One of the prettiest I have is Epimedium. It is evergreen and in early spring, I give it a haircut and see the little yellow flowers that emerge before the new leaves. It spreads slowly. I also have a lot of shade groundcovers but many of them are quite aggressive.

Wild-Lily-of-the-Valley (Canada Mayflower).

Thank you.

I should have mentioned that this is for a wooded area, so anything that spread quickly is good too.

Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) and western bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa) do real well in my yard and spread rather quickly (I started two fairly large beds and they are filling in nicely). These two are very complementary to each other. They are in both partial and full shade. For bulbs the wild/french hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis var. albulus) naturalize well in this area.