_Deirdre Wed._ This episode of thirty hours, delivered by the Three
Voices, does not occur in any of the versions of the famous “Tragical
tale of the Sons of Usnach.” But the manner of Deirdre’s wooing of Naois
is based on an incident in a Gaelic version of that tale, in which, on a
day (not her marriage day) Deirdre and her women companions “were out on
the hillock behind the house enjoying the scene and drinking in the
sun’s heat. What did they see coming but three men a-journeying. Deirdre
was looking at the men that were coming, and wondering at them. When the
men neared them, Deirdre remembered the language of the huntsmen and she
said to herself that these were the three sons of Usnach, and that this
was Naois, he having what was above the bend of his two shoulders above
the men of Erin all.” The three brothers went past without taking any
notice of them, and without even glancing at the young girls on the
hillock. “What happened but that love for Naois struck the heart of
Deirdre, so that she could not but follow after him. She trussed her
raiment and went after the three men that went past the base of the
knoll, leaving her women attendants there. Aillean and Ardan had heard
of the women that Connachar, King of Ulster, had with him, and they
thought that if Naois their brother saw her he would have her himself,
more especially as she was not married to the king.” They perceived the
woman coming and called on one another to hasten their steps as they had
a long distance to travel and the dusk of night was coming on. They did
so. She cried three times “Naois, son of Usnach, wilt thou leave me?”
“What cry is that which it is not well for me to answer, and not easy
for me to refuse?” Twice the brothers put him off with excuses. “But the
third time Naois and Deirdre met, and Deirdre kissed Naois three times
and a kiss to each of his brothers.” All other incidents in the episodic
poem _Deirdre Wed_ are new.
_Fintan_; _Urmael_; _Cir_. These were old bards. I have myself found and
explored a tomb like that of Cir, caverned through a hill-ridge, not far
from Eman and Armagh, just as it is described in the poem. But the
curious may rediscover it for themselves.
_Connachar._ This king, or terrestrial divinity, is generally known as
Conchobar, or Conor, King of Ulster (Uladh) and Arch-King of Ireland. He
is chronicled as reigning about the time of the Incarnation of Christ.
_Eman_, or Emain Macha, was the chief palace of Connachar. It is still
seen and named in the “Navan Ring”—enormous earthworks on a hill about
two miles west of Armagh. The people from the town and country side
still go up to dance there on holidays. Traces of the Lake of
Pearls—where jewels were cast in on a sudden flight, lie in a marsh
under Eman. The _Callan_, or “loud-sounding” river, runs not very far
off.
_Dun Aengus._ A prehistoric stone fortress—singularly vast—on the edge
of the cliffs of Arran Môr, an island in the Atlantic, west of Galway.
The walls are very massive, and lie half-circle-wise, as if half had
broken off and fallen into the sea.
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