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Deirdre of the Sorrows
King Connacher stood in the Great Hall on the eve of Samhain. The Knights of the Red Branch, joined in the merriment. Cathbad the druid stood alone staring into the otherworld. Only Malcolm, the King's harper, was peaceful, for his wife, Elva, was with child. They sat talking in gentle whispers. A cry arose that pierced the air. Fear spread and silence fell across the room.
"Do not stir, until the cause of the noise be known" commanded the King. Cathbad stepped forward and raised his staff. "I have been observing the clouds, the age of the moon, and the positions of the stars," he said and walked to Elva. "It's the child that screamed. She no common child but one of great beauty. Her name shall be Deirdre, from her beauty will arise a sword to split the tree or Ulster. The Red Branch will divide itself and there will be strife and warfare because of her."
"Kill the child," cried the knights. "Is not the life of one child worth less than the destruction of many? The King knew the druid's prophecies were accurate, but his curiosity about such beauty overcame him. "This child will be born. I will have her raised in a secluded place and I will marry her myself when she is grown, beneath my charge and then as my wife she will be unable to cause rivalry or harm. In this way I will defeat the prophecy."
The child Deirdre was born, and King built a house on a distant hill. An orchard was planted around the cottage and enclosed by a wall. Deirdre was to live there with Levercham, who had been raised in the King household. Levercham taught Deirdre all she knew and loved her. Her hair was crimson and her body was honey colored like a golden orchid. To gaze upon her was to find one's gaze slipping and gliding. She fired the imagination with a look or a gesture, and gave meanings to common things. The strength of her heart was revealed in her body, like a bottomless mine were life itself could be endlessly explored.
Levercham told Deirdre that she would marry the King. It saddened her and she became despondent. Levercham saw her distress. "But you shall marry the King, a great honour." Deirdre sighed and refused to eat. A raven landed on the snow outside Deirdre's window to peck at a beautiful apple that had fallen. "Why, that raven, is like a man I saw in my dream last night. His hair was dark as the rooks, his skin fair as the snow, his cheeks red as that apple. He is the man I shall marry."
When spring arrived Deirdre was collecting wild flowers when she saw three hunters following a path along the northern most edge of the forest. As they passed by, her attention was on the first and tallest hunter. "He is the man of my vision," she said and followed after him. She found him in the wide clearing in the forest. The canopy of the tall oaks spread overhead, the branches not quite touching. She felt a force that she had not known before. She approached the hunter who now carefully watched her. Deirdre looked up at him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw beams of light streaming downward. Her heart beat fast as she drew her white face up to his own. She kissed him, and said "I will love you as in days of old, when Dectera loved the green harper, and ran away with him forever. My kiss is against the wishes of the King, and I have come away from my home without permission. At the new moon they are coming to take me to his palace, to be his wife. You must take me away from here."
 And the hunter looked at her and he spoke. "I am Naois, the eldest of the sons of Uisnach." He had never seen such beauty. As he spoke he trembled realizing who he held. "Do you not remember the druid's prophecy? There is still now time for you to return."
"I value this one moment more than ten lifetimes." Deirdre looked into his eyes. Naois there decided and he gave her his love. Together they went to his brothers, Allen and Arden and went into exile in Alba, Scotland. They settled at the head of the Loch Etive and built a home at the top of a waterfall, and called the home Granian Deirdre, which means Deirdre's Sunny Home. Deirdre thought that none could be so content as they. For many moons they lived happily.
King Connacher went to see Cathbad the druid one evening two years after the exile of Naois. Cathbad knew it weighed upon the King. "Our greatest people, the three torches of the Gael, Naois, Allen and Arden, are not amongst us. It is unfit that they be in exile. I will send Fergus mac Roigh to give the King's pardon, and invite them home for a great feast." And it was done.
Fergus arrived three days later with the King's message, and was welcomed. Naois went to Deirdre to tell her the good news, but
she was frightened. In the morning walked the high cliffs above the ocean. She tried to change Naois' mind. "I had a vision in my dream last night. Three ravens came to us from Ehmain Macha with three drops of honey in their beaks, and took away with them three drops of blood." "What means this dream?" "It means Fergus offers of peace as sweet as honey, but the three drops of blood are Allen, Arden, and yourself. The honey is a trap for death." Despite the vision, Naois decided to return. "We will lay aside our grievance,we sail in the morning." Deirdre shed tears through the night. In the morning they set off, the mist mingled with the sky, the coast of Alba slowly it faded from sight.
On shore, Fergus traveled ahead and told the King that they had come. "Now let your kindness be shown," he said. "But I am not ready," said Connacher. "Send them to the Inn of the Red Branch on the Great Plain untill tomorrow."
Late that night, King Connacher sent for the warrior, Gelban Grednach. "Go to the Inn, where Deirdre stays and tell me whether she keeps her beauty." Gelban hurried to the Inn. Out of breath he peeked through the window and saw Deirdre. So great was her beauty that he gasped and gave himself away. Naois saw Grednach peering at them, picked up some dice and hurled them at the window. One struck Grednach in the eye and blinded him. Grednach howled and ran back to the King. "You have seen her?" he asked. "I have, and while I was looking Naois took my eye out." "How does she appear?" demanded the King. "I say the truth. Tho my eye has been blinded, it was my one desire to remain there and gaze upon her for all my days."
Connacher raged and gathered one hundred men. "Go down to the Inn kill the strangers, and bring Deirdre to me." Unknown to the King, Levercham was hidden in the crowd and ran ahead to warn Deirdre. "My brothers and I will stop the pursuit," said Naois. They went forth and hid themselves by a line of trees.
The brothers swords shone in the gloom with a gleam of chill flame, so deadly were the hearts of those who had been betrayed. When it ended the brothers had killed all one hundred. Connacher cried out with wrath, but the Sons of Uisnach and Deirdre were traveling across the great plain in the darkness towards home. The King called Cathbad the druid and said "Stop them or I shall see to it that you shall be banished forever." Cathbad went to work, and he raised a forest on the plain, but the brothers went through it. Then the druid turned the plain into a freezing sea. The brothers stripped their shirts from their backs. Deirdre climbed upon Naois' shoulders and they swam against the howling current. Their speed did not diminish and the brothers traveled as swiftly as they had fled on foot. Seeing this the King frowned and the druid feared for his life. He raised his arms and the sea turned to stone, sharp as swords seared upwards, and ground together chewing like monstrous teeth of some enormous granite creature. The brothers ran upon the stones but slipped and fell many times. Allen, the youngest cried out in pain and he soon died. Naois did not let him go, but continued to carry him. He looked around for Arden but saw to his misery that he had also died, and the will to live was torn from him. Now possibly from wounding or from heartbreak or both, Naois' will deserted him. Lying amongst the gnashing rocks he was overcome entirely, and died without a word. At this the plain returned to grass.
"They are gone," said Cathbad. "The Sons of Uisnach are dead and shall trouble you no more." The King went forth to behold Deirdre for himself. She knelt over Naois and his brothers in wordless tears. While still deep in her sorrow the King ordered her taken away and locked in his palace. He then ordered that the brothers be buried in a grave where they lay. The people did so and marked the place with a standing stone, with the name Uisnach.
The prophecy of Deirdre had come to pass. She stayed in the household of Connacher for a fortnight. She could not eat nor sleep. After thirty days the winter came and a soft blanket of snow fell upon the world outside her window. She sent a warrior for her harp, and there alone in her locked room she sang quietly to Naois, for she knew she was dying. She looked out over the vast empty plain and sang:
In skies of frozen snow
Where winds of sadness roam
Red sun's burning low
You were my home
Where I would go
In green fields
Now unknown
our name upon
The standing stone
Love invites
One last call
When death from life
Begins to fall
The streams no longer go
To tides of distant seas
No love can grow old
Without memories
our arms my home
Where I would sleep
Tears
Now unfold
How can I now
Alone grow old
Dusty Stars
Shed their lights
When death from life
Slips silently to the night
In the morning she was dead. The King had her buried in the hills where she was raised. A small band of people, however, stole thru the night and removed her to a grave on the Great Plain, beside Naois. The people drove a stake of yew wood to mark each grave. Two years later, beside the standing stone, grew two beautiful yew trees. Though the trunks emerged from the ground six feet apart, the trees had grown together and had twisted around one another. The branches were intertwined, so that the two trees were one. Though the stone has crumbled to dust, the trees still grow there to this day. 
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