Five times I hurled him back,
Ere I struck him down on the greensward,—
Cormac in conflict not slack.
I swept the head from his shoulders,
And held it up in my hand;
His troops they fled, and we came with joy
To Fingal’s mountain land.
Oscar, the peerless son of Ossian, and the favourite grandson of Finn, is one of the bravest and finest characters among the Fingalians, and his early death greatly affected the hilarity of that happy band of heroes and hunters. The following verses from Gillies’s collection record, instructions and precepts which were inculcated by his royal grandfather; (my own translation):—
“Son of my son,” said the King,
Oscar, thou young prince of might,