SEYE-v
A woman transformed into a deer by a rejected druid's curse, briefly restored to human form by Fionn mac Cumhaill, and the mother of Oisín.
Sadhbh is cursed into the shape of a deer by a dark druid, Fear Doirich, after refusing his advances, and lives that way for years until Fionn mac Cumhaill's hunting hounds — themselves transformed kin of his — recognize her as human and refuse to harm her. Restored to her own form on Fionn's land, she and Fionn marry, and she conceives a son.
While Fionn is away at war, the druid tricks his way back to her in Fionn's own shape and curses her again, and she is never seen in human form afterward. Fionn later finds their son, Oisín ("little deer"), abandoned as a boy on the hillside where Sadhbh vanished — named for the animal shape his mother wore when she raised him alone in the wild.
The name Sadhbh is still used in Ireland today, and the story of the woman changed into a deer has a particular place in the Fenian tradition. In the version where she is found by Fionn's hunting party, Fionn's hounds recognise that she is different and protect her. Fionn takes her home and, when she is again a woman, stops hunting for a time in order to be with her.
Her son Oisín grows up to be the poet of the Fianna. In later poems he is the one who goes with Niamh to Tír na nÓg, the Land of the Young, and returns to find that three hundred years have passed. In the Acallam na Senórach he tells the stories of the Fianna to Saint Patrick, so a figure who begins as a lost child, named for the animal his mother became, ends as the voice that carries the whole tradition.
As a name: Sadhbh is still given to children today. See its meaning, pronunciation and popularity on NameCipher →
| 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. |
Sadhbh is a woman transformed into a deer by a druid after refusing his advances, later restored to human form by Fionn mac Cumhaill and becoming the mother of Oisín.
After living happily with Fionn while pregnant with Oisín, Sadhbh is tricked by an illusion of Fionn cast by the same druid, steps outside their safe dwelling, and is transformed back into a deer and driven away, never fully recovered by Fionn.
Oisín, born after Sadhbh's transformation, was found by Fionn as an infant on the flank of Ben Bulben; his name means "little fawn," a direct reference to his mother having been a deer at the time of his birth.