A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

"You will have a little grave apart to yourself; you will be a tale of
wonder for ever, Deirdrê."
Lady Gregory's Translation.
As Conor commanded, Deirdrê, the little "babe of destiny," was left
with her mother for only a month and a day, and then was sent with a
nurse and with Cathbad the Druid to a lonely island, thickly wooded,
and only accessible by a sort of causeway at low tide. Here she grew
into maidenhood, and each day became more fair. She had instruction
from Cathbad in religion and in all manner of wisdom, and it would
seem as though she also learned from him some of that mystical power
that enabled her to see things hidden from human eyes.
"Tell me," one day she asked her teacher, "who made the stars, the
firmament above, the earth, the flowers, both thee and me?"
And Cathbad answered: "God. But who God is, alas! no man can say."
Then Deirdrê, an impetuous child, seized the druidical staff from the
hand of Cathbad, broke it in two, and flung the pieces far out on the
water. "Ah, Cathbad!" she cried, "there shall come One in the dim
future for whom all your Druid spells and charms are naught."
Then seeing Cathbad hang his head, and a tear trickle down his face,
for he knew that the child spoke truth, the child, grieved at giving pain
to the friend whom she loved, threw her arms about the old man's neck,
and by her kisses strove to comfort him.
As Deirdrê grew older, Conor sent one from his court to educate her in
all that any queen should know. They called her the Lavarcam, which,
in our tongue, really means the Gossip, and she was one of royal blood
who belonged to a class that in those days had been trained to be
chroniclers, or story-tellers. The Lavarcam was a clever woman, and
she marvelled at the wondrous beauty of the child she came to teach,
and at her equally marvellous mind.
One winter day, when the snow lay deep, it came to pass that Deirdrê