Image from 'Poems of Ossian - Volume II'

This image is based on a scene in Book VIII of 'Temora', one of the poems in the Ossianic cycle, first published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson in 1762. The scene is an engraving by Cosmo Armstrong, after a drawing by Henry Singleton in an 1897 London edition of 'The Poems of Ossian'. Ossian is the narrator and purported author of the poems, which mainly cycle through a series of battles and heroics by various characters —including Ossian's father, Fingal.

The two figures in the forefront are Clonmal, an elderly druid, and Sulmalla, the daughter of the king of Inishuna. In the background, we see the ghostly figure of Cathmor. Being in love with Cathmor, Sulmalla had followed him to war: in turn, he had asked her to join Clonmal in the valley of Lona for the duration of a battle. Unfortunately, Cathmor dies killed at the hands of Fingal.

In this image, Cathmor appears as a spirit to Sulmalla and Clonmal, who then realise that he has been slain in battle.

[Shelfmark Oss.85]