: The Highest Type of Celtic Womanhood Author(s): Alice C. Macdonell Source: The Celtic Review, Vol. 9, No. 33 (Aug., 1913), pp. 41-48 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30070276 Accessed: 27-06-2016 04:49 UTC

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This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:49:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms DEIRDRE 41 himself. Unless, then, the degenerate descendants of this man are to be deemed Romani, there was no Roman sur- viving in Britain in our author's own time.

DEIRDRE

THE HIGHEST TYPE OF CELTIC WOMANHOOD

ALICE C. MACDONELL

PART II 'TAKE a blessing from me eastward to Alba; good is the sight of her bays and valleys; pleasant was it to sit on the slopes of her hills when the Sons of Usnach used to be hunting.' So sang the sweet Dearshula, Darthula, the name they knew her by in Alba on account of her dark blue eyes. When she spoke the above words, she was far from the home of her choice, with a heart sick for sorrow. The first resting-place of the lovers when they fled from Erin was undoubtedly on the shores of Loch , which some assert takes its name from . Tradition says that their castle was where the ruins of Urquhart Castle now stands. And I for one would prefer to go by the traditions of a country rather than by many a written document. A fairer spot they could not have chosen, with the silver birches and dark pines casting deep shadows on the waters. But here, alas! occurred the first and only misunderstand- ing between these two. Naoise and his brothers were asked to attend the court of the King of the North at Inverness. The prudence of the three deemed it unwise to let Deirdre be seen there, on account of her fatal beauty and fascination. Indeed they were careful to keep her hidden as much as possible from all stranger eyes. Our heroine has been compared to Helen of Troy--that

This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:49:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 42 THE CELTIC REVIEW the beauty of both caused a great war is a similitude-there the resemblance ends. The beauty of Helen was seemingly her chief asset. It is like comparing the glare of the foot- lights to one of the constellations. Cleopatra, that 'serpent of old Nile,' might have matched Deirdre's intelligence, but her character repels instead of attracting interest. In Deirdre we have beauty, learning, and virtue all united in one person. Naoise goes, then, to the court at Inverness, dressed in his bravest: 'A cloak of bright purple fringed with gold; a coat of satin with fifty hooks of silver; a brooch on which were one hundred polished gems; two blue green spears of bright points - dagger with the colour of yellow gold upon it, and silver.' Little wonder was it, then, that the lovw iand maid, daughter to the Lord of Duntreoir, fell to his fascinations. She gave him her heart's fI d to the day of her death would hear of love from ther man. And he, as he expresses it himself, gave h 'A pog gun fhios !' A flimsy enough excuse. But his subsequent visit to her was not at all ' gun fhios !' Nor was it 'gun fhios' that, as Deirdre says, 'He presented her with a frightened wild deer, and a fawn at its feet.' When Deirdre hears of this, no reproach or violent words escape her. Her wound was too deep, and her character too high. She takes her 'curach,' without sail, without oar, and launches out on the stormy waters of Loch Ness, hoping that its waves might close over her pain, neither caring to live, or to return. When the brothers learned what had become of their sister, so dearly loved that they never cared to look at any other woman, they set out immediately to find her. It was Ainle the beautiful who rescued her from the bitter cold waters of the loch, swimming with her on his shoulder to the shore. We may take it that Naoise's remorse and repentance was thoroughly sincere, as Deirdre tells us: 'Naoise

This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:49:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms DEIRDRE 43 swore upon his arms he would never put vexation upon me, until he would go from me to the hosts of the dead,' a knightly vow he nobly kept, as we see in his subsequent wanderings. For Naoise was a true Celt, with his im- passioned love of home deep in his heart, yet with the restless, wandering spirit of the race strong upon him, the spirit that drives us all out to seek the flower of the world and its mysteries. In one of these wanderings by sea, he falls asleep in his ship too near the coast of Norway, when he is taken prisoner by its king. But the daughter of Norway's lord, having once cast eyes on him, gives her heart to the all too fascinating Naoise, and dei es to aid his escape. andAt greatone dark peril night to herself of rain she' andls ...:.. 8 thesucceed court in smith,enter- ing the prison, file off the chains t% und the prisoners, and leading them down to the sea, put them upon their own ship again. The Norwegian Princess begs him to take her back with him to Alba, for no man's love will she have but his. Naoise, with the remembrance of that luckless 'pog gun fhios' and its consequences fresh in his mind, and also because he loves Darthula above all creatures, answers, 'If you are content to be second in the house, as no other shall be first save Deirdre.' He sails back without her to Scotland, to be reproached by Darthula for his carelessness in going to sleep on his arms so near the enemy's country. A fuller perusal of her history will show the overtures of the King of the North in his absence, and of the false steward Naoise left in charge of the household, and the fine scorn and contempt with which the high-minded queen met them all. As to the fair daughter of Duntreoir, that fatal 'pog gun fhios' left so deep an impression that she refused every offer made to her by other men. Deirdre, after her first natural indignation was over, felt nothing but pity for her. At that supreme moment

This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:49:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 44 THE CELTIC REVIEW of sorrow, when she stood by the grave of her dead hero, she could spare in her tenderness of heart a thought to her one-time rival. 'Ochon!' she sighed. 'If the daughter of Duntreoir knew to-night Naoise to be under a covering of clay, it is she would cry her fill, and it is I would cry along with her.' Here is true nobility of soul. No resentment for the mortal wound her own heart had received, and which she felt to the last hour of her life. The second home of Naoise and Deirdre was by the side of Loch Etive, when he thought it prudent to remove from the too pressing attentions of the King of the North, who sent the three Sons of Usnach into every possible danger, hoping that they might get killed, and that he would thus secure the fair Deirdre for himself. I am told that a century ago the old inhabitants of Glen Etive could point out the apple trees of Naoise, of Ainlee, and of Ardan in their own garden, but that even the place of it is now unknown. Here, as Deirdre reminded Naoise: 'Here you are king; in Erin you would have to serve.' Why, then, did he not listen to her wise counsels, rather than to the cry of that man of Erin that came over the hills, himself deluded by the subtler brain of King Conor. How vividly that scene rises before the mental vision! the towering mountains of Glen Etive-Beinn Ceitlin, Stob Dubh, Coire Dionach, the Buachaile Beag, and the Bua- chaile Mor and the Grianan, with all that splendid range just as they stand to-day-the still black waters of Loch Etive stretching far away into the distance-the cry of the wild swans, and the bell of the stag in the forest. The lovers were playing at chess when they were startled by a loud cry coming over the hills. Deirdre's white hand trembles as she lifts king or pawn for the next move. Well she knows what that cry may mean for her. Her efforts to attribute the cry to anything except what she knows it actually to be are pathetic in the extreme. At the third cry Naoise springs up, refusing to be deluded

This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:49:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms DEIRDRE 45 any longer. 'It is the cry of a man of Erin,' he shouts, as he, Ainle, and Ardan rush down the hill to meet the treacherous King Conor's messenger, Fergus Roy, with his two sons. Even to the last Deirdre tells Naoise of the dark visions that come to her in the night, in the hope that he will renounce the fatal voyage. 'I see,' she tells him, 'a vision of night before me. I hear the howling of dogs. I see Fergus away from us. I see him caught with hidden lies. I see Deirdre with tears. I see Deirdre with tears.' To which Naoise makes answer: 'Lay down your dream, Deirdre, on the heights of the hills. Lay down your dream on the sailors of the sea. Lay down your dream on the rough grey stones. For we will give peace and we will get it from the Lord of the World and from Conchubar.' A trust in which he was all toor soon to be disillusioned. Here Fergus cries out in irritation, fearing lest Deirdre's influence might frustrate his mission, and so cast a slur upon his honour. 'I ever disliked the howling of dogs, and the melancholy of women.' A most 'mi-mhogail' speech. Well, indeed, for them had they listened to the wise counsels of the fair and wise Deirdre. And well might she herself sing: 'Dear to me is that land in the East. the home of the sun in Glen Etive,' for there the sun of love and happiness had shone for her as never in the land of her birth. Even her last counsels were rejected, to go to Rechrainn or Rathlin, between Erin and Alba, until such time as they could ascertain the real intentions of Conor, or to go to Dundealgan, and put themselves under the protection of Cuchullain. Some authors assert that he was the uncle, others the cousin, of the Sons of Usnach. Certainly there could have been no very great distance of age between them, as they all studied about the same time in the Lady of Dun Sgathaich's school for warriors in the Isle of Skye, where the ruins of her castle stand to this day overlooking

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the shores of Loch Slapin. A sister of King Conor, Dechtire, is said to have been the mother of Cuchullain, and another sister the mother of the Sons of Usnach. It was only when Naoise, Deirdre, and his brothers were lodged in the house of the , and not at the palace of Emamia, that he realised the truth of Deirdre's warnings. Some accounts tell how all the Red Branch Knights were laid under a spell, and could neither raise hand nor arm in their defence; others, that the knights were sent away on different missions, and that the house was occupied in their absence by a band of mercenaries. I incline to believe this latter account as being the most probable. As we know, the aged Lavarcum was sent by King Conor to look through the keyhole and report if the lady's beauty remained the same. If not, the king was loth to risk a war by the murder of the flower of his knights. The faithful lady goes and warns her nursling and the brothers to bar and bolt the doors and windows against an attack. Going back, she reports to the king that Deirdre retained none of her former charm. The king, doubting, sends a second messenger, the gay Gealban, son to the King of Lochlan, who, finding the windows and doors barred against him, climbs to the roof, where one tiny window had been forgotten. Naoise sees, as he moves the pawns on the chessboard, the red flaming in Deirdre's cheek, as it always did when any one looked upon her. With a well-aimed cast he throws one of the dice, putting out the eyes of the peering Gealban. On his return to the king, Gealban, with char- acteristic impudence, remarks: 'Although he had put the two eyes out of me, I should consider myself well repaid for the sight of the fairest creature they had ever beheld'; which provokes the retort from the king that: 'The hand that threw the dice aims too well to live so near a throne.' The last scene of this fatal drama closes with the death

This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:49:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms DEIRDRE 47 by treachery of the three. When all efforts to overcome them by natural means failed, Conor sent for Cathbad the . When the house of the Red Branch was in flames, the Sons of Usnach fought their way out, bearing their queen on their shields, and would have escaped, only that the Druid's spell made a field of corn appear to them as a raging sea through which they tried to swim in vain. Ochon ! what need to dwell on it. The three peerless Sons of Usnach were slain. And Deirdre the broken-hearted mourned them three nights and three days before she died on her hero's breast. Both Lady Gregory's and Dr. Carmichael's account say that she went down to the shores of the sea, and taking a knife from a man working there, put out to sea in a small boat, where she stabbed herself, throwing the knife to the right that no man might be accused of her death. I think this part of both narratives to be wrong. Suicide was, and is, a form of cowardice unknown to our race, and in direct contradiction to what we know of the char- acter of Darthula. It was to Cuchullain that Deirdre told the tale of the murder of the Sons of Usnach, for he loved Naoise above all men. As she mourned by the grave of her hero, King Conor sent messengers to try to induce her to listen to his suit. To them she made answer: 'Though sweet to you are the sounds of pipes and of trumpets, truly, I say to the king, I have known music that is sweeter,' alluding to the beautiful singing voice of Naoise. She who mourned her 'three hawks of Slieve Culeen, her three pupils that were with Sgathach,' had no harsh word even for this traitor. Her two little children-little Gaiar, the boy, and Aoidhgreine, of the sunny face--she left in the charge of Mannanan, son of Lir, in Emain of the apple trees. Bobaras the poet gave learning to Gaiar, and Aoidhgreine Mannanan gave later in marriage to Ruin, son of Eochaidh Iuil, King of the Land of Promise.

This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:49:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 48 THE CELTIC REVIEW

This paper is given, not, indeed, as a consecutive whole, but rather as an inducement for deeper study into this most fascinating tale, and others of a like nature, lying almost unknown in our Celtic storehouses, and it may also add a yet deeper interest to the beautiful country around Loch Ness and Loch Etive. Do not the mists of the fair Deirdre, Naoise, Ainle, and Ardan still hover around far Glen Etive, giving a more mysterious glamour to its hills and its waters ? There the delicate shadowy form with the deep starry eyes seems to look down on the foaming waters of the 'Eas,' hard by her own 'grianan,' while the sound of her sweet voice yet wakens the birds hidden in the quicken trees; or the sound of her feet passing lightly stirs the deer lying close under the bracken. The shout of Naoise and the ring of the blue-grey steel echo still through the old royal forest of Dalness; and the rich voice of him rises and falls in song on the dark waters of Etive. Sweeter the bloom of the heather, and fresher its per- fume; more pungent the smell of the wild bog myrtle, whiter the cotton grass, and greener the soft wet mosses for the memory of the fairest flower Glen Etive has ever seen-Deirdre, our highest type of Celtic womanhood.

THE MACDONALDS OF KEPPOCH

REV. A. MACLEAN SINCLAIR

SOMERLED Of the Isles married Ragnhildis, daughter of Olave the Black, King of Man, and they had three sons, Dugall, Reginald, and Angus. Dugall was the progenitor of the Macdougalls; Donald, son of Reginald, was the pro- genitor of the Macdonalds. Donald had two sons: Angus Mor, his successor, and Alister Mor, progenitor of the Macalisters of Loup. Angus Mor had three sons : Alexander Angus Og, and John Sprangach. Angus Og succeeded his

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