"Enda," said she, "I have brought you where none may hear what I wish
to say to you. I am Mave, the daughter of the king of Erin. By the
magic arts of my cruel stepmother I was changed into a trout, and cast
into this lake a year and a day before the evening when you restored
me to the waters the second time. If you had not done so the first
night the otter brought me to you I should have been changed into a
hooting owl; if you had not done so the second night, I should have
been changed into a croaking raven. But, thanks to you, Enda, I am now
a snow-white swan, and for one hour on the first night of every full
moon the power of speech is and will be given to me as long as I
remain a swan. And a swan I must always remain, unless you are willing
to break the spell of enchantment that is over me; and you alone can
break it."

"I'll do anything I can for you. O princess!" said Enda. "But how can
I break the spell?"

"You can do so," said the swan, "only by pouring upon my plumage the
perfumed water that fills the golden bowl that is in the inmost room
of the palace of the fairy queen, beneath the lake."

"And how can I get that?" said Enda.

"Well," said the swan, "you must dive beneath the lake, and walk along
its bed, until you come to where the lake dragon guards the entrance
of the fairy queen's dominions."

"I can dive like a fish," said Enda; "but how can I walk beneath the
waters?"

"You can do it easily enough," said the swan, "if you get the
water-dress of Brian, one of the three sons of Turenn, and his helmet
of transparent crystal, by the aid of which he was able to walk under
the green salt sea."[3]

"And where shall I find them?"

"They are in the water-palace of Angus of the Boyne," said the swan;
"but you should set out at once, for if the spell be not broken before
the moon is full again, it cannot be broken for a year and a day."

"I'll set out in the first ray of the morning," said Enda.

"May luck and joy go with you," said the swan. "And now the hours of
silence are coming upon me, and I have only time to warn you that
dangers you little dream of will lie before you in your quest for the
golden cup."

"I am willing to face all dangers for your sake, O princess," said
Enda.

"Blessings be upon you, Enda," said the swan, and she sailed away from
the shadow out into the light across the lake to the sedgy banks. And
Enda saw her no more.

He rowed his curragh home, and he lay on his bed