Deirdre of the Sorrows

by Kenneth Steven

Overview

A sequence of poetry based on the tragic, ancient Irish legend, from the author of Out of the Ordinary and Iona.

The story of Deirdre of the Sorrows is widely known in Ireland, yet all but forgotten across the water in Scotland. This great tragic love story, which has its roots in the ninth or tenth century, is very much shared by both countries. For Deirdre, according to the legend, fled with her lover Naoise to Argyll. The oldest song in Scotland is believed to be Deirdre’s haunting farewell to her adopted land as she returns once more to Ireland. In this new sequence, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Kenneth Steven beautifully reimagines the legend of this love story; he brings back to life Deirdre’s journey and attempts to capture its timeless power.

“Steven tells his interpretation with a poet’s ear for telling phrasing, and a reporter’s eagerness for pace and development. There is also a great sense of place in his epic, and a brooding melancholy threaded through the initial triumph of love. Steven here writes with the music of his mother’s singing of a tale of beauty and loss, ancient and yet resonating among our contemporary uncertainties.” —Church Times (UK)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857909480
Publisher:	Birlinn, Limited
Publication date:	02/12/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	589 KB

About the Author

Kenneth Steven grew up in Highland Perthshire, but also lived in different parts of Norway (and has translated several books from Norwegian). As well as being a writer of fiction and poetry for adults and children, he makes many programmes for BBC Radio; his feature on St Kilda won a Sony in 2006. He recent collection of poetry, A Song among the Stones, was published by Polygon (2012).

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

DEIRDRE OF THE SORROWS

A bird came to her window sometimes and she wished she might unhinge the slit of glass to let him in. An eye watched her as she set her chin on her hands and watched him back. Most likely he wanted the fragments of her bread;
One night of lashing rain, geese scraggling the low skies and all the trees gone wild –
Even the trees have ears. His brother had taught him that.
All that winter he met her, through the slit of glass.
One morning before dawn he chanced on her –
Naoise fled through the wood till he broke out into the gold of the dawn,
It was the monks who wrote him the letter.
He thought of the way they would run;
He staggered naked to the well and broke its film of ice,
Midnight. He could carry no light for fear the woods still watched.
And then the sea wove them into her garment;
What in all the wonder of heaven had she thought of to follow this boy over the water to Alba?
Then a yellowness in her mouth, a sourness that rose and fell until she had to lie,
She told him how the girl with the twisted mouth had said she should run away;
He told her how first he heard of her,
They were silent as the land was left behind,
Not an island, just a ghost of rock –
How he made a fire she never knew;
The one thing she noticed, as they descended and for a moment she raised her head –
She crept into the bottom of the boat and wanted to sleep and could not.
All at once she realised that the sea had changed;
She glanced up and he was watching her;
There was a creek where a river tumbled like the scampering of an otter into the sea.
How many days that cold?
So there was one whole night he worked,
Always the fire: the fire was the centre of their world –
Let this be Christmas, she said.
There was someone here before us, he said;
They never came to find us, she said,
Instead he showed her the single star that burned above them in the bluest skies,
He remembered a prayer his grandfather taught him the first time they went out to fish.
She said: I come from a place of waterfalls and flowers under a high cliff. I lived beside the sea and was never in a boat my whole life.
He said: I never knew my father.
I remember once when I was ten or twelve,
They sat a time, said nothing –
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Deirdre of the Sorrows"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Kenneth Steven.
Excerpted by permission of Birlinn Limited.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Preface,
Deirdre of the Sorrows,
About the Author,
A Note on the Type,

Editorial Reviews

Steven tells his interpretation with a poet’s ear for telling phrasing, and a reporter’s eagerness for pace and development. There is also a great sense of place in his epic, and a brooding melancholy threaded through the initial triumph of love. Steven here writes with the music of his mother’s singing of a tale of beauty and loss, ancient and yet resonating among our contemporary uncertainties'

Church Times