157 



historian for the name of Swaran and his invasion of Ireland, is Mac- 

 pherson's Ossian ! 



« If there be any truth in the statement, why are we not referred to 

 known creditable authorities ? No syllable of it is to be found in 

 Torfseus, though he speaks at considerable length, and with fine his- 

 torical painting, equalling that of poetry, of the invasion of Ireland 

 by certain northern princes, but at a period long subsequent to the 

 days of Ossian ; nor in the Danish histories of king Eric, or Erpold 

 Lindenbruch. The two latter mention Gram, the fifth in the Danish 

 line of kings. Between him and Frothius hin Fredegode, the twenty-se- 

 venth king, contemporary with Christ, were twenty-one reigns, which, 

 at the moderate allowance of fifteen years to a reign, would make a 

 period of 315 years, so that the interval between him and Fin Mac- 

 Cumhal must have been at least 550 years. The date of Gram's reign 

 is not marked, it seems, by Sumh, in loco ; but Rosing says, as Sir 

 John Sinclair informs us, that he has elsewhere placed it in 240, 

 whether before or after Christ is not mentioned, but it is intended 

 that we should understand the latter, though the former must 

 unquestionably be nearer the truth. 



Some benevolent critic might, perhaps, suggest that Sumh has 

 spoken of a Gram different from him who is mentioned by Eric : but 

 unfortunately for this suggestion, we find but one Danish monarch of 

 that name, and his identity is fixed by the same remarkable fact 

 recorded of him both by Sumh and Eric, namely, that he slew his 

 enemy with sixteen brothers.* Eric says his enemy was the king 

 of Suecia; and Sumh calls him Swaran on the authority of Mac- 

 pherson. Thus is one monstrous falsehood made to act recipro- 

 cally in support of another. Sumh quotes Macpherson, and Sir 



* " Regem etiam Sueciae occidit, et sedecim fratres ejus," — Hist. Gentis Danorum, 

 Erici Danise regis. Lug. Elz. 1629, p. 54. * 



