A Book of Myths
And when Fergus stood before Deirdre and Naoise, the man of her heart,
he told them of Conor's message, and of the peace and the glory that
awaited them in Erin if they would but listen to the words of welcome
that he brought.
Then said Naoise: "I am ready." But his eyes dared not meet the
sea-blue eyes of Deirdre, his queen.
"Knowest thou that my pledge is one of honour?" asked Fergus.
"I know it well," said Naoise.
So in joyous feasting was that night spent, and only over the heart
of Deirdre hung that black cloud of sorrow to come, of woe
unspeakable.
When the golden dawn crept over the blue hills of Loch Etive, and the
white-winged birds of the sea swooped and dived and cried in the
silver waters, the galley of the Sons of Usna set out to sea.
And Deirdre, over whom hung a doom she had not the courage to name,
sang a song at parting:
THE LAY OF DEIRDRE
"Beloved land, that Eastern land,
Alba, with its wonders.
O that I might not depart from it,
But that I go with Naoise.
Beloved is Dunfidgha and Dun Fin;
Beloved the Dun above them;
Beloved is Innisdraighende;[18]
And beloved Dun Suibhne.[19]
Coillchuan! O Coillchuan!
Where Ainnle would, alas! resort;
Too short, I deem, was then my stay
With Ainnle in Oirir Alban.
Glenlaidhe![20] O Glenlaidhe!
I used to sleep by its soothing murmur;
Fish, and flesh of wild boar and badger,
Was my repast in Glenlaidhe.
Glenmasan! O Glenmasan![21]
High its herbs, fair its boughs.
Solitary was the place of our repose
On grassy Invermasan.
Gleneitche![22] O Gleneitche!
There was raised my earliest home.
Beautiful its woods on rising,
When the sun struck on Gleneitche.
Glen Urchain![23] O Glen Urchain!
It was the straight glen of smooth ridges,
Not more joyful was a man of his age
Than Naoise in Glen Urchain.
Glendaruadh![24] O Glendaruadh!
My love each man of its inheritance.
Sweet the voice of the cuckoo, on bending bough,
On the hill above Glendaruadh.
Beloved is Draighen and its sounding shore;
Beloved is the water o'er the pure sand.
O that I might not depart from the east,
But that I go with my beloved!"
_Translated by W. F. Skene, LL.D._
Thus they fared across the grey-green sea betwixt Alba and Erin, and
when Ardan and Ainle and Naoise heard the words of the song of
Deirdre, on their hearts also descended the strange sorrow of an evil
thing from which no courage could save them.
At Ballycastle, opposite Rathlin Island, where a rock on the shore
("Carraig Uisneach") still bears the name of the Sons of Usna, Fergus
and the returned exiles landed. And scarcely were they out of sight of
the shore when a messenger came to Fergus, bidding him to a feast of
ale at the dun of Borrach. Then Fergus, knowing well that in this was
the hand of Conor and that treachery was meant, reddened all over with
anger and with shame. But yet he dared not break his _geasa_, even
although by holding to it the honour he had pledged to the three
brothers for their safe-conduct and that of Deirdre was dragged
through the mire. He therefore gave them his sons for escort and went
to the feast at the dun of Borrach, full well knowing that Deirdre
spoke truth when she told him sadly that he had sold his honour. The
gloomy forebodings that had assailed the heart of Deirdre ere they had
left Loch Etive grew ever the stronger as they went southwards. She
begged Naoise to let them go to some place of safety and there wait
until Fergus had fulfilled his _geasa_ and could rejoin them and go
with them to Emain Macha. But the Sons of Usna, strong in the
knowledge of their own strength, and simply trustful of the pledged
word of Conor and of Fergus, laughed at her fears, and continued on
their way. Dreams of dread portent haunted her sleep, and by daytime
her eyes in her white face looked like violets in the snow. She saw a
cloud of blood always hanging over the beautiful Sons of Usna, and all
of them she saw, and Illann the Fair, with their heads shorn off, gory
and awful. Yet no pleading words could prevail upon Naoise. His fate
drove him on.
"To Emain Macha we must go, my beloved," he said. "To do other than
this would be to show that we have fear, and fear we have none."
Thus at last did they arrive at Emain Macha, and with courteous
welcome Conor sent them word that the house of the heroes of the Red
Branch was to be theirs that night. And although the place the king
had chosen for their lodgment confirmed all the intuitions and
forebodings of Deirdre, the evening was spent by in good cheer, and
Deirdre had the joy of a welcome there from her old friend Lavarcam.
For to Lavarcam Conor had said: "I would have thee go to the House of
the Red Branch and bring me back tidings if the beauty of Deirdre has
waned, or if she is still the most beautiful of all women."
And when Lavarcam saw her whom she had loved as a little child,
playing chess with her husband at the board of ivory and gold, she
knew that love had made the beauty of Deirdre blossom, and that she
was now more beautiful than the words of any man or woman could tell.
Nor was it possible for her to be a tool for Conor when she looked in
the starry eyes of Deirdre, and so she poured forth warning of the
treachery of Conor, and the Sons of Usna knew that there was truth in
the dreams of her who was the queen of their hearts. And even as
Lavarcam ceased there came to the eyes of Deirdre a vision such as
that of Cathbad the Druid on the night of her birth.
"I see three torches quenched this night," she said.
"And these three torches are the Three Torches of Valour
among the Gael, and their names are the names of the
Sons of Usna. And more bitter still is this sorrow,
because that the Red Branch shall ultimately perish
through it, and Uladh itself be overthrown, and blood
fall this way and that as the whirled rains of
winter."
Fiona Macleod.
Then Lavarcam went her way, and returned to the palace at Emain Macha
and told Conor that the cruel winds and snows of Alba had robbed
Deirdre of all her loveliness, so that she was no more a thing to be
desired. But Naoise had said to Deirdre when she foretold his doom:
"Better to die for thee and for thy deathless beauty than to have
lived without knowledge of thee and thy love," and it may have been
that some memory of the face of Deirdre, when she heard these words,
dwelt in the eyes of Lavarcam and put quick suspicion into the evil
heart of the king. For when Lavarcam had gone forth, well pleased that
she had saved her darling, Conor sent a spy--a man whose father and
three brothers had fallen in battle under the sword of Naoise--that he
might see Deirdre and confirm or contradict the report of Lavarcam.
And when this man reached the house of the Red Branch, he found that
the Sons of Usna had been put on their guard, for all the doors and
windows were barred. Thus he climbed to a narrow upper window and
peered in. There, lying on the couches, the chess-board of ivory and
gold between them, were Naoise and Deirdre. So beautiful were they,
that they were as the deathless gods, and as they played that last
game of their lives, they spoke together in low voices of love that
sounded like the melody of a harp in the hands of a master player.
Deirdre was the first to see the peering face with the eyes that
gloated on her loveliness. No word said she, but silently made the
gaze of Naoise follow her own, even as he held a golden chessman in
his hand, pondering a move. Swift as a stone from a sling the chessman
was hurled, and the man fell back to the ground with his eyeball
smashed, and found his way to Emain Macha as best he could, shaking
with agony and snarling with lust for revenge. Vividly he painted for
the king the picture of the most beautiful woman on earth as she
played at the chess-board that he held so dear, and the rage of Conor
that had smouldered ever since that day when he learned that Naoise
had stolen Deirdre from him, flamed up into madness. With a bellow
like that of a wounded bull, he called upon the Ultonians to come with
him to the House of the Red Branch, to burn it down, and to slay all
those within it with the sword, save only Deirdre, who was to be saved
for a more cruel fate.
In the House of the Red Branch, Deirdre and the three brothers and the
two sons of Fergus heard the shouts of the Ultonians and knew that the
storm was about to break. But, calm as rocks against which the angry
waves beat themselves in vain, sat those whose portion at dawn was to
be cruel death. And Naoise and Ainle played chess, with hands that did
not tremble. At the first onslaught, Buinne the Red, son of Fergus,
sallied forth, quenched the flames, and drove back the Ultonians with
great slaughter. But Conor called to him to parley and offered him a
bribe of land, and Buinne, treacherous son of a treacherous father,
went over to the enemy. His brother, Illann the Fair, filled with
shame, did what he could to make amends. He went forth, and many
hundreds of the besieging army fell before him, ere death stayed his
loyal hand. At his death the Ultonians again fired the house, and
first Ardan and then Ainle left their chess for a fiercer game, and
glutted their sword blades with the blood of their enemies. Last came
the turn of Naoise. He kissed Deirdre, and drank a drink, and went out
against the men of Conor, and where his brothers had slain hundreds,
a thousand fell before his sword.
Then fear came into the heart of Conor, for he foresaw that against
the Sons of Usna no man could prevail, save by magic. Thus he sent for
Cathbad the Druid, who was even then very near death, and the old man
was carried on a litter to the House of the Red Branch, from which the
flames were leaping, and before which the dead lay in heaps.
And Conor besought him to help him to subdue the Sons of Usna ere they
should have slain every Ultonian in the land. So by his magic Cathbad
raised a hedge of spears round the house. But Naoise, Ardan, and
Ainle, with Deirdre in their centre, sheltered by their shields, burst
suddenly forth from the blazing house, and cut a way for themselves
through the hedge as though they sheared green wheat. And, laughing
aloud, they took a terrible toll of lives from the Ultonians who would
have withstood them. Then again the Druid put forth his power, and a
noise like the noise of many waters was in the ears of all who were
there. So suddenly the magic flood arose that there was no chance of
escape for the Sons of Usna. Higher it mounted, ever higher, and
Naoise held Deirdre on his shoulder, and smiled up in her eyes as the
water rose past his middle. Then suddenly as it had come, the flood
abated, and all was well with the Ultonians who had sheltered on a
rising ground. But the Sons of Usna found themselves entrapped in a
morass where the water had been. Conor, seeing them in his hands at
last, bade some of his warriors go and take them. But for shame no
Ultonian would go, and it was a man from Norway who walked along a dry
spit of land to where they stood, sunk deep in the green bog. "Slay me
first!" called Ardan as he drew near, sword in hand. "I am the
youngest, and, who knows, my death may change the tides of fate!"
And Ainle also craved that death might be dealt to him the first. But
Naoise held out his own sword, "The Retaliator," to the executioner.
"Mannanan, the son of Lir, gave me my good sword," he said. "With it
strike my dear brothers and me one blow only as we stand here like
three trees planted in the soil. Then shall none of us know the grief
and shame of seeing the other beheaded." And because it was hard for