Gráinne, in the Fian story, is the daughter of Cormac mac Art, High King of Ireland. She is betrothed to Fionn mac Cumhail, whom we are to regard at this period as an old and war-worn but still mighty warrior. The famous captains of the Fianna all assemble at Tara for the wedding feast, and as they sit at meat Gráinne surveys them and asks their names of her father's Druid, Dara. "It is a wonder," she says, "that Fionn did not ask me for Oisín, rather than for himself." "Oisín would not dare to take thee," says Dara. Gráinne, after going through all the company, asks "Who is that man with the spot on his brow, with the sweet voice, with curling dusky hair and ruddy cheek?" "That is Diarmad O'Duibhne," replies the Druid, "the white-toothed, of the lightsome countenance, in all the world the best lover of women and maidens." Gráinne now prepares a sleepy draught, which she places in a drinking-cup and passes round by her handmaid to the king, to Fionn, and to all the company except the chiefs of the Fianna. When the draught has done its work she goes to Oisín. "Wilt thou receive courtship from me, Oisín?" she asks. "That will I not," says Oisín, "nor from any woman that is betrothed to Fionn." Gráinne, who knew very well what Oisín's answer would be, now turns to her real mark, Diarmad. He at first refuses to have anything to do with her. "I put thee under bonds [geise], O Diarmad that thou take me out of Tara to-night." "Evil are these bonds, Gráinne," says Diarmad; "and wherefore hast thou put them on me before all the kings' sons that feast at this table?" Gráinne then explains that she has loved Diarmad ever since she saw him, years ago, from her sunny bower, take part in and win a great hurling match on the green at Tara. Diarmad, still very reluctant, pleads the merits of Fionn, and urges also that Finn has the keys of the royal fortress, so that they cannot pass out at night. "There is a secret wicket-gate in my bower," says Gráinne. "I am under geise not to pass through any wicket-gate," replies Diarmad, still struggling against his destiny. Gráinne will have none of these subterfuges - any Fian warrior, she has been told, can leap over a palisade with the aid of his spear as a jumping-pole; and she goes oft to make ready for the elopement. Diarmad, in great perplexity, appeals to Oisín, Oscar, Caoilte, and the others as to what he should do. They all bid him keep his geise - the bonds that Gráinne had laid on him to succour her-and he takes leave of them with tears.
Outside the wicket-gate he again begs Gráinne to return. "It is certain that I will not go back," says Gráinne, "nor part from thee till death part us." "Then go forward, O Gráinne," says Diarmad. After they had gone a mile, "I am truly weary, O grandson of Duibhne," says Gráinne. "It is a good time to be weary," says Dermot, making a last effort to rid himself of the entanglement, "and return now to thy household again, for I pledge the word of a true warrior that I will never carry thee nor any other woman to all eternity." "There is no need," replies Gráinne, and she directs him where to find horses and a chariot, and Dermot, now finally accepting the inevitable, yokes them, and they proceed on their way to the Ford of Luan on the Shannon. [now Athlone Áthaluan] 
The Pursuit
Next day Fionn, burning with rage, sets out with his warriors on their track. He traces out each of their halting-places, and finds the hut of wattles which Dermot has made for their shelter, and the bed of soft rushes, and the remains of the meal they had eaten. And at each place he finds a piece of unbroken bread or uncooked salmon - Dermot's subtle message to Fionn that he has respected the rights of his lord and treated Gráinne as a sister. But this delicacy of Dermot's is not at all to Gráinne's mind, and as they are passing through a piece of wet ground a splash of water strikes Gráinne. She turns to her companion:
"Thou art a mighty warrior, O Diarmad, in battle and sieges and forays, yet me seems that this drop of water is bolder than thou." This hint that he was keeping at too respectful a distance was taken by Diarmad. The die is now cast, and he will never again meet Fionn and his old comrades except at the point of the spear.
Many times Diarmad is attacked or besieged by the Fianna, and rescues himself and his lady by miracles of boldness or dexterity, or by aid of the magical devices of his foster-father, Aongus Óg. They are chased all over Ireland, and the dolmens in that country are popularly associated with them, being called in the folklore of the area "Leaba Dhiarmaid’s Gráinne (Bed of Dermot and Gráinne)"
Dermot and Fionn Make Peace
After sixteen years as an outlaw peace is at last made for Dermot by the mediation of Angus with King Cormac and with Finn. Diarmad receives his proper patrimony, the Cantred of O'Duibhne, and other lands far away in the West, and Cormac gives another of his daughters to Fionn. "Peaceably they abode a long time with each other, and it was said that no man then living was richer in gold and silver, in flocks and herds, than Diarmad O'Duibhne, nor one that made more preys. (The old Gaelic of “ag creachadh – plundering other areas – they had ‘great craic’) Gráinne bears to Diarmad four sons and a daughter.
But Gráinne is not satisfied until "the two best men that are in Erin, namely, Cormac son of Art and Finn son of Cumhail," have been entertained in her house. "And how do we know," she adds, "but our daughter might then get a fitting husband?" Diarmad agrees with some misgiving; the king and Finn accept the invitation, and they and their retinues are feasted for a year at Rath Gráinne.  

Then one night, towards the end of the year of feasting, Diarmad is awakened from sleep by the baying of a hound. He starts up, "so that Gráinne caught him and threw her two arms about him and asked him what he had seen." "It is the voice of a hound," says Diarmad, "and I marvel to hear it in the night." "Save and protect thee," says Gráinne; "it is the Danaan Folk that are at work on thee. Lay thee down again." But three times the hound's voice awakens him, and on the morrow he goes forth armed with sword and sling, and followed by his own hound, to see what is afoot.
On the mountain of Ben Bulben in Sligo he comes across Fionn with a hunting-party of the Fianna. They are not now hunting, however; they are being hunted; for they have roused up the enchanted boar without ears or tail, the Boar of Ben Bulben, which has slain thirty of them that morning. "And do thou come away," says Finn, knowing well that Diarmad will never retreat from a danger ;"for thou art under geise not to hunt pig."
"How is that?" says Dermot, and Finn then tells him the weird story of the death of the steward's son and his revivification in the form of this boar, with its mission of vengeance. "By my word," quoth Diarmad, "it is to slay me that thou hast made this hunt, O Fionn; and if it be here that I am fated to die, I have no power now to shun it."
The beast then appears on the face of the mountain, and Diarmad slips the hound at him, but the hound flies in terror. Diarmad then slings a stone which strikes the boar fairly in the middle of his forehead but does not even scratch his skin. The beast is close on him now, and Diarmad strikes him with his sword, but the weapon flies in two and not a bristle of the boar is cut.
In the charge of the boar Diarmad falls over him, and is carried for a space clinging to his back; but at last the boar shakes him off to the ground, and making "an eager, exceeding mighty spring" upon him, rips out his bowels, while at the same time, with the hilt of the sword still in his hand, Diarmad dashes out the brains of the beast, and it falls dead beside him.
 
The implacable Fionn then comes up, and stands over Diarmad in his agony. "It likes me well to see thee in that plight, O Diarmad," he says, "and I would that all the women in Ireland saw thee now; for thy excellent beauty is turned to ugliness and thy choice form to deformity." Diarmad reminds Fionn of how he once rescued him from deadly peril when attacked during a feast at the house of Derc, and begs him to heal him with a draught of water from his hands, for Fionn had the magic gift of restoring any wounded man to health with a draught of well-water drawn in his two hands. "There is no well," says Fionn. "That is not true," says Diarmad, "for nine paces from you is the best well of pure water in the world." Fionn, at last, on the entreaty of Oscar and the Fianna, and after the recital of many deeds done for his sake by Diarmad in old days, goes to the well, but ere he brings the water to Diarmad's side he lets it fall through his fingers. A second time he goes, and a second time he lets the water fall, "having thought upon Gráinne," and Diarmad gave a sigh of anguish on seeing it. Oscar then declares that if Fionn does not bring the water promptly either he or Fionn shall never leave the hill alive, and Fionn goes once more to the well, but it is now too late; Diarmad is dead before the healing draught can reach his lips. Then Fionn takes the hound of Diarmad, the chiefs of the Fianna lay their cloaks over the dead man, and they return to Rath Gráinne. Gráinne, seeing the hound led by Fionn, conjectures what has happened, and swoons upon the rampart of the Rath. Oisín, when she has revived, gives her the hound, against Fionn's will, and the Fianna troop away, leaving her to her sorrow. When the people of Gráinne's household go out to fetch in the body of Dermot they find there Angus Óg and his company of the People of Dana, who, after raising three bitter and terrible cries, bear away the body on a gilded bier, and Aongus declares that though he cannot restore the dead to life, "I will send a soul into him so that he may talk with me each day."
 
Gráinne is at first enraged with Fionn, and sends her sons abroad to learn feats of arms, so that they may take vengeance upon him when the time is ripe. But Fionn, wily and far-seeing as he is portrayed in this tale, knows how to forestall this danger. When the tragedy on Ben Bulben has begun to grow a little faint in the shallow soul of Gráinne, he betakes himself to her, and though met at first with scorn and indignation he woos her so sweetly and with such tenderness that at last he brings her to his will, and he bears her back as a bride to the Hill of Allen. When the Fianna see the pair coming towards them in this loving guise they burst into a shout of laughter and derision, "so that Gráinne bowed her head in shame." "We trow, O Fionn," cries Oisín, that thou wilt keep Gráinne well from hence-forth." So Gráinne made peace between Fionn and her sons, and dwelt with Fionn as his wife until he died. 

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