Discuss the following lines that the seer, or druid, offers to the expectant mother:
“A woman with twisted yellow tresses,
green-irised eyes of great beauty
and cheeks flushed like foxglove
howled in the hollow of your womb.
I say that whiter than snow
is the white treasure of her teeth;
Parthian-red, her lip’s lustre.
Ulster’s chariot-warriors
will deal many a blow for her.
There howled in your troubled womb;
a tall, lovely, long-haired woman.
Heroes will contend for her,
high kings beseech on her account;
then, west of Conchobor’s kingdom
a heavy harvest of fighting men.
High queens will ache with envy
To see those lips of Parthian-red
opening on her pearly teeth,
and see her pure perfect body.” (9-10)
The speaker brings his utterance to a close with a startling revelation: “Derdriu shall be her name. She will bring evil” (p.10). These details are specific; there is no ambiguity, no hesitation. Our speaker has full knowledge of the disturbing future that will follow the birth of this extraordinary child. Discuss these words spoken by the seer (i.e. “see-er”) or druid.
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