AUTHOR'S NOTES: I was looking for new plots on the internet about a year ago and spotted an old set of legends. A story grew up from there and got fleshed out piece by piece.

The Irish legends aren't quite as well known as the Egyptian, Babylonian, Mesopotamian, Roman, and Greek legends, but they're fascinating in their complexity and the way the stories intertwine. I probably haven't done quite so good a job of distinguishing the Irish legends from some of the Scottish ones - a little bit of latitude will be appreciated. And much thanks to the very nice person who offered to help out with the astronomy stuff. It wasn't necessary in the end, but your willing assistance was welcomed, even if unused.

One of the versions of the legend can be found here: http://privat.schlund.de/s/silbermd/deirdre/Etain-e.htm, the other one was taken from a small book of nearly-forgotten memory which I read many years ago - mere fragments of history, legend, mythology, and mystery sticking in my brain. Someone remind me why I went into computer programming when I can barely remember which function to call which uploads a file but can remember the characters of over fifty worlds and innumerable legends and myths?

Heaps and heaps of thanks to and praise for both the betas for enduring re-read after re-read. Shanilka, your suggestions for rephrasing were invaluable and resulted in lots of itsy-bitsy adjustments to the story that I think makes it better as a whole. Denise, thanks for the 'ideas bouncing' session about how they would react to the situation and how to deal with the ending. And for boosting my confidence at a time when things were down!