English Literature For Boys and Girls | Page 6

us vivid pictures of people and things, but it is not full of beauty and of
tender imagination like many of the Gaelic stories. Among the most beautiful and best
known of these are perhaps the Three Sorrows of Story-Telling. These three stories are
called: The Tragedy of the Children of Lir; The Tragedy of the Children of Tuireann; and
Deirdre and the Sons of Usnach. Of the three the last is perhaps the most interesting,
because the story happened partly in Scotland and partly in Ireland, and it is found both
in old Irish and in old Scottish manuscripts.
The story is told in many old books, and in many ways both in prose and in verse. The
oldest and shortest version is in the Book of Leinster, the same book in which is found
The Tain.
The tale goes that one day King Conor and his nobles feasted at the house of Felim, his
chief story-teller. And while they feasted a daughter was born to Felim the story-teller.
Then Cathbad the Druid, who was also at the feast, became exceeding sad. He foretold
that great sorrow and evil should come upon the land because of this child, and so he
called her Deirdre, which means trouble or alarm.
When the nobles heard that, they wished to slay the new-born babe. But Conor spoke.
"Let it not be so done," he said. "It were an ill thing to shed the blood of an innocent child.
I myself shall care for her. She shall be housed in a safe place so that none may come
nigh to her, and when she is grown she shall be my one true wife."
So it was done as King Conor said. Deirdre was placed in a safe and lonely castle, where
she was seen of none save her tutor and her nurse, Lavarcam. There, as the years passed,
she grew tall and fair as a slender lily, and more beautiful than the sunshine.
Now when fourteen years had passed, it happened one snowy day that Deirdre's tutor

killed a calf to provide food for their little company. And as the calf's blood was spilled
upon the snow, a raven came to drink of it. When Deirdre saw that, she sighed and said,
"Would that I had a husband whose hair was as the color of the raven, his cheeks as blood,
and his skin as snow."
"There is such a one," said Lavarcam, "he is Naisi the son of Usnach."
After that here was no rest for Deirdre until she had seen Naisi. And when they met they
loved each other so that Naisi took her and fled with her to Scotland far from Conor the
King. For they knew that when the King learned that fair Deirdre had been stolen from
him, he would be exceeding wrathful.
There, in Scotland, Deirdre and Naisi lived for many years happily. With them were
Ainle and Ardan, Naisi's two brothers, who also loved their sister Deirdre well.
But Conor never forgot his anger at the escape of Deirdre. He longed still to have her as
his Queen, and at last he sent a messenger to lure the fair lady and the three brave
brothers back to Ireland.
"Naisi and Deirdre were seated together one day, and between them Conor's chess board,
they playing upon it.
"Naisi heard a cry and said, 'I hear the call of a man of Erin.'
"'That was not the call of a man of Erin,' says Deirdre, 'but the call of a man of Alba.'
"Deirdre knew the first cry of Fergus, but she concealed it. Fergus uttered the second cry.
"'That is the cry of a man of Erin,' says Naisi.
"'It is not indeed,' says Deirdre, 'and let us play on.'
"Fergus sent forth the third cry, and the sons of Usnach knew it was Fergus that sent for
the cry. And Naisi ordered Ardan to go to meet Fergus. Then Deirdre declared she knew
the first call sent forth by Fergus.
"'Why didst thou conceal it, then, my Queen?' says Naisi.
"'A vision I saw last night,' says Deirdre, 'namely that three birds came unto us having
three sups of honey in their beaks, and that they left them with us, and that they took
three sups of our blood with them.'
"'What determination hast thou of that, O Princess?' says Naisi.
"'It is,' says Deirdre, 'that Fergus comes unto us with a message of peace from Conor, for
more sweet is not honey than the message of peace of the false man.'
"'Let that be,' says Naisi. 'Fergus is long in the port; and go, Ardan, to meet him and bring
him with thee.'"*
*Theophilus O'Flanagan
And when Fergus came there were kindly greetings between the friends