Longas mac nUislenn

Longas mac nUislenn [ 'Loŋgas vak' nuʃlʴeN ] (“The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu”) is the title of a Remscéla (narration) of the Táin Bó Cuailnge (“The cattle robbery of Cooley ”) from the 9th century. It is preserved in Lebor Laignech ("The Book of Leinster"), in Leabhar Buidhe Lecain ("The Yellow Book of Lecan"), and in a manuscript from the early 16th century.

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The poet ( fili ) Fedlimid mac Daill of the aging King Conchobar mac Nessa of Ulster invites him and his companions to a feast in his house. Suddenly the unborn child in the womb of its pregnant wife cries out so loud that everyone can hear it. The woman, disturbed, asks the druid Cathbad about the cause of the scream and receives the answer:

Deirdre escapes with the sons of Uisliu

fot chriol bronn bé fuilt buidi ségdaib súilib sían a grúade fri dath snechtai sét a détgne níamdae a béoil bé dia-mbiat eter Ulad

bécestar buide-chass sell-glass loaf. gorm-chorcrai. samlamar diamine. partuing-deirg: il-ardbe erredaib.

"Screamed in the cradle of your lap a woman with blond hair, blond curly hair, with noble, iris blue eyes. [Like] thimble on her bluish-purple cheeks. We compare the color of the snow the pristine treasure of their teeth. Shiny her scarlet lips: a woman for whom there will be many battles between the Ulter's chariots. "

Cathbad feels the unborn child raging in the womb and therefore calls her Deirdre ("the raging"). Despite the Ulter's requests to kill the dangerous child immediately, Conchobar has Fedlimid's wife taken to a remote homestead to give birth to an old woman named Leborcham , because he wants the girl to be brought up according to his wishes. He intends to marry Deirdre when she will grow up.

But with Leborchams help, Deirdre meets Naoise (also Noísiu), the son of Uisliu and Elbha and grandson of Cathbad, a young warrior and singer, and falls in love with him. By threat of glam dícenn (satires) brings him to flee with her. Together with Naoises two brothers Ardán and Ainnle , they flee to Alba ( Scotland ), but there too they are persecuted by the Pict King because of Deirdre's beauty .

Eventually they land on a remote island. Conchobar sends Deirdre's foster mother Leborcham to Deirdre to find out whether Deirdre's beauty has suffered from the exertion. She wants to protect Deirdre from the undesired marriage to Conchobar and claims that Deirdre has lost all her beauty. However, Conchobar has sent another scout who truthfully reports that Deirdre is as beautiful as ever.

The king then offers them safe conduct home and sends his son Cormac Conn Longas with Fergus mac Róich and Dubthach as guarantors. But on the way home, before Naoise can reach the Emain Macha royal castle , Eogan mac Durthacht , Conchobor's follower, kills from behind. The three guarantors leave Ulster outraged by the betrayal and join the hostile Connachtern under King Ailill mac Máta and Queen Medb . In anger at Deirdre's refusal to marry him, Conchobar offers her to the man who killed Naoise. She then commits suicide by hitting her head from the moving war chariot against a rock.

A continuation of this story is Tochmarc Luaine acus aided Athirni ("Luaines' advertisement and Athirne's death").

This legend is one of the Celtic sources of Tristan and Isolde . The same theme is dealt with by the legend Diarmuid and Gráinne , which describes the fate of Fionn mac Cumhaill , Diarmuid and Gráinne .

Modern reception

The Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote his drama Deirdre from the traditional material. Yeats describes the emotional mood of the main hero, the content is briefly reduced to the last day of the tragedy. On their return from Scotland, Deirdre , Naoise and Fergus wait in a forest hut for Conchubar , who had promised them reconciliation. He breaks the promise, kills Naoise and Deirdre commits suicide. Fergus forbids the king to even touch the dead woman.

See also

• Myths and legends from Ireland
• List of Celtic gods and legendary figures
• Macgnímrada Con Culainn ("Cú Chulainn's deeds")

literature

• Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. 2nd, corrected and enlarged edition. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
• Helmut Birkhan: Post-ancient Celtic reception. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-7069-0541-1 .
• Ingeborg Clarus : Celtic Myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter, Düsseldorf et al. 1991, ISBN 3-530-70014-2 , pp. 290 ff. (2nd edition. Patmos, Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 ).
• Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 .
• Wolfgang Meid : The Celts (= Reclams Universal Library 17053). Reclam, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-017053-3 .

Web links

• Longas mac nUislenn in the Deirdre article on Wikipedia
• The Exile of the Sons of Usnech
• The Lament of Deirdre

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Meid: The Celts. P. 166 f.
2. ↑ From Rudolf Thurneysen : The Irish hero and king saga. Verlag Georg Olms, Hildesheim 1980, pp. 16-27, is translated:

   “Screamed into your body's cave

   a woman with golden curly hair,

   with star-like blue eyes

   the cheeks bluish-purple like the thimble,

   red lips like mountain ash berries,

   a woman who stirs up arguments and murder

   with Ulster's chariots ... "

3. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. P. 110 ff.
4. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 983.
5. ↑ Myles Dillon, Nora Kershaw Chadwick: The Celts. From the prehistory to the Norman invasion . Kindler's cultural history, ISBN 3-89340-058-3 , p. 447.
6. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 660.