whose divine powers they often employed in softening the manners of a people rendered ferocious by domestic hostilities. While embattled ranks, writes Mr. Walker, awaited the arrival of expected assailants, women arrayed in black would walk along the lines, animating the soldiery with suitable war-songs, accompanying their voices with cruits, or portable harps, such as the Hebrews bore when they danced before the Ark. So, when armies returned in triumph from foreign wars or domestic contentions, troops of virgins, clad in white, and each bearing a harp, would advance with tripping step, and with the voice of songs and the harp, to hail their heroes. Moriat, the subject of the present sketch, employed her metrical powers in the cause at once of love and of justice. In or about the year 339 B.C., Cobthaigh, a king of Ireland, having waded to the throne through the blood of his brother Leoghaire and his nephew Oilliol-Arné, only spared the life of his grand-nephew Maon because the natural weakness of his frame seemed to indicate a speedy dissolution; but Maon was destined by the Deity to be the instrument of His vengeance on the barbarous usurper. Being privately conveyed to the court of the king of South Munster, he continued there, and gradually recovered his health indeed, but lost his heart to the fair Moriat, the king's daughter. Nor was the princess insensible to his merit and personal attractions; but she carefully concealed her passion. Maon, for greater security, went to the court of the French king, in whose service he greatly distinguished himself as a warrior. The fame of his valour reached Moriat; and love, vindicating its ascendency, made her a poetess. She composed an ode, in which she ་ extolled the exploits of Maon, and urged him to revenge the death of his father and grandfather, and to recover their throne. This ode she transmitted to Maon by the hands of Craftine, her father's chief harper. Seizing a favourable opportunity, the minstrel began to sing the poem in the presence of the prince, whose attention was soon caught by the sweetness of the numbers and the melodious accompaniment of the musician; but when he heard the subject mentioned, he eagerly inquired the name of the author; and then, in his turn obeying the power of love, he obtained the aid of the French king, and, setting sail for Ireland, wrested the sceptre from the hands of the usurper. As soon as he was seated on the throne, he adorned it with the lovely poetess. OISIN (OSSIAN). Oisin, the son of Fin (Fingal), the heroic favourite of Cormac O'Conn, king of Ireland, is better known to the world as the Ossian of Macpherson than in his own proper person or works, of which latter but a few mutilated and ill-authenticated fragments have come down to us. We know not in what part of Ireland Oisin was born; but in the county of Donegal there is " a cloud-capt❞ mountain called Alt Ossoin, around which is the whole scenery so finely described by Macpherson, while to the northward of Lough-Derg are the mountains, caverns, and lakes of Fin. Oisin, who was one of the bards as well as one of the captains of his king, lived to lament the death of his son Oscar (the child of his beloved wife Evarallin), who was killed in the battle of Guara, A.D. 296. The period of his own decease is not known; but it would seem that, for some years previous to that event, he had become blind. The beautiful apostrophe to the sun, in which, in the poem of Carthn, Macpherson represents him lamenting the "mist of years which had closed upon his sight," will probably recur to the reader. FERGUS FIBHEOIL. Fergus Fibheoil was the chief bard or ollamh-re-dais of the great chieftain Fin, mentioned in the preceding notice. The surname Fibheoil (sweet-lips) was given to Fergus in allusion to his eloquence as a bard. Succeeding poets have bestowed almost as many other epithets of honour on him as Homer has given to his Jupiter. In several poems still extant he is called fir-glie (the truly ingenious), fathach (superior in knowledge), focal-geur (skilled in the choice of words). So persuasive was his eloquence in particular, that, united with his rank, it acquired him an almost universal ascendency. But it was in the field of battle that our Milesian Pindar proved of real utility. In a fine ancient heroic poem, called Cath-FinFragha (the battle of Fintry), Fin is often represented as calling on Fergus to animate the drooping spirits of his officers, which the bard never fails to do effectually. In this battle Oisin was beginning to yield, which being observed by Fergus, he addressed some encouraging strains to him in a loud voice. These were heard by Oisin, and his foe fell beneath his sword. Several admirable poems attributed to Fergus are still extant. 1. Dargo, written on occasion of a foreign prince of that name invading Ireland. Dargo encountered the Fenii, and was slain by Goll, the son of Morni. 2. Cath-Gabhra (the battle of Gabhra). This battle was fought by the Fenii against Cairbre, the king of Ireland, whose aim in provoking the war was to crush that formidable legion. Cairbre's life fell a sacrifice to this bold attempt. These poems abound with imagery, fire, and glowing description, and justify the praises bestowed on Fergus. Each poem concludes with Fergus's attestation of his being the author. Besides these, there are a panegyric on Goll, the son of Morni, and on Usgar. In the latter the poet has interwoven an animating harangue to the hero, who is the subject of it, in the battle of Gabhra. The diction of these panegyrics is pure, nervous, and persuasive. DUBTHACH MAC LUGHAIR. Dubthach Mac Lughair, chief bard to Leogaire, monarch of Ireland, and the introducer of Christianity into that country, turned, says Jocelyn, his poetry, which in his youth he had employed in the praises of false gods, to a better use; and now changing his opinion and language, composed more elegant poems to the honour of the omnipotent God and the praises of his saints. Feich, or Fiach, a bard who flourished at the same period, and who was appointed a bishop over the church of Sletty by St. Patrick, wrote a hymn, in Irish, in praise of that saint, which has been published, with a literal translation into Latin, by Colgan. Another Christian Irish bard, Cearbhall, is mentioned under this period. Nor is it to be wondered that the order of the bards should have escaped the fate of the Druids in this great revolution in religion; for it was through the means of the bards only that the prince or chieftain could hope for immortality to his fame. Without them, moreover, the feast, however luxuriously spread, would have been insipid. "So strong was the attachment of the Celtic nations to their poetry and their bards (writes Blair), that amidst all the changes of their governments and manners, even long after the order of the Druids was extinct, and the national religion altered, the bards continued to flourish, not as a set of strolling songsters, like the Greek rhapsodists in Homer's time, but as an order of men highly respected in the state, and supported by a public establishment. We find them, according to the testimonies of Strabo and Diodorus, before the age of Augustus Cæsar; and we find them remaining under the same name, and exercising the same functions as of old, in Ireland and in the north of Scotland, almost down to our own times." After the introduction of Christianity, some of the Irish bards acted in the double capacity of bards and of clergymen. So late as the 13th century we find Donchad O'Daly, Abbot of Boyle, excelling all the other bards of his time in the hymnal species of poetry. LLY WARCH. Llywarch, commonly called also Hen, is one of the oldest Welsh bards of whom any records have come down to us. His poems are chiefly valuable from their illustrations of the manners and character of an age, of which otherwise but little is known. His chief power lies in pathetic lamentation, and not in heroic poetry, although he is said to have been a warrior. Many of his elegies contain fine sentiments; but either from want of capacity, or from following a bad usage, he cannot take a high rank in bardic literature: he begins long strings of verses with the same words, such as "Eryr Pengwern," Eryr Mynydd," &c.; and with better effect, "Ystavell Kynddylan." It appears from his poem, that the Order of Bards existed in Wales in his time. 66 ANEURIN. This Welsh bard is chiefly celebrated for his poem, the Gododin, which is an account of the adventures of the Ottadini, a tribe of the Kymry,* who in very early times inhabited the part of Britain now called Cumberland, but who at a later period emigrated into Wales. The whole scene and actions are laid in the north; and the poem seems to be an account of an expedition of the Ottadini against the town of Cataracton, now Catterick. Aneurin was held in great estimation by his contemporaries. TALIESIN. (Circa 500.) 66 Although both Taliesin and Aneurin have been styled king of the bards," this title seems more justly applicable to the latter; for there is no poem which Taliesin has written that can be compared, as a whole, to the Gododin, though there are several small poems written by him with more real poetical sentiment than any passage that can be found in the Gododin. Unlike Aneurin, he does not seem to have followed the profession of arms. There are seventy-seven pieces attributed to him, but some of them are of a much later date; the "Battle of Gwenystrad," the "Battle of Argoed-Lluyvain," the "Battle of Dyffryn Gwarant," and some of the "Gorchanau,” are, however, considered genuine. MERDDIN. Concerning Merddin the bard, more popularly known as Merlin the Magician, infinite controversy has existed, some critics identifying frequently the man and his works; others totally denying the man and his works; others discovering two Merddins, and half a dozen different sets of works; others forming a mosaic out of the various materials in dispute. Mr. Thomas Stephens, author of the Literature of the Cymri, an able and very interesting work, published by the liberality of Sir John Guest, has satisfactorily shown, that while a person named Merddin, a bard to whom powers of divination were ascribed, appeared as a boy before Vortigern in 480, and in the court of Rhydderch Hael as an old man, "with hair as white as winter hoar," and on the point of death in 570, the works that have been A term analogous with the Kuuepo of Homer, and with the German Cimbri. |