Ossian's Return lyrics

Song information

Artist: Cruachan
Album: Folk-Lore

Lyrics

[Music: kf,jf words: kf]

The sky was grey and leaden
Wolves howling on the wind
Above the land of tír na n-óg
The ancient calm still reigned

"I long to stand on my home shore"
Said ossian in a glare
"But ossian love, the is your home"
Said niamh of the golden hair

She seen the look upon his face
She knew the pain he felt
He longed to be home among his race
With his ring-sword strapped to his belt

"Return my love to the land of man
But be warned time rests heavily there
Come back to me if ever you can
Back to the land of the fair."

"Do not dismount from the steed you ride
From this world it belongs
If you dismount you shall fall by its side
To be remembered only in faerie songs"

He galloped across the faerie seas
Back to the land of man
Watched by the gods and the daoine sídhe
His life to end as it began

"I have returned", he said aloud
But no one was there to hear
His noble home once bold and proud
Had crumbled through the many years

A power had come into the land
To threaten the olden ways
The people ignore the ancient gods
They bid farewell to a golden age

Ossian stopped his gallant steed
He could see some people ahead
"Help us please, our brother are trapped-
Beneath this dolmen", they said

He leaned down from his mount
And gripped the dolmen firm
From the earth the rocks was freed
The people beneath unharmed

But from the strain his saddle broke
To the earth he was cast
A cry of pain burst from his throat
The years now caught him at last

In tír na n-óg niamh shed a tear
When she saw the rider-less horse
Ossian was gone, her greatest fear
Her heart was full of deep remorse