoughts that rule thy breast, 
 But though thy strength be great, and bold 
 
 Thy heart, prince of th' eastern land, 
 Here shalt thou no dominion hold. 
 
 While we can wield a brand." 
 •* If thus your counsels have decreed. 
 
 Ye chiefs of royal line, ' ' 
 Cried Dargo — " Arm for fight with speed ; 
 
 To conquer or to die be mine." 
 
216 THE LAY OF 
 
 XV. 
 
 Three hundred men that none might scorn, 
 
 Of Erm*8 host, to conflict bred, 
 Bj hardy Dun, and valiant Dorn, 
 
 And Con, the son of Conan, led. 
 To battle marched in evil hour ; 
 For vain their valour, vain their power. 
 O'er Conan *s son his kindred mourned. 
 And Dorn to Teamor ne'er returned. 
 With arms so strong, with deeds so high. 
 The champion crowned his victory. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 With vengeance burned young Fillan's breast — 
 He girded close his battle-vest, 
 
 'Twas not of satin sleek ; 
 And went with hope the foe to tame. 
 To vindicate his country's fame ; 
 
 Alas ! his wo to seek. 
 With points of steel they parried and thrust. 
 Till the sweat and blood ran conglobed in the dust. 
 And they struck the mail with such shivering stroke, 
 That their blades in glittering fragments broke. 
 Then each, round the waist, the other clasped. 
 With sinewy strength they tugged and grasped ; 
 With foot and knee, with shoulder and head. 
 They strove, and the ground shook beneath their tread, 
 Till Dargo, his conquering arm beneath. 
 Had Fillan laid prostrate on the heath ; 
 And, maugre his art and his nimble foils. 
 Bound fast in the links of his iron toils. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 COBMAC. — ** Rise ! son of Morni, rise ! " 
 
 The monarch cried in haste — 
 " Us rescue from the pest that flies 
 
 Our kingdom to lay waste — 
 
DEARG MAC DREITHEAL. 217 
 
 This foreign foe, whose potent hand 
 Not e'en the bravest can withstand. 
 Third of the harbour dues, behold 
 I give, and of the purest gold 
 Four hundred ounces three times told. 
 Then go, as thou hast gone before. 
 And bring back victory once more! " 
 
 Gaul.—*' Tho' still I feel as if a dart. 
 From friendly hand, had pierced my heart, 
 To think that e'er beneath thy reign, 
 
 In rash inglorious fray, 
 By mutual wounds, in heaps of slain. 
 
 Our noble Fenians lay : 
 Yet, in this hour of just alarm, 
 Monarch, to thee I lend my arm." 
 
 CoRMAC. — ** Great Gaul, of weapons keen and strong, 
 
 Let past misfortunes rest — 
 No season to remember wrong 
 
 When war is at the breast." 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Soon Morni's son, in burnished steel, 
 His limbs arrayed from crown to heel ; 
 He grasped his weapon sharp and good, 
 And straight before his foeman stood. 
 By recent victory grown vain, 
 With step and smile of proud disdain. 
 
 His claymore Dargo raised ; — 
 No time for pari — in fateful strife — 
 For fame, for victory, and life. 
 
 The combat fiercely blazed. 
 For five long days the fight they wage ; 
 And such the din of the battle's rage, 
 As might, in breathless silence deep. 
 The warrior hosts of Erin keep ; 
 To hear, loud-sounding o'er the field. 
 The crashing spear — the splintering shield, 
 
218 THE LAY OF DEARG MAC DREITHEAL. 
 
 And the helmet smashed heneath the glaive 
 Of OUain* and Dargo madly hrave ; 
 'Till low the white- toothed youth was laid, 
 By the great Mac Morni's trenchant blade. 
 
 * The name (prcc^iomen) of GauL 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COMBAT OF COra, SON OF DARGO, 
 
 AND 
 
 GAUL, SON OF MORNI. 
 
 The original of this poem, with a translation into English, may be seen in 
 the 1st vol. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. In Smith's 
 " Gaelic Antiquities " there is also a poem entitled Con,* the Son of Dargo ; 
 but, as Dr. Young has observed — •' The entire story is so altered, that 
 nothing remains in common with the original but the names." The first 
 fom* lines in Dr. Young's copy are thus literally rendered : — " The tale of 
 Con, son of Dargo, who, filled with heavy wrath, went to revenge his inno- 
 cent father on the Chiefs of Ireland." — Na Eirion. " Mr. Smith has per- 
 verted this passage, in order to deprive Ireland of the honor, si qua est ea 
 gloria, of being the residence of Fingal's heroes." A similar perversion 
 occurs of various other passages, both in this and many of the Fenian 
 poems beside, for the same purpose, and to favour Macpherson's falsifica- 
 tions of Irish history. 
 
 Aegument. — The bard commences his lay by saying that he is going to sing 
 of Conn, who came to avenge his father's death. He is encouraged to 
 proceed by a complimentary address from Patrick. He then says that 
 Conn, who, from the summit of a hill, had been overlooking the camp 
 of the Fenians, came rushing down upon them, impetuous as an eagle 
 on a flock of birds, and filled them with dismay. He is described as a 
 most valiant and gorgeously apparelled warrior, but breathing vengeance, 
 and demanding retribution for his wrongs. Fergus is immediately 
 despatched to ask the cause of his coming in such a hostile attitude, 
 and he answers, to avenge his father's death, by the death of the prin- 
 cipal leaders of the Fenians. Five hundred warriors are sent to oppose 
 him, and he vanquishes them all. Seven score men of tried courage 
 are then sent against h im, but they are equally unsuccessful. Conan 
 
 •^ The word Conn, according to Smith, is a contraction of C«-thonn — "the voice of the 
 waves." Might it not be rendered more significantly the " kotmd of th« waves ?"— a sea- 
 reaver, or pirate. 
 
220 THE LAY OF THE COMBAT 
 
 then proposes to meet him in single combat ; and, in despite of the 
 Fenians, wlio rebuke his presumption, takes the field ; but Conn, dis- 
 daining to combat with so worthless an antagonist, instead of meeting 
 him, sword in hand, lashes him with the scabbard, and sends him 
 back, shrieking with terror, t» the Fenians, who are well pleased to 
 see him so justly handled. Finn then invokes Gaul to be their cham. 
 pion ; and he, though still remembering past wrongs, generously com- 
 plies with Finn's request, and, after a long and well-contested battle, 
 in which he receives many wounds, remains victorious. To mitigate 
 his pains, while under his leache's care, he has recourse to the songs 
 of the bards, whom his praises and gifts richly remunerate ; but Finn 
 continued for a long time to lament the loss of his Fenians — a loss for 
 which no victory could compensate. 
 
 I. 
 
 OssiAN. — My song is now the tale of Conn, 
 
 The blameless Dargo's noble son, 
 
 Who came with grief of heart oppressed, 
 
 And marshal fury in his breast, 
 
 On Erin's chiefs to wreak his ire, 
 
 In vengeance of his slaughtered sire. 
 
 Patrick. — thou of pleasant tales, rehearse. 
 With music's voice, in sounding verse. 
 
 The tale of noble Conn. 
 What chief more beautiful or brave, 
 E 'er lifted shield or handled glaive, 
 
 Than Dargo's noble son ? 
 
 II. 
 
 OssiAN. — High on a hill, our camp before, 
 The champion sat, and scanned us o'er. 
 Till starting up in wrathful flame, 
 With swoop impetuous down he came, 
 
 An eagle from the cloud. 
 At first we felt some cold afiright. 
 To see him rushing in his might, 
 
 In glorious beauty proud. 
 
BETWEEN CONN AND GAUL. 221 
 
 For none of all his hostile race, 
 
 Could match with Conn in manly grace. 
 
 His cheeks hloomed ruddy as the hue 
 
 That gilds the red-veined polished yew ; 
 
 His rolling eyes bright-sparkling shone ; 
 
 His locks were o'er his shoulders thrown, 
 
 And down in curling ringlets rolled 
 
 Like twisted threads of well-wrought gold. 
 
 His venomed dagger — to the foe, 
 
 In combat close, a deadly wo, 
 
 And claymore that he well could wield, 
 
 Hung by the side of his bossy shield. 
 
 Such his high courage, skill, and might, 
 
 Victor he proved in every fight. 
 
 As on he rushed, new fears he woke, 
 
 For baughty were the words he spoke 
 
 Of tribute, taxes, spoil, and prey. 
 
 In sooth, though shameful 'tis to say. 
 
 Such terrors ne'er, sage, I own. 
 
 Were to our fear-struck Fenians known. 
 
 As when they saw, in furious mood, 
 
 Down rushing like a torrent flood, 
 
 Th' impetuous Conn, to glut his ire. 
 
 In vengeance for his slaughtered sire. 
 
 III. 
 
 As Finn's brave son advised, we sent, 
 To learn the hero's dark intent, 
 
 A herald good and wise, 
 The swcet-tongued Fergus, skilled to greet, 
 With courteous phrase, and gesture meet, 
 
 Proud chiefs in hostile guise. 
 
 Fergus. — ** Great warrior prince, whose arms and gait 
 Declare thee lord of high estate, 
 To me great Finn deputes the task. 
 Of thee, in terms of peace, to ask 
 
222 THE LAT OP THE COMBAT 
 
 The cause that, with a martial host, 
 Has brought thee here to Erin's coast."* 
 
 CoNN.—To thee, Fergus, will I tell 
 The cause in brief, and then, farewell. 
 I for my father slain, demand 
 Just vengeance of the Fenian band — 
 The head of Finn — of yaliant Gaul — 
 
 Of Crimthan — of the noble Art — 
 And of the tribe of Morni all — 
 
 From Cormac too the head must part — 
 And Erin's sons from sea to sea, 
 Must own no lord, but only me ; 
 Or early with the morning light 
 Five hundred meet me in the fight. 
 
 IV. 
 
 " What tidings, Fergus, dost thou bear ?" 
 Said Finn, our princely chief — ** Declare 
 The warrior's plaint — and what his will — 
 Nor aught conceal, though fraught with ill.'* 
 
 Fergus. — " Five hundred in the desperate fight 
 The chief demands with morning light." 
 
 Then spoke five hundred of our host : 
 *• To-morrow shall he cease to boast." 
 But vain their high resolves — and vain 
 Their glorious deeds on battle plain ; 
 Five hundred by th' unsparing blade 
 Of Dargo's son were prostrate laid, 
 
 * Fingal and his heroes are here expressly attributed to Ireland ; but the 
 line is altered into the following, in the Perth edition :— ' For what cause 
 have you come to this country?' the word tir being substitued for Eirion. 
 Conn, in his reply, says, ' to revenge my father on the noble Fians of Ire- 
 land;' but, for the reason already mentioned, these words are changed into 
 ' the nobles and great chieftains.' And in a subsequent passage, where the 
 word jEirioJi, 'Ireland,' occurs, the reading is altered to antiruile, 'the 
 whole land!'" — Dr. Young's Essay in the first vol. of Trans, of the Royal 
 Irish Academy. 
 
BETWEEN CONN AND GAUL. 223 
 
 And had there been five hundred more, 
 They too had weltered in their gore. 
 Conn single-handed won the field. 
 And proudly struck his sounding shield, 
 
 His triumph loud to tell. 
 Then seven score men of valour tried, 
 We chose in hope his boastful pride 
 
 And arrogance to quell. 
 
 Now chafing hot in rage and grief 
 Might you behold the Fenian chief ; 
 While furious Conn rushed on, and spread 
 The battle field with heaps of dead. 
 As rushes hungry hawk among 
 A flock of little birds of song. 
 In rout and ruin all was thrown. 
 Midst many a shout and many a groan. 
 There lay dismembered many a limb. 
 And many a visage pale and grim. 
 And many a head and headless trunk. 
 In undistinguished carnage sunk. 
 In deepest wo, we saw them all — 
 Our seven score gallant warriors fall. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Then Morni's son, bald Conan, spoke — 
 
 " Let me the contest try ; 
 By my avenging stroke. 
 
 This furious Conn shall die; 
 My hand alone shall cleave him down. 
 And rip him up from heel to crown." 
 " Bald Conan," noble Oscar cried, 
 
 •' Thou boaster void of sense. 
 Ne'er wilt thou lay aside 
 
 This brainless insolence ? 
 'Twill ne'er be thine, in war's dread game. 
 O'er Conn a victory to claim." 
 
224 THE LkY OF THE COMBAT 
 
 But in the Fians' strong despite, 
 Rash Conan went to prove his might, 
 
 By mad presumption borne ; 
 When Conn, of graceful form, beheld 
 A wight so worthless take the field. 
 
 He smiled in haughty scorn ; 
 Nor deigned to meet him in the strife. 
 Nor take the braggart Conan 's life. 
 But when he shook his good steel blade. 
 The craven shrunk away dismayed ; 
 And fled — while rapid Conn pursued. 
 And thrashed him with the scabbard rude. 
 On shoulders, back, and hairless crown, 
 The thwacks like flail-strokes rattled down, 
 And many a shriek, and many a groan. 
 And many a doleful cry, made known 
 The anguish he was doomed to feel, 
 Till Conn had bound him neck and heel. 
 *' Thanks to that scourging hand are due,*' 
 
 Well pleased our chieftain said, 
 ** Thou, Conan, mayst thy folly rue, 
 
 For sadly hast thou sped." 
 
 VII. 
 
 In council now, o'ercast with grief. 
 The Fenian leaders met their chief. 
 
 Finn. — •' Illustrious Gaul! whom none exceeds 
 
 In prudent thoughts and warlike deeds. 
 
 To you, I ween, the task belongs 
 
 Now boldly to avenge our wrongs ; 
 
 To stay the vengeance raging wide, 
 
 And tame yon haughty warrior's pride. 
 
 As once from well-fought battle-field, 
 
 Away the father's head you bore ; 
 So now the son compel to yield. 
 
 And emulate your deeds of yore." 
 
BETWEEN CONN AND GAUL. 225 
 
 Gaul. — " Thy voice so soothing, soft and bland, 
 
 prince, my services command. 
 In this our sad disastrous day, 
 All enmity be cast away ; 
 
 Join hand to hand — and heart to heart, 
 
 In friendship for the common weal : 
 Most skilful, noble Finn, thou art. 
 
 The wounds of hostile minds to heal. 
 Great chieftain of the Fenian line, 
 
 1 and my warriors' strength are thine.*' 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Then in his frame's collected power, 
 Strode Gaul, a moving stately tower, 
 Before the host. A cheerful glow 
 
 Of healthful hope-inspiring red. 
 As forth he marched to meet the foe, 
 
 O'er his dilating visage spread. 
 Him, all admiring gazed upon. 
 So beautiful in arms he shone. 
 With corslet blazing on his breast. 
 With sun-like shield and meteor crest. 
 When to the foe he drew more nigh. 
 Bright flashed the lightning of his eye : 
 Might none, with heart unquailing, brook 
 His stern grim smile and withering look. 
 And, as he whirled his beaming blade. 
 
 The eastern warriors bold 
 Shrunk back into their ranks dismayed, 
 
 And felt their blood run cold. 
 E'en Conn, a moment, seemed to fear — 
 For ne'er, in all his war-career. 
 Till now such champion had he seen, 
 Of such a proud heroic mein, 
 So formed a battle-charge to lead, 
 Where thousands fierce in conflict bleed. 
 But yet with hope of glory filled. 
 To meet such foe his bosom thrilled ; 
 
 l2 
 
226 THE LAY OF THE COMBAT 
 
 Twere glorious to contend with Gaul I 
 Glorious, e'en by his hand to fall ! 
 But oh ! more glorious far to tell. 
 By Dargo's son Mac Morni fell ! 
 
 Such thoughts revolying in his breast, 
 Him Gaul approached, and thus addrest : 
 " Great warrior ! could thy eastern home 
 
 No grave to thee afford, 
 That hither far o'er ocean's foam. 
 
 You come with fire and sword ? 
 Your dreams of conquest now are past — 
 Here shall you find a tomb at last. 
 Your cairn upon the mountain heath, 
 
 To future times will show 
 That here, Mac Morni 's hand beneath. 
 
 You laid your glories low." 
 
 €oNN. — " Illustrious chieftain I deeds^ not words. 
 Must tell the fortune of our swords. 
 This shaft, perchance, may answer give. 
 And tell thee, Gaul, that yet I live." 
 
 This said — Conn flung his brandished spear — 
 
 Close whizzing by Mac Morni 's ear 
 
 The weapon flew, with erring aim, 
 
 But kindled an avenging flame 
 
 In Gaul, who rapid onward prest. 
 
 To meet the foeman breast to breast. 
 
 They met as meet two scythe-armed cars, 
 
 Two meteor globes, or blazing stars. 
 
 Recoiling each, with such a shock, 
 
 As ships recoil from stricken rock. 
 
 Again they meet — again they close. 
 
 Their bossy shields resound : 
 Sword rings on sword — blows answer blows. 
 
 Their conflict shakes the ground. 
 Apart the Fenians listening stood, 
 And saw the chiefs, in furious mood, 
 
 Their ancient strife renew ; 
 
BETWEEN CONN AND GAUL. 227 
 
 For each the past remembered well ; 
 Heavy and quick their weapons fell. 
 
 And fierce the combat grew. 
 'er their helmed heads, in many a gyre. 
 The red sparks flew — and showers of fire 
 Ran from their arms, and showers of blood* 
 Poured from their limbs a crimson flood ; 
 And from each hacked and battered shield 
 Dense showers of splinters strewed the field. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Long, long, with equal skill and strength, 
 Both warriors fought, until at length 
 
 Great Gaul, to end the strife, 
 Down struck, by one puissant blow. 
 The dauntless son of Dargo low. 
 
 And reft away his life. 
 From Finn and all the Fenian host 
 Rose shouts of triumph, vaunt and boast, 
 To see the great Mac Morni stand 
 O'er the fallen prince of the Eastern land, 
 
 * In the original Irish, each of three successive lines commence with the 
 word Cith, which signifies showers. In Dr, Young's translation the force 
 or beauty of the repetition is lost by rendering it streams twice, and shotoen 
 only once. 
 
 Thus Percy and Douglas meet and fight in Chevy Chace : — 
 
 " At last these two stout earls did meet 
 Like captains of great might ; 
 Like lions moved they laid on load, 
 And made a cruel fight. 
 
 " They foxight until they both did sweat, 
 With swords of temj^ered steel, 
 Until the blood Uke drops of rain, 
 They trickling down did feel." 
 
 In the battle of Otterbume :— 
 
 •• The Percye and the Douglas mette, 
 
 That either of other was faine. 
 They swapped together, whiUe that they swatte. 
 
 With swoards of tfyne GoUayne : 
 Till the bloode from the bassonets ranne 
 
 As the rocke doth in the rayne." 
 
 Or, as in the original copy : — 
 
 •' Tyll the bloode outt off thear hasnetes sprente 
 As ever dyd heal or rayne." 
 
228 THE LAY OF THE COMBAT BETWEEN CONN AND GAUL. 
 
 And wave his* reddened faulchion high, 
 
 To tell his glorious victory. 
 
 Now Conan bald was seen to smile, 
 
 Avenged of his dishonour vile ; 
 
 And far and wide, with loud acclaim. 
 
 The echoes spread Mac Morni's fame. 
 
 X, 
 
 Nine weary nights, his wounds to cure. 
 Did Gaul the leache's care endure, 
 But charmed with song his pains away. 
 With song by night, with song by day. 
 With praises high and rich rewards, 
 Repaid he well the skilful bards. 
 
 Five hundred of the Fenian host 
 Were to our ranks for ever lost. 
 And seven score warriors strong and brave, 
 By Dargo*s son found a bloody grave ; 
 A loss that ne'er could be restored : 
 By Finn in sorrow long deplored. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF 
 
 CONLOCH, SON OF CUCHULLIN. 
 
 Stlvestek O'Halloban, in the introductory discourse to the poem of 
 Conloch, published by Miss Brooke, informs us, " that in the reign of Conor 
 Mac-Nessa, king of Ulster, about the year of the world 3950, Ireland 
 abounded in heroes of the most shining intrepidity; insomuch that they 
 were all over Europe, by way of eminence, called The Hekoes of the 
 Western Isle. Amongst these were CuchuUin, Conall Cearnach, and the 
 three sons of Uisneach, all cousins-german." In a literal translation of 
 Keating's History of Ireland, printed in Dublin in 1811, we have the follow- 
 ing account of Cuchullin and the death of his son Conloch :— " Cuchullin 
 went to study feats of valour under Scaha, an heroine who resided in Albin 
 (in the Isle of Sky). There was a beautiful young lady named Aifa, who 
 fell violently in love with him, and, after a short intimacy, she proved with 
 child. Cuchullin being about to return to Ireland, presented Aifa with a 
 chain of gold, charging her to keep it till her son arrived at man's estate, 
 then to send the youth to him with it as a certain token by which he should 
 know him, and to lay him under three injunctions— the first, never to give 
 way to any hero or champion ; the second, not to confess his name through 
 fear ; and third, never to refuse a challenge. The young man, having 
 completed his education, sets out for Ireland to see his father. On his 
 arrival he finds Conor and the nobles of Ulster in convention at Tracht 
 Eisi. Conor sends one of his soldiers, named Cunnery, to inquire who he 
 is ; who, approaching the youth, demands his name. * I tell not my name 
 to any single warrior on the face of the earth,* says Conloch. Cuchullin 
 then went, but receiving only the same answer, a bloody encounter ensued, 
 and Conloch was overcoming Cuchullin, so that although his prowess and 
 valour were great and conspicuous in all his former combats, he was 
 obliged to take refuge in. an adjacent ford, and call to Lay, son of Rian of 
 Gavra, for his spear, with which he pierced Conloch through the body and 
 killed him." 
 
 O'Halloran says that when Cuchullin left his three injunctions with Aife, 
 •'he was far from expecting that his son should have put them in force 
 upon his arrival in Ireland. On the contrary, it appears (from the poem) 
 the effect of jealousy in the lady, and of revenge, hoping that Cuchullin 
 (now advanced in years) might himself fall in the conflict ; for, though a 
 gallant knight, yet our history proves that he was by no means constant in 
 his attachments to the fair." 
 
 *• As to the number of knights engaged and vanquished by Conloch pre- 
 
230 THE LAY OF 
 
 vions to his conflict with CuchuUin, it is all poetic fiction, to raise the 
 character of the two heroes. Even Conall Cearnach, master of the Ulster 
 knights, is made to submit to Conloch, who then falls the greater victim to 
 the glory of his own father." 
 
 Argument. — The Lay commences by informing the reader of Conloch' s 
 anival in Erin, as an armed warrior. On his coming to a certain pass 
 or bridge, he is accosted by the king's ofl&cer demanding the eric or 
 tribute which was requii'ed from all before they were permitted to 
 pass. Conloch indignantly refuses to pay, and resolves to gain a free 
 passage by his sword. In pursuance of this design, he overcomes and 
 binds a hundred of the armed men who came to enforce compliance. 
 King Conor then asks if he has no chief able to meet this formidable 
 stranger, and compel him to tell his name and country. Connal 
 Cearnach, master of the Ulster knights, undertakes the task — is van- 
 quished and bound. Conor instantly despatches a messenger for 
 CuchuUin, desiring him to come to his assistance with all speed. 
 Cuchullin arrives, and, after some expostulation with the monarch on 
 account of past wrongs, goes forth to meet the knight, who had caused 
 so much dismay. He is greatly struck by the noble appearance of the 
 young warrior, and, as if he had some instinctive feeling of consan- 
 guinity, accosts him courteously, proffers friendship, and concludes by 
 kindly entreating him to make the required disclosure. Conloch 
 replies that he is forbidden by a vow ; but were it not for that obstacle, 
 there lived no man to whom he would more cheerfully tell his name 
 and history. Cuchullin is obliged to exact compliance by the sword— 
 a conflict ensues— and Conloch falls mortally wounded. Cuchullin 
 laments his fate, and entreats him, before he expires, to grant his 
 request. Conloch then informs him that he is his ovra son by Aife, 
 who, from jealousy and resentment, instigated and bound him by a 
 vow, to meet his father in deadly conflict. Each of the unhappy 
 combatants vents his wrath on Aife for her inhuman conduct. Conloch 
 declares that, in the contest, he purposely avoided his father's life by 
 giving a wrong direction to his weapon. The Lay ends with the pathetic 
 lamentation of Cuchullin. 
 
 I. 
 
 O'er tlie hoarse-resounding tide, 
 Conloch, youthful heart of pride. 
 Clad in arms, in quest of fame, 
 From Dunsky to Erin came. 
 
CONLOCH, SON OF CUCHULLIN. 231 
 
 Herald. — Welcome ! warrior young and brave ; 
 
 "Welcome o'er the eastern wave; 
 
 Round green Erin's shores, I ween, 
 
 Various have your wanderings been — 
 
 Cease they now, until your hand 
 
 Pay the dues our laws demand ; 
 
 Tribute just that all must pay, 
 
 O'er this bridge to smooth their way. 
 
 Alba's warriors rashly bold. 
 
 Who denied the custom-gold. 
 
 And their swords too- daring drew — 
 
 Them our stronger chieftains slew. 
 
 May we heap no cairn to tell 
 
 That here a youthful hero fell ! 
 
 CoNLOCH. — " If, herald, such your law, 
 
 In by-gone days of peace ; 
 My trusty claymore now I draw. 
 
 And bid the impost cease. 
 This good steel blade will smooth my way. 
 All tribute, toll, and impost pay ; 
 E'en from this hour, for all with me, 
 Till noon-day of eternity." 
 
 He said — and with his brandished blade, 
 On Erin's sons fierce onslaught made, 
 Rushing, as hungry hawk among 
 A flock of fluttering birds of song. 
 With fixed resolve, and martial skill. 
 To break, to scatter, wound, and kill. 
 And, through their densest armed array. 
 To cut by force his crimson way. 
 
 His arm might none withstand ! 
 Soon five score warriors had he tied 
 In galling thongs of tough bull-hide ; 
 
 Reproach to all the land ! 
 That by a youth of name unknown, 
 Our laws were spurned — our chiefs o'erthrown ! 
 
232 THE LAY OF 
 
 II. 
 
 When royal Connor heard the tale. 
 
 In ire aloud he cried : 
 *' What warrior hold of Innisfail, 
 
 Will quell the stranger's pride, 
 Compel him to declare his name. 
 His lineage what — and whence he came ?" 
 
 Connal, chief of potent hand, 
 Went submission to demand — 
 Went — but no renown to gain — 
 Went to wear the victor's chain. 
 Great the conflict — fierce and long — 
 
 Till with fractured sword and shield , 
 
 Down he sunk upon the field. 
 And felt the girding thong. 
 
 III. 
 
 Cried indignant UUadh's king, 
 ** Haste ! the great Cuchullin bring 
 From Dundalgan's* sunny bower, 
 Or from Dethin's stately tower.'* 
 
 Connor. — '* Welcome, warrior ! — Yet too slow 
 
 Haste your steps to meet the foe ; 
 
 By his vengeance, on the ground. 
 
 Lie a hundred warriors bound ; 
 
 Like steed impatient of the reins, 
 
 Connal Cearnach frets in chains." 
 
 •* Since the brave by falsehood died,"t 
 
 Stern Cuchullin thus replied, 
 
 ** Where shall Erin's warriors run ? 
 
 Where — the binding thong to shun ? 
 
 * " Dundalgan, now Dundalk, the residence of Cuchullin. Uun Dethin, 
 the residence of Dethin, the mother of Cuchullin." 
 
 t " Cuchullin here alludes to the death of his kinsmen, the three sons of 
 Uisneach, who were cut off some time before by the perfidy of Connor." — 
 Mits Brooke. 
 
CONLOCH, SON OP CUCHULLIN. 233 
 
 If the mighty Connal fail, 
 
 Can an arm like mine prevail ?" 
 
 Connor. — '• Chief of blades, of matchless might, 
 
 Thou who ne'er hast shunned a foe, 
 Wouldst thou then decline the fight ? 
 
 See thy friend, thy Connal, low. 
 Him who taught thy tender age 
 Where to guide the battle's rage." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Then CuchuUin, dauntless chief, 
 Stung by mingled shame and grief; 
 Shame and grief to think his friend 
 To a stranger's arm should bend. 
 
 And bound in fetters lie ; 
 Advanced the champion to behold 
 Of whom such wondrous deeds were told, 
 
 And learn his name or die. 
 As on the youth he fixed his gaze. 
 And scanned him o'er with fond amaze, 
 Strange feelings, never felt before. 
 He knew not whence, perplexed him sore ; 
 For ne'er such champion had he seen. 
 Of such majestic port and mien. 
 
 In arms so passing fair. 
 ** Brave knight," he cried, " whose form and fac 
 Proclaim thee born of generous race. 
 
 To me thy name declare. 
 Enough for glory hast thou done. 
 Rejoice in all thy victories won. 
 Nor dream that envious tongue malign 
 Will e'er defame those deeds of thine. 
 Or say that from ignoble fear 
 You dared not meet CuchuUin's spear. 
 Most gladly to a chief like thee 
 
 Do I this hand extend ; 
 Accept the pledge of amity 
 
 And meet me as thy friend. 
 
234 THE LAY OF 
 
 But oh ! reveal thy rank and name, 
 And what the region whence you came." 
 
 CoNLOCH. — " My name and tale to Erin's shore, 
 Illustrious chief, no vessel bore. 
 
 Yet freely let me own, 
 Did knighthood's sacred claims allow — 
 Did honour's laws permit — I vow, 
 
 That unto thee alone 
 Of all the warriors under heaven, 
 Most promptly should my name be given."* 
 
 In conflict then the warriors close, 
 
 And from each stricken shield 
 Aloud resounds the storm of blows. 
 
 And neither chief would yield, 
 Until, the contest to decide, 
 
 Stern Cuchullin's angered steel 
 Pierced the youthful warrior's side. 
 
 And made him backward reel — 
 As forth outsprung the crimson gore, 
 Fainting he sunk — to rise no more. 
 
 CucHULLiN. — *' Thou noble youth ! that fatal stroke 
 
 I rue, alas ! too late ! 
 Why didst thou thus the strife provoke ? 
 
 Oh ! worthy better fate. 
 Now, ere in death thy limbs grow cold, 
 Thy tale rehearse — too long untold — 
 That pillar-rock and Ogham stone, 
 To future times may make it known ; 
 And Erin's bards, in song proclaim 
 Thy race, thy glory, and thy name." 
 
 * " To tell one's name to an enemy was reckoned in those days of hero- 
 ism, a manifest evasion of lighting him ; for if it was once known, that 
 friendship subsisted, of old, between the ancestors of the combatants, the 
 battle immediately ceased ; and the ancient amity of their forefathers was 
 renewed. A rnan who teUs his name to his enemy, was of old an ignominious 
 term for a coward." — Macpheeson's Ossian, I., p. 71. 
 
CONLOCH, SON OF CUCHULLIN. 235 
 
 CONLOCH. — " Prone to earth — let me fall — 
 
 Near me come — and ere I die — 
 Thee my father let me call — 
 
 Conloch — thy son — am I. 
 Oh ! approach that Innisfail, 
 Seeing, may record the tale 
 How in glory's noble strife, 
 I forbore a father's life. 
 See in me Dundalgan's heir, 
 Son of Aife — false as fair — 
 CoWoch — come his claims to prove—' 
 Secret, in the womb of lore. 
 Left, when first to Dunskaith's shore. 
 You went to learn the warrior's lore." 
 
 CucHULLiN. — *' Thy mother ! my son ! my son I 
 
 Had she been here when strife arose. 
 Ne'er had this fatal deed been done, 
 
 Ne'er had we met as foes ; 
 Nor wouldst thou now death-stricken lie. 
 To wring her soul with agony." 
 
 Conloch. — " My mother I oh ! be her's the blame. 
 
 The grief, the misery, the shame — 
 
 Who bound me by a fatal tie. 
 
 My arms, sire, with thine to try." 
 
 CuCHTJLLiN. — " My malediction on her head ! 
 'Tis she who has thy life-blood shed — 
 She, stung by fury, urged thee on 
 
 To glut her jealous rage ; 
 Against the father armed the son. 
 
 This deadly strife to wage ; 
 Accursed and cruel was the deed. 
 That causes now our hearts to bleed." 
 
 Conloch. — " Conloch, indeed, thy son am I, 
 Who by thy hand death- stricken lie ; 
 Conloch, who ne'er would foeman shun — 
 Ne'er from the mouth of battle run ; 
 
236 THE LAY OF 
 
 Kor to a chief beneath the sun, 
 
 His name declare — but now makes known 
 
 To thee, illustrious sire, alone. 
 
 Oh ! hadst thou in this fatal strife, 
 
 But seen I aimed not at thy life, 
 
 When, with false aim, my dart I threw — 
 
 Weak and erring as it flew ! " 
 
 CccHULLiN. — " my Conloch ! generous, mild, 
 
 Lost, lamented, gallant child ! 
 
 Dire and ruthless was the blow ! 
 
 Thus to strike thy glories low ! 
 
 Might — Oh ! might'st thou be restored. 
 
 Once again to grasp the sword ; 
 
 Girt in all thy martial pride. 
 
 To combat by thy father's side ; 
 
 Erin's foes from sea to sea, 
 
 From our wasting arms would flee, — 
 
 By the lightnings of thy blade 
 
 Broken, scattered, and dismayed. 
 
 Now in anguish deep I mourn. 
 
 Wifeless, childless, sole, forlorn ! 
 
 Slayer of my noble boy, 
 
 Stranger hence to peace and joy ! 
 
 Never more these hands shall wield 
 
 Glaive or spear, nor lift a shield — 
 
 Hands of evil — ever prone 
 
 Plagues and sorrows to dispense ; 
 Stand I here a withered bone,* 
 
 Void of foresight, reason, sense. 
 Oh ! had it been thy doom to fall 
 In glory's field, at glory's call ! 
 But here by him to find a grave, 
 Who now would die thy life to save ! 
 This is the keen envenomed dart 
 That rends thy father's bleeding heart. 
 
 Oh, wherefore, with determined will. 
 Flew not thy shaft to wound — to kill ; 
 
 * Me an cnaim ganforus—l am a bone without knowledge. 
 
CONLOCII, SON OF CUCHULLIN. 237 
 
 Well-aimed and barbed with death's decree, 
 To spare not him who spared not thee ? 
 Cast upon a raging tide, 
 
 Mid foam-breakers am I tost ; 
 Rocked and whirled from side to side, 
 
 Sail and mast and rudder lost ! 
 Rise ye billows ! round me close, 
 Wrap me deep in death's repose ! 
 
 Now CuchuUin's pride lies low, 
 Sunk in hopeless gulfs of wo. 
 Name and kindred — all are gone ! 
 Friend to greet him lives not one ! 
 Hoped I once my race to see — 
 Clustering fruits on fruitful tree — 
 Tree now blasted, bud and shoot. 
 
 By the thunder-flashes cleft. 
 Blasted, withered to the root, 
 
 I the sole poor berry left 
 On the topmost branch, at last 
 To fall before the feeblest blast."* 
 
 * Somewhat similar is the image presented to us in the following lines of 
 Coleridge's Christabel: — 
 
 " The one red leaf, the last of its clan, 
 That dances as often as dance it can, 
 Hanging so light, and hanging so high. 
 On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky." 
 
 Note. — To enhance the valour and address of Conloch, it is recorded in a 
 legend that Cuchullin would have lost the victory had he not employed a 
 certain short magical dart called Gae Bvlga (Belly-dart) which, when 
 properly directed, never failed to inflict a mortal wound. Its use and the 
 mode of projecting it, were kn wn only to Cuchullin ; and in every desperate 
 conflict it gave him the means of obtaining certain victory. This renowned 
 champion fought with another distin^ished warrior named Firdiadh, at 
 Ath (the ford of) Fii'diadh, now anglicized Ardee, Cuchullin's servant went 
 a short distance up the stream, and sent the Gae Bulga floating down the 
 current towards the combatants. Firdiadh, on seeing it approach, felt 
 alarmed, as it was with the foot it would be used, and if caught by Cuchullin 
 would give him an additional arm in the fight. Cuchullin, to throw him 
 off his guard, made a feint with his sword at the head of Firdiadh, who 
 instantly threw up his shield to ward off the stroke, but in the same instant 
 received a mortal stroke of the Gae Bulga in tlie belly ; Cuchullin having 
 caught it between his toes, which were as well trained to this use as his 
 fingers to the sword and spear. — For the matter of this note the author is 
 indebted to the kindness of Mr. Eugene Curry. 
 
 The Gae Bulga may remind the classical reader of the beautiful dart of 
 Cephalus, of which Procris was the unfortunate victim. That dart not 
 only never erred from the mark, but, having executed its purpose, returned 
 
238 THE LAY OF CONLOCH, SON OF CUCHULLIN. 
 
 spontaneously, like the celebrated Scandinavian hammer, to the hand from 
 which it was thrown. 
 
 non formosius isto 
 
 Viderunt oculi telum jaculabile nostri 
 
 Consequitur quodcunque petit : Fortunaque missum 
 
 Non regit ; et revolat, nullo referente, cruentum. 
 
 Ovid., Lib. VIL, Fab. 26. 
 
 Many are the traditions of the marvellous exploits of Cuchullin, which 
 lay a heavy tax on our credulity. This renowned warrior, who uncon- 
 sciously slew his own son in a deadly conflict, is said, in 0' Flaherty's Ogygia, 
 to have fallen at the early age of 27, A. M. 3923, in the second year of the 
 Christian era, by the swords of the sons of Calitin, or, as Tigernach writes, 
 was assassinated by Lugad, grandson of Carbry Niafear, king of Leinster. 
 
 O'HaUoran informs us that Connor, king of Ulster, being apprized of an 
 intended invasion of his kingdom by the king of Connaught, marshalled his 
 forces, and sent orders to Cuchullin to head them, but with strict orders 
 not to meet the enemy till the arrival of Connall Ceamach from a foreign 
 expedition in which he was employed. For six days Cuchullin remained 
 shut up in his c^mp, but on the seventh rashly engaged and suiFered a 
 complete defeat. In this battle, which was fought on the plain of Muii'- 
 theimhne, in the county of Louth, war-chariots were used, and numbers of 
 them destroyed in the conflict, which was very bloody. CuchulUn was 
 mortally wounded, but before he expired he directed his charioteer to carry 
 him to a large upright stone, " to place his body standing against it, his 
 sword in his hand, his shield raised up, and his two spears by his left side," 
 as ready, even in death, to hurl defiance at his enemy. — See note, pp. 42, 43. 
 
 It was also the fate of Connall Ceamach to fall by the sword. In one of 
 his numerous battles, he slew Olioll, king of Connaught, when he was so 
 fiercely assailed by the Conacians, that his only alternative was victory or 
 death. He animated his soldiers by a short speech, and they fought un- 
 dauntedly till they were all cut oflF to a man. So says O'Halloran : — 
 
 They fell as Erin's warriors all, 
 In fighting fields rejoice to fall 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COMBAT BETWEEN OSGAR AND ILLAN, 
 
 SON OF THE KING OF SPAIN. 
 
 The Gaelic original of this Lay, with a translation, may be seen in the first 
 volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. The Lay of Illan 
 seems to be altogether a fiction, though it may, probably, be based on some 
 traditional story. Certain it is that Ireland, from the earUest records of 
 her history, had intercourse with Spain— political, commercial, matrimo- 
 nial — not unaccompanied with marvellous adventures. 
 
 '• Eogan-Mor, i.e. Eugenius the Great, was the most strong and powerful 
 in anns in all Ireland in his time. He was commonly called Mogha Nuag- 
 hatt, i. e. the Strong Labourer. In a great battle fought with Conn of the 
 hundred battles, at Maigh-leana, in Connaught, he and his wife's brother 
 Fraoch, the king of Spain's son, were slain, with many thousands both 
 Momonians and Spaniards. Beara, the king of Spain's daughter, was wife 
 to this Eugenius, and mother of Oilioll Olum, from whom all the nobility of 
 Munster, and many great and noble families in Connacht and Lenster are 
 descended." — MacCuetin, p. 102. 
 
 Abgument. — Patrick seeing Ossian in a melancholy mood, reclining on a 
 hill's green side, inquires the cause of his apparent grief, Ossian replies 
 that the recollection of scenes which he formerly witnessed there, 
 excited mournful reflections. He then proceeds to inform Patrick that 
 once, when the Fenians were assembled there to enjoy their usual 
 pastime, they beheld a female, in splendid dress, and of surpassing 
 beauty, approaching them. She accosted Finn and the chiefs around 
 him, and besought their protection. In answer to Finn's inquiries, she 
 answered that she was pursued by Illan, son of the king of Spain ; that 
 he was a prince of formidable power and valour ; and that she dreaded 
 the severe vengeance he might inflict on all who should defend her from 
 his fury. Finn begged her to dismiss her fears, for that no evil should 
 befal her while he and his Fenians could wield a sword. Presently 
 Illan is seen advancing in shining armour, and before they had the 
 least intimation of his ruthless design, he shot an arrow which pierced 
 the heart of the maiden. He was immediately attacked by the Fenians, 
 
240 THE LAY OF THE COMBAT 
 
 but he slew or bound all who opposed him. Osgar, seeing this, sprang 
 forward and challenged the victorious champion to single combat, and, 
 after a severe conflict, slew him. The tomb of Ulan and the maiden 
 might be seen on the side of the hilL The Lay concludes by extolling 
 the heroes of old as far superior to those of more recent times. 
 The main facts of this tale have a striking resemblance to those of Moira 
 Borb. 
 
 I. 
 
 Patrick. — noble Ossian, valiant chief. 
 Why clouded is thy brow with grief, 
 As here, upon the hill's green side, 
 You view the pleasant prospect wide ? 
 
 Ossian. — Thou lettered sage, in judgment wise, 
 Skilled in the counsels of the skies, 
 Patrick, in sooth, thou mayst believe 
 That no small cause have I to grieve. 
 Remembering how for converse sweet. 
 
 In times for aye gone by, 
 The Fenians here were wont to meet 
 
 In all their bravery. 
 
 II. 
 
 As once to spend a festive day, 
 
 Thou sage of honoured name, 
 For sportive revelry and play. 
 
 We Fenians hither came ; 
 A solitary maid we spy, 
 With hurried step, advancing nigh. 
 
 A glorious sight I ween. 
 O'er all her aspect beauty spread 
 In blended hues of white and red, 
 
 And noble was her mien. 
 A silver brooch adorned her breast. 
 
 Starred with such clear pellucid gems 
 
 As star great monarch's diadems; 
 And o'er her costly broidered vest, 
 
BETWEEN OSGAR AND ILLAN. 241 
 
 Her neck, like polished marble, shone 
 As radiant as the noon-day sun ; 
 And round it, dazzling to behold, 
 Glanced a rich chain of twisted gold ; 
 With diamonds chased, gold bracelets bound 
 Her arms of softness plump and round. 
 Her satin robe of glistering sheen, 
 Might well adorn a sceptered queen ; 
 And such her dignity and grace. 
 Her matchless charms of form and face, 
 That rapt, entranced, in strange amaze 
 We stood, and on them fixed our gaze, 
 O'ercome by beauty's magic power. 
 
 Ne'er had the Fenians till that hour, 
 So felt, warm-thrilling through their frame, 
 Love's potent all-subduing flame. 
 
 III. 
 
 Of Finn, the maid of soft white hands, 
 The kind protection first demands ; 
 And of intrepid Gaul, that he 
 Would still her brave defender be ; 
 Of Osgar, son of Ossian, too. 
 
 And Col, the son of Rugar strong. 
 To grant their friendly aid and true. 
 
 To shield her from all wrong. 
 
 Maiden. — ** Ye nobles of the Fenian race. 
 Princes and chiefs, I ask your grace. 
 Your generous sympathy I claim, 
 And trust to you my maiden fame." 
 
 Finn. — ** Who, maid of many a matchless charm, 
 Pursues thee — or would dare to harm ?" 
 
 Maid. — Princes, and chiefs, and nobles, know, 
 Ulan is my pursuing foe ; 
 A bolder warrior draws not breath, 
 First-born of Spain's great king. 
 
242 THE LAY OF THE COMBAT 
 
 And oh ! I fear what wounds and death 
 
 His rage may on you bring. 
 Where'er he moves, to east or west, — 
 His power is through the world confest ; 
 With sharp-edged sword he cuts his way, 
 
 Insatiate of renown ; 
 Compelling all to own his sway. 
 
 And trampling nations down. 
 
 Finn. — " maiden fair, dismiss your fear; 
 
 On the soft turf your limbs repose ; 
 Be strong — let hope your spirit cheer. 
 
 Though dire the tale your words disclose ; 
 Though sharp be lllan's conquering blade, 
 
 Thee hence he ne'er shall force. 
 Here shall his proud career be stayed. 
 
 Here end his bloody course." 
 
 IV. 
 
 We saw the hero reach the land, 
 And draw his galley up the strand. 
 With fury darting from his eye 
 He viewed us ; and approaching nigh, 
 Like to a moving sheet of flame. 
 Sparkling and flashing on he came, 
 
 In burnished armour bright ; 
 With various plumes his helm was graced ; 
 His vizor, o'er his visage braced, 
 
 Was gemmed with studs of light. 
 Of richest satin on his breast, 
 13y silken cords, was laced his vest ; 
 And o'er his shoulders broad he rears 
 The barbs of two sharp-pointed spears. 
 His strong impenetrable shield 
 High-bossed and round illumed the field 
 
 With radiant silvery sheen. 
 As on he rushed in furious mood, 
 To Finn he gave no greeting good ; 
 
BETWEEN OSGAR AND ILLAN. 243 
 
 But ere we marked his dire intent, 
 Sheer through the maiden's heart he sent 
 A javelin swift and keen.* 
 
 V, 
 
 Then fell beneath his sworded hand 
 A hundred of the Fenian band. 
 Fillan, the son of Finn, he bound ; 
 
 And of his valiant train 
 Thrice nine, that fought their chief around. 
 
 He girt with fettering chain.f 
 
 VI. 
 
 In ponderous mail though strongly dight, 
 Ulan was active in the fight, 
 
 And of resistless force. 
 Osgar, my son, beheld with wrath 
 The carnage scattered in his path, 
 
 And sprang to stay his course. 
 On the fair champion loud he cried, 
 And sternly to the fight defied. 
 
 * " He rushed on in his fury 
 
 He neither hailed Fingal nor his people 
 
 The unerring arrow flew from his hand 
 
 And the mavdenfell. 
 
 Tlie strife of mighty feats 
 
 Bore down the king of Sora's son. tale of woe ! 
 
 On the green mount was dug his tomb of stone, 
 
 And over against it is the tomb of the maid." 
 
 See the Gaelic of this passage in the Highland Report, p. 230, and Mac- 
 pherson's version in Fingal, Book III. " The maid stood trembling by my 
 side. He drew the bow. She felL Unerring is thy hand," I said, "but 
 feeble was the foe I" We fought, nor weak the strife of death ! He sunk 
 beneath my sword. We laid them in two tombs of stone; the hapless 
 lovers of youth." 
 
 The lines in italics are not in Dr. Young's copy of the poem. 
 
 t " Two sons of Priam once Achilles found. 
 And captive led, with pliant osiers bound." 
 
 In a contest between Cuchullin and Curigh, who carried off the celebrated 
 beauty Blanaid, " Cuchullin m as overcome by Curigh, who tied him neck 
 and heels — literally inflicted on hi:n the five smalls; this is a Gaelic idiom, 
 signif(ring that he bound his ne ck, ■» rrists, and ankles." — Keating's History 
 o/Jrelan<i, pp. 400, 401, note. 
 
244 THE LAY OF THE COMBAT 
 
 VII. 
 
 They met — and furious was the strife 
 For fame, for victory, and life. 
 As streams that to the valley rush, 
 
 Swift gathering to a flood ; 
 So from their wounds, out-bursting, gush 
 
 Warm cataracts of blood. 
 Their clashing swords, in conflict dire, 
 Send forth such sparkling streams of fire 
 As from the glowing furnace pour. 
 When boils and foams the molten ore. 
 At length, by one resistless blow, 
 Osgar laid white-teethed Illan low. 
 And stretched — cut shorter by the head — 
 The prince of Spain on his gory bed. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 son of Calphruin, on this heath 
 Stands the grey stone he lies beneath ; 
 
 In sooth, the tale is true ; 
 And, deeply slumbering by his side, 
 The maid he sought to be his bride. 
 
 And in his fury slew. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Right-noble were our chiefs of old. 
 Dauntless, heroic, generous, bold — 
 Still prompt and liberal to reward. 
 With precious gifts, the tuneful bard. 
 None such, in these degenerate days, 
 To win and merit honest praise ! 
 May all our Fenian chiefs be blest 
 With wide-spread deathless fame ! 
 
BETWEEN OSGAR AND ILLAN. 245 
 
 Still sacred be their place of rest ; 
 
 And on each honoured name. 
 The sun-bright glories ever shine 
 Of song immortal and divine ! * 
 
 * The veteran Bard, laudator teraporis acti, rejoices to extol the contem- 
 poraries of his youth as far excelling those with whom he was conversant 
 in his old age. Thus Nestor asks — " Who is he ? 
 
 " What prince or chief, of the degenerate race 
 Now seen on earth, who might veith these compare V 
 
 Thus Homer says of the "rocky fragment" thrown by Ajax : — 
 
 " In modern ages not the strongest swain 
 Could heave th' unwieldy burthen from the plain." 
 
 Iliad, xii., 455. 
 
 And of the " ponderous stone" flung by Hector :- 
 
 " Not two strong men th' enormous weight could raise, 
 Such men as Uve in these degenerate days." 
 
 Id., 589. 
 
 Had the Bard, who, in the assumed character of Ossian, wrote the lay of 
 Illan, lived in times more like our own, he might be supposed, with a little 
 stretch of imagination, to have concluded in such lines as tbe following : — 
 
 With Finn, my sire, what chief could vie , 
 In mild and gentle courtesy ? 
 With Osgar, rich in manly charms, 
 What warrior match his feats in arms ! 
 Let Erin's sons of song rehearse. 
 
 And tell to future time, 
 Their great and glorious deeds, in verse 
 
 Heroic and sublime. 
 That those whom love of glory fires. 
 May learn to emulate their sires ; 
 May bravely, in their coimtry's cause. 
 For human rights, for equal laws. 
 Unite, and with avenging stroke. 
 Asunder rend Oppression's yoke. 
 Yes, let them, boldly-free, demand 
 Their right to live in father-land ; 
 
 To call their isle their own ; 
 Midst gifts that nature joys to give. 
 To live as freemen ought to live ; 
 
 To stand before the throne, 
 As freemen ought, erect and strong. 
 To ask redress of every wrong ; 
 
246 COMBAT BETWEEN OSGAR AND ILLAN. 
 
 To plead their right to share the soil 
 Made fertile by their hands of toil ; 
 To plant, to build, all seas explore. 
 
 To earth's foundations mine ; 
 Or high, on tireless pinions soar. 
 
 In quest of truth divine ; 
 Their right through earth and skies to roam. 
 
 And aU the world of Mind ; 
 To bring such stores of knowledge home. 
 
 Such lore and ai'is refined, 
 As virtue, peace, and wisdom prize. 
 To make a nation great and wise ; 
 And which would render Erin blest. 
 O'er all the islands of the west. 
 Just theme of many a poet's song. 
 As fair the western isles among. 
 
 And all surpassing far ; 
 As midst the radiant orbs of light, 
 That stud the wide-spread vault of night, 
 
 Shines evening's brilliant star. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHAMPION OF ITALY. 
 
 The scene of the following Lay is in a district remarkable for its bold 
 scenery and romantic beauty, in the north-west shores of the county of 
 Donegal. Cintealan {Cean Teileann), now Tiellen Head, is one of its mag- 
 nificent promontories, in the neighbourhood of which lies Gleann Choluim 
 CiUe, i. e. ColumbkiUe's glen or valley, once a favourite place of resort to 
 the saint, from whom it derives its name. The locality is " described as 
 follows in O'Donnell's Life of St. Columbkille, as translated by Colgan, 
 Trias Thaum, p. 391." 
 
 "Locus is est Tirconallensis patriae, Occident! proximus, in Oceanum 
 procul occurrens, in arduos incultosque montes assurgens, in horrida 
 delhum promontoria desinens, ColumbEB, a cujus asceterio Celebris habetur 
 jamdudum sacer." — Lib. i., c. 15, — Annals of the Four Masters, by John 
 O'Donovan, Esq., M.R.LA., &c., p. 1890, note. 
 
 Aeoument. — The Fenians, fatigued with the chase, had assembled, as usual, 
 on a promontory of tlie coast, and were enjoying the prospect, when 
 they beheld a distant sail approaching. Presently a fleet came in sight, 
 and, as soon as it reached the strand, a host of armed warriors sprang 
 ashore, led by a chief of formidable appearance, who immediately began 
 to ravage the country. A messenger is in haste despatched to inform 
 the Fenians of the daring threats and cruel proceedings of the invaders. 
 Struck with terror, they suddenly determine that it will be better for 
 them to flee from the country in ships, than remain to be cut down by 
 the enemy. They instantly commence their preparations to flee, when 
 Gaul appears amongst them, flushed with rage and indignation at their 
 cowardice. Finn informs him of what had occurred, and attributes 
 the conduct of the Fenians to the invincible power of the invader. 
 Gaul asks if none of all the chiefs, whom he names, had the courage to 
 meet him ; and, after some farther remonstrance, declares that, as for 
 himself, he vrill never submit to a foreign foe, and that, single-handed, 
 he is ready to risk his life for the honour of the Fenians. Finn 
 encourages him in his heroic daring, and promises liberal rewards, 
 wishing, however, to defer the conflict for two days. But Gaul, anxious 
 to bring the matter to a speedy decision, refuses ; and the consequence 
 is an immediate duel with the champion of Italy, who is vanquished 
 and beheaded by the victorious Gaul. The Lay concludes with an 
 expression of pity for the great losses sustained by the enemy. 
 
248 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 I. 
 
 Through fair Cintealan's woody glen 
 The Fenian chief and his merrv men — • 
 
 Save Gaul — the chace pursued ; 
 Till wearied with the sylvan play,. 
 Upon the headland height we lay, 
 
 And rolling ocean viewed. 
 Soothed by the billows' echoing roar. 
 In foam loud-bursting on the shore. 
 
 II. 
 
 Far off, a conaing sail we view — 
 And now a fleet that nearer drew — 
 Swift-bounding in the gale they flew 
 
 Strait to our sun-lit strand. 
 And now a hundred warriors bold — 
 Thrice ten times be that number told, 
 With shining glaives and shields of gold. 
 
 Sprang on the yellow sand ; 
 Led by a chieftain stern and grim, 
 Of daring look and giant limb. 
 
 On lofty daring bent. 
 E'en from the margin of the wave, 
 With hostile fire and slaughtering glaive. 
 
 He wasted as he went. 
 Till all the region, filled with dread. 
 Lay quaking to his hostile treads 
 
 III. 
 
 To Almhuin and the Fians Fail, 
 Is sped a herald with the tale — 
 Charged to declare how, far and near. 
 The land was paralyzed by fear : 
 That houseless and deserted lay 
 The hills and glens, in sad dismay, 
 Th' invaders' arms beneath : 
 
CHAMPION OF ITALY. 249 
 
 And how they swore, with haughty boast. 
 Ne'er to depart from Erin's coast, 
 
 Till on the tented heath 
 They proved, upon her marshalled hordes, 
 The edge and temper of their swords. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Their threats so fierce, and deeds so bold, 
 Turned e'en our ardent warriors cold ; 
 
 And, after counsel sage. 
 They said to Finn " twere better far 
 To yield, than wage a dubious war, 
 
 And feel such champion's rage — 
 Better to flee across the flood. 
 Than see their children sink in blood." 
 
 V. 
 
 Then urged by headlong fear, they seize 
 
 And launch their gallies on the deep. 
 And hoist their sails to catch the breeze, 
 
 And fix the oars to sweep.* 
 
 When Gaul, with maddening fury, came 
 To Finn, whose glowing cheek with shame 
 
 Was deeply crimsoned o'er; 
 And asks — '* What frenzy, chieftain brave, 
 Impels our youth to mount the wave. 
 
 And flee their native shore ?" 
 
 VI. 
 
 Finn. — ** A dauntless champion, sword in hand. 
 Has come from fair Italia's land ;" 
 (The Fenian chief replies,) 
 
 With a shout 
 
 All flew toward the ships ; upraised, the dust 
 Stood o'er them ; uaiversal was the cry, 
 " Now clear the passages, strike down the props, 
 " Set every vessel free, launch, and away !" 
 
 Cotoper's Iliad, Book II. 
 
 m2 
 
250 THE LAY OF THB 
 
 " He claims our isle by conquest's right, 
 And dares the boldest to the fight. 
 
 But none the conflict tries ; 
 With potent hand he makes us flee, 
 And with vain glory mad is he. " 
 
 VII. 
 
 Gaul. — *' A wondrous wight ! whate'er his name — 
 Sure from some mighty prince he came, 
 That thus he puts our hosts to shame !*' 
 
 Cried Gaul, with fury stung : 
 " Against him dared no chief appear ? 
 Dared none exchange one dart or spear. 
 That all, imbued with dastard fear. 
 
 Thus flee a stripling young ?" 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Finn. — " Most valiant Gaul, by this right hand. 
 Against him dares no warrior stand ; 
 
 None mates his strength and size ; 
 None such a ponderous blade can wield, 
 None guard his breast with such a shield. 
 
 No ; none beneath the skies. 
 Lives not a man who dares to try 
 The force with which his weapons fly." 
 
 IX. 
 
 Gaul. — " What day would Boisgne's fair-haired son, 
 
 In homage to a stranger bow ? 
 Would Luaidhe or young Colla, run ; 
 
 Or Caoilte with the sunny brow ? 
 Or Roina, who the monarch knew 
 ' To silence — or the nimble Hugh ? 
 What day e'er fled the warlike clan 
 
 That gives to gems a brighter glow ;* 
 
 * This is a curious line. If it conveys the true meaning of the original, 
 we may infer from it, that in the days of the bard there was & jewellers" corps 
 
CHAMPION OF ITALY. 251 
 
 Beneath whose steel the valley ran 
 
 With life-blood from the foe ? 
 What day — declare, did the lancers fleet 
 Refuse the battle-charge to meet ! 
 Would Dermod Dunn, the learned, the sage, 
 Dechne to prove the champion's rage — 
 Or Fergus' seven brave sons retire 
 In terror from his arm of ire ? 
 Of thy own house, Finn reno<vned» 
 Would Feine Lochlin quit the ground, 
 Before he taught the foe to feel 
 The lashes of his sounding steel?" 
 
 X. 
 
 Finn. — '* Now by this claymore sunny bright, 
 Though high the house of Finn you praise. 
 
 Against that chief, in single fight, 
 It dares no arms to raise." 
 
 Gaul. — *' If then submission be the word. 
 While Gaul or Garaidh wears a sword, 
 Shall neither from his country go 
 A hostage to a foreign foe." 
 
 Finn. — *' If thou art Gaul, the good and brave, 
 Who will thy bleeding country save, 
 
 And for the Fenians fight ; 
 With thee we'll send a warrior band. 
 To Cruachan of the western land, 
 
 To guard thy native right." 
 
 Gaul. — ** Since, in the timid Fenians' cause, 
 A trusty claymore no man draws, 
 I haste the stranger's arm to try. 
 And conquer, for your sake, or die." 
 
 in the armies of Eiin, distinguished for their valour not less than for their 
 beautiful Tvorkraanship. We are informed that in the palace of Tara, 
 "1,000 guests were entertained daily, besides princes, orators, and men of 
 science, engravers of gold and silver, carvers and modellers." 
 
252 THE LAY OF THE 
 
 Then generous Finn exclaims — " Behold ! 
 Great OUain's weight of purest gold 
 I give, the conflict to delay, 
 Till twice returns the orient day." 
 With cheerful voice and sparkling eyes. 
 Great Gaul, of heart courageous, cries, 
 " Beyond all earthly joys I prize. 
 This moment, to decide the strife, 
 That gives the victor fame and life." 
 
 XI. 
 
 Now see, upon the sea-beat strand, 
 The youth and Gaul of brawny hand. 
 
 The fearful contest wage ; 
 As sword strikes sword, their fire-sparks driven 
 Swift-glancing to the clouds of heaven, 
 
 Declare their equal rage. 
 Loud rang their arms with clash on clash, 
 And frequent blazed their lightning-flash. 
 Till Gaul, beneath his foeman's shield, 
 
 Made upward thrust, with cruel harm. 
 
 And from the socket wrenched the arm :* 
 With blood grew red the field. 
 
 * These lines may remind the reader of the death-wound of Hector by 
 the spear of Achilles : — 
 
 •' In his right hand he waves the weapon round, 
 Eyes the whole man and meditates the wound : 
 But the rich mail Patroclus lately wore. 
 Securely cased the warrior's body o'er. 
 One place at length he spies, to let in fate, 
 Where 'twixt the neck and throat the jointed plate 
 Gave entrance : through that penetrable part 
 Furious he drove the well-directed dart." 
 
 Iliad, Book xxii., 403-410— Pope. 
 
 In Dr. John O'Donovan's Translation of the Annals of Ireland (pp. 
 2217-2219), may be seen a singular instance of a British officer receiving his 
 death- wound from the javelin of his Irish antagonist, in the arm pit, the 
 only spot where he was vulnerable, the rest of his body being sheathed in a 
 complete coat of mail. 
 
 •' There was with Sir Richard Bingham, at this time (1595, when pre- 
 paring to besiege the caslle of Sligo), his own sister's son, a proud and 
 haughty youth, Captain Marten by name, who was the commander of his 
 cavalry. He could not bear to see his enemies near him without attacking 
 them, and proceeded across the bridge of Sligo. When O'Donnell's people 
 perceived them advancing, they returned back as speedily as they wert- 
 
CHAMPION OF ITALY. 253 
 
 And still great Gaul more furious grew. 
 Until the warrior bold he slew, 
 And bore in triumph from the strand, 
 The severed visage in his hand. 
 
 XII. 
 
 OssiAN. — " Patrick ! may not pity weep 
 To think how fierce the combat burned ; 
 
 How many warriors crossed the deep, 
 How few to home returned, 
 
 All doomed to Erin's arms to yield, 
 
 All left upon the battle-field ?" 
 
 able, as they were not equal to them in number. The English pursued ; but 
 not overtaking them, returned. O'Donnell being informed of this, he deter- 
 mined to lay a snare for the foreigners on the same passage. He selected 
 100 of the best horsemen of his army, and 300 infantry, with their bows and 
 quivers. He ordered them to lie in ambush within a mile of Sligo. and to 
 send a small squadron of horse to the banks of the river to decoy the English 
 army, and, if pursued, not to wait for an engagement, until they should have 
 come beyond the place where the ambuscade was laid. This was accord- 
 ingly done. When Captain Marten perceived the small squadron of cavalry 
 on the bank of the river, he advanced directly with a numerous body 
 of cavalry, to wreak his vengeance upon them. The others at first 
 moved slowly and leisurely before them ; but these young heroes were soon 
 obliged to incite their horses forward, the English having pursued them 
 with such speed and vehemence. One of them, namely, Felim Reagh Mac 
 Devit,' was, however, compelled to remain behind, in consequence of the 
 slowness of his horse, and, being unable to accompany his own people, he 
 was obliged to disobey the orders of his lord, that is, to fight the English 
 before he had passed the ambuscade. As he was certain of being imme- 
 diately slain, he turned his face to the nearest of his pursuers, who was 
 Captain Marten ; and as he (Captain Marten) raised his arm to strike his 
 antagonist viith his weapon, Felim placed his finger on the string of his 
 javelin, which he had in readiness to discharge, so that he struck Captain 
 Marten directly in the arm pit, and pierced his heart in his breast.f He 
 was covered with mail except in the spot where he was wounded. The 
 English seeing their champion mortally wounded, returned back, carrying 
 him in the agonies of death to the town, where he died that night. O'Don- 
 nell was greatly enraged at the failure of his ambuscade, till he heard of 
 the cause, and that the captain died the following day." 
 
 The region around Cean Teileann, the scene of the preceding Lay, 
 was also the scene of other events which might claim the notice of the 
 historian as well as of the bard. The following is one which is recorded 
 in the Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 1590 : — 
 
 •• The son of O'Donnell attempted to depose his father, after he had 
 
 * " Felim Reagh Mac Devit is still vividly remembered in the traditions of the barony of 
 Inishowen, in the county of Donegal. He was the head of the Mac Devits of Inishowen, 
 who are a branch of the O'Dohertys, and the very man who afterwards burned the town of 
 Derry, from which circumstance the Mac Devits are, even to tliis day, called ' Burnderrys' 
 by their Presbyterian neighbours. Xhey are at present a very numerous sept in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Londonderry, and throughout the barony of Inishowen."— Note, p. 1979. 
 
 t Partes rimatur apertas 
 
 Qua vulnus letale ferat — Vmo., ^n. xi, 748. 
 
254 THE LAY OF THE CHAMPION OF ITALY. 
 
 grown weak and feeble (from age), and after his other son had been 
 imprisoned in Dublin. It was cause of great anguish and sickness of mind 
 to Ineenduv, the daughter of James M'Donnell. that Donnell should make 
 such an attempt, lest he might attain the chieftainship of Tirconnell in 
 preference to her son Hi\gh Roe, who was confined in Dublin ; she therefore 
 assembled all the Kinel Connell who were obedient to her husband, viz., 
 O'Dogherty, Mac Sweeny, and others, with their forces, and a great number 
 of Scots. On receiving intelligence of their muster, he assembled his forces 
 to meet them, at Doirc-leathan, the broad derry or oak wood, to the west of 
 Gleann Cholium Cille. The other party did not halt till they came to that 
 place ; and a battle ensued between them which was fiercely fought on both 
 sides. The Scots discharged a shower of arrows from their elastic bows, 
 by which they pierced and wounded great numbers, and among them the 
 son of O'Donnell himself, who, being uhable to display prowess or defend 
 himself, was slain at Doirc-leathan, on one side ot the harbour of Telinn, 
 on the 14th of September, 1590. Around him were slain the three sons of 
 Owen of Mulmurry, with two hundred others." — Annals of the Kingdom of 
 Ireland, p. 1893. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DEFENCE OF THE PALACE OF TARA 
 
 The Irish original of the following poem, with a literal translation into 
 English, was once kindly lent to the author by James Ilardiman, Esq. It 
 was entitled Laoi an buadais—V oem of Victory.* But as that title has no 
 particular correspondence with its subject, he has given it a name expres- 
 sive of the principal fact which it records ; and which is thus noticed in the 
 catalogue of the Irish MSS. in the Royal Irish Academy, vol. ii. :— Finn 
 Mac Cumhail, "in his early youth, went to Tarah, to attend the annual 
 feast given by the monarch, who received the youth with great kindness 
 and distinction. At this time Conn was much annoyed at a circumstance 
 of annual occiu'rence, the burning of the palace of Tara, by a fairy chief 
 from Sliabh Fuaid, whose custom it was to set all the company at Tara to 
 sleep by the sweetness of his music, and while they were in that condition 
 to burn the palace. On the present occasion Conn arose and said to the 
 assembly, that he who would guard Tara and prevent its being burned that 
 night should get all his inheritance guaranteed to him freely for ever, and 
 if he had been deprived of any part of it before, that it should be restored 
 to liim ; and to this the monarch bound himself in the usual way. The 
 youthful Finn immediately accepted the conditions, and killed the fairy 
 chief, whose name was Allien Mac Midhna." 
 
 Argument. — Patrick requests Ossian to inform him of the cause of the 
 enmity between the Clanna Boisgne and the Clanna Momi, intimating 
 that the latter were superior in valour to the former. This supposition 
 is felt by Ossian as an indignity ; and he proceeds to tell how Cumhail 
 had sent the tribe of Morni into exile, for which injury he was slain by 
 Gaul ; but if Nuagadh Neacht, king of Tara, from whom Finn was 
 descended, had been living, he would have gained the victoi-y which 
 Cumhail lost. He then informs Patrick that at the great annual festival 
 of Samhain, the palace of Tara was regularly burned, in defiance of 
 Gaul and all his tribe. To prevent such a catastrophe in future, the 
 monarch Conn despatched a messenger to Finn and the Fenians, 
 requiring their immediate services. On their arrival the monarch asked 
 
 * Macphorson informs us that " it was usual with Fingal, vfhen he returned from hl« 
 expeditions, to send his bards singing before him. This si)ecios of triumph is called by 
 Ossian, the iSang of Victory." 
 
2oQ THE LAY OF THE DEFENCE OF 
 
 who would undertake to defend the palace against the threatened 
 calamity. Finn replied by asking what reward would be given to its 
 defender, and Conn promises the possession of a fortress, a princely 
 estate, and all the titles enjoyed by his father. Finn acknowledges such 
 rewards to be great, and worthy of a monarch to bestow. On his 
 expression of some doubt as to the fulfilment of the promise, Conn 
 solemnly protests that it shall be performed, and if not, his honour 
 would be forfeited with the privilege of ever contending against a foe 
 in arms. Finn then requests, since the task is arduous, that he may 
 have the aid of some brave warrior, and particularly of Gaul. Finn, 
 having received a gracious answer, that he shall have all the aid he 
 asks, desires those under his command to be properly equipped. Gaul 
 promises to pay all arrears of tribute for the Fenians, and Finn goes 
 forth to oppose the besiegers, whose assault he vigorously repels. Next 
 morning he was seen bearing the head of the principal assailant high 
 on the shaft of his spear. Gaul extols the valour of Finn, whom he 
 desires to retain as one of his champions. Finn then informs Gaul that 
 he was the son of Cumhall, who fell before his birth, but that now he 
 is a warrior not unworthy to be associated with the chiefs of Clanna 
 Morni. He then proposes to go with him to Tailtean, where the games 
 were about to be celebrated. The two chiefs become closely united in 
 friendship, and the rewards promised by the monarch are shared 
 between them. The Lay concludes by stating, that though Erin could 
 boast of many gallant warriors, they were unable to defend the palace 
 of Teamor from being burned by Aillen, the son of Midhna, and that 
 Finn was the only one ever found successfully to oppose him. 
 
 I. 
 
 hospitable Ossian tell, 
 What woes the Fenian host befel ; 
 And whence the dismal strife arose 
 That made the sons of Boisgne foes 
 To Morni's race; though braver far 
 Than Finn's, in all the deeds of war. 
 
 Ossian. — Let not thy erring words defame 
 My noble sire's illustrious name. 
 What ! must thou yet, .0 sage, be told 
 
 How Cumhall into exile sent 
 The tribes of Morni fierce and bold. 
 
 Their daring to repent ? 
 How Gaul to vengeance quickly flew. 
 And Cumhall in his fury slew ? 
 
THE PALACE OF TARA. 257 
 
 The battle of the hills too well, 
 Alas ! can faithful memory tell. 
 And how, on Lena's fatal ground,* 
 He stood with bloody victory crowned. 
 Had Nuagadht lived — of men the flower — 
 
 The day of Foala he had won ; 
 His chace and game, with hand of power, 
 Had borne from Moral's shielded son. 
 
 * On Lena's fatal ground 
 
 He stood with bloody victory crowned. 
 
 A dispute having arisen between Eugenius, king of Munster, and Conn of 
 the hundred battles, respecting the profits of the ship-duties and fisheries 
 of the bay of Dublin, they determined to decide their controversy by the 
 sword. Accordingly, as O'Flaherty infonns us (Ogygia, vol. ii., p. 212), 
 their re8pecti\-e armies met (A. D. 192), "in the plain of Moy-Lena in 
 Ferakelly, in the King's county.* Conn, being inferior in point of forces, 
 had recourse to stratagem ; having attacked the improvident enemy very 
 early in the morning, he obtained a very signal victory. Dolus an virtus 
 quis in hoste requirat ? Goll, the son of Morna, killed Eugenius, who, not 
 apprehending any attack from the enemy, was asleep." 
 
 Were there any truth in this statement, it would be fatal to the honour 
 of Gaul as a brave and chivalrous knight, and in express contradiction to 
 the following record by O'Halloran, vol. i., p. 238 : — 
 
 " On the day prior to the conflict, it was proposed in a council of war, 
 held by Conn, that on account of the superior numbers of the enemy, they 
 should be attacked by surprise, at night, or before daybreak next morning. 
 To all this the council agreed, except Goll Mac Morni, the monarch's general 
 and chief of the knights of Connaught, who, rising up, said : — * On the day 
 that my first arms were put into my hands, I solemnly vowed never to 
 attack an enemy at night, by surprise, or under any kind of disadvantage ; 
 to this day I have religiously adhered to this promise, nor shall I now 
 break it. The attack was, however, agreed on, but Goll declared he would 
 not be in the field before daylight." The assailants met with a fierce 
 resistance. The armies on both sides fought 
 
 With such a brave delight 
 As Erin's warriors ever fight. 
 
 " Conn being hard pressed, as the clear day appeared, called on Gaul and 
 his knights to make a charge on the king of Munster, who, being already 
 dangerously wounded, soon fell, and with him, his brother-in-law, the 
 prince of Spain. ' The body of Eogan, pierced by a thousand wounds, was 
 raised up on the shields of the soldiery, and exposed to the view of both 
 armies ; which Goll perceiving, cried out—' Lay down the body of the king 
 of Munster, for he died as a hero should die.' " 
 
 O'Flaherty says " there are yet to be seen at this place two hiUs, in one 
 of which we are informed the corpse of Eugenius was interred ; and the 
 corpse of Fraech, the Spaniard, who was also slain there, was interred in 
 the other. Conn, after this engagement, being proclaimed monarch of 
 Ireland, reigned twenty years in uninterrupted peace and tranquillity." 
 
 t Finn Mac Cumhall was descended from Nuagadh Neacht, king of 
 Tara. 
 
 ♦ Mac Curtin says in Connaught. See the prefatory note to Illan , p. 239. 
 
25S THE LAY OF THE DEFENCE OF 
 
 II. 
 
 Around proud Teamor's palace wall, 
 At Samhuin's loftj festival, 
 
 Spread war's wide-bickering flame ; 
 Nor could the men of Foala brave. 
 With Morni's son, from foemen save 
 
 The house of royal fame. 
 For Banba's sons, of noble deeds, 
 The monarch Conn a herald speeds. 
 Num'rous as ocean's birds,* and fleet, 
 
 The royal mandate they obey ; 
 And soon at Teamor's palace meet. 
 
 In all their proud array. 
 
 III. 
 
 ** Who," cried the king, " of all your band, 
 For Teamor's walls will boldly stand. 
 
 With life and limb to guard ?" 
 Then dauntless Finn — '* king ! declare 
 What honours shall that champion bear — 
 
 And what his high reward ?" 
 
 IV. 
 
 Then thus the king — " A fortress high, 
 With fertile lands that round it lie ; 
 Loch Awil's court of lordly pride — 
 A city rich — and these beside, 
 The glorious titles that of yore. 
 Your great illustrious father bore." 
 
 Finn. — '• By this right hand ! a royal meed. 
 And worthy of a monarch's name. 
 
 But should deceit attend the deed — 
 Oh ! 'twere a lasting shame." 
 
 * " Quam multae glomerantur aves, ubi frigid us annus 
 Trans pontum fagat, et terns immitit apricis." 
 
 ^N. VI., 311. 
 
THE PALACE OF TARA. 259 
 
 Conn. — " I speak the solemn words of truth — 
 Ne'er on my speech, thou white-teethed youth, 
 
 Did dark deceit attend. 
 For should I break my plighted word, 
 No more I dare, with shield and sword, 
 
 In feats of arms contend." 
 
 Finn. — *' Then e'er I take the arduous task. 
 Of braver men the aid I ask — 
 
 Of Gaul renowned in fight. 
 Illustrious chief of the Fenian train. 
 Still foremost on the battle plain, 
 
 The brightness of all light. ' ' 
 
 Conn. — " Thou shalt have Gaul, and Garraidh too, 
 With Conan, and the daring Hugh, 
 Lough Awil's pride — with every man 
 That yet remains of Morni's clan." 
 
 Finn. — " Then I accept the proffered aid, 
 Though small ; let each be well arrayed, 
 And man to man be true." 
 
 VI. 
 
 The blameless Gaul, of generous hand, 
 Then promised for the Fenian band 
 
 To pay all tribute due ; 
 And Finn, of strong resistless blows. 
 From Erin's king in his might arose; 
 And to defend proud Tara's towers. 
 Strode forth with all his martial powers. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Of "Neifen's son, with age who shook, 
 The old and branded spear he took,* 
 
 * " Of all Achilles' arms his spear alone 
 
 He took not; that huge beam, of bulk and length 
 
 Enormous, none ^acides except. 
 
 In all Achaia's host had power to wield. 
 
 It was that Pelian ash which from the top 
 
 Of Pelion hewn that it might prove the death 
 
 Of heroes, Chiron had to Peleus given." 
 
 Iliad, xvi., 166— Coupee, 
 
260 THE LAY OF THE DEFENCE OP 
 
 That, since the day of Cumhall's fall, 
 Had stood reclined by the ancient wall. 
 This spear, in days of yore, renowned. 
 
 And proved in many a fight. 
 To guard the palisadoed mound, 
 
 He grasped with fond delight ; 
 And raised with admiration high 
 Its bearded point — and longed to try 
 With what a force in battle field 
 His arm that matchless spear could wield. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 With fire-brands armed, and flushed with rage, 
 
 Exterminating war to wage, 
 
 The Danan foe in shining mail, 
 
 Came on, proud Tara's mounds to scale. 
 
 The royal domes to fire. 
 Swift as the rushing wind their course. 
 Strong as the thunder's dint their force. 
 
 So terrible their ire ! 
 In clouds their blazing brands they threw. 
 Like meteors bright 'ning as they flew ; 
 And soon had Tara's mansions been 
 In black and smouldering ruins seen ; 
 But dauntless Finn, with lightning speed, 
 Still foremost in the hour of need. 
 
 To meet the foes' advance — 
 As rapid on the war-cloud came 
 With darkening smoke and volleying flame — 
 
 His life-destroying lance. 
 Whose thrust no corslet could arrest. 
 Plunged deeply in their leader's chest ; 
 With many a blow and many a thrust 
 
 Repelled the fierce attack. 
 The bravest warriors stretched in dust. 
 
 Or drove fear- stricken back. 
 While on them the bold Fenians rushed. 
 Smote down their broken ranks and crushed ; 
 Sluiced from their breasts the crimson flood, 
 And quenched their burning brands in blood. 
 
THE PALACE OF TARA. 261 
 
 IX. 
 
 When Tara's men, with morn, arose 
 To see where lay their slaughtered foes ; 
 Was Finn beheld advancing nigh, 
 With trophies of his victory. 
 The Danan chieftain's head he bore, 
 All ghastly pale, all stained with gore, 
 
 High on his reddened spear. 
 The Fenians loud his triumph sung, 
 And far and wide the welkin rung, 
 
 With many a joyous cheer. 
 But none such thrilling notes could raise 
 As generous Gaul to sound his praise. 
 On battle field and roaring wave, 
 The bravest most extol the brave. 
 
 X. 
 
 Gaul. — " Great warrior ! by this noble deed, 
 Dost thou all Foala's chiefs exceed ; 
 Henceforth shalt thou with us remain, 
 A champion of Mac Morni's train." 
 
 Finn. — Illustrious son of Morni ! see 
 Great Cumhall's progeny in me. 
 Left, when he found an early doom. 
 An embryo in my mother's womb ; 
 
 But now a warrior strong. 
 And not amiss, if right I ween, 
 Morni's son of weapons keen, 
 
 Am I your ranks among. 
 To Tailtin's games now let us hie 
 With all your clan and victory." 
 
 XI. 
 
 Then close in friendship's bonds allied, 
 Finn and Mac Morni's clan divide 
 The royal prize — and equal lay 
 Fair Foala's lands beneath their sway. 
 
262 DEFENCE OP THE PALACE OF TARA. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Though numerous warriors Erin boasts, 
 In flowery vales and fertile coasts. 
 As bold, as strong, in battle true, 
 As e'er poised lance, or claymore drew ; 
 
 Yet, maugre all their might. 
 Was Tara's palace wrapt in flame, 
 When Allien, the son of Midhna, came. 
 
 With spear and brand-flame bright. 
 Around it the bickering fire to roll 
 Was the high delight of the warrior's soul ; 
 And none could stay his wild career, 
 But Finn alone with his glittering spear. 
 
 Note.— la consequence of Finn's gallant defence of Tara, he became the 
 commander-in-chief of the Fenians. 
 
THE LAY 
 
 OP 
 
 PATRICK EXHORTING OSSIM TO ATTEND 
 TO HIS PSx\LMODY. 
 
 Patrick. — Up, Ossian ! wake ! arise ! 
 And to my psalms give ear ; 
 Shake slumber from thine eyes — 
 The chants' sweet music hear. 
 Touched by the hand of age, 
 
 You now are weak and cold, 
 You face no more the battle's rage, 
 
 Nor join with warriors bold. 
 
 Ossian. — Since I no strength nor spirit boast ; 
 Since Finn no more the Fenian host 
 
 Arrays in martial state ; 
 Small joy to me your clerics bring ; 
 I loath to hear them sadly sing — 
 
 Their dismal chant I hate. 
 
 Patrick. — Thou feeble, foolish, grey, old man ! 
 Since the great world its course began. 
 Till now 'twas ne'er thy lot to greet 
 Such holy men, such music sweet — 
 
 Such notes from voice or chord. 
 But what thy joy in battle fields — 
 In trumpet's clang, and crimson shields ? 
 Though hosts were marshalled on the hill. 
 No warrior's post thou e'er canst fill, 
 
 Nor e'en unsheath a sword. 
 
264 THE LAY OF PATRICK EXHORTING OSSIAN. 
 
 OssiAN. — Yet could I range the ranks for fight — 
 
 To lead them my supreme delight ! 
 
 But know, friend Patrick, 'tis a shame. 
 
 Thus to dispraise my feeble frame ; 
 
 And he who such reproach can find, 
 
 Is of a stunted narrow mind. 
 
 Though high your boast of music fine, 
 And of your clerics all divine, 
 I hold some music sweeter far ; 
 
 The blackbird's song in Letter-vale, 
 The hum of thousands ranked for war. 
 
 The thrush's notes of woody 'Sgail:* 
 The murmur soft, or hollow roar 
 Of waves along the sandy shore. 
 Far more harmonious chimes I hear, 
 When hounds pursue the flying deer. 
 Than all that e'er your clerics sang. 
 With squall, croak, grunt, and nasal twang. 
 
 • " Crich an ScaU. the country of Scail, was the ancient name of a territory 
 in Ulster. There is a remarkable valley, anciently called Gleann an Scail, 
 near Slemmish, in the barony and county of Antrim." — J. O'D. 
 
 The preceding Lay may be regarded as a specimen of the disputes which 
 were of frequent occurrence between the native minstrels and the clergy, as 
 to the comparative merits of their diiferent styles of music. See the dialogue 
 between Ossian and Patrick, at the commencement of the Lay of Slieve 
 GuiUin, in which Ossian laments the melancholy change produced in the 
 state of society since the introduction of the new chants, with the doctrine 
 and practice of fasting, self-denial, and other austerities of monkish rule 
 and discipline. In Ireland, as in Wales, the monks and the bards were 
 determined enemies. 
 
 Note. — Among the Irish MSS. poems in the library of the Royal Irish 
 Academy is " a poem entitled ' The Dispute about Tulagh na Peine, or the 
 Mound of the Fenians.' The original name of Armagh, in which Ossian 
 deeply laments that St. Patrick and his clergy are in possession of it, and 
 declares if his son Osgar and others of the Fenians were then present, they 
 would smash his crozier.bell, and other clerical implements, into smWireens , 
 for his impertinence to him." 
 
MARCH 
 
 BANNERED HOST OF CONGAL 
 
 TO MEET THE ARMY OF DOMHNALL, MONARCH OF 
 IRELAND, IN THE BATTLE FIELD OF MAGH-RATH 
 (MOIRA). 
 
 Db. John 0' Donovan, in his introductory remarks to the battle of Magh- 
 Rath, and the historical romance of the Banquet of Dun na n-6edh, observes 
 that "compositions of this nature were constantly recited by the poets 
 before the Irish kings and chieftains at their public affairs and assemblies, 
 for the purpose of inspiring the people with a thirst for military glory." 
 The fact is distinctly stated in genuine authentic documents that " the four 
 higher orders of the poets, namely, the Ollamh, Anruth, Cli, and Cano, 
 ■were obUged to have seven times fifty cAJe/ stories, and twice fifty sub-stories 
 to repeat for kings and chieftains. The subjects of the chief stories were 
 demolitions, cattle-spoils, courtships, battles, caves, voyages, tragedies, 
 feasts, sieges, adventures, elopements, and plunders." 
 
 " The battle of Magh-Rath was a real historical occuirence and no bardic 
 fiction. It is referred to by Adamnan, the eighth abbot of lona, who was 
 13 years old when it was fought. It is also recorded by the very accurate 
 annalist, Tighernach, under the year 637, in the following words : — A.D. 637. 
 The battle of Magh-Rath was fought by Domhnall, son of Aedh, and by the 
 sons of Aedh Slaine (but Domhnall at this time ruled Temoria), in which 
 fell Congal Caech, king of Uladh, and Paelan, with many nobles ; and in 
 which fell Suibhne, the son of Colman Guar." 
 
 From a review of the causes and effects of this battle by Charles O'Conor 
 of Belanagare, as quoted by Mr. O'Donovan, we learn that Congal Claon, 
 a prince of the Rudrician race of Uladh, being vanquished and obliged to fly 
 into Britain, remained nine years in exile, but stni kept up his party at 
 home, and at last resolved to make a determined effort to return, to drive 
 his great enemy Domhnall from the throne, or perish in the attempt. 
 Being a prince of great address, brave, persevering, plausible, and full of 
 resources, he found means of exciting a warm interest in his behalf among 
 the Saxons, Britons, Picts, and Albanian Scots. They crowded to his 
 standard in such numbers that they soon composed a formidable army. 
 His domestic partizans prepared for his reception, and he landed with 
 safety on the coast of Down. 
 
266 MARCH OF THE 
 
 " Domnall, king of Ireland, was not unprepared. He had wisdom in his 
 councils; and troops, who proved a match for equally gallant troops raised 
 within his kingdom, and for those of the four nations who joined them. He 
 immediately encamped near the enemy at Moyrath, and began as bloody a 
 battle as can be found in the records of that age : it continued with various 
 success for six whole days, until victory declared for the nation on the 
 seventh. '= Congal Claon, the soul of the enemies' army, was defeated and 
 slain at the head of the troops of Ulad. The foreign troops were soon 
 broken with great slaughter ; and Domnall Breac, king of the Albanian 
 Scots, hardly escaped to Britain, with the sorry remains of a fine army." 
 
 The tale, or romance, founded on these events, is interspersed with 
 various poetical compositions, according to a practice once prevalent with 
 early Irish and Scandinavian writers. Saxo Grammaticus abounds in them, 
 as do also the Chronicles of the Kings of Norway. In reciting their tales, 
 our bards and senachies, as they grew warm with their subject, would 
 naturally assume a more animated style than that of mere prose, and 
 luxuriate in spirited and florid description.! In the battle of Moyrath, as 
 the ranks were advancing in battle line, King Domhnall inquired of his 
 antiquary, by what standards the different squadrons were distinguished, 
 and received the following answer : — • 
 
 In strong array, with lance and sworcl. 
 Move Congal's ranks o'er Ornah's ford ; 
 Men of heroic heart and might, 
 
 Who lead the onslaught fierce. 
 And who, their courage to excite. 
 
 Ne'er ask the aid of verse, 
 Nor dream that words with magic charm, 
 Can edge the sword, or nerve the arm. J 
 
 The flag of Macha, warrior bold, 
 Of rich and varied satin fold, 
 Wide-floating in the wind is spread, 
 Conspicuous o'er his royal head. 
 
 There Scanlan's banner waves on high. 
 Fair signal oft of victory ; 
 
 •' " This engagement, so decisive for the nation, in tlio year C37, rendered Moyrath ever 
 since famous in the Irish Annals. It retains the name down to our own time, and was 
 rendered memorable of late, by gi\ing a title to the present learned and worthy possessor 
 Sir John Rawdon, Earl of Moyra." 
 
 t " The intermixture of poetrj* and prose is said to have been first introduced among the 
 Romans by Varro, and followed by Petronius." 
 
 X •' Compertura ego habeo, milites, verba virtittem non nddere ; neque ex 
 ignavo strenuum, neque fortem ex timido exercitum, oratione imperatoris 
 fieri."— 5aMi(s(. 
 
BANNERED HOST OF CONGAL. 267 
 
 The ensign too of Fackna Mor, 
 Is flaunting Congal's helmet o'er, 
 Symbol of great and precious spoil, 
 Borne from the foemen's ravaged soil. 
 
 Rampant on silk of verdant green, 
 A yellow lion's form is seen, 
 
 That royal Connor bore 
 Victorious in a hundred fights, 
 The banner of the Red-Branch knights, 
 
 Renowned in days of yore. 
 
 In front of the embattled line. 
 Of Eochay's sons the standards shine. 
 High o'er the spears they proudly raise. 
 Like streams of fire their pennons blaze. 
 There too does Britain's royal knight. 
 
 Great Conan Rod, display 
 Broad folds of satin, blue and white. 
 
 Before his armed array. 
 
 In stripes of gold and crimson dye, 
 Such as adorn the orient sky. 
 The banners of the Saxon land, 
 
 A glory round them spread ; 
 And broad and ample folds expand 
 
 O'er royal Dairbre's head. 
 
 A flag of red and sable hue 
 
 Foyle's noble warriors bring; 
 To honour's laws still just and true. 
 
 Is their majestic king ; 
 And ne'er was banner, well I ween, 
 Thau his, more rich and glorious, seen. 
 
 O'er Suidhne, an illustrious name, 
 
 From Dalriada's coast, 
 A banner waves like yellow flame. 
 
 In centre of the host 
 
268 MARCH OF THE BANNERED HOST OP CONGAL. 
 
 A stripling prince, soft-fingered, mild, 
 The shock of arms may turn him wild, 
 And whirl him through the ranks of fight, 
 A maniac frantic with affright.* 
 
 Feardomhan oft at banquets found, 
 
 And eke of weapons red. 
 Of Ulster Ards the chief renowned, 
 
 His troops has hither led. 
 And o'er them, in the sunny light. 
 
 Wide-spreading unconfined, 
 A satin ensign dazzling white, 
 
 Waves gaily in the wind. 
 
 Thus, close arrayed with lance and sword. 
 Move Congal's ranks o'er Ornah's ford; 
 Men of heroic heart and might. 
 
 Who lead the onslaught fierce ; 
 And who, their courage to excite. 
 
 Ne'er ask the aid of verse, 
 Nor dream that words, with magic charm, 
 Can edge the sword or nerve the arm. 
 
 * Of Suibhne the author gives a high-wrought infiatci description— how 
 the horrors of the battle affected his brain, rendering him completely 
 frantic, and how he, who had never before been a lunatic or coward, 
 became both, in consequence of having been cursed by St. Ronan, and 
 denounced by the great saints of Erin. 
 
CUCHULLIFS CHARIOT. 
 
 •• Whethee the Irish had the use of military chariots, anciently called 
 Esseda, after the manner of the old Gauls and Britons, does not appear 
 with any degree of certainty ; but it is probable they had ; and I cannot 
 but inoline to that opinion, if credit may be given to an ancient anonymous 
 writer of the Life of St. Columb, in which he describes the battle of 
 Cuiledrebne(?) fought in the year 561, in a poetical rather than historical 
 style." 
 
 " They are mentioned in Irish histories a thousand times, and called by 
 the name of Carbad, in the same sense as Carpentum in Latin. In a book 
 written in Irish, and called Tain-bo-Cuatlgne, or the pursuit after the drove of 
 oxen at (yuailgne, these military chariots, and the manner of the fighting 
 in them, are described much after the way that CsGsar describes the Britons 
 fighting in the same sort of carriage ; and the guider of the chaidot is there 
 called Ara, a page or lacquey, but more properly a conductor, from the 
 obsolete Irish word Ar, which signifies to direct or conduct," — Harris's 
 
 Waee. 
 0' Flaherty informs us that Soaltan, the father of CuchuUin and Connal 
 
 Keamach, were * ' the first who managed and broke horses to the saddle — 
 for before that, it was the custom to fight and travel in cars, waggons, or 
 
 chariots, drawn by two or four horses." 
 
 An ancient poem states that " Finn did not use horses for military pur- 
 I)Oses, until they had taken some in Biitain on a certain occasion, and that 
 
 it was from these British hoi'ses the Fenian steeds were all descended." — 
 
 Catalogue oflr. MSS., vol. II., p. 566. 
 In the Fenian poems there are no equestrian battles, nor manoeuvres of 
 
 cavalry. 
 
 For the Irish original, with a literal translation, of the following descrip- 
 tion of Cuchullin's chariot, the author is indebted to the kindness of Mr. 
 
 Wright of Clonrael. It is extracted from an Irish romance, entitled 
 
 Bristeach mhuighe Muirthemney, i. e. Breach of the plain of Muirhevney. 
 
 " The description is given by Luadh, the son of Curighe to the children of 
 
 Calitan." 
 
 The car-light-moving, I behold, 
 Adorned with gems and studs of gold ; 
 Ruled by the hand of skilful guide, 
 Swiftly — and swiftly — see it glide ! 
 Sharp-formed before, through dense array 
 Of foes, to cut its onward way ; 
 
270 cuchullin's chariot. 
 
 While o'er its firm-fixed seat behind. 
 Swells the green awning in the wind. 
 It mates in speed the swallow's flight, 
 Or roebuck bounding fleet and light, 
 Or fairy breeze of viewless wing, * 
 That in the joyous day of spring, 
 FHes o'er the champaign's grassy bed, 
 And up the cairn-crowned mountain's head. 
 
 Comes thundering on, unmatched in speed, 
 The gallant grey, high-bounding steed; 
 His four firm hoofs, at every bound. 
 Scarce seem to touch the solid ground ; 
 Out-flashing from their flinty frame. 
 Flash upon flash of ruddy flame. 
 
 The other steed, of equal pace. 
 Well-shaped to conquer in the race. 
 Of slender limb, firm-knit and strong, 
 
 His small light head he Hfts on high. 
 Impetuous as he scours along. 
 
 Red lightning glances from his eye. 
 Flung on his curving neck and chest, 
 ' Toss his crisped manes like warrior's crest ; 
 Of the wild chafer's dark-brown hues. 
 The colour that his flanks imbues. 
 The charioteer, of aspect fair. 
 
 In front high-seated rides ; 
 He holds the polished reins with care. 
 
 And safe and swiftly guides. 
 With pHant will and practised hand. 
 Obedient to his lord's command ; 
 That splendid chief, whose visage glows 
 As brilliant as the crimson rose. 
 Around his brows, in twisted fold, 
 A purple satin band is rolled. 
 All sparkUng bright with gems and gold 
 
 J 
 
 The steeds of Achilles speak of themselves thus : — 
 " We, Zephyrus himself, though, by report, 
 Swiftest of all the winds of heaven, in speed 
 Could equal." 
 
 Iliad, six, 505— Cowpeb. 
 
cuchullin's chariot. 271 
 
 And such his majesty and grace 
 As speak him born of royal race ; 
 Worthy, by deeds of high renown, 
 To win and wear a monarch's crown. 
 
 The following is Macpherson's beautiful description of Cuchullin's car :— 
 " The car, the car of war comes on, like the flame of death ! the rapid car 
 of Cuthullin, the noble son of Semo! It bends beldnd like a wave near a 
 rock, like the sun-streaked mist of the heath. Its sides are embossed with 
 stones, and sparkle like the sea round the boat of night. Of polished yew 
 is its beam ; its seat of the smoothest bone. The sides are replenished ith 
 spears; the bottom is the footstool of heroes."— Fingal, Book I. 
 
BAS OlSIlf. 
 
 THE DEATH, OR, MORE PROPERLY, THE DEATH 
 SONG, OF OSSIAN. 
 
 The original of the following poem, called Bas Oisin, "representing the 
 manners of Fingal's heroes," may be seen, as extracted from Mr. D. 
 Kennedy's Collection, in the Report of the Highland Society on the poems 
 of Ossian, p. 313. 
 
 As cold descend the cliilly dews of night, 
 Sad, in the vale of Cona, is my plight. 
 No voice of music sweetly charms my ear. 
 No sprightly hounds my lonely moments cheer. 
 Alas ! too well my wandering thoughts avow 
 That I am truly old and feehle now. 
 
 Of4 as to Cona's vale we loved to stray, 
 Gay songs and music sweet beguiled the way. 
 There did we greet full many a courteous friend, 
 Prone to oblige and fearful to offend. 
 When by the pathways to the heights we came, 
 They gave us welcome with a loud acclaim ; 
 There met the chieftains of the Fenian race, 
 In various groups collected for the chase ; 
 With rapid steps some loved the steeps to climb. 
 E'en to the summit of the cliffs sublime ; 
 Some were for carnage of the deer prepared, 
 Some armed with shield and spear our chase to guard. 
 
 Where my loved Finn had topped the mountain crest, 
 Full fifty noble chiefs around him prest, 
 And o'er them high, upon its flag-staff raised. 
 The sun-burst banner of Galgrena blazed. 
 Thence wide dispersed our venturous bands were seen 
 In forest-glade or torrent's dark ravine, 
 
BA.S OISIN. 273 
 
 Prepared with bended bow and ready aim, 
 To wing their arrows on the fljing game. 
 When sprang the startled deer with rapid bounds, 
 We on them shpt a hundred eager hounds. 
 And far as eye its circhng glance could throw, 
 Lay many a wounded hart and bleeding roe. 
 
 When fell the evening shades, our precious store, 
 Spoils of the chase, to Tara's halls we bore — 
 To Tara, where the voice of music sung, 
 And many a harp and cruit responsive rung. 
 And many a bard, in high heroic verse. 
 The deeds of heroes gloried to rehearse. 
 And many a shell went round, and loud and long 
 Rose the full chorus of the festive song. 
 Ah ! who can tell how beautiful were they. 
 The Fenian chiefs, how joyous, young and gay ! 
 In games and jocund cheer they spent the night ; 
 In wine, in song, in music, their delight. 
 Their pride was, aye, the feeble to defend. 
 To help the stranger, and the wronged befriend. 
 
 But when our host was marshalled for the war, 
 Each of our chiefs a hundred foes would dare ; 
 Each stood a champion on the battle field. 
 And but with life the victory would yield. 
 
 Yet never did we court war's bloody toil, 
 Led by vain glory or the rage of spoil ; 
 But to the wronged protection to afford, 
 Or else in self-defence, we drew the sword. 
 
 'Twas then in Tara's halls my pride and boast. 
 Of bosom friends to own a numerous host ; 
 Though numbering not our king of youthful age. 
 Our wounded warriors, our advisers sage. 
 And maidens fair^ — But now, I sadly grieve. 
 And sit oppressed with care from morn till eve. 
 
 Though I should search the spacious world around, 
 No friend like noble Finn would e'er be found ; 
 Lives there not one to boast he so exceeds 
 In heroes' generous thoughts and glorious deeds. 
 
 All cold and lifeless in their house of clay, 
 Ne'er more to see the joyous beams of dav, 
 
 n2 
 
27^ BAS 0I8IN. 
 
 The Fenians heroes lie — and hence my sight 
 Is dimmed and clouded by the mists of night, 
 And like a wounded bird in forest deep. 
 Lonely I languish, and unceasing weep. 
 
 Dark all my prospects ! offspring have I none ; 
 A blasted tree I stand, whose life is gone ; 
 Or, like the nut in withered husk, the last,* 
 Still trembling to its fall at every blast. 
 Oh ! it is painful to the bleeding heart 
 To find no friend sweet solace to impart ; 
 On my choaked voice the night-dews heavy lie. 
 And, like the stricken deer, I faint and die. 
 
 * See the conclusion of Conloch, p. 237. 
 
 We find the same thought in a Jewish writer, who " thus describes all 
 ■who were spared of a merciless persecution of the Jews in Mayence." 
 " There were not left of them save two or three berries on the top of the 
 uttermost bough." 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note, p. 4. 
 " Kinrj of your speckled JleeV 
 
 JBreac, speckled or spotted, an epithet which may have been 
 peeuharly appHcable to a fleet of Scandinavian ships, bearing a 
 host of armed warriors — with their snow-white sails — their 
 variously figured prows — their gilded poops — their crimson shields 
 and glittering arms. 
 
 Worsaae says that " even before the time when the Danes 
 conquered England, the Northmen had long possessed large and 
 splendid sea-going ships. The Norwegians, in particular, were 
 then constantly making voyages across the Atlantic, to the 
 Shetland Isles, Iceland, and Greenland ; nay they undoubtedly 
 reached the continent of America several times ; of which Scan- 
 dinavian and German historical traditions, as well as internal 
 probabilities bear witness." 
 
 " Their voyages in the 9th and 10th centuries, are sufficient 
 proofs of the excellence of the Scandinavian ships. It is not, 
 therefore, to be regai'ded as pure exaggeration if the Sagas use 
 strong expressions in celebrating the war-ships of that time, 
 particularly the galleys, or, as they were called, long ships. 
 These long ships were also called ' Dragons,' because the stems 
 were frec[uently ornamented with carved, and even gilded images 
 of dragons, vultures, lions, and other animals. They had some- 
 times crews of several hundred men ; — the sails were worked or 
 embroidered with gold, the ropes were of a purple colour, and on 
 the top of the gilded masts sat curiously carved images of birds, 
 which spread out their wings to the breeze." — pp. 109, 110. 
 
 Note, p. 9. 
 
 " The royal standard rose to vieio 
 Of Lochlini's gloHous Icing. ''^ 
 
 " As Jupiter's eagle had been the war-sign of the Romans, so was 
 Odin's raven the chief mark of the Danes in the heathen ages. 
 An old chronicler (Emma's Encomiast) relates that in the time 
 of peace no image whatever was seen in the flag, or mark, of the 
 Danes ; but in time of war there waved a raven in it, from whose 
 
276 NOTES. 
 
 movements the Danes took auj^ries of victory or defeat. If it 
 fluttered its wings, Odin gave them a sign of conquest ; but if the 
 wings hung slackly down, victory would surely desert them." — 
 Worsaae's Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland^ p. 57. 
 
 NOT£, p. 12. 
 
 To me 
 
 More sweet to die by wariiofs arm 
 Than live hy grace from thee." 
 
 " The successors of the vikings (in England) still preferred to a 
 natural death a glorious one in the field of battle : but Christian 
 tenets no longer permitted them to be marked when on the bed 
 of sickness, with the point of a spear, in order to consecrate 
 themselves to Odin. The mighty Danish jarl Sivard is represented 
 (by Henry of Huntingdon) when on his deathbed as breaking 
 out into sorrowful complaints, and exclaiming, ' How shameful it 
 is for me, that I have never been able to meet death in my 
 numerous battles, but have been reserved to die with disgrace 
 like an old cow ! Clothe me at least in my impenetrable armour, 
 gird me with my sword, cover my head with my helmet, place 
 my shield in my left and my gilded axe in my right hand, that I, 
 the bold warrior, may also die like one.' Attired in full armour 
 he passed gladly to his fathers in the year 1055, and doubtless 
 with the secret hope of enjoying in Valhalla a continuation of that 
 proud martial life for which there would soon have been no longer 
 room either in Northumberland, or in the parent lands of Scan- 
 dinavia." — Worsaae's Account of the Danes and Norwegians^ pp. 
 36, 37. 
 
 Note, p. 35. 
 
 cataracts pour 
 
 ** Where fierce Mac Bovar^s cataracts p 
 Down the dark cliffs with deafening r 
 
 oar 
 
 " Authors record that a woman might travel Erin alone, without 
 fear of being molested, from the well-known Osgleann, in Umhall, 
 in the west of the province of Connaught, to the celebrated 
 remarkable rock Carraic Eoghain, in the east of Erin, and from 
 the fair surfaced, woody, grass-green island of In is Fail, exactly 
 in the south of Banha, of the fair margin to the furious, headlong, 
 foaming, boisterous cascade of Buadh, which is the same .as the 
 clear-watered, snowy-foamed, ever- roaring, particoloured, bellow- 
 ing, in-salmon-abounding, beautiful old torrent, whose celebrated, 
 well-known name, is the lofty-great, clear-landed, contentious, 
 precipitate, lotid-roaring, headstrong, rapid, salmon*fu], sea- 
 
NOTES. 277 
 
 monster-ful, varying, in-large-fish-abounding, rapid-flooded, 
 furious-streamed, whirling, in-seal-abounding, royal and prosper- 
 ous cataract of Eas Ruaidh and thence northwards by Teinne 
 Bee an Broghadh, or by the great plain of Madh Inninrighe, to 
 the loud-roaring, water-shooting cliffs of Tory." — Banquet of Dun 
 na n-Gedh, p. 105. 
 
 Dr. O'Donovan observes that " this wordy description of Eas 
 Ruaidh affords a good example of what was considered the 
 sublime by the writers of Irish romantic tales ; the reader may 
 compare it with Virgil's description of Charybdis ; and with 
 Macpherson's wild imagery, throughout his poems of Ossian, 
 that he may perceive how the latter, while he adopted the images, 
 chastened the language of the old Gaelic bards. * * One 
 would be apt to infer, from this exaggerated description, that the 
 waterfall of Eas Ruaidh was as stupendous as the falls of NLa- 
 gara." — p. 105, note. 
 
 Note, p. 40. 
 
 *' Jle challenged of our bravest men 
 The bravest, best, two score and ten." 
 
 " When the Chronicles of Ireland make mention of a man able 
 to engage with a hundred, and another to fight with fifty, it is not 
 to be understood as if the first were able to encounter a hundred 
 himself, and conquer them with his own hand, or the other had 
 the courage to engage with fifty, and come off with victory ; the 
 meaning is that such an officer had the command of an hundred 
 men, with whom he would fight hand to hand with the same 
 number of enemies ; and that an officer, who had fifty under him, 
 would engage with any fifty that opposed him, with their com- 
 mander at tiie head of them." — Keating. 
 
 Note, p. 42. 
 
 "And on each finger placed a ring 
 Of gold — by mandate of our Icing y 
 
 The following passage, quoted by Ware from Bishop Gibson's 
 edition of Camden's Britannia (1772), may serve to show that the 
 bard does not deal altogether with fiction : — 
 
 " Near Ballyshannon were, not many years ago, dug up two 
 pieces of gold discovered by a method very remarkable. The 
 Bishop of Derry happening to be at dinner, there came in an Irish 
 harper, and sung an old song to his harp. His lordship not 
 understanding Irish was at a loss to know the meaning of the 
 song ; but upon inquiry, he found the substance of it to be this, 
 that in such a place, naming the very spot, a man of a gigantic 
 
278 NOTES. 
 
 stature lay buried, and that over his breast and back were plates 
 of pure gold, and on his fingers rings of gold, so large that an 
 ordinary man might creep through them. The place was so 
 exactly desci'ibed, that two persons there present were tempted 
 to go in quest of the golden prize, which the harper's song had 
 pointed out to them. After they had dug for some time they 
 found two thin pieces of gold, circular, and more than two inches 
 in diameter. 
 
 *' This discovery encouraged them the next morning to seek 
 for the remainder ; but they could meet with nothing more. The 
 passage is the more remarkable, because it comes pretty neai* the 
 manner of discovering King Arthur's body by the directions of a 
 British bard (in the reign of King Henry the Second)." 
 
 ** Nothing," adds Harris, " can call this relation in question, 
 but that the rings mentioned in the song were not found as well 
 as the plates. But that particular, as well as the size of the man, 
 might have been introduced by the bard, as a partial exaggeration, 
 by means of the Bara or Animi impetus of that sort of people." — 
 Antiq., vol. ii., p. 126. 
 
 Notices of a remai'kable discovery of silver ornaments at Largo 
 in Fifeshire. — No. 23 of the A rchceological Journal. 
 
 Speaking of the value of popular tradition, the author, Robert 
 Dundas, Esq., of Arniston, after exemplifying the truth of his 
 observation by some facts, and among them that recorded by 
 Bishop Gibson, says, " Another striking circumstance of a similar 
 nature has occurred in more recent times. Some years previous 
 to the golden corslet at Br^Ti-yr-Ellyllon (the Fairies' or Goblins' 
 Hill) near ISIold, in Flintshire, now deposited in the British 
 Museum, an aged woman returning late from Mold, imagined 
 that she had seen a spectre cross her path to the identical mound 
 where the skeleton, encased in gold, was subsequently found ; 
 she described the phantom as of gigantic size, and clad in a coat 
 of gold shining like the sun. This she related the next morning 
 to the farmer, whose workmen actually found the corslet m 1S33, 
 and there can scarcely be a question that a lingering remembrance 
 of a tradition which she had heard in early years associated with 
 the * Goblin's Hill,' presented to this woman's imagination such 
 a golden effigy." 
 
 " A corslet of gold, sold for £600 to a goldsmith at Cork, was 
 found near Lismore." — Walker's Dress of the Irish, p. 177. 
 
 Note, p. 47. 
 
 " No chief like Finn, tite world around, 
 Was e'er to bards so generous found. 
 With gifts of ruddy gold." 
 
 The bard seldom loses an opportunity of extolling the generosity 
 of the Fenian chiefs, intending his praises as a modest hint to his 
 
NOTES. 279 
 
 patron or entertainer to follow so laudable an example. O'Donovan 
 informs us that " a king always considered it his duty to give 
 presents to poets at public banquets and assemblies." " When 
 the poets, at the desire of Domhnal, went after Congal to persuade 
 him to stop ; Congal, perceiving them approaching, exclaimed, 
 * the munificent character of Ulster is tarnished for ever, for we 
 gave the poets no presents at the banqueting house, and they are 
 following us to upbraid us.' The poets came to Congal — he bade 
 them welcome, and gave them great presents, and they told him 
 their embassy." — Dun-na-n-Gedh. 
 
 A poet, speaking of his prince, Brian O'Neill, in a poem, says, 
 
 " He gave twenty homed cows 
 For my poem ; it was a goodly purchase ; 
 Were they twenty cows with golden horns, 
 My honour was greater and better." 
 
 The Welsh bards " frequently addressed poems to their princes 
 and lords, in which they soUcited presents, such as a horse, a bull, 
 a sword, or a garment ; and they were seldom, if ever, refused." — 
 WaringtoirCs Wales, p. 269. 
 
 Note, p. 50. 
 
 " Nor thy crozier here, nor white hoolc remain, 
 Nor thy hells he heard for ever.^' 
 
 The bards had no respect for the croziers and bells of the priests, 
 nor indeed had they any reason to respect them ; for, as we are 
 told in a note to "The Banquet of Dun na-n-Gedh" (p. 38), 
 " The ancient Irish saints were accustomed to curse the offending 
 cliieftains while sounding their bells with the tops of their 
 croziers." 
 
 In Wales the monks and the bards were bitter enemies. 
 "Indeed the bard was generally a heretic, and much given to 
 look through the deeds of the clergy. As monks and bards 
 increased in number, they became more and more enraged against 
 each other ; they were rival beggars, and therefore in each other's 
 way. In these encounters (begging) the monks were overmatched, 
 for the wit of the bards was aided by the popular contempt into 
 which the mendicant friars had fallen. The reader of Chaucer 
 will perceive that the same sentiments prevailed on the other 
 side of the Severn."— pp. 110, 111. 
 
 Note, p. 50. 
 
 " With chessmen played.^* 
 
 In the introduction to Ledbhar na-g-Ceart, the Book of Rights, 
 p. Ixi., may be seen the following description of an Irish chess- 
 board, quoted from Leahhar na-h-Uidhrij a MS. of the twelfth 
 century : — 
 
280 NOTES. 
 
 " It was a board of silver and pure gold, and every angle was 
 illuminated with precious stones, and a man-bag of woven brass 
 wire." 
 
 " The chessman is frequently referred to in old tales, as in the 
 very ancient one called Tain bo Cuailghne, in which the champion 
 CuchuUain is represented as killing a messenger, who had told 
 him a lie, with vi fear fitcille,^^ i. e. a chessman. 
 
 '■' CuchuUain and his own charioteer, Leogh, son of Riangabhra, 
 were then playing chess. * Tt was to mock me,' said he, ' thou 
 hast told a lie about what thou mistakest not.' With that he cast 
 one of his chessmen at the messenger, so that it pierced to the 
 centre of his brain." 
 
 " O'Neill's bard boasts of the victories which Brian O'Neill and 
 his ancestors had gained in their own province over their imme- 
 diate neighbours in Eastern Ulster, and over the kindred race of 
 Tir-Conaill. He next speaks of the provd circumstance that 
 Brian's ancestors had in their hall a chess-board formed of the 
 bones of their hereditary enemies, the Leinster men, which is 
 rather a bai'baric boast in 1260." — Miscellany , 182, 183. 
 
 The bard sings : — 
 
 " Chess of the shin-bones of Leinster men. 
 In our workshop was constructed ; 
 Smooth chessmen were on the tables of our ancestors. 
 Of the bare bones of Leinster men." 
 
 Note, p. 51. 
 
 " The son of Lund's skilV* 
 
 This Luno, the celebrated Osslanic fabricator of swords, was not 
 unknown in the Highlands of Scotland. Donald JMacqueen, 
 minister of Kilmuir, in the Isle of Skye, says, in a letter to Dr. 
 Blair, " I have just now before me a poetical relation by Ossian, 
 of the interview betwixt Fingal and his friends, and Luno, the 
 son of Leven, who made the swords of which I sent you a 
 description — in which Luno is pointed out as a very wild savage, 
 going upon one leg (lame like his great grandfather Vulcan), with 
 a staff in his hand, clad in a mantle of black hide, with an apron 
 of the same stuff before, and his complexion much of the colour 
 of his garb, skipping off to his smiddy with the fieetness of a 
 March wind, and the bobbing of the hard untanned skin behind 
 him, was the principal point of view as he flew over every rising 
 ground before them." — App. Highland Society, p. 33. 
 
 Why should Luno be called " a wild savage" for appearing in 
 his proper costume, and not as a man above his trade ? The 
 writer here quoted says he has just esteem for Macpherson's 
 genius, that he believes there is '"a foundation in the ancient 
 songs for every part of his work," but that he " hath tacked 
 together into the poem, descriptions, similes, names, &c., from 
 several detached pieces." 
 
NOTES. 281 
 
 Note, p. 68. 
 " And many a spit with haunch of deer.'* 
 The mention of spits may suggest to the reader that the art of 
 cookery had been well understood and practised in Ireland at this 
 period. Some have alleged that the most characteristic definition 
 of man is, that he is a cooking animal, and that superiority in the 
 art of cookery is demonstrative proof of elegance and refinement. 
 The curious reader may see in Dr. Petrie's Essay on Tara, in the 
 Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, an amusing account of 
 the " arrangements of the dining-hall at Tara, the customs of 
 which were preserved, though on a limited scale, in the household 
 of every chief, not only in Ireland, but also in the Highlands of 
 Scotland, as late even as the 1 6th century." 
 
 Martin, in his description of the Western Isles of Scotland, 
 says, " Before money became current, the chieftains of the Isles 
 bestowed the cow's head, feet, and all the entrails upon their 
 dependents ; such as the physician, orator, poet, bard, musician." 
 * * The smith had the head — and " this ancient custom is 
 preserved in many parts of Ii'eland to this day, viz., that when a 
 farmer kills a beef or pig, it is customary to send the head to the 
 smith, whose kitchen often presents the spectacle of 60 to 100 
 heads obtained in this manner." — p. 212. 
 
 A most laudable custom, and by none of the smiths disapproved. 
 
 Our learned and venerable friend the author of the Essay on 
 Tara, informs us, on the authority of ancient MSS., that i' the 
 spits used in the Teach Miodhchuarta at Tara have been deemed 
 worthy of a particular description, and even the names of their 
 supposed fabricators, perhaps inventors, have been preserved by 
 the bards." 
 
 In the book of Glendaloch is depicted the Bir h^uinneas, a 
 particular kind of spit, " on which the daul or waiter, is roasting 
 a les, or round of beet." 
 
 Bir Nechin, or Dechin, is the spit of Dechin the chief smith of 
 Tara in the time of the Tuatha-De-Danans. A spit, of curious 
 construction, called the Inneoin of the Dayhdha, made by Drinne, 
 the son of Luchair, is thus described : — " It was thus : a stick at 
 each end of it, and its axle was wood, and its wheel was wood, and 
 its body was iron ; and there were twice nine wheels on its axle 
 that it might turn faster, and there were thirty spits out of it, and 
 thirty hooks and thirty spindles, and it v/as rapid as the rapidity 
 of a stream in turning; and thrice nine spits, and thrice nine 
 cavities (or pots), and one spit for roasting, and one wing used to 
 set it in motion." 
 
 Note, p. 75. 
 " Blind Gaul renowned in fight" 
 Gaul, like Hannibal, was blind of an eye. An Irish bard might 
 have exclaimed with the Roman satirist, 
 
 O qualLs fades et quali digna tabella t 
 
282 NOTES. 
 
 NoTB, p. 77. 
 
 "And with his Teem remorseless Uade 
 Smote off her lovely head" 
 
 Atrocious as was the deed of Conan in cutting off the head of 
 the Grecian maiden, it was not more so than that of Macpherson's 
 Stamo, who came with a false story to Corman-trunar and his 
 daughter, by whom he had been hospitably received, but in the 
 dead of night, when sleep descended on them — " I rose," says 
 Stamo, who tells his own story, " I rose hke a stalking ghost. I 
 pierced the side of Corman-trunar. Nor did Fiona Bragal escape. 
 She rolled her white bosom in blood." — CatJdoda. 
 
 In the Welsh Ode on the Death of Hoel, mention is made of 
 another Conan,* of a very different description, thus versified in 
 Mason's notes : — 
 
 " Conan's name, my lay, rehearse. 
 Build to him the lofty verse, 
 Sacred tribute of the bard. 
 Verse, the Hero's sole reward. 
 As the flame's devouring force ; 
 As the wliirhviud in its course ; 
 As the thunder's flery stroke. 
 Glancing on the sliirered oak ; 
 Did the sword of Conan mow 
 The crimson harvest of the foe." 
 
 In a paper by the Rev. William Hamilton, in the first volume 
 of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1787, he informs 
 us that in a legend in verse, ascribed to Ossiau, he met the 
 following passage : — 
 
 " The fierce and mighty Conan was not in the desperate battle 
 of Gabhra ; for in May the preceding year {Am Becdtaine an 
 Bliadhain roimhe) the dauntless hero was treacherously slain by 
 the Fenii of Fin, at an assembly met to worship the sun : — His 
 sepulchral monument was raised on the north-west ! His wailing 
 dirge was sung ! And his name is inscribed in Ogham characters 
 on a flat stone on the very black moimtain of Callau ! " 
 
 Note, p. 79. 
 
 " A deed that gave to Oscar's 
 A glorious and immortal fame.''* 
 
 These lines seem to form a proper conclusion to the Lay of 
 Glennasmol. But in the literal translation by Mr. Eugene Curry, 
 there are four additional stanzas, in which the Grecian princess, 
 as she lies on the ground, mortally wounded, laments her fate, 
 and utters grievous maledictions on her father, who, by his 
 magical arts, had transformed, and then banished her from his 
 
 * This hero's name, however, is other^vise spelled Kynon, Chynon. " He is frequently 
 mentioned by the bards of the middle ages, and celebrated both for his bravery and for his 
 devotion as a \QsQT."—Mabinog%on,—noU, p. 96. 
 
NOTES. 283 
 
 court, to avert a prophecy of the Druids that she should have a 
 son that would destroy Greece. But had any man consented to 
 be her husband when in her forlorn condition, the beauty of 
 which she had been robbed by enchantment, would be restored, 
 and the son she was to bear, would conquer the world. 
 
 Note, p. 100. 
 
 " Torques, hroocJies, nngs, and diadems.^' 
 
 Among the precious reliques of antiquity which have been found 
 in various districts of Ireland, are golden torques, (Ir. tore), of 
 which several beautiful specimens may be seen in the museum of 
 the Royal Irish Academy. Their intrinsic value shows that they 
 were worn only by men of high rank and distinction. 
 
 Two beautiful torques found about the year 1810, at Tara, are 
 now in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. The one is 
 6 feet 7 inches, from one extremity to the other, and weighs 
 27 oz. 9 dwts. The second weighs 12 oz. 6 dwts. " They are of 
 a spiral or screw pattern — formed of four equidistant radiations 
 from a common centre, subsequently twisted into a spiral form." 
 Two others of a different form were found a few years ago in the 
 county of Wexford, the one flat, quadrilateral, not twisted ; the 
 smaller plain ; both of the purest gold : the one more than 
 27 inches in length, and 9 oz. in weight — the other in length 
 16 inches, and in weight 5 oz. Their intrinsic value £56 15s. 
 
 We are told by Sharon Turner that golden torques formed part 
 of the ancient British costume. Llywarch mentions it, p. 135 : — 
 
 Four and twenty sons I have had 
 Wearing the golden wreathe, leaders of armies. 
 
 Aneurin states, that in the battle of Cattraeth there were 
 
 Three hundred and sixty-three who had the golden torques. 
 
 " In 1692, an ancient golden torques was dug up near the castle 
 of Harlech, in Merionethshire. It is a wreathed bar, or three or 
 four twisted rods of gold, about four feet long, flexile and hooked 
 at both ends, about an inch in circumference, and weighs eight 
 ounces." 
 
 Note, p. 111. 
 
 " Tlie poisoned spear in his hand he shooh" 
 
 Mention of poisoned weapons occurs frequently in ancient Irish 
 compositions ; and it is presumed they were deemed peculiarly 
 valuable, as armed with double power to kill. In the Book of 
 
284 NOTES. 
 
 Rights {Leahhar na g-Ceart) it is stated that among the presents 
 to be sent, for the sons of the chieftains, are 
 
 " Twelve lances on which there is poison; 
 Twelve swords with razor ed^s ; 
 Twelve suits of clotlies of every colour ; 
 For tlie use of the sons of the ^eat chieftain." 
 p. 243. 
 
 And in the miscellaneous volume of the Celtic Society (p. 152), 
 are found the following lines : — 
 
 " Of what avail is valor or many spears f 
 By poison a fierce battle is gainwi. 
 Until O'Neill was disabled by poison, 
 The prowess of the hero was terrible."— 155. 
 
 Poisoned weapons were used by the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 " When an attempt was made to assassinate the king, by an 
 emissary of Cwichelm, king of Wessex, Edwin was saved from 
 certain death by the fidelity of one of his Thanes, Lilla by name, 
 who, throwing himself between his royal master and the murderer, 
 received the poisoned short sword in his own body." — Southey^s 
 Booh of the Church, i., p. 41. 
 
 Those famous archers, the Parthians and Cretans, used poisoned 
 arrows, as we learn from Virgil, .^n. xii., 855. 
 
 " nia volat 
 
 Non secus, ac ner>o per nubem impulsa sagitta ; 
 Armatam sasvi Parthus quam felle veneni, 
 Parthus, sive Cydon.telum immedicabile torsit" 
 
 Note, p. 129. 
 
 " ITie wild hoar's savage race.'''' 
 
 We learn from the following anecdote that the wild boar was a 
 formidable animal in Ireland, so lately as the reign of Henry the 
 Second : — 
 
 " One of the Furlonges of Furlonge, of Devonshire, was in the 
 train of Henry the Second during his visit to Ireland. When that 
 monarch was passing a few days at Wexford, previous to his 
 departure for England, he one day rode with some followers to 
 chase the deer in the then great oak-forest of the Glynn ; Furlonge 
 was of the party, and so fortunate as to kill an immense \vild boar 
 which had attacked the king, and succeeded in dismounting him, 
 ripping up his horse ; the sovereign knighted his preserver, and 
 bestowed on him a large tract in that neighbourhood. The Irish 
 branch of the family assumed for their arms, in memory of this, 
 the bearing of a boar issuant from an oak wood." — Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hall's Ireland^ ii., p. VIQ, note. 
 
NOTES. 285 
 
 Note, p. 178. 
 
 ** With rich armonal signs emllazed, 
 Of many a various dye." 
 
 The origin of the use of banners and coats of arms among the 
 Irish is thus recorded by Mac Curtin : — 
 
 " The Israelites, wlien under great slavery and persecution in 
 Egypt, gathering together the twelve tribes under the conduct of 
 Moses, to eschew the tyranny of Pharao, each tribe had a certain 
 banner with a certain coat of arms blazoned thereon, came to 
 Capacyront, where Niul, the father of Gaodheal, or Gadelus, then 
 resided, near the borders of the Red-Sea, and afterwards passed 
 through the same. The great grandson of Niul, by name Sruth, 
 being likewise banished out of Egypt, with all his family and 
 friends, in imitation of the Israelites, had a banner with a dead 
 serpent, and the rod of Moses painted thereon for his coat of arms ; 
 and this particularly, because Gadelus, his grandfather, when 
 wounded by the serpent, was cured by the wonder-working rod 
 of Moses. And Sruth's posterity ever after used banners and 
 coats of arms after him. The book called Leahhar leathcaoin 
 gives the same account, and showeth in a smooth, strict, and 
 learned Irish poem or verse, the banners and coats of arms of the 
 twelve tribes of Israel." 
 
 " The dead serpent with the rod of Moses, was the only device 
 on the banners of the Milesians, till the reign of Ollam Fodhla, 
 when it was enacted " that every great lord or chief commander 
 should have a particular coat of arras assigned them according to 
 their several deserts, whereby they might be known to their 
 Antiquaries, and other men of knowledge, either by sea or land, 
 when they appeared in arms or otherwise.'' 
 
 Note, p. 181. 
 
 *' To Cormac gave a stem command. 
 The cauldron of the Fenian band 
 Upon his neck to bear." 
 
 The cauldron was a very important article of camp equipage. 
 To the shoulders of the monarch it was probably an oppressive 
 burden, independently of the ignominy. But the act gives Finn 
 a fine opportunity of showing the generosity of his character by 
 voluntarily relieving the king, and submitting to the same task. 
 
 Many superstitions were connected witli certain Irish cauldrons. 
 Among the curiosities brought to Ireland by the Tuatha De 
 Danans, was a cauldron called Coirean Daghda, used, as Vallancey 
 informs us, in the sacrifices to Daghda; and which, like the 
 witches' cauldron in Macbeth, may have been used in preparing 
 "hell-broth" for magical rites. 
 
286 NOTES. 
 
 In the banquet of Dun-na-n-Gedh (p. 51), is an account of a 
 cauldron named Cairo Ainsicen, " which was used to return his 
 own proper share to each, and no party ever went away from it 
 unsatisfied ; for whatever quantity was put into it, there was never 
 boiled of it but what was sufficient for the company according to 
 their grade and rank." 
 
 Sharon Turner says "the cauldron was a part of the bardic 
 mythology, which is not much understood ; Taliesin twice alludes 
 to the pair C&ndwen. Thus, 
 
 I received my genius 
 
 From the eatU'dron of Ceridwen, 
 
 Is not my cAajr protected by the cauldron of Ceridtve», 
 Therefore let my tongue be free. 
 
 The second of the Mabinogion, or "Welsh Tales, mentions a 
 magic cauldron which had the power of giving life. Bran, king 
 of Britain, gave Matholwc, the sovereign of Ireland, a magic 
 cauldron which had this virtue, that if a person slain was thrown 
 into it, he recovered his life and vigour, but lost his utterance. 
 Maltholwc married Bran's daughter, but, ill-using her, Bran 
 invaded Ireland. In the battle, as fast as the Irish fell, they were 
 brought to life by being thro-wn into the cauldron, till Evnysion, 
 or the evil-minded one, being throwTi in, he stretched himself and 
 broke it to pieces. The idea of this magic cauldron may have been 
 borrowed from the mythology of the cauldron of Ceridwen." — 
 Vindication of the Genuineness of the Ancient British Poems, 
 pp. 282, 283. 
 
 " After this Arthur sent an embassy to Odgar, the son of Aedd, 
 king of Ireland, to ask for the cauldron of Diwrnach Wyddel, his 
 purveyor. And Odgar commanded him to give it. But DiwTuach 
 said, * Heaven is my witness, if it would avail him any thing even 
 to look at it, he should not do so.' And the embassy of Arthur 
 returned from Ireland with this denial. And Arthur set forward 
 with a small retinue, and entered into Pryden, his ship, and went 
 over to Ireland. And they proceeded into the house of Diwrnach 
 Wyddell. And the hosts of Odgar saw their strength. When 
 they had eaten and drank as much as they desired, Arthur 
 demanded to have the cauldron. And he answered, * If I would 
 have given it to any one, I would have given it at the word of 
 Odgar, king of Ireland." 
 
 " When he had given them this denial, Bedwyr arose and 
 seized hold of the cauldron, and placed it upon the back of 
 Hygwyd, Arthur's servant, who was brother, by the mother's side, 
 to Arthur's servant Cachamwri. His office was always to carry 
 Arthur's cauldron and to place fire under it. And Llenlleawg 
 Wyddell seized Caledvwlch, and brandished it. And they slew 
 Diwrnach Wyddell and his company. Then came the Irish and 
 fought with them. And when he had put them to flight, Arthur 
 with his men went forward to the ship, carrying away the cauldron 
 full of Irish money. 
 
NOTES. 287 
 
 " After this expedition Arthur returned with a chosen host of 
 horse and foot. On his landing he was met by the saints of Ireland 
 beseeching his protection. This he granted, and they brought him 
 provisions. And Arthur went as far as Eisgeir Oervel in Ireland 
 to the place where the Boar Trwyth was with his seven young 
 pigs. That boar, as Arthur informed his people, * was once a 
 king, and that God had transformed liira into a swine for his 
 sins.'"— KUwhch and Olwerij 307—309. 
 
 Note, p. 184. 
 
 " When, sudden, Tara's Druid rose. 
 Prophetic of impendiny woes J' 
 
 " Draoi (rendered Druid) signifies a wise man, a conjuror, a 
 necromancer, but has nothing to say to the Gaelic and Celtic 
 Druid. The Draoi were never in holy orders in Ireland. ' In 
 the days of Herod the king there came (Draoith) wise men from 
 the east to Jerusalem.' — Matt, ii., 1, Ir. Test. These were not 
 priests, they were shepherds and astronomers. Bishop Bedel in 
 his preface to the New Testament in Irish, tells us, that he had 
 caused the same to be translated in the true Ogham or mysterious 
 meaning of each word. So far was Mr. Pinkerton right in asserting 
 that there never was a Druid in Ireland." — Vallancey's Prospectus 
 of an Irish Dictionary. 
 
 Druid. — " In the times of Paganism in Ireland, every poet was 
 supposed to possess the gift of prophecy, or rather to possess a 
 spirit capable of being rendered prophetic by a certain process." 
 An account of the " process" may be seen in connexion with this 
 statement in a note, p. 46, to the Banquet of Dun-na-n-Gedh, by 
 Dr. John O'Donovan, who adds, on the authority of Cormac's 
 Glossary, that it was a " humbug not unlike the magnetic sleep 
 of modern dreamers." 
 
 A belief in omens and prognostics was once very prevalent in 
 Ireland, as indeed in all other countries, nor is it yet extinct. 
 Superstitious fears and imaginations, still continue to exercise 
 their dominion, particularly in regions to which the light of moral 
 and scientific truth has not yet penetrated : — 
 
 Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necesse est 
 Non radii soils, neque lucida tola Diei 
 Discutiant, sed Naturse species, ratioque. 
 
 Lwretius.i. 
 
 For those dark terrors that the mind enshroud, 
 That moral gloom, that intellectual cloud, 
 Yields to no beam or lucid shaft of day. 
 But flies dispersed by Reason's brighter ray. 
 
 Our friend Conan, though not remarkable for prudence or 
 discretion, had sense enough to place but little faith in atmospheric 
 prognostics. He is represented, in some succeeding lines, as 
 
288 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 treating the fears of the Druid and the Fenians with ridicule : 
 and, though be was no Hector, he might appreciate the patriotic 
 sentiment of the Trojan hero, and address the clouds as Hector 
 the eagles, when Polydamas spoke of the " sinister flight" of one 
 of those birds : — 
 
 " Ye vagrante of the sky ! your wings extend, 
 Or where the suns arise or where descend ; 
 To right, to left, unheeded take your way, 
 While I the dictates of high heaven obey. 
 Without a sign his sword the brave man draws, 
 And asks no omen but hia country's cause " 
 
 Xl.,xiL 
 
 Note, p. 202. 
 -" Tou hazard more 
 
 From foe behind than foe before.^' 
 
 The story here recorded of Conan has its parallel in the following 
 fragment of oriental history : — 
 
 " During a holy war which was carried on in the happy time of 
 the Apostle of God, (on whom be peace,) a certain valiant cham- 
 pion of the enemy's army came out to offer single combat, and 
 demanded that the glorious Alii should be opposed to liim. Alii, 
 well-pleasing to God, having received the command of the Apostle, 
 girded on his sword only, and immediately went forth to the 
 place appointed for the combat. When this friend of the Most 
 High met that infidel, he thus addressed him, ' I come on foot, 
 having one sword ; why come you on horseback having two 
 swords and two bows?' The great Alii spoke to him again, 
 saying, * Let these things be so ; — but I come out alone to give 
 battle on our side, why do you bring another man, and come both 
 together ?' The infidel at this question looked about him, believing 
 that another man had followed him, when, at the same moment, 
 the great Alii, in the twinkling of an eye, made the vile head of 
 the reprobate fly off." 
 
 " This is quoted by the soldiers of Islam to justify all kinds of 
 stratagems." — WilJcison's Account of Wallachia and Moldavia. 
 
 In Hue's travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China, there is an 
 amusing account of a victory in wrestling, which a puny wight 
 obtained over a powerful antagonist, by a stratagem worthy of the 
 redoubtable Conan : — 
 
 " In the great wrestling match of 1843, a wrestler of the 
 kingdom of Efe had overthrown all competitors, Tartars and 
 Chinese. His body of gigantic proportions, was fixed upon legs 
 which seemed immovable columns ; his hands, like great grappling 
 irons, seized his antagonists, raised them, and then hurled them 
 to the ground, almost without effort. No pei*son had been at all 
 able to stand before his prodigious strength, and they were about 
 to assign him the prize, when a Chinese stepped into the ring. 
 He was short, smzdl, meagre, and appeared calculated for no 
 other purpose than to augment the number of the Efeiau's vie- 
 
NOTES. 289 
 
 tims. He advanced, however, with an air of firm confidence ; the 
 Goliath of Efe stretched out his brawny arms to grasp him, when 
 the Chinese, who had his mouth full of water, suddenly discharged 
 it in the giant's face. The Tartar mechanically raised his hands 
 to wipe his eyes,^and at the instant, the cunning Chinese rushed 
 in, caught him round the waist, threw him off his balance, and 
 down he went, amid the convulsive laughter of the spectators." — 
 pp. 81, 82. 
 
 Note, p. 203. 
 
 " She courteously asks Aile if she would wish to see a single 
 comhat." 
 
 Few spectacles, if any, are so exciting as a battle, and hence the 
 Romans delighted so much in gladiatorial sports, and in sham 
 fights, both on land and water, when they could not have the 
 reality. Lucretius, to enhance our estimate of the pleasures of 
 moral science, says that they surpass even the delight of beholding 
 the battle-strife of armies : — 
 
 Per campos instructa, tua sine parte pericli. 
 Suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri: 
 Sed uiliil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere, 
 lidita doctrina sapientum, templa serena. 
 
 Lib. ii, 5. 
 
 Sweet is the joy to view secure, from far, 
 Armed legions rushing to the shock of war ; 
 But sweeter nought than up the mount to climb, 
 On whose fair summit science dwells sublime. 
 In light serene — and in the temple bide 
 That wisdom's skill has built and fortified. 
 And thence survey the vain pursuits of life, dsc. 
 
 The wife of Finn asking Aile if she would wish to see a single 
 combat, may remind the reader of one of the amusements provided 
 for Queen Elizabeth by Sir Christopher Hatton, of whom we are 
 informed that in 1576 she dined with that celebrated Lord 
 Chancellor of England, at Eltham, " and he provided hunting, 
 music, and a passage at arms, for her amusement." — Lord Camp- 
 hell's Lives of the Chancellors. 
 
 Even modem royalty can be honoured and gratified by seeing 
 the image, if not the reality, of a battle. 
 
 At the Braemar Gathering in the Scotch Highlands, September, 
 1851, at our illustrious Queen's visit to that locality, " there was 
 a celebration of the national games and sports, for the gratification 
 of her Majesty. The fully armed men of the different clans went 
 through their military evolutions. The games were the putting 
 of the stone 28 ibs., throwing the hammer, tossing the caber, and 
 rewards for length of service, for the two best readers of Gaelic, 
 and the best sword dancers.'^ 
 
290 NOTES. 
 
 Note, p. 204. 
 
 " The Lamentation of Aile.^' 
 
 This lamentation, in the original Irish, is regarded, by those who 
 can read and understand it, as a fine specimen of their ancient 
 elegiac poetry ; the pathos and beauty of which cannot easily be 
 preserved in a translation. Each line, in many of the stanzas, 
 commences with the pathetic exclamation Mo-Ouma! my wo! my 
 affliction I or alas! The frequent repetition of the same expression 
 of grief seems to have been accounted a beauty in the compositions 
 of the Irish minstrels — but it becomes tedious and loses its effect. 
 The Jceenan, or funeral dirge, is still sung in many places of 
 Ireland, and while the mournere are bearing the remains of their 
 departed friend to the grave, their sad and mournful chant, as 
 the sound rises and falls on the passing breeze, and is echoed by 
 the neighbouring hills, is the most wild and melancholy that can 
 be imagined. Nothing, perhaps, can convey to one who has never 
 heard it, a more adequate idea, than the sounds of an ^ohan 
 harp. 
 
 The poem is valuable chiefly for the description of the omens, 
 which we may conclude were deemed the most important in the 
 age when it Avas composed. 
 
 In the Life of John Elliot, the celebrated missionary to th 
 North American Indians, it is stated that when the Indian chief 
 Philip " began to gather his warriors around his dwelling-place — 
 strange sights and sounds foreboded, in many parts of the colonies 
 the woes that were near; the singing of bullets, and the awful 
 passing away of drums in the air ; invisible troops of horses were 
 lieard riding to and fro ; and in a clear, still, sun-shiny morning, 
 the phantoms of men fearfully flitting by ! " — Came'a Lives of 
 Eminent Missionaries, i., p. QQ. 
 
 " Among the ancient Britons, a meteor was supposed to be a 
 vehicle for carrying to paradise the soul of some departed Druid. 
 This superstition, like many others, had its origin in Druidical 
 artifice. The priests of that order, to strengthen their influence, 
 took occasion, from every aerial phenomenon, to blind and overawe 
 the ignorant; and as they laid claim to extraordinary sanctity, 
 they went naturally to the broad fields of the sky for strengtheners 
 to their illusions. So well did they engraft their absurd opinions, 
 that even at this distant day, the appearance of a ball of fire 
 creates, among the more ignorant Gael, a belief that some illus- 
 trious spirit has taken its fligjit to eternity. That ingenious 
 antiquarian. Dr. Smith, thinks that the Druidical fantasy just 
 mentioned, must have had its origin in a tradition of Enoch's 
 (Elijah's) fiery chariot." — Armstrong's Gaelic Dictionary. 
 
NOTES. 291 
 
 Note, p. 231. 
 
 " Tribute jtcst that all must pay, 
 O'er this bridge to smooth their ivay," 
 
 Tm " The Fairy Queen,'' and in " Orlando Furioso," we read of a 
 similar practice : — 
 
 -" Here beyond. 
 
 A cursed cruel Sarazin doth wonne. 
 
 That koepes n bridge's passage by strong hand ; 
 
 And many errant knights hath there forodonne." 
 
 "Thus the Pagan in Ariosto keeps a bridge which no man can 
 pass over unless he fights with him." " In Morte Arthur we find 
 an account of a knight who kept a bridge, which Spenser seems 
 to have copied : — ' On the third day he rode over a long bridge ; 
 and there start upon him sodainely a passing fowle chorle, and 
 he smote his horse, and asked him why he rode over that bridge 
 without his licence ?'" 
 
 So Spenser- 
 
 ' Who as they to the passa^ 'gan to draw, 
 A villaine came to them with scull all raw. 
 That passage money did of them require."' 
 
 Warton's Observations on the Fairy Queen. 
 
 Note, p. 251. 
 
 " While Gaul or Garaidh wears a stvord." 
 
 Garaidh Mac Morni was the brother of Gaul. Being unfairly 
 slain by Mac Sraaile, son of Dubh Dithre, one of Finn's men, 
 Garaidh's son Aodh (Hugh) insisted on being paid the eric of his 
 life, to which Finn agreed, and Caoilte was sent to Aodh with the 
 eric, consistmg of a necklace, sword," &c. — Catalogue of Irish 
 MSS., Royal Irish Academy, vol. ii., p. 573. 
 
 Caoilte was a poet as well as a distinguished warrior. There 
 is extant a poem of his " describing Cnu Deroil, a dwarfish harper 
 that Finn found on the side of Sid-Ban-Finn, now Sliabh-na-mban, 
 in Tipperary. The name of this famous harper occurs in many 
 of the old Fenian poems." — Id. 
 
 Note, p. 18. — The following notice of " The Grave of Magnus 
 the Dane," appeared in the Downpatrich Recorder, July, 1852 : — 
 " A correspondent wishes to be informed of the exact spot where 
 the Scandinavian hero, Magnus, was interred (* near the Cathe- 
 dral.') In reply, we have to say, that Mr. Warsaae, the Norwegian 
 
292 NOTES. 
 
 historian, some time ago, visited this town for the purpose of 
 fixing upon the exact spot where Magnus was buried ; and, after 
 the most diligent search, taken in connexion with information 
 aflforded by manuscripts in the library of Copenhagen, he came 
 to the conclusion that the grave of Magnus is a little mound, 
 adjoining a clump of trees on the extremity of the place formerly 
 called 'Island Maister,' and now known by the name of the 
 * Horse Island,' on the right of the new road to Ballydugan, 
 which island is at present in the occupation of Mr. Thomas 
 Henry." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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