Chapter IX: Deirdre

_Source_.--_Celtic Magazine_, xiii. pp. 69, _seq_. I have abridged somewhat, made the sons of Fergus all faithful instead of two traitors, and omitted an incident in the house of the wild men called here "strangers." The original Gaelic was given in the _Transactions of the Inverness Gaelic Society_ for 1887, p. 241, _seq._, by Mr. Carmichael. I have inserted Deirdre's "Lament" from the _Book of Leinster_.

_Parallels_.--This is one of the three most sorrowful Tales of Erin, (the other two, _Children of Lir_ and _Children of Tureen_, are given in Dr. Joyce's _Old Celtic Romances_), and is a specimen of the old heroic sagas of elopement, a list of which is given in the _Book of Leinster_. The "outcast child" is a frequent episode in folk and hero-tales: an instance occurs in my _English Fairy Tales_, No. xxxv., and Prof. Koehler gives many others in _Archiv. f. Slav. Philologie_, i. 288. Mr. Nutt adds tenth century Celtic parallels in _Folk-Lore_, vol. ii. The wooing of hero by heroine is a characteristic Celtic touch. See "Connla" here, and other examples given by Mr. Nutt in his notes to MacInnes' _Tales_. The trees growing from the lovers' graves occurs in the English ballad of _Lord Lovel_ and has been studied in _Melusine_.

_Remarks_.--The "Story of Deirdre" is a remarkable instance of the tenacity of oral tradition among the Celts. It has been preserved in no less than five versions (or six, including Macpherson's "Darthula") ranging from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. The earliest is in the twelfth century, _Book of Leinster_, to be dated about 1140 (edited in facsimile under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, i. 147, _seq._). Then comes a fifteenth century version, edited and translated by Dr. Stokes in Windisch's _Irische Texte_ II., ii. 109, _seq._, "Death of the Sons of Uisnech." Keating in his _History of Ireland_ gave another version in the seventeenth century. The Dublin Gaelic Society published an eighteenth century version in their _Transactions_ for 1808. And lastly we have the version before us, collected only a few years ago, yet agreeing in all essential details with the version of the _Book of Leinster_. Such a record is unique in the history of oral tradition, outside Ireland, where, however, it is quite a customary experience in the study of the Finn-saga. It is now recognised that Macpherson had, or could have had, ample material for his _rechauffe_ of the Finn or "Fingal" saga. His "Darthula" is a similar cobbling of our present story. I leave to Celtic specialists the task of settling the exact relations of these various texts. I content myself with pointing out the fact that in these latter days of a seemingly prosaic century in these British Isles there has been collected from the lips of the folk a heroic story like this of "Deirdre," full of romantic incidents, told with tender feeling and considerable literary skill. No other country in Europe, except perhaps Russia, could provide a parallel to this living on of Romance among the common folk. Surely it is a bounden duty of those who are in the position to put on record any such utterances of the folk-imagination of the Celts before it is too late.