represents Conchobar marrying several times (p. 139), and one of the ladies given to him as consort was called Derdriu, whose name Macpherson has made into Darthula. Her birth had been attended with prophecies that she would have a somewhat Helen-like history; so some of Conchobar's nobles advised that the ill-starred child should not be reared; but the king would have none of that advice, and he ordered rather that she should be brought up to be his own wife. So when she had grown up a young woman of unsurpassed beauty, the king took her to wife. But she fell in love with one of the sons of Usnech, and they, to avoid the wrath of Conchobar, took her out of his kingdom; but when they had been years in exile in different parts of Erinn, and lastly in Britain, they longed to return to their country, and Fergus mac Róig undertook on their behalf to conciliate the king, and he thought that he had succeeded (p. 137); but no sooner had the sons of Usnech reached Emain than they were cruelly murdered by Eogan mac Durthacht, which he did as the price of peace with Conchobar. Fergus himself left Ulster to go as an exile to Connaught, while Conchobar obtained possession of Derdriu for the second time, though he knew that she by that time hated him with all her heart. One day it entered his head to ask her whom she most hated to see. The answer was, 'Thee and Eogan mac Durthacht.' 'Good,' said the king, 'thou shalt be a year with Eogan.' Then he took her out in his chariot in order to hand her over to the latter; but on the way she put an end to herself in the most tragic manner.[1] Conchobar after that event was
- ↑ Windisch, pp. 81-2.
