But before the ceremony, Gráinne eloped with one of Fionn’s warriors, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. He was elderly when Cormac Mac Art gave his daughter Gráinne to him in marriage. In still others, she forgives Fionn or even marries him.Īccording to historian Peter Berresford Ellis, ' had many loves during his career but none is better known than his unrequited love for Gráinne. In some versions, she mourns her husband until she dies herself in others, she swears her sons to avenge their father's death on Fionn. Years later Diarmuid is wounded by a boar while hunting with Fionn, who stalls in healing him until it is too late texts vary on Gráinne's subsequent actions. Eventually, Fionn pardons Diarmuid after Aengus intercedes on their behalf the pair settle in Kerry and produce five children. Their long flight from Fionn is aided by Diarmuid's foster-father Aengus Óg.

At first he refuses out of loyalty to Fionn but she places a geis upon him to run away with her. In The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne, Gráinne was promised in marriage to Fionn but, repulsed by his age, she forms a relationship with Diarmuid at their betrothal party. She is one of the central figures in the Middle Irish text Finn and Gráinne, as well as the 17th-century tale The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne, which tells of her betrothal to Fionn mac Cumhaill, leader of the Fianna, and her subsequent elopement with Fionn's warrior Diarmuid Ua Duibhne.

Gráinne ( Irish pronunciation: ), sometimes anglicised Grania, is the daughter of king Cormac mac Airt in the Fianna Cycle of Irish mythology. 'Grania questions the druid', illustration by Henry Justice Ford in The Book of Romance (1903)

Galiene by Dawn Hammill