--- title: IX. Deirdre. — Celtic Fairy Tales · full text with trees description: IX. Deirdre., «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: _Source_.--_Celtic Magazine_, xiii. pp. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / IX. Deirdre. # IX. Deirdre. IX. Deirdre. of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole text, 32 sentences and 559 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/1/) — \_Source\_.--\_Celtic Magazine\_, xiii. pp. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/2/) — 69, \_seq\_. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/3/) — 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." - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/4/) — The original Gaelic was given in the \_Transactions of the Inverness Gaelic Society\_ for 1887, p. 241, \_seq. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/5/) — \_, by Mr. Carmichael. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/6/) — I have inserted Deirdre's "Lament" from the \_Book of Leinster\_. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/7/) — \_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\_. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/8/) — The "outcast child" is a frequent episode in folk and hero-tales: an instance occurs in my \_English Fairy Tales\_, No. xxxv., and Prof. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/9/) — Koehler gives many others in \_Archiv. f. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/10/) — Slav. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/11/) — Philologie\_, i. 288. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/12/) — Mr. Nutt adds tenth century Celtic parallels in \_Folk-Lore\_, vol. ii. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/13/) — The wooing of hero by heroine is a characteristic Celtic touch. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/14/) — See "Connla" here, and other examples given by Mr. Nutt in his notes to MacInnes' \_Tales\_. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/15/) — The trees growing from the lovers' graves occurs in the English ballad of \_Lord Lovel\_ and has been studied in \_Melusine\_. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/16/) — \_Remarks\_.--The "Story of Deirdre" is a remarkable instance of the tenacity of oral tradition among the Celts. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/17/) — It has been preserved in no less than five versions (or six, including Macpherson's "Darthula") ranging from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/18/) — 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. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/19/) — \_). - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/20/) — Then comes a fifteenth century version, edited and translated by Dr. Stokes in Windisch's \_Irische Texte\_ II., ii. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/21/) — 109, \_seq. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/22/) — \_, "Death of the Sons of Uisnech." - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/23/) — Keating in his \_History of Ireland\_ gave another version in the seventeenth century. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/24/) — The Dublin Gaelic Society published an eighteenth century version in their \_Transactions\_ for 1808. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/25/) — 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\_. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/26/) — 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. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/27/) — It is now recognised that Macpherson had, or could have had, ample material for his \_rechauffe\_ of the Finn or "Fingal" saga. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/28/) — His "Darthula" is a similar cobbling of our present story. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/29/) — I leave to Celtic specialists the task of settling the exact relations of these various texts. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/30/) — 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. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/31/) — No other country in Europe, except perhaps Russia, could provide a parallel to this living on of Romance among the common folk. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/43/32/) — 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. - ← previous: [VIII. the Sprightly Tailor.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/42/) - 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