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The Ulster Cycle tale of Deirdre, preserved in the 12th-century Book of Leinster.
One of the oldest tales of the Ulster Cycle, surviving in a version in the Book of Leinster that likely descends from an 8th- or 9th-century original. It tells of Deirdre's doomed love for Naoise, her flight from King Conchobar mac Nessa, and the exile and deaths of the sons of Uisliu.
Longes mac nUislenn, "The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu", is among the best known of the Ulster tales. Before Deirdre's birth, the druid Cathbad prophesied that she would be exceptionally beautiful and that kings would be destroyed because of her. King Conchobar chose to raise her in seclusion so that he might marry her himself.
Deirdre instead fell in love with Naoise, and with his brothers Ainnle and Ardán they escaped to Scotland. Conchobar lured them back with a promise of safety guaranteed by Fergus mac Róich, then broke it. The story ends in the deaths of the brothers and of Deirdre, and later writers, including Yeats and Synge, retold it as one of Ireland's great tragedies.
| Cycle | Entries here | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Mythological Cycle | 21 | The oldest of the four cycles, telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the successive invasions of Ireland. |
| The Fenian Cycle | 7 | Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, set generations after the Ulster Cycle in a world of hunting, romance, and roaming adventure. |
| The Ulster Cycle | 12 | The heroic tales of Conchobar mac Nessa's court at Emain Macha, centered on Cú Chulainn and the great cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. |
| The Historical Cycle | 1 | Also the Cycle of the Kings — legendary and semi-legendary tales of Ireland's High Kings, treated by medieval scribes as genuine national history. |
Longes mac nUislenn ("The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu") is the Ulster Cycle text telling the tragic story of Deirdre, her love for Naoise, and their deaths at the hands of King Conchobar mac Nessa.
The story's ending, in which Conchobar treacherously kills Naoise and his brothers, drives Fergus mac Róich and other warriors into exile in Connacht, weakening Ulster and putting Fergus on Medb's side in the later Táin.
It survives in manuscripts from the 12th century onward, but linguistic evidence suggests the tale itself was composed considerably earlier, likely by the 9th century.