The legend of Deirdre and the Sons of Uisneach has been arguably the most popular of all Irish tales with artists and with audiences. It became famous as one of 'trí truaighe na scéalaíochta' ('the three sorrows of storytelling'). In the twelfth-century Book of Leinster it is referred to as a 'longas', a narrative of exile. That version centralises the three doomed brothers in a harsh account of warrior life. Deirdre's role is only briefly described - she is wild and rude, compelling Naoise to undertake with her the elopement to Alban. In one memorable scene, she grabs him by the ears to make him do her will, but she is not otherwise pivotal. After the brothers die, she is forced to live for a year of humiliation with an enemy of her lover, Naoise, after which she dashes her brains out upon a rock in a terrible image of female derangement and suffering. It is only in much later medieval versions that Deirdre's emotional graph is made a crucial element all through the narrative. Now, she moans with pain and in the end commits suicide on her lover's grave. In the words of Celtic scholar Eleanor Hull, the wild woman of the Book of Leinster has been 'transformed into the Lydia Languish of a later age'. Those changes reflect the growing importance of women as an audience for the heroic tales, with a consequent increase in the profile of female protagonists. After this reconfiguration the tale is seen as a love story rather than simply one of warrior honour: and indeed the clash between love and honour allows for a developing subtlety in the psychological portrayal of a tragic heroine.