Da rollete schnell von Thränen ein Guss
Die bärtigsten Wangen der Männer herab;
... da flogen, wie Blitz
Die wogigten Scheiden empor.[239]
Compare “Carric–Thura,” p. 149, ll. 35–6: “The tear rolled down her cheek,” etc. The comparison of swords to lightning, to beams of fire, or to meteors occurs again and again in Ossian.[240] In the following stanza the rush of the warriors is described (p. 110):
... so stürmet der Wind
Die Blätter des Hayns im Herbste mit sich.
Ossian is very fond of comparing the rush of a host to the wind.[241] Bartmar has to sing of battle, and it is not astonishing that we find in his song more traces of Ossian’s influence than in any other song of the “Bardenfeyer,” the general peaceful atmosphere of which does not offer the same possibilities for the insertion of Ossianic material. The ghosts of the fallen warriors make their appearance before the close of the battle. Theresa’s eye makes the warrior bold:
Und furchtbar im Flügel der düsteren Schlacht.
Sie standen, ein Fels, und rollten den Schwall
Der Krieger aus Norden zurück.[242]
Ossian’s warriors are ‘terrible’ and ‘dark’ in battle, they “stand like a rock”[243] and roll back the foe. Compare “Temora,” Bk. ii, p. 318, ll. 17–8: “Conar was a rock before them: broken they rolled on every side;” etc. Another stanza, the twenty–second, shows a close resemblance to an Ossianic image (p. 112):
“Doch wie sich der Lenz in Schauergewölk
Itzt hüllet, und itzo sein holdes Gesicht
Den Fluren entdeckt;”
Compare “Fingal,” Bk. vi, p. 265, ll. 22–4: “Like the sun in a cloud, when he hides his face ..., but looks again on the hills of grass!” Furthermore we have in the same poem (p. 113) a “Stein des Ruhmes,”[244] Ossian’s “stone of fame”[245] or “stone of renown.”[246]