she wore, with a long hood that might cover her head attached to it; it was stiff and glossy with green silk beneath red embroidery of gold, and was clasped over her breasts with marvellously wrought clasps of silver and gold; so that men saw the bright gold and the green silk flashing against the sun.  On her head were two tresses of golden hair, and each tress had been plaited into four strands; at the end of each strand was a little ball of gold.  And there was that maiden, undoing her hair that she might wash it, her two arms out through the armholes of her smock.  Each of her two arms was as white as the snow of a single night, and each of her cheeks was as rosy as the foxglove.  Even and small were the teeth in her head, and they shone like pearls.  Her eyes were as blue as a hyacinth, her lips delicate and crimson; very high, soft, and white were her shoulders.  Tender, polished, and white were her wrists; her fingers long, and of great whiteness; her nails were beautiful and pink.  White as the snow, or as the foam of the wave, was her side; long was it, slender, and as soft as silk.  Smooth and white were her thighs; her knees were round and firm and white; her ankles were as straight as the rule of a carpenter.  Her feet were slim, and as white as the ocean’s foam; evenly set were her eyes; her eyebrows were of a bluish black, such as ye see upon the shell of a beetle.  Never a maid fairer than she, or more worthy of love, was till then seen by the eyes of men; and it seemed to them that she must be one of those who have come from the fairy mounds:  it is of this maiden that men have spoken when it hath been said:  “All that’s graceful must be tested by Etain; all that’s lovely by the standard of Etain.”

Grace with Etain’s grace compare! 
Etain’s face shall test what’s fair!

And desire of her seized upon the king; and he sent a man of his people in front of him to go to her kindred, in order that she might abide to await his coming.  And afterwards the king came to the maiden, and he sought speech from her:  “Whence art thou sprung, O maiden?” says Eochaid, “and whence is it that thou hast come?” “It is easy to answer thee,” said the maiden:  “Etain is my name, the daughter of the king of Echrad; ‘out of the fairy mound’ am I” “Shall an hour of dalliance with thee be granted to me?” said Eochaid. “’Tis for that I have come hither under thy safeguard,” said she.  “And indeed twenty years have I lived in this place, ever since I was born in the mound where the fairies dwell, and the men who dwell in the elf-mounds, their kings and their nobles, have been a-wooing me:  yet to never a one of them was granted sleep with me, for I have loved thee, and have set my love and affection upon thee; and that ever since I was a little child, and had first the gift of speech.  It was for the high tales of thee, and of thy splendour, that I have loved thee thus; and though I have never seen thee before, I knew thee