Exile of the Sons of Uisliu

Summary

The scream in the womb

The men of Ulster are drinking in the house of Conchobor's storyteller, Fedlimid mac Daill. His wife, full with child, is looking after them all. When the company is ready to sleep she goes to her bed, and as she crosses the floor the child screams in her womb. It is heard all over the enclosure, and everyone starts up, staring at each other.

Sencha mac Ailella has the woman brought before them. She says no woman knows what her womb bears and turns to the seer Cathbad. He answers in verse. A woman with yellow tresses and green eyes howled in her womb, and heroes will contend for her. He puts his hand on her belly and the baby wriggles under it. It is a girl. Her name shall be Derdriu, and she will bring evil.

When the daughter is born he says more. The three sons of Uisliu will be exiled and Fergus will be exiled out of Ulster through her fault. There will be the deadly wound of Fiachna, Conchobor's son, and Eogan, the son of Durthacht, will be struck. There will be little graves everywhere.

The girl is kept

The warriors say to kill the child. Conchobor says no: the girl will be reared for him, and "This woman I'll keep to myself." The men of Ulster do not dare speak against him.

She grows into the loveliest woman in all Ireland, kept apart so that no Ulsterman may see her until she is ready for Conchobor's bed. Only her foster-parents and Leborcham are allowed in. Leborcham is tall and crooked, a satirist, and cannot be kept out.

The raven on the snow

One winter day her foster-father is skinning a milk-fed calf on the snow outside. She sees a raven drinking the blood on the snow and tells Leborcham she could desire a man with those three colours, hair like the raven, cheeks like blood and body like snow. Leborcham says he is close at hand, Noisiu, Uisliu's son. Derdriu says she will be ill until she sees him.

Noisiu is chanting by himself on the rampart near Emain. The chanting of the sons of Uisliu is so sweet that every cow that hears it gives two thirds more milk.

Derdriu slips out and makes as though to pass him. He says that is a fine heifer going by. She says the heifers grow big where there are no bulls. He says she has the bull of this province to herself, the king of Ulster. She says she would pick a game young bull like him. He says she couldn't, because of Cathbad's prophecy, and that he is rejecting her.

She rushes at him, catches him by the two ears and says they will be two ears of shame and mockery if he does not take her with him. Kinsella's note says her words put Noisiu under bond, or geasa, to do what she asked. Noisiu lets out a shrill cry and his brothers run out. They say evil will come of it, but he will not be shamed as long as they live. They leave that night.

The flight

They go with three times fifty warriors, three times fifty women, and the same number of hounds and menials. Derdriu is among them, mingling with the rest. They travel about Ireland for a long time under protection while Conchobor tries to destroy them with ambushes and treachery, and then cross the sea to Alba.

There they take the people's cattle when the mountain game fails, and then become hired soldiers of the king of Alba. A steward sees Derdriu sleeping and tells the king she is fit for a king over the Western World. The king tells him to ask her in secret every day. Every night she tells Noisiu. The sons of Uisliu are sent into traps and battles but are so hard in the carnage that nothing comes of it. When the men of Alba are called together to kill them, she tells Noisiu to go that night, and they reach an island in the sea.

The pledge

News reaches Ulster, and everyone tells Conchobor it would be shameful if the sons of Uisliu fell in enemy lands by the fault of a bad woman. He sends for them with guarantees of safety. They answer that they will come if Fergus comes as a pledge, with Dubthach and Conchobor's son Cormac.

Fergus is stopped through Conchobor's cunning. He is invited to a number of ale feasts and by an old oath cannot refuse. The sons of Uisliu have sworn to eat no food in Ireland until they have eaten Conchobor's food, so they go on, with Fergus's son Fiacha.

The green at Emain

On the green at Emain they find Eogan mac Durthacht, king of Fernmag, who has come to make peace with Conchobor and has been chosen to kill them. Conchobor's hired soldiers close around him so the sons of Uisliu cannot reach him. Eogan welcomes Noisiu with a thrust of a great spear that breaks his back. Fergus's son pulls Noisiu down and throws himself across him, and Noisiu is finished off through Fergus's son's body. Then the slaughter breaks out all over the green. No one leaves except by spike of spear or slash of sword. Derdriu is brought to Conchobor and stands beside him with her hands bound at her back.

Fergus, Dubthach and Cormac come at once. Dubthach kills Maine, Conchobor's son. Fiachna, son of Conchobor's daughter Fedelm, is killed with a single thrust. Fergus kills Traigthrén, Traiglethan's son, and his brother. Cathbad's verse called the dead Fiachna a son of Conchobor, and here he is a daughter's son. The text does not say whether he is the same man.

Three hundred Ulstermen fall in the battle that follows. Before morning Dubthach has massacred the girls of Ulster and Fergus has burned Emain. They go to Connacht, to Ailill and Medb, who they know will protect them. The exiles number a full three thousand. For sixteen years there is weeping and trembling at their hands in Ulster every night.

Derdriu's year

Conchobor keeps Derdriu for a year. In that time she never gives one smile, takes too little food or sleep, and never lifts her head from her knees. When musicians are sent to her she recites a poem about the sweeter sound of the three sons' song. When Conchobor tries to soothe her she says Fergus sold honour for a drink, and that she would give all Ulster's warriors for Noisiu.

Conchobor asks what she hates most. She says him, and Eogan mac Durthacht, so he sends her to live for a year with Eogan.

The stone

Next day they set out for the fair of Macha, with Derdriu behind Eogan in the chariot. She has sworn that two men alive in the world together will never have her. Conchobor says, "This is good, Derdriu. Between me and Eogan you are a sheep eyeing two rams."

A big block of stone is in front of her. She lets her head be driven against the stone, makes a mass of fragments of it, and she is dead.