na h-Inghinn' (The Maid of Craca), and 'Ossian's Courtship'. In a more restricted way he makes use of the ballads 'Sliabh nam Ban Fionn', the 'Praise of Goll', and possibly of a ballad about Cu Chulainn's chariot. Finally he uses either a ballad or a prose story about Ferdiad and the 'Tain Bó Cuialnge' generally, together with other traditions concerning the Ulster and Fenian heroes, which he may have derived from oral sources or from historical works, such as the histories of Keating and O'Flaherty.

Book I—The Garbh mac Stairn Ballads

The chief sources used in Fingal, Bk. I, are the Garbh mac Stairn ballads. Maclagan's version of this, 'Duan a' Ghairibh', is one of the ballads which Macpherson acknowledges in his letter to Maclagan.⁴ In this same letter, which was written in January, 1761, Macpherson indicates that he has in his hands other versions of the ballads sent to him by Maclagan—'It is true, I have most of them from other hands, but the misfortune is that I find none expert in the Irish orthography so that any obscure poem is rendered doubly so, by their uncouth way of spelling'.⁵ We have two other early versions of this ballad, one in Fletcher's collection⁶ and another in MacNicol's.⁷ The text of Maclagan's version is given in Reliquiae Celticae.⁸ Later versions are those of Campbell,⁹ two versions by Irvine¹⁰ and one by Stewart,¹¹ but the ballads of Irvine and Stewart are different from the others, and are probably influenced to a certain extent by Macpherson's work. A comparison of the versions of Fletcher and MacNicol with that of Maclagan may be said to bear out, in a general way, Macpherson's assertion that their orthography is more 'uncouth' than that of Maclagan, but this is not advanced as an argument that Macpherson had either of these versions in his possession, as neither Fletcher nor MacNicol can be thought to have had a monopoly in 'uncouth' Gaelic spelling at this time, while Fletcher's version, as we have it in the MS., is, of course, a considerably later production.

The hero Garbh mac Staim, although he has been assimilated to the Fenian cycle, and especially to the Norse element in that, belongs to the older Irish invasion-legends. Thus in Fletcher's version¹² Garbh is said to have come from Greece. The Fenian Cycle of tales and ballads has, however, gathered much extraneous material into its net, and it is not surprising that an early and probably mythical Greek invader should in latter days have changed his nationality to fit in with a better-remembered scheme of things. Garbh is also associated with Cu Chulainn in the ballads, so that here, as in other instances, Macpherson had some justification for introducing characters from both the Cu Chulainn and the Finn cycles into the same work.

Macpherson's Fingal begins, 'Cuchullin sat by Tura's wall.… 'As he sat there the 'scout of ocean' came, Moran the son of Fithil,

'Rise', said the youth, 'Cuchullin, rise; I see the ships of Swaran. Cuchullin, many are the foe: many the heroes of the dark-rolling sea.'

'Moran!' replied the blue-eyed chief, 'thou ever tremblest, son of Fithil: Thy fears have much increased the foe. Perhaps it is the king of the lonely hills coming to aid me on green Ullin's plains.'

(A note in the 1762 edn. says that the king here referred to is Fingal.)

With this may be compared the two opening stanzas of Maclagan's version,

Erigh a Chuth na Teimhridh
Chi mi Luingishe do-labhradh
Lom-lan nan Cuan Clannach
Do luingeshe nan Albharach.
Breugach thus Dhorsair go Muadh
Breugach thu'n diu sgach aon uair
She than Loingis mor nan Maogh
'S iad teachd Chugainne gar Cobhair.

(Arise, Hound of Tara, I see an untold number of ships, the undulating seas full of the ships of the strangers.

A liar art thou, excellent doorkeeper,¹³ a liar art thou today and at every time; that is but the great fleet of Moy(?), coming to bring help to us).

The last line in Fletcher's second stanza is

'San Fhiann a teachd d'ar cobhair.'

(… And the Fian coming to bring help to
  us).

The resemblances are clear. Tura is Teamhra or Tara. A messenger or watchman addresses Cuchullin,¹⁴ and gives news of the approach of ships in great numbers. Cuchullin belittles the danger, and says that it is Fingal coming to help them. The resemblance may be noticed between Macpherson's 'thou ever tremblest' and 'A liar art thou today and at every time'. This is the sort of distant echo which Macpherson continually achieves.

This particular incident was the subject of the thirteenth of the Fragments published by Macpherson in 1760, but there Moran the son of Fithil says, 'Rise Cuchulaid, rise! I see the ships of Garve. Many are the foe, Cuchulaid; many the sons of Lochlyn.' Garve has by 1762 become Swaran, and we shall notice later that Manus or Magnus of the ballads has suffered a similar sea-change.

Returning to the 1762 version, Moran next reports his conversation with the chief of the invaders, who had said, 'Let Cuchullin yield to him that is strong as the storms of Malmor'. In Fletcher's version the door-keeper holds conversation with Garbh, and then goes to report to his own side that Garbh has come to receive submission from Connul. The six stanzas which elaborate this part of the action do not appear in the versions of MacNicol and Maclagan. All three versions begin to run parallel again with the stanza (No. 9 in Fletcher's version) which begins 'Tha aon laoch an doris na Teimhre'. ('There is a hero at the door of Tara.… ')

In all versions there follows a discussion of the situation. In the ballads the names of several of the Irish heroes are enumerated, while Macpherson represents these heroes as seeking their arms. There occur several close verbal resemblances. Thus Macpherson has

Puno! horrid hero, rise: Cairbar from thy
red tree of Cromla. Bend thy white knee,
O Eth … Ca-olt stretch thy white side.…¹⁵

The corresponding phrases from the ballads are Aodh mac Gharadh a' ghlùin ghil, 'Aodh son of Garadh of the white knee', Caoilte ro-gheal mac Rònain, 'Very-white Caoilte son of Ronan', and Fear-dian taobh-gheal, 'white-sided Fear-dian'. Macpherson has made a composite borrowing from these last two elements. Throughout the poem¹⁶ Briccain is called Mac Mhic Cairbre fan Chraoibh Ruadh, 'Grandson of Cairbre from the Red Branch'—but craobh is used in modern Scottish Gaelic for 'tree' rather than for 'branch', and it does not seem that Macpherson understood that the Craobh Ruadh was the name of a hall or palace.

In Macpherson's version Cuchullin says,

Or shall we fight, ye sons of war! or yield green Innisfail to Lochlin. O Connal, speak, thou first of men.… ¹⁷

Connal is for peace, since he thinks that the odds are too great. In the ballads he seems uncertain as to what is the best course to follow, and finally he suggests that Garbh be asked to partake of a feast. Garbh accepts the invitation, and his performance at the banquet, where he has food and drink for a hundred men placed before him, reminds us of his fellow-countrymen, by adoption, Thor and the report of his appetite in 'Thrymskvida'.

Coming back to Fingal we have a digression in the tale of Morna and Duchommar (No. 14 in the Fragments). Then the battle is joined between the sons of Erin and the sons of Lochlin. Swaran strikes his bossy shield, and says to the son of Arno,

What murmur rolls along the hill like the gathered flies of evening? The sons of Innisfail descend.…

Then comes the 'car of battle', Cuchullin's Chariot. Swaran kills, among others, Sithallin and Ardan. Sithallin is a corruption of Ailibhin (usually written Ainle), one of the sons of Uisneach, and both he and his brother Ardan are mentioned in the ballads, e.g.,

Ach b'annsa leis naois anaigh
A Brathair Ailibhin agus ardan.¹⁹

(But he (i.e. Cù Chulainn) preferred the excellent Naois, and his brothers Ailibhin and Ardan.)

At length Swaran and Cuchullin meet²⁰ only to be separated by night. It is at this point that Cuchullin says,

Is this feast spread for me alone and the king of Lochlin on Ullin's shore; far from the deer of his hills, and sounding halls of his feasts?

He invites Swaran to the feast, but Swaran refuses the invitation. The Macphersonic hero is rather more surly than the Gaelic one, but it can be said in his favour that he has had a hard day's fighting, whereas in the ballads the feast came before the fight. In the ballads, moreover, feasting is out of the question for Garbh after the battle, for Cù Chulainn killed him, but Macpherson had not got to the end of Book I yet, and so Swaran must needs live to fight another day.

Cuchullin's Chariot

Before leaving Fingal, Bk I., some reference may be made to the description therein of Cù Chulainn's chariot. Only three ballads are extant describing Cù Chulainn's chariot, and these all belong to later collections than those we have been considering above. The versions of MacCallum (1813) and Grant (1814)²¹ are almost identical, while that in Sir George Mackenzie's collection differs considerably in detail from those two. This latter version was transmitted to the Highland Society before their Report was published in 1805. Macpherson's version bears only a general resemblance to that of the ballads, and is very much abbreviated. Donald Macleod, minister of Glenelg, wrote in 1764,

It was in my house that Mr. Macpherson got the description of Cuchullin's horses and car in Bk. I, p. II (i.e. the 1762 edn. of Fingal) from Allan MacCaskie, schoolmaster, and Rory Macleod, both of this glen: he has not taken in the whole of the description; and his translation of it (spirited and pretty as it appears, as far as it goes) falls so far short of the original in the picture it exhibits of Cuchullin's horses and car, their harness and trappings, etc., that in none of his translations is the inequality of Macpherson's genius to that of Ossian so very conspicuous.²²

The Rev. Donald MacQueen of Kilmuir writes, also in 1764, of the same description,

… it is very grand in the original; there are four horses described in it, with a long string of epithets applied to each, of which the translator dropped a few through his fingers.²³

It is perhaps unnecessary to enter into all the details. Macpherson's description, which is to be found on pp. 11-12 of Fingal, begins with an account of the chariot which is embossed with stones, replenished with spears, etc. Then he passes on to a description of the two steeds, one being called Sulin-Sifadda, the other Dusronnal. Each is given several epithets, such as 'thin-maned', 'high-headed', 'bounding'. After this he gives a description of Cù Chulainn within the chariot. The ballads describe the spectacle in a similar framework, and certain similarities can be detected. Thus MacCallum and Grant use the adjective clochara, 'studded with stones or gems'. The horses are Liath maiseach (Irish Liath Macha) and Dubh-Seimhlinn (Irish Dubh-Sailend), the latter having a distant resemblance to Macpherson's Dusronnal.

If it be objected that the Gaelic ballads mentioned above are too late to have evidential value, it can be shown that they bear a fairly close resemblance to much older Irish material. Thus in the Táin, Cù Chulainn's chariot is described, with its horses Liath Macha and Dubh Sithleann (or Sailend) while the adjectives 'bounding', 'broad-chested', 'long-maned', and 'gaily-prancing²⁴ may be compared with Macpherson's 'bounding', 'broad-breasted', 'high-maned', 'thin-maned' and 'high-leaping'. In the Táin²⁵ much attention is paid to the description of Ca Chulainn's hair. He is also said to have seven toes on each foot, and seven fingers on each hand. It may be confusion with this, or merely the 'magical' quality of the number seven, which is responsible for two occurrences of this number in the Gaelic ballads, where Cù Chulainn is said to have seven eyes, or seven glances from his eyes, and seven white hairs on his head. Also in the Táin version²⁶ the chariot is said to be 'studded with dartlets, lancelets, spearlets and hardened spits …'. Macpherson in merely saying that it is 'replenished with spears', is more modest, or less tautological.

Book II—The Magnus Ballads

Passing on to Fingal, Bk. II, we find Macpherson making fairly extensive use of another ballad dealing with a Norse hero and an attack made by him on the coast of Ireland. The ballad of Mànus or Magnus was very popular in the Highlands, and a large number of versions are extant. The name first appears in Fenian tradition as Mane in Acallam na Senórach, where he comes into the story of Caoilte's visit to Assaroe. Doubtless the historical character Magnus Barelegs, who was killed in Ireland in 1103, is referred to. The ballad, or parts of it, occurs in the following versions:

Pope's Collection: L. na F., p. 223. This is a fragment of four stanzas only.

Turner: Rel. Celt., II, p. 379.

Stone: Trans. of Gael. Soc. of Inv., Vol. XIV, p. 320.

MacNicol: L. na F., p. 72.

Fletcher: L. na F., p. 97. This is an incomplete version, and there is some confusion with the other ballad, 'Teanntachd mhór na Féinne'.

Maclagan: Maclagan Mss. Nos. 114 and 69. Rel. Celt., I, pp. 303 and 326.

Kennedy: L. na F., p. 74.

J. F. Campbell also collates with the MacNicol version a version by MacDiarmaid, written in 1762, and is of the opinion that they have a common written ancestor. There are several later versions also. There is considerable agreement among the versions of Turner, Stone, MacNicol, MacDiarmaid and Kennedy.

Macpherson has made use of this ballad in four different passages in Fingal, first in Bk. II, and afterwards in Books IV, V and VI. He has, however, changed the tenor of the story. In the ballad the heroes of the Fian are out hunting when they see a thousand sails approaching. They send messengers to ask what the strangers want, and Mànus replies that he wants Finn's wife and his hound Bran.²⁷ Macpherson, however, has introduced his Norse leader, whom he has called Swaran, at the beginning of Bk. I, and when we first see him in Bk. II, the Irish have already fled, and Morla is sent with an ultimatum, not to Finn, but to Cuchullin—

Take Swaran's peace, the warrior spoke, the peace he gives to kings when the nations bow before him. Leave Ullin's lovely 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 thine arm, and live beneath our power.²⁸

Cuchullin refuses these terms, saying,

But never shall a stranger have the lovely sun-beam of Dunscaich, or ever deer fly on Lochlin's hills before the nimble footed Luath.²⁹

(Macpherson here names the dog Luath, but elsewhere, e.g. in Bk. VI, p. 81, Bran is mentioned.)

With the above passage may be compared stanza 20 in Stone's version (and similar stanzas in the others)—

Choidhe cha tugamsa mo Bhean
Do dh'aon neach a ta fuidh'n Ghrein
'S cha mho mheir mi Bran gu brath
Gus an teid am Bas 'na Bheil.

Never shall I give my wife to any man under the sun, nor shall I ever give away Bran until death comes to him.

The reference to the sun may possibly have suggested to Macpherson the epithet 'sun-beam of Dunscaich'.

Book IV—The Magnus Ballads

The whole of the above exchange occupies less than two pages in Bk. II of Fingal. To pick up the thread of the ballad story we have to go on to Bk. IV. Fingal orders his standards to be raised on high. Ossian goes on—

'We reared the sun-beam of battle; the standard of the the king. Each hero's soul exulted with joy, as, waving, it flew on the wind. It was studded with gold above, as the blue wide shell of the nightly sky. Each hero had his standard too; and each his gloomy men.'³⁰

This is evidently based on such stanzas as nos. 27 and 28 in Stone's version³¹—

Chuir sinn Dio-ghrein suas re Crann
Bratach Fhein budh mor a treis
Lomlan do Chloichibh Oir
'S an linne gu ma mor a Meass.
Iomad Cloidheamh dorn Chran oir
Iomad Srol gu chuir re Crann
'N Cath Mhicumhail Fian na'm fleadh
'S budh lionar Sleagh os ar Ceann.

We raised the Sun-beam on its pole—the standard of Finn, great was its power. Full it was of golden jewels, and great we deemed its worth.

There was many a golden-hilted sword, and many a banner raised, in the battle of MacCumhail the warrior of banquets, and many were the spears raised above our heads.

Book V—The Magnus Ballads

Now we move on to Bk. V.

Swaran and Fingal meet at last in single combat:

Such were the words of Connal, when the heroes met in the midst of their falling people. There was the clang of arms. There every blow, like the hundred hammers of the furnace! Terrible is the battle of the kings, and horrid the look of their eyes. Their dark brown shields are cleft in twain; and their steel flies, broken, from their helmets. They fling their weapons down. 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 spreading limbs below. But when the pride of their strength arose, they shook the hill with their heels; rocks tumble from their places on high; the green-headed bushes are overturned. At length the strength of Swaran fell; and the king of the groves is bound.³²

The corresponding passage in Stone's ballad consists of stanzas 31 and 33-7:

Rinneadar an Uirnigh theann
Budh Cosmhulach re Grian na'n Ord
Cath fuileach an da Righ
Gu ma ghuinneach bridh an Colg.³³

Thachuir Macumhail na'n Cuach
Is Manus na'n Ruag gun Agh
Re cheile an tuitim an t sluaigh
Chlerich nach budh chruaidh an dail.

Air briseadh do Sgiath na'n Dearg
Ar eirigh dhoibh Fearg is Fraoch
Theilg iad a'm Buil air Lar
'S thug iad Sparnne 'n da Laoch.

Cath fuileach an da Righ
'S an leunne budh chian an Clost
Bha Clachan agus Talamh trom

Ag moisgeala faoi Bhonn na'n Cois.

Leagadh Righ Lochlin gun Agh
An fiadhniuse Chaich air an Fhraoch
Dho sa's cho b' Onar Righ
Chuirt air Ceangal na'n tri Chaol.

They made a fierce onset (lit. 'descent'). Like to the collision of hammers was the bloody battle of the two kings—venomous was the sting (lit. 'power') of their swords.

There met together Macumhail of the goblets and unfortunate Manus of the routs, in the falling of the host—O cleric, was not that a hard meeting.

When the shields of the red warriors were broken, and when their wrath and fury had arisen, they threw their weapons to the ground, and took to heroes' wrestling.

Far and wide, methinks, could be heard the noise of the bloody battle of the two kings. Stones and heavy earth were mashed up under the soles of their feet.

The unfortunate king of Lochlin was struck down on the heather in the sight of all around, and upon him—no honorable fate for a king—was put the binding of the three slender parts (i.e. neck, wrists and ankles).

Between these two passages there are many close correspondences of phrase and idea, while the progress of the fight is similar in both versions. Some interesting details emerge. The phrase 'in the falling of the people', which Macpherson seems to render at the beginning of the passage quoted from Fingal, occurs in Stone's, but not in the other versions of the ballad, and is probably a mistaken rendering. Turner gives ntosach na nsluadh, 'in the forefront of the hosts', and MacNicol has ann an tiugh an tsluaigh, 'in the thick of the host'. It seems likely, therefore, that Macpherson was using Stone's version, although it is improbable that this was the only version which he had. The order of stanzas in MacNicol is slightly different to that in Stone's version, and is closer to Macpherson's sequence of ideas. Thus MacNicol's version makes the heroes meet in the thick of battle before he mentions the pounding of the hammers. Stone has mentioned the 'hammers' before formally saying that MacCumhail and Manus met face to face. Macpherson's 'dark-brown shields' is derived from some such phrase as Stone's 'Sgiath na'n Dearg', although it is very doubtful if this is what the Gaelic means to convey. This whole passage shows Macpherson wrestling with his sources.

Book VI—The Magnus Ballads

In Bk. VI of Fingal we have another fleeting glimpse of the original story. In the ballad Finn frees Manus and gives him his choice either of friendship or war with the Fian. Manus says he will never fight against the Fian again.³⁴ Macpherson, however, takes this opportunity to introduce the story of Trenmor and Inibaca, sister of the then King of Lochlin. Trenmor seems to have married Inibaca, and thus Fingal can say,

King of Lochlin, thy blood flows in the veins of thy foe.

Also Swaran is the brother of Agandecca, with whom Fingal has previously had a romantic encounter. So Fingal says,

Or dost thou choose to fight? The combat which thy fathers gave to Trenmor is thine: that thou mayest depart renouned.…³⁵

Swaran answers,

King of the race of Morven … never will Swaran fight with thee.³⁶

It is worth noticing also that Connan appears near the end of Fingal as 'Connan maol' does near the end of the ballad. In the ballad he offers to cut off Mànus' head. In Fingal he is made to jeer at Cuchullin instead. In both instances his suggestions are rebuffed by the leader of the Fianna.

Book 11—Story of the Tain

In Fingal, Bk. II,³⁷ Macpherson gives a very curious version of the famous Irish epic, the Tain. It is introduced as follows:

Unhappy is the land of Cuchullin, said the son of Semo, unhappy is the land of Cuchullin since he slew his friend—Ferda, thou son of Damman, I loved thee as myself.

Connal asks for further details, and Cuchullin answers,

Ferda from Albion came, the chief of a hundred hills. In Muri's hall he learned the sword, and won the friendship of Cuchullin. We moved to the chase together; and one was our bed in the heath.

Macpherson adds a note saying that Muri's hall was

an academy in Ulster for teaching the use of arms.

Cuchullin goes on to say that Deugala was the spouse of Cairbar. She fell in love with Ferda, the son of Damman, and asked Cairbar to give her half of the herd, so that she could leave Cairbar's halls. Cairbar leaves it to Cuchullin to divide the herd. One 'bull of snow' is left over, and this Cuchullin gives to Cairbar. Deugala is incensed over this, and incites Ferda to fight Cuchullin—'She wept three days before him, on the fourth he consented to fight'. At the last moment Ferda again expresses his unwillingness to fight with his friend, but Deugala taunts him, and they begin. The fight is over in a moment, and Ferda is killed by Cuchullin.

Turning to the Irish tale of the Tain, we find a story which is very different, but which has unmistakably influenced Macpherson. Here one of the chief episodes is the slaying of Ferdiad, son of Daman, by Cu Chulainn. Ferdiad and Cu Chulainn had been brothers in arms at the academy of Scathach, and it was there that they had learnt their feats of arms. There, says Cu Chulainn, they were men who shared a bed.³⁸ The academy of Scàthach was traditionally supposed to have been in Scotland, but Macpherson has brought Ferda from Scotland to Ireland to learn the use of arms. This is in accordance with his reversal of the rôles of these two countries.

In the Táin the king and queen whose bickerings provide the spring of the action are called Ailill and Medb. Each of them takes stock of his total possessions, including live-stock, and it is discovered that Ailill has the advantage over Medb in having a white-horned bull, Findbennach, which had formerly belonged to Medb. Medb sends to Ulster for another famous bull, the Donn, and it is out of this request that the fighting later develops. Here Cu Chulainn is the only one on the Ulster side who is not subject to a periodical weakness which comes on the Ulstermen, and thus he engages in a series of single combats, culminating in the fight with Ferdiad.

The process of persuading Ferdiad to fight his friend Cu Chulainn is a long and 'ticklish' one. Medb never weeps to win her point, but she offers various inducements to Ferdiad to persuade him to fight. He is not wholly won over by these, but with some taunting, and some fear of satirising, he at length goes. The fight at the ford is in the Irish tale a heroic event, and is described at great length.

From this comparison it is clear that Macpherson was aware of the existence of the Irish tale, in some form. Some of the details he has had to alter to fit in with the scheme of his epic, and he has changed the atmosphere of the story almost beyond recognition. He has given a distorted summary of the greatest of the Irish stories merely to provide a slight digression in Bk. II of his Fingal.

Fingal, Book III—Fingal's Visit to Norway

Macpherson's story bears a distant resemblance to the ballad accounts of Fingal's visit to Lochlin. Ballad versions are:

MacNicol: L. na F., pp. 83-4.

Fletcher: L. na F., p. 84.

There are also versions in the Irvine and the Staffa collections.

In the ballads the deformed one-legged messenger of Mànus, the King of Lochlin, comes to Finn. He bears a message from the king's daughter asking Finn to come to seek her at Loch-druim-cliar. Finn and his warriors go to Lochlin. Fletcher's version gives a full description of their welcome there. They discard their arms, retaining, however, their knives, and go into the hall, each warrior accompanied by two Norsemen. The king picks a quarrel with them because they had killed several of his sons on a previous occasion. But they draw their knives, break out, and capture the king, taking him with them to Ireland. Hence the tribute which has been exacted from the men of Lochlin from that time onwards.

In Macpherson's version the King of Norway is called Starno (Swaran's father). He sends Snivan, who does not appear to be deformed in any way, to Fingal, and bids him say that he, Starno, will give his daughter Agandecca to Fingal. He invites Fingal to come to Lochlin with his bravest heroes.

Fingal and his band accept the invitation and go to Lochlin. They are welcomed by Starno and feasted in his hall. But 'Fingal, who doubted the foe, kept on his arms of steel'.³⁹

On the third day they go to hunt the boar. Agandecca warns Fingal that her father has laid an ambush in the wood. Fingal kills the ambushers, and he and his men come back to the hall of Starno. The king is deeply chagrined by the turn of events. He orders Agandecca to be brought before him, and pierces her side with steel. There is another fight, and eventually Fingal and his men depart, taking with them Agandecca, whom they buried on Ardven.

The fate of the King, Starno, is not quite clear. Macpherson says, 'They took the King of Lochlin in battle, but restored him to his ships'.⁴⁰ It is not told whether he was brought to Ireland, or released on his own coast.

The similarities of Macpherson's version to that of the ballads need not be stressed, but some of the differences may be worth noticing. In the ballads the daughter of the king is used only as a pretext for bringing Finn to Lochlin. She does not fall in love with him, nor he with her. This is a typical romantic addition of Macpherson's. He also adds the boar-hunt and the ambush—a more 'Gothic' manner of putting into operation the king's treacherous plans.

But the ballad story is altogether more dramatic, cleaner-cut. It is terse and laconic almost. Yet it progresses smoothly and inevitably, whereas Macpherson's story is jerky and incoherent in comparison.

Fingal, Book III—Maid of Craca

In Fingal, Bk. III (pp. 45-6), Macpherson makes use of a popular ballad story for his Maid of Craca episode. The ballad occurs in a large number of versions, the older versions being as follows:

Book of the Dean: Heroic Poetry, p. 136.

Turner: Rel. Celt., Vol. II, p. 375.

Fletcher: L. na F., p. 136.

MacNicol, A.: L. na F., p. 130.

MacNicol, B.: L. na F., p. 135.

Maclagan: Maclagan Ms. No. 112 Rel. Celt., I, p. 300.

There are also two versions in Kennedy's collections, two in Gillies', and others. Two distinct versions of the story can be traced, and it would appear that Macpherson was acquainted with both of these. His version, however, bears only a general resemblance to the ballads, whose handling of the theme is excellent, whereas Macpherson's is indifferent. All the versions have certain features—the broad outlines—in common. A boat is seen approaching, with a maiden in it. The maiden comes to Finn for protection against a would-be lover. Finn grants this, the lover pursues her, and there is a fierce fight, the lover being overcome in the end. There are further similarities between Macpherson's version and those of Fletcher, MacNicol, B., and Maclagan. In these versions the slayer of the lover is Oscar, whereas Goll kills him in the other versions. The maiden herself is also killed in the former version. In other respects Macpherson's version of 1762 resembles the ballads of the Dean of Lismore, MacNicol, A., and Turner. In these ballads the pursuing lover is called 'mac riogh na Sorcha' (the son of the King of Sorcha) or Daighre (Maidhre) Borb. Macpherson echoes both these names in his 'Sora's chief and Borbar. And he calls the maiden herself Fainsollis, the King of Craca's daughter. In the versions of the Dean, MacNicol, A., and Turner she is called 'the daughter of the king of the land under the waves', but in the other ballads no name or pedigree is given to her.

Macpherson had already handled this story, in the sixth of the Fragments of 1760, and here the resemblance to the versions of Fletcher, MacNicol, B., and Maclagan is much closer. Macpherson's version and that of the ballads begin and end with an address to a cleric, called Patrick in the ballads and 'the son of Alpin' in Macpherson.⁴¹ The lover is called Ullin, the Iolunn or Illin of the ballads. The first four paragraphs of Macpherson's version also show a close resemblance to the first four stanzas of the ballad. It is possible that in 1760 Macpherson was not acquainted with the other versions.

A slightly different version of the ballad is in the Campbell collection, made in Skye c. 1797. Campbell adds a translation, and at the end says,

The above Poem I took down from the recitation of Mrs. Nicolson, Scorriebreac, in the parish of Portree in Sky, who says, that she gave it to Mr. Macpherson, the translator of Ossian, when he travelled through Sky. The underwritten has met with many Editions of this Episode, but the above is the completest he procured.

(Signed) ALEXR. CAMPBELL.⁴²

This ballad has the names Fainte-soils' and Fear-borb. The English translation shows that Campbell was familiar with Macpherson's version, but the ballad seems, on the whole, to be genuine. The maiden gives her father's name as "Ridh Ealain nan creag' (King of Ealan (island?) of the rocks), and it is possible that this may have suggested the name Craca to Macpherson.

Fingal, Book IV—Courtship of Ossian

The courtship of Ossian in Bk. IV of Fingal gives us an excellent opportunity of watching Macpherson at work over his Gaelic text. This is, for Macpherson, an exceptionally faithful translation, and it is on that account selected for close analysis here. In the Appendix it is placed beside the Gaelic version of 1807.

The ballad sources for this are more scanty than usual. They are:

1. MacNicol's 'Ninghin Iunsa': L. na F., p. 141.
2. Gillies' 'Suireadh Oisein air Eamhair Aluinn': L. na F., p. 142.
3. Maclagan: Maclagan MS. No. 109—not printed in Rel. Celt., I. See Appendix III., No. 1.
4. Dr. Young: Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. I.

The first three texts listed here, apart from one important divergence to be noticed later, are so similar as to suggest very strongly a common source. Possibly (b) is a revised copy of (c). Here text (a) will be taken stanza by stanza, and the corresponding portions of Macpherson's version compared with it.

The ballad presents Oisein as an old man, recalling his youthful conquest of the fair Eibhir-Aluin. Stanza 1 is addressed to a girl called 'Ninghin Iunsa' and Oisein says to her:

Gu [missing text] mi m' dheo-laoch air bheirt
 ellie
Gad [missing text] m' sheann Laoch san
 Lathas'.

I was a doughty warrior, of a different sort, though
I am an old man (lit. "warrior") now.

The corresponding passage in Macpherson is:

Daughter of the land of snow! I was not so mournful and blind; I was not so dark and forlorn when Everallin loved me.⁴³

In MacNicol, stanza 2, Oisein tells how Eibhir had not despised him then:

La gu deachas leinn
Eibhir-Aluin Chas-fhalt Fheinn
Shi Ninghin fa'm Geallabhach Glac
Leannan Choigrich Chormaic.

Once upon a time there went with me (i.e. "showed favour to me") Eibhir-Aluinn of the fair curly locks: a girl whose palms (i.e. hands) were white-handed—the sweetheart from the territory of Cormac.⁴⁴

In version (b) Gillies has written this stanza differently, and here we have for the second and third lines

Eamhair aluinn fholt-ghrinn
Nighean bu gheal-lamhach glac.

(Lit. Eamhair Aluinn of the neat locks, a girl whose palms were white-handed.)

Macpherson is still further from MacNicol's version with his

Everallin with the dark-brown hair, the white-
bosomed love of Cormac.

It seems likely that he had only a vague notion of what the Gaelic meant, and it will appear later that he completely failed to understand the meaning of 'leannan Choigrich'. Stanza 3 in MacNicol gives the beginning of the expedition,

Gun do ghluais shin gu sruth Locha leige
An da Fhear-dheug a b'fhearr fuidh'n Ghrein
Ge be fhidreadh air Ruin
Robhain bu teichbheach droch Cuth.

We set forth to the waters (lit. current) of Loch Leige—(we were) the twelve best men under the sun—whoso should understand our intentions, before us an indifferent hero would be minded to flee (lit. "before us a bad dog would be minded to flee").

Macpherson is still keeping his distance from the Gaelic text and at the same time remembering his own diction,

I went in suit of the maid to Lego's sable surge; twelve of my people were there, the sons of the streamy Morven.

Stanza 4 in MacNicol brings the heroes face to face with the lady,

Dh' fhosgladh dhuinn an Grianan Corr
Air a Thughadh do'n Chloth dhuinn
Lion Meanmneadh shinn uille
'Gaibhrac Eibhir Chassfhalt Bhui.

The surpassing sun-bower was opened for us—it was thatched with brown down.⁴⁵ We were all filled with excitement as we looked at Eibhir of the curly yellow hair.

Macpherson gives for this,

He then opened the hall of the maid, the dark-haired Everallin. Joy kindled in our breasts of steel and blest the maid of Branno.

In MacNicol, stanza 5, Brian speaks up,

Labhair Brian'S cha duirt e Breug
Gad bhiogh ann da ninghin-deug
Aig feobhas do Chliuth san Fhein
Bhiogha Cheud Roghin diubh aig Ossain.

Brian spoke—he spoke no lie—were there twelve maidens, because of the excellence of thy fame among the Fianna, the first choice were thine (lit. Ossian's).

Macpherson 'translates' this,

Tho' twelve daughters of beauty were mine, thine were the choice, thou son of fame.

At this point there may be mentioned an interesting divergence which occurs between the ballad texts. It has been pointed out above that there is a close similarity between the versions of MacNicol, Maclagan and Gillies, but the two former versions lack stanzas 4, 5, 6 and 9 of Gillies' text. The question arises whether these stanzas are a later interpolation. In Gillies, stanzas 4, 5 and 6 consist of (a) a greeting from Bran to Oisein and his men (stanza 4), (b) an inquiry as to what they seek, and Caoilte's reply that they have come for his daughter (stanza 5), and (c) Bran's question 'For whom do you seek her?', together with the reply that it is for Oisein she is sought. To this Bran replies in stanza 7,

Ge do bhiodh agam da nighin deug
… Bhiodh a cheud nighean aig Oisein.

though I had twelve girls (i.e. daughters), Oisein should have the first of them.

MacNicol's version of the first of these lines is,

Gad bhiogh ann da ninghin deug. …
although there were twelve girls. …

Thus it may be that these three stanzas were introduced into Gillies' version, and stanza 7 altered, in order to confer on Bran the parentage of Eibhir, although in Gillies, as well as in MacNicol, she is called 'the sweetheart of the territory of Cormac'. MacNicol's version is in fact comprehensible without these additions. Bran or Brian may be one of Oisein's own followers, who speaks for the whole band, giving pride of place to Oisein, and saying that the lady is his by right of his outstanding valour.

Macpherson's version, however, incorporates part of the above additions, in the following passage:

We came to Branno, friend of strangers: Branno of the sounding mail. From whence, he said, are the arms of steel?—But blest be thou, O son of Fingal, happy is the maid that waits thee. Tho' twelve daughters of beauty were mine.…⁴⁶

Returning to MacNicol's version, Macpherson makes no use of stanza 6. Stanza 7 survives only as a couplet (so too in Maclagan and Gillies), and this, along with stanzas 8 and 9 may be quoted together,

Sluadh Chormaic gu do Chass
Aig na ghaibh an sliaigh bla-lassair.

Ochdfhear do bhi aig Cormaic Cruinn
Ionnun an Gniobh dh' fhearibh-bolg
Mac Olla's Daire nan Creuchd
Mac Tosgair treun agus Taog.

Freasdal Baighach Mac an Riogh
Daire nan Gniobh bu bhor aigh
Daora 'b fhearr fullang san Chuing
'S meirge Chormaic Chruinn na Laibh.

Cormac's host turned to the attack, whereupon the hill-side took fire.

Cormac Cruinn had eight men who were equal in their deeds to Fir Bolg—Mac Olla and Daire of the wounds, mighty Mac Tosgair and Taog.

Freasdal Baigheach⁴⁷ son of the King, Daire of the mettlesome deeds ("àigh" can also have the sense of "happy" or "blessed"), Daora who could best endure in a tight corner, and he had the banner of Cormac Cruinn in his hand.'

Maclagan has Mac Colla for Mac Olla, and Daola for Daora. Macpherson's version of the passage is fairly close.

Above us on the hill appeared the people of stately Cormac. Eight were the heroes of the chief; and the heath flamed with their arms. There Colla, Durra of the wounds, there mighty Toscar, and Tago, there Frestal the victorious stood; Dairo of the happy deeds, and Dala the battle's bulwark in the narrow way.—The sword flamed in the hand of Cormac, and graceful was the look of the hero.'

The word meirghe, meaning 'banner', was unknown to Macpherson, and he may have arrived at 'sword' by some such equation as meirg = rust = rusty one = sword.

In MacNicol, stanzas 10 and 11, Oisein's heroes, who have, incidentally, dwindled from twelve to eight, are enumerated,

Ochd-fhear do bhi aig Oissain ard
Iunnan san Cath ga dhion
Molla mac Sgeine gu fial
Sgeuliche fial Flath nam Fiann.

Faolan agus Caorril Cass
'N Duibh mac Riobhain nior thais Colg
Toscar an tus shiar na Chlann
Chuadh fo'n Chrann an ceann nam Fear bolg.

Mighty Oisein had eight men, lunnan to protect him in battle—Molla son of Sgian the generous one (?), the generous historian (story-teller) of the noble chief of the Fianna.

Faolan and mettlesome Caorril, Dubh son of Riobhan whose sword was not soft, Toscar to the westward of the clan,⁴⁸ went bearing the standard against the Fir-bolg.

Macpherson's version is,

Eight were the heroes of Ossian; Ullin stormy son of war; Mullo of the generous deeds; the noble, the graceful Scelacha; Oglan, and Cerdal the wrathful, and Dumariccan's brows of death. And why should Ogar be the last; so wide renouned on the hills of Ardven?

Macpherson has had to juggle about with the names here. Having made a proper name of 'Sgeuliche' (= sgeulaiche), he finds himself with too many heroes. Also, there is a Toscar on the other side, so Oisein's hero of that name is purged. Dumariccan is a tolerable reproduction of the Gaelic sounds represented by Dubh mac Riobhain.

Stanza 12 in MacNicol describes the fight between Tosgar and Daoil,

Thachair Tosgar thachair Daoil
Taibh ri taibh an Lath'r ant shluaidh
Bha Coibhrig an da Churidh Chaoith⁴⁹
Mar gun doirtigh Gaoth a Cuan.

Tosgar and Daoil met each other, face to face (lit. side to side) in the presence of the host; the contest of the two pleasant (!) warriors was as though Wind should pour out of ocean.

Apart from misunderstanding làth'r, which he seems to have equated with l&r,⁵⁰ 'floor', Macpherson 'translates' this fairly closely,

Ogar met Dala the strong, face to face, on the field of warriors. The battle of the chiefs was like the wind on ocean's stormy waves.

MacNicol, stanza 14, has,

Chuibhnich Tosgar air a Sgithin
Arm bu mhian leis an Fhear mhaith
Chuir e naoidh Goinibh an Taobh Dhaoil
Sheal bog (= beag) mu n' do chlasin an Cath.

Tosgar remembered his knife—a weapon which the good hero loved—he wounded Daoil nine times in his side a short time before the battle turned.⁵¹

Macpherson's version is,

The dagger is remembered by Ogar; the weapon which he loved; nine times he drowned it in Dela's (sic) side. The stormy battle turned.

Stanza 15 in MacNicol is not used. Stanza 16 is as follows:

Do sgoilt Oissain air an T-sliabh
Caogid Sgiath gu Cormaic Cruinn
'S gun bhrist Cormaic mac Airt
Caogid Lann ghlass air an Druim.

Oisein split on the hill-side fifty shields against (?) Cormac Cruinn, and Cormac son of Art broke fifty blue blades on their backs.

Macpherson did not know the word caogad, which would already be rare in current speech, and he renders this,

Three times I broke on Cormac's shield: three times he broke his spear.

Stanza 17 in MacNicol describes the end of the fight.

Thugas an Ceann do Chormaic Cruinn
Air an T-sliabh gus a Nochd
'S gun do gluais mi leis gu Flath Fail,
'S an Ceann sin am Laibh air Fhalt.

I cut the head off Cormac Cruinn to the breast,⁵² on the hill-side, and I went with it to the noble chief of Ireland,—with that head in my hand, held by the hair.

Macpherson introduces an additional flourish here,

But unhappy youth of love! I cut his head away.—Five times I shook it by the lock. The friends of Cormac fled.

Stanza 18 returns to the note of the 1st,

Ge be ghinse dhoibhsa (= dhomhsa) shin
An La sin a cuir a Chath
Fheiridh (= Theireadh)⁵³ rium mar bha mi
  nochd
Gum faigheadh e olc fo'm Laibh.

Whoso had told me that, on that day as I fought the battle, that I should be as I am tonight, he would have received ill from my hand.

Macpherson improves considerably on this stanza,

Whoever would have told me, lovely maid, when then I strove in battle; that blind, forsaken and forlorn I now should pass the night; firm ought his mail to have been, and unmatched his arm in battle.

It is hard to resist the temptation to believe that here, in MacNicol's and Maclagan's ballad, we have the very version with which Macpherson worked. Macpherson's rendering of 'iunnan' as Ullin, 'lath'r' as field (—hir, floor) tend to support this. Gillies' version is, of course, more than twenty years later than the publication of Fingal, but its general similarity to the texts of MacNicol and Maclagan is beyond doubt, while the additional stanzas may point to yet another source, contemporary with these.

Fingal, Book IV—The Praise of Goll

Ludwig Stern in his article on 'Ossianic Heroic Poetry⁵⁴ suggested that, in his note on the war-song of Ullin, Macpherson was referring to a poem in staccato metre in praise of Goll. Macpherson's note⁵⁵ is as follows:

The war-song of Ullin varies from the rest of the poem in the versification. It runs down like a torrent; and consists almost entirely of epithets.

Ullin's war-song is in fact addressed to Gaul, and is intended to spur him on to battle. Macpherson uses the staccato style, omitting the main verb, or omitting verbs altogether—a common feature of Gaelic poetry. The passage is as follows:

Son of the chief of generous steeds! high-bounding king of spears. Strong arm in every perilous toil. Hard heart that never yields. Chief of the pointed arms of death. Cut down the foe; let no white sail bound round dark Inistore. Be thine arm like thunder. Thine eyes like fire, thy heart of solid rock.…⁵⁶

The Gaelic poem is given by Campbell in Leabhar na Feinne in three versions only, one of them—that of Gillies—being fragmentary. The other two are that in Miss Brooke's Irish collection and the version in the Book of the Dean.⁵⁷ Thus, apart from the Dean's text, we have no other source previous to 1762.

There are no strong verbal resemblances between the Gaelic and English versions. A theory might be advanced, but with considerable caution, that Macpherson had spotted this poem, with its short lines, in the MS. of the Dean's Book⁵⁸ and that he was unable to derive from it more than a general impression of what it was about.

In the Gaelic version of 1807, however,⁵⁹ no attempt is made to reproduce the staccato metre. The author had perhaps forgotten to forge his circumstantial evidence here.

In Temora, Bk. 111,⁶⁰ Macpherson again has the short Gaelic lines in mind. Fingal here praises Gaul in short broken sentences. A note says,

The honourable epithets bestowed on him here by Fingal, are amazingly expressive in the original.… The first part of the speech is rapid and irregular, and is particularly calculated to animate the soul to war.…

Fingal, Book VI—'Sliabh nam Ban Fionn'

Macpherson shows his acquaintance with the ballad of 'Sliabh nam Ban Fionn' in Bk. VI, where as an interlude the Fianna engage in hunting.⁶¹ This short passage occurs in Fingal,⁶² and may be given in full—

Call, said Fingal, call my dogs, the long-bounding sons of the chace. Call white-breasted Bran; and the surly strength of Luath—Fillan and Ryno—but he is not here; my son rests on the bed of death. Fillan and Fergus, blow my horn, that the joy of the chace 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, gray-bounding through the divided heath. A deer fell by every dog, and three by the white-breasted Bran. He brought them, in their flight, to Fingal, that the joy of the king might be great.'

The ballad appears in the Book of the Dean⁶³ and in Kennedy's first collection.⁶⁴ Both these versions correspond in outline and considerably in phraseology, but Kennedy's version has suffered from some simplification of hard words, and general guesswork. Both ballads give the number of dogs as 3000, as against 1000 in Macpherson. Bran is mentioned in the Dean's version as being along with Fionn, but it is only in Kennedy's version that his greater 'bag' of deer is remarked on. Mac-pherson had something like Kennedy's stanza 11 in mind:

Gu d' mharbh Bran is e na chuilein
Fiadh agus idhir (i.e. uibhir) ri cach.

Bran, who was only a puppy, killed a deer more than any of the others (or "all of the others").

Notes

¹ 'The Ossianic Ballads', in The Scottish Review, Vol. 34 for 1899, p. 262.

² 1762 edn. of Fingal, pp. xv-xvi.…

⁴ Appendix to Report, p. 154.

⁵Ibid., p. 155.

⁶L. na F., p. 4.

⁷ Ibid., p. 3.

⁸Rel. Celt., I, p. 357. Maclagan Ms. No. 233.

⁹Ibid., I, p. 220.

¹⁰L. na F., pp. 6-7.

¹¹Ibid., p. 8.

¹²L. na F., p. 5, stanza 13.

¹³go muadh probably stands for go mbuaidh meaning victorious, virtuous, excellent. The phrase occurs several times in this ballad, and is in the nature of a cheville.

¹⁴ This spelling is retained when writing of the Macphersonic character; otherwise I have written Cù Chulainn.

¹⁵Fingal, p. 4.

¹⁶ E.g. Maclagan, stan. 17.

¹⁷Fingal, pp. 4-5.…

¹⁹ Fletcher, stan. 37.

²⁰Fingal, p. 15.

²¹L. na F., p. 2.

²²Report, p. 28.

²³Report, p. 32.

²⁴ The Irish adjectives are lèmnach, uchtlethan, lebormongach, and bedgach. See Windisch's edn. of the Táin, 11. 3376-9.

²⁵ P. 238 in Dunn's Translation.

²⁶ Dunn, p. 188.

²⁷ See Stone, stans. 16, 17.

²⁸Fingal, p. 26.

²⁹Fingal, p. 26.

³⁰Fingal, p. 57.

³¹ It is worth noticing here that similar passages occur in the two poems in the Maclagan papers.

³²Fingal, pp. 62-3.

³³ The forms an 'nuirnidh (MacNicol), and an urnaidh (Gillies) also occur. I cannot trace this word, and have translated instead tuirlin (i.e. tuirling), which also occurs in Gillies' version of this particular stanza. Or perhaps cf. Irish toirneamh, also túrnamh, descending, falling. In line 2 of this stanza Gillies has mar ghreann a bheireadh da órd. The Highland Society Dictionary, quoting this line, gives collision as the meaning of greann. This would appear to be the sense, but I have no other instance of the word used thus.

³⁴ Stanza 41, Stone's version.

³⁵Fingal, p. 77.

³⁶Fingal, p. 78.

³⁷ Pp. 30-2.

³⁸ Cf. 'one was our bed on the heath'. Ropdhar fìr chomdeirgide, Windisch's edn. of the Táin, 1. 3535.

³⁹Fingal, p. 37.

⁴⁰Fingal, p. 36.

⁴¹ Macpherson had, of course, traditional warrant for calling Patrick 'the son of Alpin'.

⁴²Rel. Celt., I, p. 243.

⁴³Fingal, p. 49.

⁴⁴ It is probable that Choigrich here is used in the sense of 'province, territory', an interpretation that is supported by the genitive inflection in both MacNicol's and Maclagan's texts.

⁴⁵ I.e. reading chlòimh, down of feathers. Cf. Echtrae Cormaic, where Cormac comes to a palace thatched with birds' feathers.

⁴⁶Fingal, p. 50.

⁴⁷Bàidheach, kind, noble, etc. Or bàghach, warlike.

⁴⁸ I.e. reading tu siar, for taobh siar, the west side.

⁴⁹ Maclagan's version has chaoimh. But it may be for chaoich, mad.

⁵⁰ It is worth noting that Maclagan writes Làr.

⁵¹ Reading chlaon for chlasin, as in Maclagan's version.

⁵² I.e. reading gus an uchd instead of gus a Nochd.

⁵³ Gillies has deireadh, Maclagan Theireadh,

⁵⁴Trans. of Gael. Soc. of Inv., Vol. 22, p. 295.

⁵⁵Fingal, p. 56.

⁵⁶Fingal, p. 56.

⁵⁷Heroic Poetry, pp. 60 ff.

⁵⁸ Assuming Mackintosh to be correct in his argument that this was in Macpherson's possession, for which see Scottish Gaelic Studies, Vol. VI, Part 1.

⁵⁹ Vol. II, pp. 299 ff.

⁶⁰ P. 50 in the 1763 edn.

⁶¹ This is pointed out by Stern, Trans. of Gael. Soc. of Inv., Vol. 14, p. 311.

⁶² Pp. 81-2.

⁶³Heroic Poetry, p. 12.

⁶⁴L. na F., p. 143.