On a summer's day, as the king sat on the heights of Tara
beholding the plain of Breg, a strange young warrior appeared, gave his
name as Mider, and challenged Eochaid to a game of chess for a wager. Many
were the games they played, and at first Eochaid won, and bade Mider carry
out certain tasks. But at last Eochaid was defeated, and Mider for his
reward asked to be allowed to hold Etain in his arms and kiss her. Eochaid
put him off for a month; at the end of which time he called together the
armies of Ireland, and took Etain into the palace, and shut and locked the
doors, and ringed the house with guards. Yet at the appointed hour Mider
stood in their midst, fairer than ever; and he sang to Etain:--
"_O fair-haired woman, will you come with me into a marvellous land wherein
is music, where heads are covered with primrose hair and bodies are white
as snow? There is no "mine" or "thine" there; white are teeth, and black
are eyebrows, and cheeks are the hue of the foxglove, and eyes the hue of
blackbirds' eggs.... We see everything on every side, yet no man seeth us.
Though pleasant the plains of Ireland, yet are they a wilderness for him
who has known the great plain_."
But Etain would not go to him, before Eochaid was willing to resign her.
And the king would not, yet allowed Mider to embrace her before him.
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