Deirdre- Celtic FigureMortal"Deirdre of the Sorrows"

The Prophecy

Before Deirdre was born, she cried out from her mother's womb, and the druid Cathbad delivered the prophecy that would define her existence: this child would possess beauty beyond all women of Ireland, and because of that beauty, the greatest warriors of Ulster would destroy one another and the province would know bitter sorrow. The warriors of the Red Branch demanded the infant be killed, but King Conchobar mac Nessa refused. He ordered the child raised in seclusion by the nurse Lebarcham, hidden from the world in a remote dwelling where no man would see her. Conchobar intended to take her as his wife when she came of age, claiming for himself the beauty the druid had foretold. Deirdre grew up seeing no man but her foster-father and the king who visited her, knowing nothing of the world beyond her enclosure.

Naoise and the Flight to Alba

One winter day, Deirdre watched her foster-father flay a calf on the snow outside her dwelling. A raven came to drink the blood, and seeing the black bird against the red blood and the white snow, she told Lebarcham that she desired a man with those three colors: hair as black as the raven, cheeks as red as blood, skin as white as snow. Lebarcham named Naoise, son of Usnech, and arranged for Deirdre to meet him. When Naoise hesitated, knowing Cathbad's prophecy, Deirdre seized him by the ears and declared she would bring shame upon him if he did not take her. Naoise, bound by honor, fled with her to Alba, accompanied by his brothers Ardan and Ainnle. They lived as wanderers and hunters, driven from place to place by kings who desired Deirdre's beauty, until they found service with the king of Alba.

Betrayal and Death

Conchobar, consumed by desire and wounded pride, sent Fergus mac Róich to Alba with guarantees of safe conduct, swearing the Sons of Usnech could return in peace. Against Deirdre's warnings and her prophetic dreams of blood, Naoise accepted the invitation. Upon their return to Ireland, Conchobar's men ambushed and killed Naoise and his brothers despite Fergus's pledges. The treachery shattered the Red Branch: Fergus, his honor broken by the king's deception, departed Ulster with three thousand warriors and joined Connacht under Queen Medb, a defection that would lead directly to the great cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Deirdre was given to Conchobar but refused to yield. In the oldest version of the tale, she spent a year in his household without smiling, sleeping, or raising her head from her knee. When Conchobar asked what she hated most, she named him and Éogan mac Durthacht, who had killed Naoise. Conchobar declared she would spend a year with each. Being driven between them in a chariot, she threw herself from it and dashed her head against a stone, choosing death over a life passed between the two men she most despised.