Deirdre

In Irish romance, Deirdre is the beautiful daughter of Malcolm Harper, the great storyteller of Ulster. Malcolm and his wife have no family, but the two enjoy a very happy life together.

Now, one day, Malcolm is visited by a soothsayer of whom he inquires of his future.

"Are you doing any telling today, sir?"

"Aye, I am doing a little. Do you require something of me?"

"Well, the soothsaying I desire is what will happen to me in the future?"

"Sir, I am going out, and when I return, I will relate to you my visions for your life."

He remained gone but for a short space of time. Upon his return, the forecaster prophesied to Malcolm the coming of a daughter and how, at her birth, she would bring ruin to Ireland with much killing, and the loss of three heroes of Erin.

Soon after the birth of his daughter, Malcolm remembered the prognosticator's warnings and closed his house to every living soul except to the child's nurse.

There are several versions telling of Deirdre's life, but I prefer the story of Deirdre's early years as told in the oral tradition by the Scottish peasantry...

...Malcolm sent the faithful nursemaid and his infant daughter to a distant place unbeknown to anyone, where he prepared for them a comfortable place in which to live. The nurse taught Deirdre all that she knew and her charge grew into a lovely and intelligenent young lady.

One night, a hunter became lost in the woods, and lay down to rest beside a beautiful green knoll close to where Deirdre lived. During the course of his sleep, a dream came upon him in which he was overtaken by the delight of a fairy broch, the fairies therein, obviously enjoying a musical interlude. As the man parleyed with the sidhe, it became that Deirdre also heard him.

A colloquy ensues during which time Deirdre chastises her caretaker for not opening their door to the lost hunter. Deirdre, herself, opens the door to the stranger and offers him food and drink, whilest the hunter and the servant toss angry words back and forth.

The hunter perseveres in hopes of gaining the companion's trust by telling the two women stories of three young brothers--Naois, Allen and Arden--the sons of Uisnech, which earns him a swift kick out of the home.

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