Fragments of ancient poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Galic or Erse language:

PREFACE.

THE public may depend on the following fragments as genuine remains of ancient Scottish poetry. The date of their composition cannot be ex|actly actly ascertained. Tradition, in the country where they were written, refers them to an aera of the most remote anti|quity: and this tradition is supported by the spirit and strain of the poems them|selves; which abound with those ideas, and paint those manners, that belong to the most early state of so|ciety. The diction too, in the origi|nal, is very obsolete; and differs wide|ly from the style of such poems as have been written in the same language two or three centuries ago. They were cer|tainly composed before the establish|ment

of clanship in the northern part of Scotland, which is itself very an|cient; for had clans been then formed and known, they must have made a con|siderable figure in the work of a Highland Bard; whereas there is not the least men|tion of them in these poems. It is remark|able that there are found in them no allu|sions to the Christian religion or worship; indeed, few traces of religion of any kind. One circumstance seems to prove them to be coeval with the very infancy of Christianity in Scotland. In a frag|ment of the same poems, which the translator has seen, a Culdee or Monk is represented as desirous to take down in writing from the mouth of Oscian, who is the principal personage in several of the following fragments, his warlike atchievements and those of his family. But Oscian treats the monk and his reli|gion with disdain, telling him, that the deeds of such great men were subjects too

high to be recorded by him, or by any of his religion: A full proof that Christianity was not as yet established in the country.

Though the poems now published appear as detached pieces in this col|lection, there is ground to believe that most of them were originally episodes of a greater work which related to the wars of Fingal. Concerning this hero innumerable traditions remain, to this day, in the Highlands of Scotland. The story of Oscian, his son, is so generally known, that to describe one in whom the race of a great family ends, it has passed into a proverb;

"Oscian the last of the heroes."

There can be no doubt that these poems are to be ascribed to the Bards; a race of men well known to have conti|nued throughout many ages in Ireland

and the north of Scotland. Every chief or great man had in his family a Bard or poet, whose office it was to record in verse, the illustrious actions of that fa|mily. By the succession of these Bards, such poems were handed down from race to race; some in manuscript, but more by oral tradition. And tradition, in a country so free of intermixture with fo|reigners, and among a people so strong|ly attached to the memory of their an|cestors, has preserved many of them in a great measure incorrupted to this day.

They are not set to music, nor sung. The versification in the original is simple; and to such as understand the language, very smooth and beautiful. Rhyme is seldom used: but the cadence, and the length of the line varied, so as to suit the sense. The translation is ex|tremely literal. Even the arrangement of the words in the original has been

imitated; to which must be imputed some inversions in the style, that other|wise would not have been chosen.

Of the poetical merit of these frag|ments nothing shall here be said. Let the public judge, and pronounce. It is believed, that, by a careful inquiry, many more remains of ancient genius, no less valuable than those now given to the world, might be found in the same country where these have been collected. In particular there is reason to hope that one work of considerable length, and which deserves to be styled an heroic poem, might be recovered and translated, if encouragement were given to such an undertaking. The sub|ject is, an invasion of Ireland by Swarthan King of Lochlyn; which is the name of Denmark in the Erse lan|guage. Cuchulaid, the General or Chief of the Irish tribes, upon intelligence of the

invasion, assembles his forces. Councils are held; and battles fought. But af|ter several unsuccessful engagements, the Irish are forced to submit. At length, Fingal King of Scotland, called in this poem, "The Desert of the hills," arrives with his ships to assist Cuchu|laid. He expels the Danes from the country; and returns home victorious. This poem is held to be of greater anti|quity than any of the rest that are pre|served: And the author speaks of him|self as present in the expedition of Fin|gal. The three last poems in the collec|tion are fragments which the translator obtained of this epic poem; and though very imperfect, they were judged not unworthy of being inserted. If the whole were recovered, it might serve to throw considerable light upon the Scot|tish and Irish antiquities.