Running Underhill is an Irish-set faerie tale about Maeve, a mortal woman whose second sight leads her into the realm of King Aodh. There she frees a captive prince and chooses to help him escape, although she could return home without him. The story follows their flight through Underhill and the discovery that one night away has cost them a hundred years in the mortal world. It provides the narrative for the Sisters Erie song of the same name.1 2

Read the full prose story: The Road Under the Hill.

Synopsis

May Eve and the captive prince

Maeve has innate "second sight" which allows her to perceive things hidden from ordinary eyes. On May Eve, she sees King Aodh leading a Faerie procession and follows it into the hill. Her entry is a choice, made out of curiosity rather than because she has been carried away.1

Underhill is initially beautiful, filled with music, light, and glamour. Among its inhabitants, Maeve recognizes a mortal prince concealed beneath the enchantment. She wakes him and learns that he is a captive prince named Cian.1 2

Aodh offers Maeve a safe way back to her own home, but the prince must remain behind. Cian urges her to go. Instead, she takes his hand and refuses to leave him. The way home closes, a hunting horn sounds, and the pair must find another road out.1

The road through Underhill

Their escape depends on a set of rules: take nothing from Underhill, do not look back, do not let go, follow the one true road, and reach the mortal world before sunrise. Maeve must distinguish the real road from the paths and appearances around it. Her Sight makes her the guide; Cian must trust what she sees even when his own senses tell him otherwise.1

Aodh's host pursues them through a landscape shaped by glamour. Voices call from behind, including Maeve's mother's voice and the prince's voice while he is still beside her. Turning toward them or allowing the pair to be separated would endanger their escape. The rules become harder to follow as the pursuit closes in.1

Near dawn, Maeve hears birds and feels the cold air of the mortal morning. She sees a way through what appears to be solid earth or stone. Cian cannot see an opening, but runs with her. Still holding one another, they pass through the hill and emerge at sunrise.1 2

The changed world

The pursuit ends outside, but the world to which they return is unfamiliar. A hundred years have passed during their night Underhill. The prince's father's home has fallen into ruin, and the lives both expected to resume are gone.1

A farmer recognizes the names of King Murchad and Prince Cian from the past, including the prince's disappearance. Maeve's disappearance is remembered in local stories too. They have returned to a world that remembers what happened to them, but no longer knows them as the people standing before it.5

Their escape is therefore a victory with a lasting cost. Maeve has saved the prince and herself, but neither can recover the people or homes they left. Her refusal to abandon him also gives them something that survives the journey: they face the changed world together.1

Characters and the journey

Maeve is the story's central figure. Her curiosity takes her into Underhill, her refusal to leave Cian sets the escape in motion, and her Sight makes it possible. The prince is important as the person she chooses to help and the companion who must trust her, while the decisions that shape the journey remain hers.1 2

Aodh is a courteous, dangerous, rule-bound king. The beauty of his country makes its dangers harder to recognize. The rules offer a path to freedom, but surviving that path does not promise a return to the time Maeve and Cian remember.1 2

Relationship to the song

The tale was a childhood favorite of Ryanne Flynn, whose lead carries Maeve's part in the sisters' musical telling.4 1

The Sisters Erie song concentrates the narrative into Maeve's arrival, the discovery of the prince, Aodh's offer, the chase, and the return. Repeated warnings become part of the vocal arrangement, with the four sisters carrying different parts of the story. The song retains Maeve's central role, the true road revealed by her Sight, and the century lost at the end.1

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