seeing that the same hath
drowned the comely noble man; to me it is an affliction that Cael
ever sought to encounter it.
drowned the comely noble man; to me it is an affliction that Cael
ever sought to encounter it.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v19 - Oli to Phi
Celtic research and the modern sense
of our ancient poetry have changed the venue. We have a whole
cycle of Gaelic tales and poems now on the subject, which have been
gradually unearthed, affording new clues and a clearer outlook. Out
of these fuller materials we may still construct, if we will, an ideal
Ossian, just as Macpherson did. But we must remember, if we do,
that there is no corresponding real Ossian, the actual and undenia-
ble author of these Gaelic sagas or any part of them. Indeed, to be
at all precise in choosing their typical hero, we should have to admit
that a better name than Ossian's for our label would be Finn's*;
while the whole cycle is wider than the names of either Finn or
Ossian would fully suggest.
It is Ossian, however, to whom. by force of habit and by popu-
lar suffrage, we still look and probably shall ever look as the king
in this haunted realm. And Ossian's name, no doubt, will still best
serve to characterize the poetry which fragmentarily but none the
less potently long ago fascinated Macpherson, and through him.
caught the ear of Europe.
Who then was Ossian? †
Ossian, or Oisin, was traditionally the son of Finn; that Finn mac
Cumhool (Cool) whose name is in Celtic literature the beacon round
which all other lesser lights congregate. Oisin may be roughly
assigned in history to the Ireland of the end of the third century.
According to Scottish tradition, Finn, however, was the son of a
Scottish king who came over from Ireland, and of a Scandinavian
* Finn, Fionn, Fin. The Scottish or rather Macphersonian equivalent, Fin-
gal, is not ancient.
Ossian is the Scottish variant, and that most familiar to non-Celtic peo-
ples. Osh-shin is the common pronunciation in the Highlands. The proper
spelling is Oisin; but even in Ireland the name is never so pronounced, but
variably as Usheen, Isheen, Useen, Washeen, and otherwise.
XIX-680
## p. 10866 (#74) ###########################################
10866
OSSIAN
princess; and we may say at once that this mixed Celtic and Norse
origin is significant, not only for the personal history of the hero
himself, but for that of the whole heroic literature to which he and
his son Ossian lend characteristic life, color, and antique circumstance.
It is to the fine fusion of certain Norse with certain Gaelic elements,
in the Aryan past, that we owe the particular genre, at any rate,
which was produced in the Scottish region associated with Ossian.
Some difference is to be found if we turn to the more purely Irish
of our Gaelic originals, and seek in Ireland for the old battle which
is almost always, in Celtic tradition, the beginning of what we may
call epic balladry.
In this case it is the battle of Cnucha (Castleknock), ten miles
from the present city of Dublin, which sets the war-music going.
Here it was that Conn of the Hundred Battles warred with Cool
(Cumhool) Finn's father, and Cool was slain by Aedh, afterwards
known as "Goll," or the Blind, because he lost an eye in the battle.
This gives a leitmotiv to the dramatic episodes that follow, in Finn's
desire for revenge on his father's enemies. Here begins a sort of
tribal warfare between Munster and Connaught, which ends in the
destruction of the followers of Finn, the "Fianna," -a name, by the
way, which, although it so closely resembles Finn's, has no connection
with it; meaning simply the tribal militia, or "Fenians," to use the
modern equivalent that has been too long removed from its original
context to be successfully replaced there. The battle of Gowra is the
last great event of this war. At Gowra, Ossian and his son Oscar
fought disastrously against the descendants of Conn of the Hundred
Battles, and the power of the Fianna was finally broken.
In these battles and their allied and sequent episodes and disas-
ters and tribal intrigues, we arrive at the basis of the Irish tradi-
tions of the Ossianic cycle. And though there is endless variation in
the names and dates and places involved, according as these tradi-
tions were retailed in one country-side, or one century, or another, we
still find that behind them lurks a real fragment of heroic history,
colored perhaps by some earlier Celtic myth, and in any case full
of potential romance, heroic imagination, and a crude but splendid
poetry. It is not only that the subject-matter behind it is so full and
rich, but that the manner and turn of its expression is also so indi-
vidual and sonorous and effective. As for its subject-matter, it may
be said to range over something like thirteen or fourteen centuries,
from first to last. We have already referred to its quasi-historical
first beginnings in the third century, when Fionn's father fought
Conn of the Hundred Battles, and fell by the hand of Goll; and many
critics are content to accept this as the extreme starting-point. But
if we accept the conclusions of such authorities in Celtic folk-lore as
## p. 10867 (#75) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10867
<<
Professor Kuno Meyer and his collaborator Mr. Alfred Nutt, we shall
have to travel much further back into time. Mr. Nutt has stated
very ingeniously and carefully the claim for a mythical prehistoric
origin for the Ossianic cycle. "Every Celtic tribe," he writes, pos-
sessed traditions both mythical and historical.
Myth and his-
tory acted and reacted upon each other, and produced heroic saga,
which may be defined as myth tinged and distorted by history. The
largest element is as a rule suggested by myth, so that the varying
heroic sagas of a race have always a great deal in common. »
Whether we quite accept this or not, in its entirety, we cannot
ignore the distinct mythical coloring of many parts of the Ossianic
cycle; and admitting it to exist, we are at once carried to the remote
pre-Gaelic antiquity of the Aryan peoples, who personified sun, stars,
earth, sea, air, fire, and water, and told the folk-tales which were to
grow into Homeric epics, Norse sagas, and Ossianic ballads, as races
and languages grew and took on a local habitation and a name.
These wild-birds of old tradition found in their flight through
time a congenial resting-place in the mountain regions which we
associate with Ossian, whether in Scotland or Ireland. There they
prospered and their broods grew and spread, century after century.
To drop the figure of speech, the descendants of these first folk-tales,
that grew and turned themselves into little heroic histories, multi-
plied wherever the Gaelic imagination worked on the memories of
the people, and the Gaelic tongue gave it characteristic expression.
Thus we have, in the immense number of MSS. dealing with Ossianic
materials, ballads and stories which date from almost every century
from the tenth to the eighteenth. Successive bards and tale-tellers
shaped them and colored them anew time after time, fitting them to
the need of the period; using them now as a thinly veiled fable of
recent events, now as an allegory of war, and now as a localized and
modified narrative of some Norse invasion or some lingering tribal
feud.
There is nothing more interesting in the whole history of the
world's literature than this passage of the Ossianic tradition through
the centuries until it arrived in the eighteenth at Macpherson, whose
genius gave it new effect and a new set of disguises that still puzzle
many people. At this late hour in our own day it has had a strange
and significant re-birth, though in the spirit rather than in the letter.
We wish here to pursue the tradition in its adventures, and as
much for the entertainment to be had by the way as for its curious
historical and severely literary interest. One or two of its earlier
phases have already been touched upon; but we have said nothing
yet of the exceedingly characteristic way in which the early conflict
in Gaeldom between the old pagan and the new Christian cult is
## p. 10868 (#76) ###########################################
10868
OSSIAN
given dramatic expression in the cycle. One of the richest of its
sections is that devoted to the series of ballad-colloquies between St.
Patrick and Ossian, as the special pleaders respectively of the new
and the old order.
"The spirit of banter," says Dr. Hyde, "with which St. Patrick and the
Church are treated, and in which the fun just stops short of irreverence, is
a mediæval, not a primitive trait;
we all remember the inimitable
felicity with which that great English-speaking Gael, Sir Walter Scott, has
caught this Ossianic tone in the lines which Hector McIntyre repeats for the
Antiquary:-
-
"To which the saint replies:-
ST.
T. PATRICK -
Ossian-
With this grotesque echo we may compare the real text of one of
the actual 'Dialogues' or 'Colloquies,' which we owe to the Irish
Ossianic Society's good offices. The MS. in this case was a com-
paratively modern copy, but the faithfulness of the copy may be
guaranteed from ancient sources:-
«Patrick the psalm-singer,
Since you will not listen to one of my stories
Though you never heard it before,
I am sorry to tell you
You are little better than an ass. '
St. Patrick-
«Upon my word, son of Fingal,
While I am warbling the psalms,
The clamor of your old-woman's tales
Disturbs my devotional exercises. >>>
COLLOQUY OF OSSIAN AND ST. PATRICK
Ossian, long and late thy sleep!
Rise up, and hear the psalm!
Thy strength is gone, thy swiftness flown,
That made thee known,- and thy fierce right arm!
My swiftness and my strength are flown
Since Fionn's swords are swept away!
And no holy priest, since his song has ceased,
Has ever pleased me with his lay.
Thou hast not heard such hymns as mine,
Since the world began until this day!
But your dream is still of the host on the hill,
Though thou art ill and worn and gray!
## p. 10869 (#77) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10869
Ossian-I used to join the host on the hill,
O Patrick of the sombre brow!
And it fits not thee to cast at me
My misery, as thou didst now.
I have heard songs more sweet than these
In praise of priests. At Letterlee
How long I heard the rare blackbird,
Or the Fiann Dord* and its melody.
And the sweet song-thrush of Glenasgael,
And the rush of the boats upon the shore,
And the hounds full-cry, when the deer sweep by,
Than thy psalmody I love much more.
It must be admitted that in these strange 'Colloquies,' it is to
Ossian that all the most lovely lyrical passages are allocated. He de-
feats again and again the solemn monitions of his saintly co-disputant,
by the most tender and impassioned recall of the old delights of the
land he so loved. Now it is the plaintive whistle of the sea-mews,
now the bellow of the oxen and the low of the calves of Glen-
d'-mhael, or the soft, swift gallop of the fawns in the forest glade,
or the murmur of the falling mountain streams. Above all, the
song of the blackbird haunts him; reviving in his old-man's heart all
that was sweetest in the youth and joyous springtime of the Fiann
era, when it was at its most auspicious period. Ossian's ode to the
'Blackbird of Derrycarn,' which is generally found in the Gaelic
MSS. , printed apart from the current Patrick-cum-Ossian text, is one
of the most sweet and haunting of all his lyrical recountings of that
joyous past. Fortunately, it is accompanied as printed first in the
transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin by an excellent trans-
lation by William Leahy; which however, excellent as it is, as
excellent as any foreign tongue can make it seem,-yet can render
no full account of the charm and melancholy sweetness and music
of the Gaelic. We have adopted, with some slight modifications, this
version of Leahy's:-
TO THE BLACKBIRD OF DERRYCARN
Ossian Sang
SWEE
WEET bird and bard of sable wing,
Sweet warbler, hid in Carna grove,
No lays so haunting shall I hear
Again, though round the earth I rove.
*The Dord was a hunting or war horn.
-
## p. 10870 (#78) ###########################################
10870
OSSIAN
Cease, son of Alphron, cease thy bells,
That call sick men to church again!
In Carna wood now hark awhile,
And hear my blackbird's magic strain.
Ah, if its plaint thou truly heard,
Its melancholy song of old,
Thou wouldst forget thy psalms awhile,
As down thy cheeks the tears were rolled.
For where it sings, in Carna wood,
That westward throws its sombre shade,
There, listening to its strain too long,
The Fians-noble race- delayed.
That note it was, from Carna wood,
That woke the hind on Cora steep;
That note it was, in the wakeful dawn,
Lulled Fionn yet to sweeter sleep.
It sang beside the weedy pool
That into triple rills divides,
Where, cooling in the crystal wave,
The. bird of silvery feather glides.
It sang again by Croan's heath,
And from yon water-girded hill,
A deeper note, a cry of woe,
-
That lingers— tender, pensive — still.
It sang so once to Fionn's host,
And pleased the heroes with its plaint:
More lore, they deemed, the blackbird knew,
Than lurks in penances, O Saint!
So far we have been drawing chiefly upon the rich Irish store
of these things; but the Fianna of Albin were as rich in saga as
the Fianna of Erin, and the Scottish Ossianic or Fiannic ballads and
stories are fully as interesting. They show certain differences, local
and temporal, from the purely Irish corresponding versions of the
same events in the Fian tribal warfare; but there is no doubt that
the early basis of tradition is the same in both countries. The Norse
coloring is more marked, and much sooner felt, in the Scottish than
in the Irish Ossianic material. We soon come, in fact, as we ransack
the Scottish MSS. , upon the signs of the third stage in the history
of the cycle. Of these stages, it may be well to remind the reader
here that the first is, roughly speaking, the passage of Aryan myth
## p. 10871 (#79) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10871
into definite heroic forms of tradition,-in this case forms which
carry the radiant colors of Fian heroes; the second stage is the use of
the tradition to express the early dramatic conflict between Christian
and pagan Celtdom; the third stage is the vigorous adaptation again
of the same tradition to the moving bardic narrative of the strug-
gle with the Norse invaders; the fourth stage is the slow process
through centuries of comparative peace, by which the bards and
chroniclers, falling back upon the past, spent their art, memory, and
imagination upon the accumulated materials,- selecting from them,
modifying them, inventing too on occasion, or coloring anew the
parts that had become worn, but yet through all this preserving a
certain fidelity to the essentials of the cycle. The fifth stage is that
of the deliberate literary use of the materials, by men of genius
like Macpherson, who are of course fully justified in their doings if
only they make it quite clear what their relation to their original
materials is. There is yet another stage which we might add: that
of the modern patient critical investigation of such a cycle, so as to
clear the ground for its future uses both by science and by poetry.
In tracing these stages, one may find it convenient to treat both
the Irish and Scottish Gaelic contributions to the subject as one;
but in the third which we mentioned, where it is a question of the
Norse invader, we certainly get our best popular illustrations from the
Scottish side. Take for example the ballad of The Fian Banners,'
which shows in so striking a light the combination of archaic and
later material. There is a heroic ring about it which must suffice
here to suggest the fine old Gaelic tune to which it was sung tradi-
tionally as the Gaelic tribes marched to war against the invading
Vikings.
THE
THE FIAN BANNERS
HE Norland King stood on the height
And scanned the rolling sea;
He proudly eyed his gallant ships.
That rode triumphantly.
And then he looked where lay his camp,
Along the rocky coast,
And where were seen the heroes brave
Of Lochlin's famous host.
Then to the land he turned, and there
A fierce-like hero came;
Above him was a flag of gold,
That waved and shone like flame.
## p. 10872 (#80) ###########################################
10872
OSSIAN
*Goll.
"Sweet bard," thus spoke the Norland King,
"What banner comes in sight?
The valiant chief that leads the host,
Who is that man of might ? »
"That," said the bard, "is young MacDoon;
His is that banner bright;
When forth the Féinn to battle go,
He's foremost in the fight. "
"Sweet bard, another comes; I see
A blood-red banner tossed
Above a mighty hero's head
Who waves it o'er a host. "
"That banner," quoth the bard, "belongs
To good and valiant Rayne;
Beneath it, feet are bathed in blood
And heads are cleft in twain. "
"Sweet bard, what banner now I see?
A leader fierce and strong
Behind it moves with heroes brave
Who furious round him throng. "
"That is the banner of Great Gaul:*
That silken shred of gold
Is first to march and last to turn,
And flight ne'er stained its fold. "
"Sweet bard, another now I see,-
High o'er a host it glows:
Tell whether it has ever shone
O'er fields of slaughtered foes? "
―――――
"That gory flag is Cailt's,t" quoth he:
"It proudly peers in sight;
It won its fame on many a field
In fierce and bloody fight. "
"Sweet bard, another still I see;
A host it flutters o'er,
Like bird above the roaring surge
That laves the storm-swept shore. "
+ Cailte.
## p. 10873 (#81) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10873
"The Broom of Peril," quoth the bard,
"Young Oscar's banner, see:
Amidst the conflict of dread chiefs
The proudest name has he. "
The banner of great Finn we raised;
The Sunbeam gleaming far,
With golden spangles of renown
From many a field of war.
The flag was fastened to its staff
With nine strong chains of gold,
With nine times nine chiefs for each chain;
Before it foes oft rolled.
"Redeem your pledge to me," said Finn:
"Uplift your deeds of might,
To Lochlin as you did before
In many a blood-stained fight! "
Like torrents from the mountain heights,
That roll resistless on,
So down upon the foe we rushed,
And victory won.
"The Lochlins," or "the people of Lochlin," was the usual name
given to the Norse invaders by the old Gaels. In fact, the name still
survives in many current proverbs, as well as in Fian fragments of
rhyme and balladry.
The whole history of the Ossianic saga-cycle affords, through all
the five stages we have roughly assigned to it, a curious study of
primitive tradition enriching itself by constant accretions, and adapt-
ing itself to new conditions. The cycle does not even confine itself, in
this process, to purely Celtic colors and heroic devices. It carries us
on occasion back into the far East, where its mythic first beginnings
were, as the late J. F. Campbell pointed out in his 'Popular Tales
of the West Highlands. ' There are suggestions, and very strong
ones, not only of Aryan folk-lore but of Arabian romance. It is true,
one does not find to the same degree as in the Welsh 'Mabino-
gion' the infusion of the medieval chivalric sentiment, turned to
such delightful account by the Latin races. But there are instances
in plenty to be cited of chivalric devices, from the Ossianic sagas,
which seem to connect themselves with more southern chivalries.
Some of the customs of the ancient Celtic chivalry bear a curi-
ous resemblance to the more finished code of medieval Europe. If a
lady put geasa (obligation) on a knight or chief, he must obey her,
matter what she asked of him. Thus when the great Finn
no
## p. 10874 (#82) ###########################################
10874
OSSIAN
was still in his barbaric youth, and clad in the skins of wild animals,
he met one day with a highly romantic adventure. Approaching a
stream that ran between steep banks, he descried on one side a party
of damsels, and on the other a party of knights. One who was
clearly the princess among these maidens was, on Finn's approach,
loudly declaring that he who should desire her hand must first leap
the deep, swift stream betwixt them. On the other bank stood the
unfortunate lover, clapping his arms, without courage for the deed.
Thereat Finn came boldly forward, and asked the lady if her hand
should be his on his accomplishing the feat? She answered that
he looked a handsome youth, though so marvelously ill clad; and
that he might have her if he showed himself man enough for the
deed. So Finn took the leap; but then she laid geasa on him that he
should do the like every year. Another princess laid geasa upon him
that he should leap over a dallan as high as his chin, with another
stone of the same size borne upward on the palm of his hand.
Another and tragic instance of the geasa is to be found in the
fate of the beautiful but unfortunate Diarmud MacDoon: one of the
most unforgetable figures in all Ossianic literature. Diarmud pos-
sessed one fatal gift, the ball-seirce,- the power of kindling love in
all the women he met. He was said to have the magic "spot of
beauty" on his forehead, which drew the hearts of all who looked
on him. He was a nephew of Finn, who rejoiced in his bold feats.
The beginning of his misfortune was the wedding feast of Finn with
Grainne, the daughter of King Cormac. At the feast the bride laid
geasa on Diarmud that he should carry her off from her people; and
though this was against his own feeling and his oath of chivalry,
he was obliged to obey. The well-known beautiful ballad 'The Lay
of Diarmud' tells the story of this tragic episode, and Diarmud's
death. The story has been told again and again by Gaelic and
Anglo-Celtic poets; and in its many different versions affords a key
of many wards to the Ossianic entrance-gate. We have references
to it in eleventh-century MSS. , as well as in nineteenth-century re-
prints; and in its most recent reincarnation in modern Irish poetry,
we have a suggestive instance to compare with the literary method
of a very different school of poetr in the last century,- Macpher-
son's, to wit.
Before we turn now, and finally, to the consideration of Mac-
pherson's Ossiana, as resuming in another form and under other
colors the old heroic spirit of the cycle, let us remind the reader
that its whole extent, from the old primitive Fionn and Diarmud
and Ossian to their mediæval or modern counterpart, is simply
immense. We can only pretend here to show the way into this
enchanted realm, and to give a clue to the best and most picturesque
parts of it. But it must be remembered that there is a great deal of
## p. 10875 (#83) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10875
rough ground to get over, and many a thorny thicket to be struggled
through, and many a tiring monotonous road to be traversed. These
are the risks of the adventure; but such risks did not frighten away
Ossian and his fellowship of old, and ought not to frighten the Ossi-
anic student to-day who reads, as they fought, with some spirit and
mother-wit.
Fianna, or Faerie Host,* as sure as old Celtic history can
make them, or as tenuous as the myths of the elements personified
by primitive man ere the Gael reached Britain, they leave one at
last haunted by a music that is only to be found in Celtic poetry.
For a last echo of its melody we must fall back on an unrhymed
version, as affording a fairer point of departure into the long dithy-
rambic rhymeless Ossiana of Macpherson.
IN WELL-DEVISED battle array,
Ahead of their fair chieftain
They march amidst blue spears,
White, curly-headed bands.
They scatter the forces of their foes,
They ravage every hostile land,
Splendidly they march, they march,-
Impetuous, avenging host!
No wonder if their strength be great:
Sons of kings and queens, each one!
On all their heads are
Beautiful golden-yellow manes;
With smooth, comely bodies,
With bright blue-starred eyes,
With pure crystal teeth,
With thin red lips:
Splendidly they march, they march:
Good they are at man-slaying.
In these lines of the 'Fairy Host' we have a color, a life, that is
indicative of old Celtic poetry, and that we miss in the Ossianic
poetry of Macpherson. Broadly, the gloom which characterizes so
much modern Celtic and Anglo-Celtic poetry is not to be found in
the ancient ballads and narratives. True, a genuinely indicative sense
of fatality, of the inevitableness of tragic doom, is often to be found
there. To this day, 'The Lay of Diarmud and Grainne,' or the story
*This is a common interpretation: but the real Fairy Host of tradition is
the mythical Dedannan folk, the Tuatha dé Danann,-"the proudly secure,
beautiful, song-loving, peaceful, hunting people» who inhabited Ireland before
it was invaded by the Milesians; i. e. , the Iberian-Celtic immigration from
Spain under Mil (Mil, Miledh, or Miles).
## p. 10876 (#84) ###########################################
10876
OSSIAN
of 'The Children of Lir,' whether accepted as they have come to
us, or (as in the latter instance) disengaged from early monkish or
mediæval embroidering, remain typical Celtic productions; as, on
another side, may be said of the relatively little known but remark-
able 'Lay of the Amadan Mor,' or 'The Great Fool,' a Gaelic type
after the manner of a Sir Galahad crossed with Don Quixote. *
In Macpherson's 'Ossian-much of which is mere rhetoric, much
of which is arbitrary, and of the eighteenth rather than of the third
century- the abiding charm is that of the lament of a perishing
people; the abiding spell, that of the passing of an ancient and irrev-
ocable order of things. We read it now, not as an authentic chron-
icle of the doings of Finn and his cycle, not even as an authentic
patchwork of old ballads and narratives, but as an imaginary record
based upon fragmentary and fugitive survivals, told not according to
the letter but according to the spirit,― told too in the manner of the
sombre imagination of the Highland Gael, an individual distinct in
many respects from his Irish congener. But we touch the bed-rock
of Celtic emotion here too, again and again.
But first let us see how the rhythmic prose of some of the ancient
poets runs; for it is often ignorance that makes English critics speak
of Macpherson's prose as wholly arbitrary and unnatural to the Celtic
genius. Here is a very ancient Ossianic production known as
CREDHE'S LAMENT
THE
HE haven roars, and O the haven roars, over the rushing race
of Rinn-dá-bharc! The drowning of the warrior of loch dá
chonn - that is what the wave impinging on the strand
laments. Melodious is the crane, and O melodious is the crane,
in the marshlands of Druim-dá-thrén! 'Tis she that may not save
her brood alive: the wild dog of two colors is intent upon her
nestlings. A woeful note, and O a woeful note, is that which the
thrush in Drumqueen emits! but not more cheerful is the wail
that the blackbird makes in Letterlee. A woeful sound, and O a
woeful sound, is that the deer utters in Drumdaleish! Dead lies
the doe of Druim Silenn: the mighty stag bells after her. Sore
suffering to me, and O suffering sore, is the hero's death-his
death, that used to lie with me!
Sore suffering to me is
Cael, and O Cael is a suffering sore, that by my side he is in
dead man's form! That the wave should have swept over his
white body, that is what hath distracted me, so great was his
* It is interesting to note that he has an equivalent in the Peronik of
Breton-Celtic legend, as well as in Cymric and Arthurian romance.
## p. 10877 (#85) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10877
delightfulness. A dismal roar, and O a dismal roar, is that the
shore-surf makes upon the strand!
seeing that the same hath
drowned the comely noble man; to me it is an affliction that Cael
ever sought to encounter it. A woeful booming, and O a boom
of woe, is that which the wave makes upon the northward beach!
beating as it does against the polished rock, lamenting for Cael,
now that he is gone. A woeful fight, and O a fight of woe, is
that the wave wages against the southern shore! As for me, my
span is determined!
A woeful melody, and O a melody
of woe, is that which the heavy surge of Tullachleish emits! As
for me, the calamity that is fallen upon me having shattered me,
for me prosperity exists no more. Since now Crimthann's son is
drowned, one that I may love after him there is not in being.
Many a chief is fallen by his hand, and in the battle his shield
never uttered outcry!
There are some who prefer these old Celtic productions literally
translated, while others can take no pleasure in them unless they
are rendered anew in prose narrative or in rhymed verse. 'Credhe's
Lament' exemplifies one kind; the following Ossianic ballad the
other. It is an extended and less simple but otherwise faithful
version of the lament of Deirdrê (Macpherson's Darthula-for the
Irish Deirdre is in the Highlands Dearduil, which is pronounced Dar-
thool), the Helen of Gaeldom.
DEIRDRE'S LAMENT FOR THE SONS OF USNACH
HE lions of the hill are gone,
And I am left alone- alone:
THE
Dig the grave both wide and deep,
For I am sick, and fain would sleep!
The falcons of the wood are flown,
And I am left alone - alone:
Dig the grave both deep and wide,
And let us slumber side by side.
The dragons of the rock are sleeping,
Sleep that wakes not for our weeping:
Dig the grave, and make it ready,
Lay me on my true-love's body.
Lay their spears and bucklers bright
By the warriors' sides aright:
Many a day the three before me
On their linkèd bucklers bore me.
## p. 10878 (#86) ###########################################
10878
OSSIAN
Lay upon the low grave floor,
'Neath each head, the blue claymore:
Many a time the noble three
Reddened their blue blades for me.
Lay the collars, as is meet,
Of the greyhounds at their feet:
Many a time for me have they
Brought the tall red deer to bay.
In the falcon's jesses throw,
Hook and arrow, line and bow:
Never again, by stream or plain,
Shall the gentle woodsmen go.
Sweet companions were ye ever,—
Harsh to me, your sister, never;
Woods and wilds, and misty valleys,
Were with you as good's a palace.
Oh to hear my true-love singing!
Sweet as sounds of trumpets ringing;
Like the sway of ocean swelling
Rolled his deep voice round our dwelling.
Oh! to hear the echoes pealing
Round our green and fairy shealing,
When the three, with soaring chorus,
Passed the silent skylark o'er us.
Echo, now sleep, morn and even:
Lark, alone enchant the heaven!
Ardan's lips are scant of breath,
Neesa's tongue is cold in death.
Stag, exult on glen and mountain —
Salmon, leap from loch to fountain
Heron, in the free air warm ye-
Usnach's sons no more will harm ye!
Erin's stay no more you are,
Rulers of the ridge of war;
Never more 'twill be your fate
To keep the beam of battle straight!
Woe is me! by fraud and wrong,
Traitors false and tyrants strong,
Fell Clan Usnach, bought and sold,
For Barach's feast and Conor's gold!
## p. 10879 (#87) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10879
Woe to Eman, roof and wall!
Woe to Red Branch, hearth and hall!
Tenfold woe and black dishonor
To the foul and false Clan Conor!
Dig the grave both wide and deep:
Sick I am, and fain would sleep!
Dig the grave and make it ready;
Lay me on my true-love's body.
Here now are two of the Ossianic ballads as Macpherson has ren-
dered them, trying in his rhythmic prose to capture the spirit and
charm and glamour of the original. The theme of the first, of a
woman disguising herself as a man so as to be near or perhaps to
reach her lover, is common to many lands.
COLNA-DONA
From the Poems of Ossian,' by James Macpherson
ARGUMENT. - Fingal dispatched Ossian, and Toscar the son of Conloch and
father of Malvina, to raise a stone on the banks of the stream of
Crona, to perpetuate the memory of a victory which he had obtained
in that place. When they were employed in that work, Car-ul, a
neighboring chief, invited them to a feast. They went: and Toscar
fell desperately in love with Colna-dona, the daughter of Car-ul.
Colna-dona became no less enamored of Toscar. An incident at a
hunting party brings their loves to a happy issue.
COL
OL-AMON of troubled streams, dark wanderer of distant vales,
I behold thy course, between trees, near Car-ul's echoing
halls! There dwelt bright Colna-dona, the daughter of the
king. Her eyes were rolling stars; her arms were white as the
foam of streams. Her breast rose slowly to sight, like ocean's
heaving wave. Her soul was a stream of light.
Who among
the maids was like the Love of Heroes?
Beneath the voice of the king we moved to Crona of the
streams,― Toscar of grassy Lutha, and Ossian, young in fields.
Three bards attended with songs. Three bossy shields were
borne before us; for we were to rear the stone, in memory of
the past. By Crona's mossy course, Fingal had scattered his
foes; he had rolled away the strangers like a troubled sea. We
came to the place of renown; from the mountains descended
night. I tore an oak from its hill, and raised a flame on high.
I bade my fathers to look down, from the clouds of their hall;
for at the fame of their race they brighten in the wind.
## p. 10880 (#88) ###########################################
10880
OSSIAN
I took a stone from the stream, amidst the song of bards.
The blood of Fingal's foes hung curdled in its ooze. Beneath, I
placed at intervals three bosses from the shields of foes, as rose
or fell the sound of Ullin's nightly song. Toscar laid a dagger
in earth, a mail of sounding steel. We raised the mold around
the stone, and bade it speak to other years.
Oozy daughter of streams, that now art reared on high, speak
to the feeble, O stone! after Selma's race have failed! Prone,
from the stormy night, the traveler shall lay him by thy side:
thy whistling moss shall sound in his dreams; the years that
were past shall return. Battles rise before him, blue-shielded
kings descend to war; the darkened moon looks from heaven
on the troubled field. He shall burst, with morning, from dreams,
and see the tombs of warriors round. He shall ask about the
stone, and the aged shall reply, "This gray stone was raised by
Ossian, a chief of other years. "
From Col-amon came a bard, from Car-ul, the friend of
strangers. He bade us to the feast of kings, to the dwelling
of bright Colna-dona. We went to the hall of harps. There
Car-ul brightened between his aged locks, when he beheld the
sons of his friends, like two young branches, before him.
"Sons of the mighty," he said, "ye bring back the days of
old, when first I descended from waves, on Selma's streamy
vale! I pursued Duthmocarglos, dweller of ocean's wind. Our
fathers had been foes, we met by Clutha's winding waters. He
fled along the sea, and my sails were spread behind him. Night
deceived me, on the deep. I came to the dwelling of kings, to
Selma of high-bosomed maids. Fingal came forth with his bards,
and Conloch, arm of death. I feasted three days in the hall, and
saw the blue eyes of Erin, Ros-crána, daughter of heroes, light
of Cormac's race. Nor forgot did my steps depart: the kings
gave their shields to Car-ul; they hang, on high, in Col-amon, in
memory of the past. Sons of the daring kings, ye bring back
the days of old! "
Car-ul kindled the oak of feasts. He took two bosses from
our shields. He laid them in earth, beneath a stone, to speak to
the hero's race. "When battle," said the king, "shall roar, and
our sons are to meet in wrath, my race shall look, perhaps, on
this stone, when they prepare the spear. Have not our fathers
met in peace? they will say, and lay aside the shield. "
Night came down. In her long locks moved the daughter of
Car-ul. Mixed with the harp arose the voice of white-armed
## p. 10881 (#89) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10881
Colna-dona. Toscar darkened in his place, before the love of
heroes. She came on his troubled soul like a beam to the dark-
heaving ocean, when it bursts from a cloud and brightens the
foamy side of a wave.
[Here an episode is entirely lost; or at least is handed down so imper-
fectly that it does not deserve a place in the poem. ]
With morning we awaked the woods, and hung forward on
the path of the roes. They fell by their wonted streams.
We
returned through Crona's vale. From the wood a youth came
forward, with a shield and pointless spear. "Whence," said Tos-
car of Lutha, "is the flying beam? Dwells there peace at Col-
amon, round bright Colna-dona of harps? "
"By Col-amon of streams," said the youth, "bright Colna-dona
dwelt. She dwelt; but her course is now in deserts, with the son
of the king; he that seized with love her soul as it wandered
through the hall. " "Stranger of tales," said Toscar, "hast thou
marked the warrior's course? He must fall: give thou that bossy
shield! " In wrath he took the shield. Fair behind it rose the
breasts of a maid, white as the bosom of a swan, rising graceful
on swift-rolling waves. It was Colna-dona of harps, the daughter
of the king! Her blue eyes had rolled on Toscar, and her love
arose!
THE SONGS OF SELMA
From the Poems of Ossian,' by James Macpherson
STA
TAR of descending night! fair is thy light in the west! Thou
liftest thy unshorn head from thy cloud; thy steps are
stately on thy hill. What dost thou behold in the plain?
The stormy winds are laid. The murmur of the torrent comes
from afar. Roaring waves climb the distant rock. The flies of
evening are on their feeble wings; the hum of their course is on
the field. What dost thou behold, fair light? But thou dost
smile and depart. The waves come with joy around thee: they
bathe thy lovely hair. Farewell, thou silent beam! Let the
light of Ossian's soul arise!
And it does arise in its strength! I behold my departed
friends. Their gathering is on Lora, as in the days of other
years. Fingal comes like a watery column of mist; his heroes
are around. And see the bards of song, gray-haired Ullin!
stately Ryno! Alpin with the tuneful voice! the soft complaint
XIX-681
## p. 10882 (#90) ###########################################
10882
OSSIAN
of Minona! How are ye changed, my friends, since the days of
Selma's feast! when we contended like gales of spring, as they
fly along the hill and bend by turns the feebly whistling grass.
Minona came forth in her beauty; with downcast look and
tearful eye.
Her hair flew slowly on the blast, that rushed un-
frequent from the hill. The souls of the heroes were sad when
she raised the tuneful voice. Often had they seen the grave of
Salgar, the dark dwelling of white-bosomed Colma. Colma left
alone on the hill, with all her voice of song! Salgar promised
to come; but the night descended around. Hear the voice of
Colma, when she sat alone on the hill!
COLMA
It is night; I am alone, forlorn on the hill of storms. The
wind is heard in the mountain. The torrent pours down the
rock. No hut receives me from the rain; forlorn on the hill of
winds!
Rise, moon! from behind thy clouds. Stars of the night,
arise! Lead me, some light, to the place where my love rests
from the chase alone! his bow near him, unstrung; his dogs
panting around him. But here I must sit alone, by the rock of
the mossy stream. The stream and the wind roar aloud. I hear
not the voice of my love! Why delays my Salgar, why the chief
of the hill, his promise? Here is the rock, and here the tree!
here is the roaring stream! Thou didst promise with night to
be here. Ah! whither is my Salgar gone? With thee I would
fly, from my father; with thee, from my brother of pride. Our
race have long been foes: we are not foes, O Salgar!
stream, be thou silent awhile!
Cease a little while, O wind!
let my voice be heard around. Let my wanderer hear me!
Salgar! it is Colma who calls. Here is the tree, and the rock.
Salgar, my love! I am here. Why delayest thou thy coming?
Lo! the calm moon comes forth. The flood is bright in the
vale. The rocks are gray on the steep. I see him not on the
brow. His dogs come not before him, with tidings of his near
approach. Here I must sit alone.
Who lie on the heath beside me? Are they my love and my
brother? Speak to me, O my friends! To Colma they give no
reply. Speak to me: I am alone! My soul is tormented with
fears! Ah! they are dead! Their swords are red from the fight.
O my brother! my brother! why hast thou slain my Salgar?
why, O Salgar! hast thou slain my brother? Dear were ye both
## p. 10883 (#91) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10883
to me! what shall I say in your praise ? Thou wert fair on the
hill among thousands! he was terrible in fight. Speak to me;
hear my voice; hear me, sons of my love! They are silent;
silent forever! Cold, cold are their breasts of clay!
of our ancient poetry have changed the venue. We have a whole
cycle of Gaelic tales and poems now on the subject, which have been
gradually unearthed, affording new clues and a clearer outlook. Out
of these fuller materials we may still construct, if we will, an ideal
Ossian, just as Macpherson did. But we must remember, if we do,
that there is no corresponding real Ossian, the actual and undenia-
ble author of these Gaelic sagas or any part of them. Indeed, to be
at all precise in choosing their typical hero, we should have to admit
that a better name than Ossian's for our label would be Finn's*;
while the whole cycle is wider than the names of either Finn or
Ossian would fully suggest.
It is Ossian, however, to whom. by force of habit and by popu-
lar suffrage, we still look and probably shall ever look as the king
in this haunted realm. And Ossian's name, no doubt, will still best
serve to characterize the poetry which fragmentarily but none the
less potently long ago fascinated Macpherson, and through him.
caught the ear of Europe.
Who then was Ossian? †
Ossian, or Oisin, was traditionally the son of Finn; that Finn mac
Cumhool (Cool) whose name is in Celtic literature the beacon round
which all other lesser lights congregate. Oisin may be roughly
assigned in history to the Ireland of the end of the third century.
According to Scottish tradition, Finn, however, was the son of a
Scottish king who came over from Ireland, and of a Scandinavian
* Finn, Fionn, Fin. The Scottish or rather Macphersonian equivalent, Fin-
gal, is not ancient.
Ossian is the Scottish variant, and that most familiar to non-Celtic peo-
ples. Osh-shin is the common pronunciation in the Highlands. The proper
spelling is Oisin; but even in Ireland the name is never so pronounced, but
variably as Usheen, Isheen, Useen, Washeen, and otherwise.
XIX-680
## p. 10866 (#74) ###########################################
10866
OSSIAN
princess; and we may say at once that this mixed Celtic and Norse
origin is significant, not only for the personal history of the hero
himself, but for that of the whole heroic literature to which he and
his son Ossian lend characteristic life, color, and antique circumstance.
It is to the fine fusion of certain Norse with certain Gaelic elements,
in the Aryan past, that we owe the particular genre, at any rate,
which was produced in the Scottish region associated with Ossian.
Some difference is to be found if we turn to the more purely Irish
of our Gaelic originals, and seek in Ireland for the old battle which
is almost always, in Celtic tradition, the beginning of what we may
call epic balladry.
In this case it is the battle of Cnucha (Castleknock), ten miles
from the present city of Dublin, which sets the war-music going.
Here it was that Conn of the Hundred Battles warred with Cool
(Cumhool) Finn's father, and Cool was slain by Aedh, afterwards
known as "Goll," or the Blind, because he lost an eye in the battle.
This gives a leitmotiv to the dramatic episodes that follow, in Finn's
desire for revenge on his father's enemies. Here begins a sort of
tribal warfare between Munster and Connaught, which ends in the
destruction of the followers of Finn, the "Fianna," -a name, by the
way, which, although it so closely resembles Finn's, has no connection
with it; meaning simply the tribal militia, or "Fenians," to use the
modern equivalent that has been too long removed from its original
context to be successfully replaced there. The battle of Gowra is the
last great event of this war. At Gowra, Ossian and his son Oscar
fought disastrously against the descendants of Conn of the Hundred
Battles, and the power of the Fianna was finally broken.
In these battles and their allied and sequent episodes and disas-
ters and tribal intrigues, we arrive at the basis of the Irish tradi-
tions of the Ossianic cycle. And though there is endless variation in
the names and dates and places involved, according as these tradi-
tions were retailed in one country-side, or one century, or another, we
still find that behind them lurks a real fragment of heroic history,
colored perhaps by some earlier Celtic myth, and in any case full
of potential romance, heroic imagination, and a crude but splendid
poetry. It is not only that the subject-matter behind it is so full and
rich, but that the manner and turn of its expression is also so indi-
vidual and sonorous and effective. As for its subject-matter, it may
be said to range over something like thirteen or fourteen centuries,
from first to last. We have already referred to its quasi-historical
first beginnings in the third century, when Fionn's father fought
Conn of the Hundred Battles, and fell by the hand of Goll; and many
critics are content to accept this as the extreme starting-point. But
if we accept the conclusions of such authorities in Celtic folk-lore as
## p. 10867 (#75) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10867
<<
Professor Kuno Meyer and his collaborator Mr. Alfred Nutt, we shall
have to travel much further back into time. Mr. Nutt has stated
very ingeniously and carefully the claim for a mythical prehistoric
origin for the Ossianic cycle. "Every Celtic tribe," he writes, pos-
sessed traditions both mythical and historical.
Myth and his-
tory acted and reacted upon each other, and produced heroic saga,
which may be defined as myth tinged and distorted by history. The
largest element is as a rule suggested by myth, so that the varying
heroic sagas of a race have always a great deal in common. »
Whether we quite accept this or not, in its entirety, we cannot
ignore the distinct mythical coloring of many parts of the Ossianic
cycle; and admitting it to exist, we are at once carried to the remote
pre-Gaelic antiquity of the Aryan peoples, who personified sun, stars,
earth, sea, air, fire, and water, and told the folk-tales which were to
grow into Homeric epics, Norse sagas, and Ossianic ballads, as races
and languages grew and took on a local habitation and a name.
These wild-birds of old tradition found in their flight through
time a congenial resting-place in the mountain regions which we
associate with Ossian, whether in Scotland or Ireland. There they
prospered and their broods grew and spread, century after century.
To drop the figure of speech, the descendants of these first folk-tales,
that grew and turned themselves into little heroic histories, multi-
plied wherever the Gaelic imagination worked on the memories of
the people, and the Gaelic tongue gave it characteristic expression.
Thus we have, in the immense number of MSS. dealing with Ossianic
materials, ballads and stories which date from almost every century
from the tenth to the eighteenth. Successive bards and tale-tellers
shaped them and colored them anew time after time, fitting them to
the need of the period; using them now as a thinly veiled fable of
recent events, now as an allegory of war, and now as a localized and
modified narrative of some Norse invasion or some lingering tribal
feud.
There is nothing more interesting in the whole history of the
world's literature than this passage of the Ossianic tradition through
the centuries until it arrived in the eighteenth at Macpherson, whose
genius gave it new effect and a new set of disguises that still puzzle
many people. At this late hour in our own day it has had a strange
and significant re-birth, though in the spirit rather than in the letter.
We wish here to pursue the tradition in its adventures, and as
much for the entertainment to be had by the way as for its curious
historical and severely literary interest. One or two of its earlier
phases have already been touched upon; but we have said nothing
yet of the exceedingly characteristic way in which the early conflict
in Gaeldom between the old pagan and the new Christian cult is
## p. 10868 (#76) ###########################################
10868
OSSIAN
given dramatic expression in the cycle. One of the richest of its
sections is that devoted to the series of ballad-colloquies between St.
Patrick and Ossian, as the special pleaders respectively of the new
and the old order.
"The spirit of banter," says Dr. Hyde, "with which St. Patrick and the
Church are treated, and in which the fun just stops short of irreverence, is
a mediæval, not a primitive trait;
we all remember the inimitable
felicity with which that great English-speaking Gael, Sir Walter Scott, has
caught this Ossianic tone in the lines which Hector McIntyre repeats for the
Antiquary:-
-
"To which the saint replies:-
ST.
T. PATRICK -
Ossian-
With this grotesque echo we may compare the real text of one of
the actual 'Dialogues' or 'Colloquies,' which we owe to the Irish
Ossianic Society's good offices. The MS. in this case was a com-
paratively modern copy, but the faithfulness of the copy may be
guaranteed from ancient sources:-
«Patrick the psalm-singer,
Since you will not listen to one of my stories
Though you never heard it before,
I am sorry to tell you
You are little better than an ass. '
St. Patrick-
«Upon my word, son of Fingal,
While I am warbling the psalms,
The clamor of your old-woman's tales
Disturbs my devotional exercises. >>>
COLLOQUY OF OSSIAN AND ST. PATRICK
Ossian, long and late thy sleep!
Rise up, and hear the psalm!
Thy strength is gone, thy swiftness flown,
That made thee known,- and thy fierce right arm!
My swiftness and my strength are flown
Since Fionn's swords are swept away!
And no holy priest, since his song has ceased,
Has ever pleased me with his lay.
Thou hast not heard such hymns as mine,
Since the world began until this day!
But your dream is still of the host on the hill,
Though thou art ill and worn and gray!
## p. 10869 (#77) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10869
Ossian-I used to join the host on the hill,
O Patrick of the sombre brow!
And it fits not thee to cast at me
My misery, as thou didst now.
I have heard songs more sweet than these
In praise of priests. At Letterlee
How long I heard the rare blackbird,
Or the Fiann Dord* and its melody.
And the sweet song-thrush of Glenasgael,
And the rush of the boats upon the shore,
And the hounds full-cry, when the deer sweep by,
Than thy psalmody I love much more.
It must be admitted that in these strange 'Colloquies,' it is to
Ossian that all the most lovely lyrical passages are allocated. He de-
feats again and again the solemn monitions of his saintly co-disputant,
by the most tender and impassioned recall of the old delights of the
land he so loved. Now it is the plaintive whistle of the sea-mews,
now the bellow of the oxen and the low of the calves of Glen-
d'-mhael, or the soft, swift gallop of the fawns in the forest glade,
or the murmur of the falling mountain streams. Above all, the
song of the blackbird haunts him; reviving in his old-man's heart all
that was sweetest in the youth and joyous springtime of the Fiann
era, when it was at its most auspicious period. Ossian's ode to the
'Blackbird of Derrycarn,' which is generally found in the Gaelic
MSS. , printed apart from the current Patrick-cum-Ossian text, is one
of the most sweet and haunting of all his lyrical recountings of that
joyous past. Fortunately, it is accompanied as printed first in the
transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin by an excellent trans-
lation by William Leahy; which however, excellent as it is, as
excellent as any foreign tongue can make it seem,-yet can render
no full account of the charm and melancholy sweetness and music
of the Gaelic. We have adopted, with some slight modifications, this
version of Leahy's:-
TO THE BLACKBIRD OF DERRYCARN
Ossian Sang
SWEE
WEET bird and bard of sable wing,
Sweet warbler, hid in Carna grove,
No lays so haunting shall I hear
Again, though round the earth I rove.
*The Dord was a hunting or war horn.
-
## p. 10870 (#78) ###########################################
10870
OSSIAN
Cease, son of Alphron, cease thy bells,
That call sick men to church again!
In Carna wood now hark awhile,
And hear my blackbird's magic strain.
Ah, if its plaint thou truly heard,
Its melancholy song of old,
Thou wouldst forget thy psalms awhile,
As down thy cheeks the tears were rolled.
For where it sings, in Carna wood,
That westward throws its sombre shade,
There, listening to its strain too long,
The Fians-noble race- delayed.
That note it was, from Carna wood,
That woke the hind on Cora steep;
That note it was, in the wakeful dawn,
Lulled Fionn yet to sweeter sleep.
It sang beside the weedy pool
That into triple rills divides,
Where, cooling in the crystal wave,
The. bird of silvery feather glides.
It sang again by Croan's heath,
And from yon water-girded hill,
A deeper note, a cry of woe,
-
That lingers— tender, pensive — still.
It sang so once to Fionn's host,
And pleased the heroes with its plaint:
More lore, they deemed, the blackbird knew,
Than lurks in penances, O Saint!
So far we have been drawing chiefly upon the rich Irish store
of these things; but the Fianna of Albin were as rich in saga as
the Fianna of Erin, and the Scottish Ossianic or Fiannic ballads and
stories are fully as interesting. They show certain differences, local
and temporal, from the purely Irish corresponding versions of the
same events in the Fian tribal warfare; but there is no doubt that
the early basis of tradition is the same in both countries. The Norse
coloring is more marked, and much sooner felt, in the Scottish than
in the Irish Ossianic material. We soon come, in fact, as we ransack
the Scottish MSS. , upon the signs of the third stage in the history
of the cycle. Of these stages, it may be well to remind the reader
here that the first is, roughly speaking, the passage of Aryan myth
## p. 10871 (#79) ###########################################
OSSIAN
10871
into definite heroic forms of tradition,-in this case forms which
carry the radiant colors of Fian heroes; the second stage is the use of
the tradition to express the early dramatic conflict between Christian
and pagan Celtdom; the third stage is the vigorous adaptation again
of the same tradition to the moving bardic narrative of the strug-
gle with the Norse invaders; the fourth stage is the slow process
through centuries of comparative peace, by which the bards and
chroniclers, falling back upon the past, spent their art, memory, and
imagination upon the accumulated materials,- selecting from them,
modifying them, inventing too on occasion, or coloring anew the
parts that had become worn, but yet through all this preserving a
certain fidelity to the essentials of the cycle. The fifth stage is that
of the deliberate literary use of the materials, by men of genius
like Macpherson, who are of course fully justified in their doings if
only they make it quite clear what their relation to their original
materials is. There is yet another stage which we might add: that
of the modern patient critical investigation of such a cycle, so as to
clear the ground for its future uses both by science and by poetry.
In tracing these stages, one may find it convenient to treat both
the Irish and Scottish Gaelic contributions to the subject as one;
but in the third which we mentioned, where it is a question of the
Norse invader, we certainly get our best popular illustrations from the
Scottish side. Take for example the ballad of The Fian Banners,'
which shows in so striking a light the combination of archaic and
later material. There is a heroic ring about it which must suffice
here to suggest the fine old Gaelic tune to which it was sung tradi-
tionally as the Gaelic tribes marched to war against the invading
Vikings.
THE
THE FIAN BANNERS
HE Norland King stood on the height
And scanned the rolling sea;
He proudly eyed his gallant ships.
That rode triumphantly.
And then he looked where lay his camp,
Along the rocky coast,
And where were seen the heroes brave
Of Lochlin's famous host.
Then to the land he turned, and there
A fierce-like hero came;
Above him was a flag of gold,
That waved and shone like flame.
## p. 10872 (#80) ###########################################
10872
OSSIAN
*Goll.
"Sweet bard," thus spoke the Norland King,
"What banner comes in sight?
The valiant chief that leads the host,
Who is that man of might ? »
"That," said the bard, "is young MacDoon;
His is that banner bright;
When forth the Féinn to battle go,
He's foremost in the fight. "
"Sweet bard, another comes; I see
A blood-red banner tossed
Above a mighty hero's head
Who waves it o'er a host. "
"That banner," quoth the bard, "belongs
To good and valiant Rayne;
Beneath it, feet are bathed in blood
And heads are cleft in twain. "
"Sweet bard, what banner now I see?
A leader fierce and strong
Behind it moves with heroes brave
Who furious round him throng. "
"That is the banner of Great Gaul:*
That silken shred of gold
Is first to march and last to turn,
And flight ne'er stained its fold. "
"Sweet bard, another now I see,-
High o'er a host it glows:
Tell whether it has ever shone
O'er fields of slaughtered foes? "
―――――
"That gory flag is Cailt's,t" quoth he:
"It proudly peers in sight;
It won its fame on many a field
In fierce and bloody fight. "
"Sweet bard, another still I see;
A host it flutters o'er,
Like bird above the roaring surge
That laves the storm-swept shore. "
+ Cailte.
## p. 10873 (#81) ###########################################
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10873
"The Broom of Peril," quoth the bard,
"Young Oscar's banner, see:
Amidst the conflict of dread chiefs
The proudest name has he. "
The banner of great Finn we raised;
The Sunbeam gleaming far,
With golden spangles of renown
From many a field of war.
The flag was fastened to its staff
With nine strong chains of gold,
With nine times nine chiefs for each chain;
Before it foes oft rolled.
"Redeem your pledge to me," said Finn:
"Uplift your deeds of might,
To Lochlin as you did before
In many a blood-stained fight! "
Like torrents from the mountain heights,
That roll resistless on,
So down upon the foe we rushed,
And victory won.
"The Lochlins," or "the people of Lochlin," was the usual name
given to the Norse invaders by the old Gaels. In fact, the name still
survives in many current proverbs, as well as in Fian fragments of
rhyme and balladry.
The whole history of the Ossianic saga-cycle affords, through all
the five stages we have roughly assigned to it, a curious study of
primitive tradition enriching itself by constant accretions, and adapt-
ing itself to new conditions. The cycle does not even confine itself, in
this process, to purely Celtic colors and heroic devices. It carries us
on occasion back into the far East, where its mythic first beginnings
were, as the late J. F. Campbell pointed out in his 'Popular Tales
of the West Highlands. ' There are suggestions, and very strong
ones, not only of Aryan folk-lore but of Arabian romance. It is true,
one does not find to the same degree as in the Welsh 'Mabino-
gion' the infusion of the medieval chivalric sentiment, turned to
such delightful account by the Latin races. But there are instances
in plenty to be cited of chivalric devices, from the Ossianic sagas,
which seem to connect themselves with more southern chivalries.
Some of the customs of the ancient Celtic chivalry bear a curi-
ous resemblance to the more finished code of medieval Europe. If a
lady put geasa (obligation) on a knight or chief, he must obey her,
matter what she asked of him. Thus when the great Finn
no
## p. 10874 (#82) ###########################################
10874
OSSIAN
was still in his barbaric youth, and clad in the skins of wild animals,
he met one day with a highly romantic adventure. Approaching a
stream that ran between steep banks, he descried on one side a party
of damsels, and on the other a party of knights. One who was
clearly the princess among these maidens was, on Finn's approach,
loudly declaring that he who should desire her hand must first leap
the deep, swift stream betwixt them. On the other bank stood the
unfortunate lover, clapping his arms, without courage for the deed.
Thereat Finn came boldly forward, and asked the lady if her hand
should be his on his accomplishing the feat? She answered that
he looked a handsome youth, though so marvelously ill clad; and
that he might have her if he showed himself man enough for the
deed. So Finn took the leap; but then she laid geasa on him that he
should do the like every year. Another princess laid geasa upon him
that he should leap over a dallan as high as his chin, with another
stone of the same size borne upward on the palm of his hand.
Another and tragic instance of the geasa is to be found in the
fate of the beautiful but unfortunate Diarmud MacDoon: one of the
most unforgetable figures in all Ossianic literature. Diarmud pos-
sessed one fatal gift, the ball-seirce,- the power of kindling love in
all the women he met. He was said to have the magic "spot of
beauty" on his forehead, which drew the hearts of all who looked
on him. He was a nephew of Finn, who rejoiced in his bold feats.
The beginning of his misfortune was the wedding feast of Finn with
Grainne, the daughter of King Cormac. At the feast the bride laid
geasa on Diarmud that he should carry her off from her people; and
though this was against his own feeling and his oath of chivalry,
he was obliged to obey. The well-known beautiful ballad 'The Lay
of Diarmud' tells the story of this tragic episode, and Diarmud's
death. The story has been told again and again by Gaelic and
Anglo-Celtic poets; and in its many different versions affords a key
of many wards to the Ossianic entrance-gate. We have references
to it in eleventh-century MSS. , as well as in nineteenth-century re-
prints; and in its most recent reincarnation in modern Irish poetry,
we have a suggestive instance to compare with the literary method
of a very different school of poetr in the last century,- Macpher-
son's, to wit.
Before we turn now, and finally, to the consideration of Mac-
pherson's Ossiana, as resuming in another form and under other
colors the old heroic spirit of the cycle, let us remind the reader
that its whole extent, from the old primitive Fionn and Diarmud
and Ossian to their mediæval or modern counterpart, is simply
immense. We can only pretend here to show the way into this
enchanted realm, and to give a clue to the best and most picturesque
parts of it. But it must be remembered that there is a great deal of
## p. 10875 (#83) ###########################################
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10875
rough ground to get over, and many a thorny thicket to be struggled
through, and many a tiring monotonous road to be traversed. These
are the risks of the adventure; but such risks did not frighten away
Ossian and his fellowship of old, and ought not to frighten the Ossi-
anic student to-day who reads, as they fought, with some spirit and
mother-wit.
Fianna, or Faerie Host,* as sure as old Celtic history can
make them, or as tenuous as the myths of the elements personified
by primitive man ere the Gael reached Britain, they leave one at
last haunted by a music that is only to be found in Celtic poetry.
For a last echo of its melody we must fall back on an unrhymed
version, as affording a fairer point of departure into the long dithy-
rambic rhymeless Ossiana of Macpherson.
IN WELL-DEVISED battle array,
Ahead of their fair chieftain
They march amidst blue spears,
White, curly-headed bands.
They scatter the forces of their foes,
They ravage every hostile land,
Splendidly they march, they march,-
Impetuous, avenging host!
No wonder if their strength be great:
Sons of kings and queens, each one!
On all their heads are
Beautiful golden-yellow manes;
With smooth, comely bodies,
With bright blue-starred eyes,
With pure crystal teeth,
With thin red lips:
Splendidly they march, they march:
Good they are at man-slaying.
In these lines of the 'Fairy Host' we have a color, a life, that is
indicative of old Celtic poetry, and that we miss in the Ossianic
poetry of Macpherson. Broadly, the gloom which characterizes so
much modern Celtic and Anglo-Celtic poetry is not to be found in
the ancient ballads and narratives. True, a genuinely indicative sense
of fatality, of the inevitableness of tragic doom, is often to be found
there. To this day, 'The Lay of Diarmud and Grainne,' or the story
*This is a common interpretation: but the real Fairy Host of tradition is
the mythical Dedannan folk, the Tuatha dé Danann,-"the proudly secure,
beautiful, song-loving, peaceful, hunting people» who inhabited Ireland before
it was invaded by the Milesians; i. e. , the Iberian-Celtic immigration from
Spain under Mil (Mil, Miledh, or Miles).
## p. 10876 (#84) ###########################################
10876
OSSIAN
of 'The Children of Lir,' whether accepted as they have come to
us, or (as in the latter instance) disengaged from early monkish or
mediæval embroidering, remain typical Celtic productions; as, on
another side, may be said of the relatively little known but remark-
able 'Lay of the Amadan Mor,' or 'The Great Fool,' a Gaelic type
after the manner of a Sir Galahad crossed with Don Quixote. *
In Macpherson's 'Ossian-much of which is mere rhetoric, much
of which is arbitrary, and of the eighteenth rather than of the third
century- the abiding charm is that of the lament of a perishing
people; the abiding spell, that of the passing of an ancient and irrev-
ocable order of things. We read it now, not as an authentic chron-
icle of the doings of Finn and his cycle, not even as an authentic
patchwork of old ballads and narratives, but as an imaginary record
based upon fragmentary and fugitive survivals, told not according to
the letter but according to the spirit,― told too in the manner of the
sombre imagination of the Highland Gael, an individual distinct in
many respects from his Irish congener. But we touch the bed-rock
of Celtic emotion here too, again and again.
But first let us see how the rhythmic prose of some of the ancient
poets runs; for it is often ignorance that makes English critics speak
of Macpherson's prose as wholly arbitrary and unnatural to the Celtic
genius. Here is a very ancient Ossianic production known as
CREDHE'S LAMENT
THE
HE haven roars, and O the haven roars, over the rushing race
of Rinn-dá-bharc! The drowning of the warrior of loch dá
chonn - that is what the wave impinging on the strand
laments. Melodious is the crane, and O melodious is the crane,
in the marshlands of Druim-dá-thrén! 'Tis she that may not save
her brood alive: the wild dog of two colors is intent upon her
nestlings. A woeful note, and O a woeful note, is that which the
thrush in Drumqueen emits! but not more cheerful is the wail
that the blackbird makes in Letterlee. A woeful sound, and O a
woeful sound, is that the deer utters in Drumdaleish! Dead lies
the doe of Druim Silenn: the mighty stag bells after her. Sore
suffering to me, and O suffering sore, is the hero's death-his
death, that used to lie with me!
Sore suffering to me is
Cael, and O Cael is a suffering sore, that by my side he is in
dead man's form! That the wave should have swept over his
white body, that is what hath distracted me, so great was his
* It is interesting to note that he has an equivalent in the Peronik of
Breton-Celtic legend, as well as in Cymric and Arthurian romance.
## p. 10877 (#85) ###########################################
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10877
delightfulness. A dismal roar, and O a dismal roar, is that the
shore-surf makes upon the strand!
seeing that the same hath
drowned the comely noble man; to me it is an affliction that Cael
ever sought to encounter it. A woeful booming, and O a boom
of woe, is that which the wave makes upon the northward beach!
beating as it does against the polished rock, lamenting for Cael,
now that he is gone. A woeful fight, and O a fight of woe, is
that the wave wages against the southern shore! As for me, my
span is determined!
A woeful melody, and O a melody
of woe, is that which the heavy surge of Tullachleish emits! As
for me, the calamity that is fallen upon me having shattered me,
for me prosperity exists no more. Since now Crimthann's son is
drowned, one that I may love after him there is not in being.
Many a chief is fallen by his hand, and in the battle his shield
never uttered outcry!
There are some who prefer these old Celtic productions literally
translated, while others can take no pleasure in them unless they
are rendered anew in prose narrative or in rhymed verse. 'Credhe's
Lament' exemplifies one kind; the following Ossianic ballad the
other. It is an extended and less simple but otherwise faithful
version of the lament of Deirdrê (Macpherson's Darthula-for the
Irish Deirdre is in the Highlands Dearduil, which is pronounced Dar-
thool), the Helen of Gaeldom.
DEIRDRE'S LAMENT FOR THE SONS OF USNACH
HE lions of the hill are gone,
And I am left alone- alone:
THE
Dig the grave both wide and deep,
For I am sick, and fain would sleep!
The falcons of the wood are flown,
And I am left alone - alone:
Dig the grave both deep and wide,
And let us slumber side by side.
The dragons of the rock are sleeping,
Sleep that wakes not for our weeping:
Dig the grave, and make it ready,
Lay me on my true-love's body.
Lay their spears and bucklers bright
By the warriors' sides aright:
Many a day the three before me
On their linkèd bucklers bore me.
## p. 10878 (#86) ###########################################
10878
OSSIAN
Lay upon the low grave floor,
'Neath each head, the blue claymore:
Many a time the noble three
Reddened their blue blades for me.
Lay the collars, as is meet,
Of the greyhounds at their feet:
Many a time for me have they
Brought the tall red deer to bay.
In the falcon's jesses throw,
Hook and arrow, line and bow:
Never again, by stream or plain,
Shall the gentle woodsmen go.
Sweet companions were ye ever,—
Harsh to me, your sister, never;
Woods and wilds, and misty valleys,
Were with you as good's a palace.
Oh to hear my true-love singing!
Sweet as sounds of trumpets ringing;
Like the sway of ocean swelling
Rolled his deep voice round our dwelling.
Oh! to hear the echoes pealing
Round our green and fairy shealing,
When the three, with soaring chorus,
Passed the silent skylark o'er us.
Echo, now sleep, morn and even:
Lark, alone enchant the heaven!
Ardan's lips are scant of breath,
Neesa's tongue is cold in death.
Stag, exult on glen and mountain —
Salmon, leap from loch to fountain
Heron, in the free air warm ye-
Usnach's sons no more will harm ye!
Erin's stay no more you are,
Rulers of the ridge of war;
Never more 'twill be your fate
To keep the beam of battle straight!
Woe is me! by fraud and wrong,
Traitors false and tyrants strong,
Fell Clan Usnach, bought and sold,
For Barach's feast and Conor's gold!
## p. 10879 (#87) ###########################################
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10879
Woe to Eman, roof and wall!
Woe to Red Branch, hearth and hall!
Tenfold woe and black dishonor
To the foul and false Clan Conor!
Dig the grave both wide and deep:
Sick I am, and fain would sleep!
Dig the grave and make it ready;
Lay me on my true-love's body.
Here now are two of the Ossianic ballads as Macpherson has ren-
dered them, trying in his rhythmic prose to capture the spirit and
charm and glamour of the original. The theme of the first, of a
woman disguising herself as a man so as to be near or perhaps to
reach her lover, is common to many lands.
COLNA-DONA
From the Poems of Ossian,' by James Macpherson
ARGUMENT. - Fingal dispatched Ossian, and Toscar the son of Conloch and
father of Malvina, to raise a stone on the banks of the stream of
Crona, to perpetuate the memory of a victory which he had obtained
in that place. When they were employed in that work, Car-ul, a
neighboring chief, invited them to a feast. They went: and Toscar
fell desperately in love with Colna-dona, the daughter of Car-ul.
Colna-dona became no less enamored of Toscar. An incident at a
hunting party brings their loves to a happy issue.
COL
OL-AMON of troubled streams, dark wanderer of distant vales,
I behold thy course, between trees, near Car-ul's echoing
halls! There dwelt bright Colna-dona, the daughter of the
king. Her eyes were rolling stars; her arms were white as the
foam of streams. Her breast rose slowly to sight, like ocean's
heaving wave. Her soul was a stream of light.
Who among
the maids was like the Love of Heroes?
Beneath the voice of the king we moved to Crona of the
streams,― Toscar of grassy Lutha, and Ossian, young in fields.
Three bards attended with songs. Three bossy shields were
borne before us; for we were to rear the stone, in memory of
the past. By Crona's mossy course, Fingal had scattered his
foes; he had rolled away the strangers like a troubled sea. We
came to the place of renown; from the mountains descended
night. I tore an oak from its hill, and raised a flame on high.
I bade my fathers to look down, from the clouds of their hall;
for at the fame of their race they brighten in the wind.
## p. 10880 (#88) ###########################################
10880
OSSIAN
I took a stone from the stream, amidst the song of bards.
The blood of Fingal's foes hung curdled in its ooze. Beneath, I
placed at intervals three bosses from the shields of foes, as rose
or fell the sound of Ullin's nightly song. Toscar laid a dagger
in earth, a mail of sounding steel. We raised the mold around
the stone, and bade it speak to other years.
Oozy daughter of streams, that now art reared on high, speak
to the feeble, O stone! after Selma's race have failed! Prone,
from the stormy night, the traveler shall lay him by thy side:
thy whistling moss shall sound in his dreams; the years that
were past shall return. Battles rise before him, blue-shielded
kings descend to war; the darkened moon looks from heaven
on the troubled field. He shall burst, with morning, from dreams,
and see the tombs of warriors round. He shall ask about the
stone, and the aged shall reply, "This gray stone was raised by
Ossian, a chief of other years. "
From Col-amon came a bard, from Car-ul, the friend of
strangers. He bade us to the feast of kings, to the dwelling
of bright Colna-dona. We went to the hall of harps. There
Car-ul brightened between his aged locks, when he beheld the
sons of his friends, like two young branches, before him.
"Sons of the mighty," he said, "ye bring back the days of
old, when first I descended from waves, on Selma's streamy
vale! I pursued Duthmocarglos, dweller of ocean's wind. Our
fathers had been foes, we met by Clutha's winding waters. He
fled along the sea, and my sails were spread behind him. Night
deceived me, on the deep. I came to the dwelling of kings, to
Selma of high-bosomed maids. Fingal came forth with his bards,
and Conloch, arm of death. I feasted three days in the hall, and
saw the blue eyes of Erin, Ros-crána, daughter of heroes, light
of Cormac's race. Nor forgot did my steps depart: the kings
gave their shields to Car-ul; they hang, on high, in Col-amon, in
memory of the past. Sons of the daring kings, ye bring back
the days of old! "
Car-ul kindled the oak of feasts. He took two bosses from
our shields. He laid them in earth, beneath a stone, to speak to
the hero's race. "When battle," said the king, "shall roar, and
our sons are to meet in wrath, my race shall look, perhaps, on
this stone, when they prepare the spear. Have not our fathers
met in peace? they will say, and lay aside the shield. "
Night came down. In her long locks moved the daughter of
Car-ul. Mixed with the harp arose the voice of white-armed
## p. 10881 (#89) ###########################################
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10881
Colna-dona. Toscar darkened in his place, before the love of
heroes. She came on his troubled soul like a beam to the dark-
heaving ocean, when it bursts from a cloud and brightens the
foamy side of a wave.
[Here an episode is entirely lost; or at least is handed down so imper-
fectly that it does not deserve a place in the poem. ]
With morning we awaked the woods, and hung forward on
the path of the roes. They fell by their wonted streams.
We
returned through Crona's vale. From the wood a youth came
forward, with a shield and pointless spear. "Whence," said Tos-
car of Lutha, "is the flying beam? Dwells there peace at Col-
amon, round bright Colna-dona of harps? "
"By Col-amon of streams," said the youth, "bright Colna-dona
dwelt. She dwelt; but her course is now in deserts, with the son
of the king; he that seized with love her soul as it wandered
through the hall. " "Stranger of tales," said Toscar, "hast thou
marked the warrior's course? He must fall: give thou that bossy
shield! " In wrath he took the shield. Fair behind it rose the
breasts of a maid, white as the bosom of a swan, rising graceful
on swift-rolling waves. It was Colna-dona of harps, the daughter
of the king! Her blue eyes had rolled on Toscar, and her love
arose!
THE SONGS OF SELMA
From the Poems of Ossian,' by James Macpherson
STA
TAR of descending night! fair is thy light in the west! Thou
liftest thy unshorn head from thy cloud; thy steps are
stately on thy hill. What dost thou behold in the plain?
The stormy winds are laid. The murmur of the torrent comes
from afar. Roaring waves climb the distant rock. The flies of
evening are on their feeble wings; the hum of their course is on
the field. What dost thou behold, fair light? But thou dost
smile and depart. The waves come with joy around thee: they
bathe thy lovely hair. Farewell, thou silent beam! Let the
light of Ossian's soul arise!
And it does arise in its strength! I behold my departed
friends. Their gathering is on Lora, as in the days of other
years. Fingal comes like a watery column of mist; his heroes
are around. And see the bards of song, gray-haired Ullin!
stately Ryno! Alpin with the tuneful voice! the soft complaint
XIX-681
## p. 10882 (#90) ###########################################
10882
OSSIAN
of Minona! How are ye changed, my friends, since the days of
Selma's feast! when we contended like gales of spring, as they
fly along the hill and bend by turns the feebly whistling grass.
Minona came forth in her beauty; with downcast look and
tearful eye.
Her hair flew slowly on the blast, that rushed un-
frequent from the hill. The souls of the heroes were sad when
she raised the tuneful voice. Often had they seen the grave of
Salgar, the dark dwelling of white-bosomed Colma. Colma left
alone on the hill, with all her voice of song! Salgar promised
to come; but the night descended around. Hear the voice of
Colma, when she sat alone on the hill!
COLMA
It is night; I am alone, forlorn on the hill of storms. The
wind is heard in the mountain. The torrent pours down the
rock. No hut receives me from the rain; forlorn on the hill of
winds!
Rise, moon! from behind thy clouds. Stars of the night,
arise! Lead me, some light, to the place where my love rests
from the chase alone! his bow near him, unstrung; his dogs
panting around him. But here I must sit alone, by the rock of
the mossy stream. The stream and the wind roar aloud. I hear
not the voice of my love! Why delays my Salgar, why the chief
of the hill, his promise? Here is the rock, and here the tree!
here is the roaring stream! Thou didst promise with night to
be here. Ah! whither is my Salgar gone? With thee I would
fly, from my father; with thee, from my brother of pride. Our
race have long been foes: we are not foes, O Salgar!
stream, be thou silent awhile!
Cease a little while, O wind!
let my voice be heard around. Let my wanderer hear me!
Salgar! it is Colma who calls. Here is the tree, and the rock.
Salgar, my love! I am here. Why delayest thou thy coming?
Lo! the calm moon comes forth. The flood is bright in the
vale. The rocks are gray on the steep. I see him not on the
brow. His dogs come not before him, with tidings of his near
approach. Here I must sit alone.
Who lie on the heath beside me? Are they my love and my
brother? Speak to me, O my friends! To Colma they give no
reply. Speak to me: I am alone! My soul is tormented with
fears! Ah! they are dead! Their swords are red from the fight.
O my brother! my brother! why hast thou slain my Salgar?
why, O Salgar! hast thou slain my brother? Dear were ye both
## p. 10883 (#91) ###########################################
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10883
to me! what shall I say in your praise ? Thou wert fair on the
hill among thousands! he was terrible in fight. Speak to me;
hear my voice; hear me, sons of my love! They are silent;
silent forever! Cold, cold are their breasts of clay!
