A party of the Faery folk makes its way along a wide but winding dirt road out of the dense forest into a clearing. About seven people make up this group, five on horseback. Of course their horses are very small ponies, not the draft horses kept by the Gaels. They long ago adopted the neighbouring Britons' style of clothing, described in The Ancient Ones.
A wizard is in the middle at front, with his wife, flanked by two fellow travellers. They are walking because unlike their companions they are of ordinary size. They wear the traditional blue robes and brimless hats of their station. The travellers are passing through comfortably, conversing with each other. Gaels in the foreground move to the side of the road in silent respect, and shoo geese out of the way. A few of them back off with wary expressions.
Man's voice (out of frame in the background, shouting): "The boogers ruined my land!"
Saying something we can't hear, the wizard extends his arm to one of the Gaels, a youth who wastes no time in approaching. Both are still quite far from the camera, but we can hear the wizard from the distance.
Wizard: "Young man! I know you! You're the king's messenger, just the person I wanted. Cuchulainn told me about the illness. Tell Conor not to worry. I'm bringing something to your Chief Druid. We are the same kind as your Druids, did you know that?"
The young man nods his head respectfully, just slightly bending forward.
Wizard's wife: "We learned of many medicines from the little people, and we'll be happy to share."
The angry man's voice is heard again.
Man's voice (again out of frame, shouting): "Barren as a desert! Nothing's grown there for years!"
Young man: "Thank you, lord. I'll tell him right away."
He leaves quickly out of the right side of the frame. The camera pans ninety degrees to show him entering the gateway of King Conor's fortress at a run. The gateway almost fills the frame as we hear the sound of a child addressing the wizard's wife.
Child's voice (out of frame): "Please, lady, can you save my little brother?"
Wife's voice (also out of frame): "Why what's the matter with him, dearie?"
Child's voice (whispering): "Everyone says he won't last the day."
Wife's voice (soothing and encouraging): "Well, we can't let that happen, can we? Lead the way, now, fast as you can."
There is a look of uncertain surprise on the faces of the adult Gaels. The light clip clop of the Faery ponies grows fainter as they leave with the child, and people start moving in and out of the large gateway.
We start to hear a much heavier clip clop of a large warhorse as it walks at a steady pace, along with the camera but out of frame. The tall open gate is made of logs with pointed ends just like the wall. This gate is as high as the wall.
The camera tracks through the gateway into the courtyard. This is not cobbled, just a dirt area used for refuge in case of attack by another group of Gaels. Some boys are playing hurley there now, while others have paired off for sparring practise, but otherwise it is unoccupied.
People look respectfully up at the camera as it passes by on a level above their heads. It continues tracking forward through the courtyard to the sound of the horse's hooves, which are very close. We realize that the camera is taking the point of view of a mounted horseman as it tracks forward to approach the stables.
Next we see Cuchulainn right in front of the stables, dismounting his black horse. He gives it an affectionate stroke on the nose and leads it into a stall. It nuzzles him, looking for an apple, and he laughs.
As he tends to his horse Cuchulainn is very gentle and affectionate, caressing it lovingly. He hands it an apple from the folds of his cloak. Then he nuzzles the horse, his cheek against its huge head. He speaks softly to it, too low for us to hear. The horse's ears twitch, and Cuchulainn looks into its eyes, giving it an affectionate pat.
The camera tracks forward through a girder and beam construction doorway straight into Conor's dining and receiving hall, and as it does so, we hear ambient sounds of the courtyard and Cuchulainn's determined footsteps. The table is against the wall, leaving the room clear. Conor sits on a bale of hay at the far end of the room.
The young messenger is finishing his earnest speech in a voice too low for us to understand. Conor nods, and the young man leaves through the left side of the frame with a quick nod in the camera's direction.
Conor is pleased at the news he has received, and is in a jovial mood. He is flanked by a line of warriors on each side, all of whom are smiling. Fergus is the one immediately to the king's right. Each warrior stands with feet planted firmly apart and has a long spear in his right hand, held upright on its blunt end with the pointed end tilted slightly away from him because the arm holding the spear is straight. The camera tracks toward Conor steadily, and stops directly in front of him.
Cuchulainn's voice (out of frame, sternly): "Conor, what have you been doing?"
Conor: "What are you talking about?"
Cuchulainn's voice: "Deirdre. Where is she?"
Conor (suddenly incensed and defensive): "What business is it of yours? She's being kept where no one can harm her, for the good of all Eireaan."
Cuchulainn's voice: "You can't make someone love you, Conor."
Conor (interrupting angrily, his voice overlapping Cuchulainn's after the word 'love'): "Look, you! It's not your job to tell me what to do. This is my kingdom and I'll do what I want!" He beats his fists on his knees.
Cuchulainn's voice (raising in anger, interrupting Conor's after the words 'tell me'): "Your passion for this girl will be your undoing, Conor. She's a child. Where have you put her?"
Since the two are speaking together, the volume has risen. They end at pretty much the same time, but Cuchulainn continues as the more obviously upset king pauses for breath. His voice is louder than before.
Cuchulainn: "Where have you put her?"
Conor (yelling across the room, interrupting after the word 'you'): "Mind your own business!" He subsides into his seat rather miserably, averting his eyes and turning his head to his right slightly, as silence takes over.
An establishing shot shows a rectangular red cedar log fort in a small clearing dotted with stumps deep in the old growth rainforest, with a pointed log wall around it. We hear the rustling of leaves and twittering of birds. Next we see a room in the fort. Again no music. The room is simply furnished, but appears pleasant and warm. A richly coloured rug with an intricate pattern lies on the floor. A magnificent tapestry with a triskele covers the far wall.
Deirdre's nurse Lavercam is at the right side of the frame, sitting on a stool in the light of the open fireplace. Lavercam is sitting with her back to the camera, but turned a bit toward the left. She is a matronly middle aged woman, getting just a little bit stout, and she is sewing. A basket of hempen threads on wooden bobbins lies by her feet.
At the other side of the room, near the left side of the frame, a teenaged girl lies on a trestle bed made of logs and covered with an elaborate tapestry. This is Deirdre. A closeup shows Deirdre in the firelight above the tapestry bedcover. She is leaning on one elbow with the other hand tracing the design on the fabric. She wears a simple shift with plenty of exquisite gold jewellery. She is fascinatingly, breathtakingly beautiful, with long red hair and green eyes fringed by long, dark, thick lashes.
Deirdre (with happy self assurance): "Oh, no, Nursey. I'm not going to marry King Conor."
Lavercam's voice (from out of frame, hurriedly, speaking almost in a whisper): "Hush now, my pet! You don't know what you're saying!"
Deirdre (with innocent determination): "Yes I do. I'm going to marry Naise, son of Usna."
She says this as though she thinks everyone in the world already knows it. We see Lavercam by the fire, from Deirdre's point of view. Lavercam is really agitated now. She has trouble catching her breath. She busies herself with her sewing, her hands shaky and moving far too fast. Finally she catches her breath, but when she speaks it's in that voice people have when they're tense but pretending to be calm.
Lavercam: "Really. And does Naise know about this?"
Deirdre's voice (out of frame): "Oh yes."
Lavercam (completely flustered): "And he agrees?"
Deirdre's voice (calmly): "He knows what King Conor wants, but he also knows that he's the only man for me."
Lavercam (sternly looking at her): "And when did all this come about?"
We see Deirdre from the middle of the room.
Deirdre (still fingering the tapestry): "When we were children and he stopped the other big boys from throwing hurley balls at me. She looks past the camera at Lavercam with an unexpected depth in her eyes. "And I have loved him ever since."
We see Lavercam return to her sewing.
Lavercam: "Well, I'm sure he has no intention of doing a thing about it."
Deirdre's voice (out of frame): "But I see him all the time, Lavercam."
Lavercam (sharply, dropping her sewing): "What?"
Deirdre's voice: "He comes here every day when you take your nap. I've seen his brothers with him a few times. You know, Ainle and Ardan?"
Lavercam (gasps): "Naise! Every day!"
Deirdre's voice (matter-of-factly): "Yes."
Lavercam (breathless, sinking her head in her hands): "My poor baby!"
We return to Deirdre.
Deirdre: "What's the matter?"
Lavercam's voice (out of frame): "My baby!"
Deirdre (still not alarmed): "What do you mean?"
We return to Lavercam.
Lavercam: "Do you really think King Conor will change his mind because you love Naise?"
We switch back to Deirdre.
Deirdre (looking down): "Well, he's always been so nice to me...."
We see Lavercam from Deirdre's point of view.
Lavercam: "Deirdre, he shut you up in this fort so no other man would see you. That's how intent he is on making you his own."
We switch for the last time to a closeup of Deirdre.
Deirdre (calmly, as if explaining something everyone ought to know): "But I told you, I'll never marry King Conor."
We see the room as we first did, with Lavercam on the right side of the frame with her back turned away from the camera and Deirdre lying on the bed against the opposite wall.
Lavercam (with deathly calm): "What makes you think he'll give you a choice?"
Outside the fort, we see Lavercam and Naise helping Deirdre to mount Naise's horse, which she does sidesaddle style, not astride it. Naise's brothers Ainle and Ardan are behind them, patiently waiting on their horses. We see them from some distance. They have black hair and black mustaches, large dark eyes and dark eyebrows. They are in centre frame with Naise's horse facing a little to one side of the frame, and Deirdre mounts on the near side of the horse, so we see Lavercam in profile. All are wearing cloaks. They are surrounded by rich, dark evergreens.
Naise mounts behind Deirdre. Then, with a split second of hesitation as he attentively checks whether such a motion is welcome, he brings an arm around her shoulders with gentle protectiveness, inclining his head as he looks tenderly down at her.
Every time he touches her it is with shining eyes and a moment of hesitation, such is his awe of the delicate beauty which to him is sacred and inviolate. And this is matched by the total and unconcealed abandon of Deirdre's abject worship for her hero god. The religious regard which they have for each other as a man and a woman is a crystallization of primal longings in the audience, and I mean to tap those tender instincts.
We see them in closeup as she leans back against his shoulder, a picture of trustful and uncompromised adoration, her head laid back unguardedly, gazing into his eyes as he gazes into hers. Naise is stunningly handsome, with curly black hair and magnificent brown eyes, but it is his attentiveness and solicitude toward Deirdre which is most exceptional.
Lavercam: "Hurry, my pet. I'll make up a good story. Don't worry about me. Go to Alba, fast as you can before Conor finds you're gone." As the horse starts, moving toward the camera but just a little to its left, she runs alongside holding Deirdre's delicate little foot. But she lets go before the horse leaves the frame.
"I will think of you every moment." Naise's horse is out of frame. Ainle's is half out of frame, following it, and Ardan's is on its way.
"My baby! Oh, my little baby!"
Ardan's horse is going out of frame now, leaving Lavercam behind. She bends forward with head down, hands on her knees, overcome by grief.
We see Deirdre, Naise, Ainle and Ardan standing by a roughly dressed Cruithne chieftain who is busy hoeing thin, rocky soil. His hair is limed until it stands in blond peaks, though the roots are red. The same is true of his mustache, which is shorter than that of an Eirishman. He wears a loose sleeveless shirt and trousers, only he has no jewellery, and instead of a cloak he wears a plaid. The plaid is roughly woven in a simple tartan pattern. Also, unlike the trousers of the Eirish, his are made of tartan cloth. While the Eirish have tattoos on their arms and faces, this man's entire body is covered in them. The style of the tattoos is different, also. It is less swirly than the La Tene style of decoration, and is the kind found at Hallstatt. The misty, purple hills of Alba are visible in the distance. We see the chieftain in profile, flanked by his four visitors. He speaks with what we would call a strong Scottish accent.
Chieftain (while hoeing): "You're welcome to stay here as long as you like. We've heard what that tyrant Conor did to the young lady." He gives Deirdre a short nod and goes on with his work. "We're free folk here. Conor is worse off than you, trapped by his own passion. And locking you up only made it more of a mess. If you keep a slave you become one. There are no slaves in Alba."
We cut to Ardan and Ainle.
Ardan (quietly, to Ainle): "There are no people in Alba."
We see the chieftain lean on his hoe, with Deirdre and Naise at his side.
Chieftain: "You know, when we came to Eireaan looking for a home, your Sacathachs said they were full up and directed us here. Now we're breaking the harshest ground a farmer ever saw." He gets back to work. "This no place for soft touches." He is suddenly overwhelmed by bitterness. "We held out. We stayed where we were, a hundred Sacathachs to each one of us."
Ardan (pulling his forelock): "Apologies, lord."
Chieftain (leaning on his hoe, unimpressed): "Now don't 'lord' me. We're too busy for that. I'm just another chieftain, I work like all my people, and as soon as you four have had your dinner, you can do the same."
He starts work again and the others leave. For five seconds he continues hoeing. Then, still working, he speaks to himself, and there are bitter tears in his voice.
Chieftain: "Hold out longest and this is how you're treated."
We see Deirdre and Naise with Ardan and Ainle behind them. They are walking, with the beautiful barren terrain of Alba around them. Naise and Deirdre have their arms close about each others' waists. The camera tracks backward to keep them in view.
Ardan: "Soft touches!" He pauses to brood, without slowing his gait. "They can call their island what they like. They haven't a man who can match Cuchulainn." He mutters. "Like having a worm in your brain."
Ainle: "Amazing how fast they picked up the name. Got it from the giants, I suppose."
Ardan (with an ear-to-ear grin): "I love it that the Faery thought it up." This is said with a slight emphasis on the word 'Faery'. The other two men start grinning from ear to ear too. Then we see a closeup of Deirdre, looking up at Naise.
Deirdre (wide eyed, in a hushed whisper): "Never speak ill of the Faery!"
Naise's face enters the closeup as he leans down to affectionately place his face right up to Deirdre's, making her laugh shyly. This is done with his characteristic gentleness, as if she broke easily.
Naise (in a soft, encouraging tone): "Our grandmother was a Faery." She dimples at him, reassured.
We return to a tracking shot exactly as before, while everyone walks on for three seconds, smiling.
Naise: "These new people struck a good deal with our Sacathachs. It's a sound alliance; they shouldn't complain."
There is a moment's silence. The camera stops tracking, and they walk past it on its left. We hear the rest of the conversation receding as the three travellers move into the distance.
Ainle: "How about...'Island of the Mightier'?" We hear laughter as the shot ends in a fade.
We fade into a closeup of the chieftain seen in profile, with a heathery hill in the background. He is sitting on a rock. He turns his head to look at Deirdre, who is out of frame.
Chieftain: "So he's been irritable of late, has he?" He pauses, and looks in front of him as though he sees something, though nothing is there. "You know, lassie, I heard tell of a young man who was kidnapped by some of the Faery who live to the south of here. The girl who loved him caught him by moonlight. They changed his shape into a snake and a lion, and even fire so she'd let go. But she just hung on, and in the end she got him back."
He turns his head just a little toward the camera and is obviously focussing again on Deirdre.
"I'm thinking you're a bit like that young woman. It's hard for you to see him through so many changes, but he's still the man you loved." He pauses. "If you must go, you have my blessing."
To the wistful sound of 'The Quiet Land of Eireaan', we see Naise and his brothers at work building a stone cottage on a rocky beach, with the misty outline of the Hebrides behind them. Then we see Deirdre and Naise, arms close about each other's waists, from ground level about ten feet away. They are walking along a sand beach, the misty Hebrides in the distance across the water. They walk toward the right side of the frame, but stop just past the middle to look at the horizon. We hear the sound of Deirdre's voice singing the refrain from 'Song of the Seals' and the gentle lapping of waves against the shore.
"Coi, ranoi ranoi ranoiro
"Coi, ranoi ranoi raneero
"Coi, ranoi ranoi ranee la luran
"Coi, ranoi ranoi raneero... eero."
Next we see a medium closeup of Naise and Deirdre indoors in the firelight, snuggling inside a fur cover on a mattress filled with heather. We see them in profile from mattress level. Deirdre's head is cushioned on Naise's shoulder, and his head is slightly higher, partly obscured by hers. Their heads touch, inclined toward each other.
Naise: "You can cook and weave and" (as he hugs her and his voice softens to an encouraging whisper) "one day take care of our children."
He looks upward.
"But what's here for me, dear heart? Fishing isn't enough. It's not the work. It's the people. You know what you're here to do. Your family means everything to you. But with a man it's different."
He looks at her tenderly and rather apologetically, and she arches her neck to look at him, so that we see his full face but not hers. We do see that her eyes are wide and receptive, willing to learn whatever he has to teach her.
Naise: "Your family is your work. But a man has also to protect his own, and it's part of his being to deal with the rest of the world in doing so. Where's the rest of the world? We're in the middle of nowhere."
Deirdre: "What about Ainle and Ardan?"
Naise (gently): "They feel the same way."
The two settle down and look at the ceiling.
Deirdre: "I know that if we return we shall die. This message Fergus brings from King Conor is a trap, and Fergus doesn't know it. But I always said I would give my life for you if need be. It seems I'm being tested now."
She looks at him, and he at her. She snuggles her head into a comfortable position on his shoulder, but her voice is wistful.
"You are my lord, and I will go where you go, and die where you die."
Naise (touching his forehead to hers, speaking tenderly): "And you are my lady, but we must go back. It will be all right."
He props himself on his left elbow to lean over and stroke her hair, turning toward the camera. He runs her hair through his fingers and kisses her with infinite gentleness. Their eyes meet and linger in a communion of souls.
An establishing shot shows a long curragh on a crystal clear lake. The water is still as glass, with thick dark forest along the shoreline. It is the time before sunset turns to dusk with pastel colours across the sky and the water. Four men are in the curragh, the three brothers and Fergus, and Deirdre is in the back. Fergus and Ardan are paddling. The first bars of 'The Quiet Land of Eireaan' are heard, but fade away. In a medium range shot the camera pans from the front to the back of the curragh, and shortly after it settles on Deirdre she cries out.
Deirdre: "I was so happy! I was so happy! I would never return if not with my love!"
She hangs her head, and the boat passes out of frame.
In a forest glade we see three warriors from the waist up talking with Fergus, who has his back to the camera, but their voices are too low to be understood. Fergus turns to the camera, his face worried, and walks out of frame. Next we see Naise and his brothers from the shoulders up, and Fergus entering the frame to speak with them. All four look concerned.
Then we see Deirdre in closeup. She is desperate, facing the camera and speaking to a point just over it.
Deirdre: "Can you not see this is treachery? Conor is calling Fergus away because he knows that Fergus will defend us."
Naise's voice (gently, out of frame): "Fergus is sending his sons to bring us to the king."
Deirdre (eyes shining with the intensity of her plea): "There is still a chance! Can't you see what's happening? Fergus is going, Cuchulainn is away, all the Red Branch warriors just happen not to be in the vicinity!"
Her mood changes and she moans as the camera tracks back slightly to show her wringing her hands. She is out of breath.
"Naise, my heart! Ainle, Ardan, brothers of my heart! Why do you not see? We can still save ourselves. Soon it will be too late."
She bows her head to hide her tears.
"I wanted to live with you for many years. I wanted to give you everything."
She looks up, her eyes shining with a different light. Her voice is almost a whisper.
"We were so happy! No one deserves to be so happy! But even if it must end soon, I have had that. I have loved you, and I have known what it is to be your wife."
She finds strength from this knowledge, and continues proudly.
"And to me that is worth a thousand deaths. I would rather be your wife for one minute than live a lifetime with anyone else. My time is up. But how can I see you die? How can I see what they're going to do to you three, who have given up everything for me?"
A wide angle shot with background music (the end of 'The Quiet Land of Eireaan' this time) shows the three brothers and two young redheaded men, all on horseback, with Deirdre on Naise's horse, making their way in silhouette over a green hill at dusk. Then Deirdre and Naise are seen from the waist up on Naise's horse, Deirdre leaning against Naise's chest. They have obviously been travelling for a long time, and are going at a tired pace.
Deirdre (looking ahead of her): "Naise..."
Naise (softly): "Hmm?" He nuzzles her behind the ear fondly with an enquiring expression.
Deirdre (quietly, not moving her head): "When we get to Emain Macha, if the king lodges us in the Red Branch warriors' longhouse instead of in his castle, we will know that he means treachery, will we not?"
Naise just gently strokes her hair and runs it through his fingers. They go on in silence.
An establishing shot shows the interior of the Red Branch warriors' longhouse, an undecorated barracks made of red cedar logs. There are beds lined up against the back wall and offering no privacy, covered with dark furs. Ardan and Naise are playing a game called Brandubh on a wooden checkerboard with polished stones, sitting on one of the beds just to the left of mid-frame, each man with a leg over a side of the bed.
Ainle polishes his armour near the right of the frame, and one of Fergus's sons lies propped up on his elbow on a bed near him, throwing daggers into the right wall with calculated precision.
Deirdre sits beside Naise with her left hip touching his left, nearer the back wall and facing the opposite direction from him so that she looks toward the left of the frame. She stares dejectedly, motionless, with her arm around the front of Naise's waist.
Fergus's second son sits cross legged on the bed which is nearer to the right side of the frame than the players. He is watching the game intently. We hear the ambient sound clearly.
Then we see Naise and Deirdre as Naise plays the board game with his back to us. We hear the blowing sound of a fire starting. Deirdre looks up alertly without raising her head. Then we see a closeup of a flame licking a corner roofbeam of the longhouse, in a shot that lasts four seconds, and there is no sound except the tiny roar of the fire.
From a distance away in the night we see the longhouse blazing like a torch, with a semicircle of armed men silhouetted in front of the door. The roar of flames is heard from a distance. But in a medium range shot from behind the armed men the roar is suddenly oppressively loud. The door is flung open to show Naise, flanked by Ainle and Ardan.
All three are without shields but they come out fighting, brandishing their swords. Behind them are Fergus's sons on either side of Deirdre. From the hips up she is totally obscured by the five long shields which the two youths hold around her, each of them slightly bending since she is shorter than they.
We hardly have time to take this in because while the door opens they all rush out, the three men in front hacking away in a frenzy as the other two dash off to the side behind them. They disappear in a second through the side of the frame while we see the backs of their attackers descending upon them.
We hardly see anything of them except their swords slashing furiously, but as men fall we are able to see their frenzied defence. The three brothers are accomplished warriors and their assailants are falling fast, especially Naise's, though more keep appearing from behind the camera through both sides of the frame.
From the top of a gentle hill we see a funeral procession climbing toward the camera and continuing past it a few feet away. The wailing of female Faery mourners is heard from the end of the procession. It sounds like musical screaming. There is plenty of ambient sound, as well as 'The Quiet Land of Eireaan' faint in the background on the Uillean pipes.
The static camera is at the same level as the warriors' heads passing by. There are about forty Red Branch warriors walking in double file, heads down. After them comes a chariot, covered with dried heads, pulled by two chargers and bearing the body of one of the slain warriors. Deirdre stands upright in the chariot as if she were made of stone.
There are two more chariots, one for Ainle's body and one for Ardan's. Two more follow, for Fergus's sons. We see Fergus in the first of these two chariots, looking old and stunned with grief. Mourners are both Gaelic and Faery. The banshees bring up the rear, seven tiny women wrapped in enveloping black cloaks with hoods.
Above the music we hear the warriors' feet and armour, the drumming of the Gaelic musicians and the wailing of the banshees. The procession takes a long time to pass. During the last strains of the music we see Fergus snapping Naise's spear in two over his thigh. He is facing the camera in centre frame, at the edge of the forest, and his face is very serious. Members of the funeral cortege are in the background, including other Red Branch warriors who are busy mutilating themselves in sympathy, with their knives. One cuts his cheek, another his ear, and yet another his forearm.
illustration courtesy of Mychael and Jeff Danna
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