[a] In this tale from Scandinavian folklore, a "half-man, half-snake" lindworm is born, as one of twins, to a queen, who, in an effort to overcome her childless situation, has followed the advice of an old crone, who tells her to eat one of two roses, one red, one white, but not both.

[6] In the first iteration of the international folktale classification, by folklorist Antti Aarne, he established that this tale type concerned about a childless queen who gives birth to a boy in snake form.

[8] According to Svend Grundtvig's system of folktale classification, translated by Astrid Lunding in 1910, this type (King-Snake or Kong Lindorm) may also show the maiden whipping the prince in the bridal bed in order to disenchant him.

[10] Similarly, according to Birgit Olsen, "in most versions" the heroine is advised by her mother's spirit to wear many shifts for her wedding night with the lindworm prince.

[12] Swedish scholar Waldemar Liungman [sv] noted that the heroine, in the second part of the tale, is torn between a first and second husbands, and chooses the first - a dilemma that occurs "both in the Nordic as well as in variants from Eastern and Southeastern Europe".

[13] In addition, researcher Birgit Olsen indicated that the combination with the second part of the story forms an East Mediterranean oikotype, popular in both Greece and Asia Minor.

[16] Danish folklorist Axel Olrik also suggested that the origin of the story lay elsewhere than Scandinavia, since, etymologically speaking, the word lindworm appears in Germanic languages of medieval times, and may not hark back to an earlier period in Nordic history.

[18] In the same vein, according to Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, variants of "King Lindrom" are "disseminated" in Italy, the Balkans, in Turkey and in Persia, but also appear in Denmark and in Scania (or, in his words, "in the old Danish sphere").

[21] The variant from Vendsyssel, translated by Klara Stroebe as King Dragon, continues with the banishment of the queen by the false hero Red Knight.

[22] Folklorist Andrew Lang translated and published a Swedish variant in his Pink Fairy Book with the title King Lindorm.

A faithful servant of King Lindorm hides the queen and her sons in the castle, but she moves out to a hut in the forest where a man named Peter lives.

[21] In a tale from South Germany collected by Ignaz and Joseph Zingerle, titled Die Schlange ("The Snake"), a count's wife gives birth to a serpent son who lives in his own chamber.

[28] In a South Russian/Ukrainian variant collected by Ukrainian folklorist Ivan Rudchenko [ru] with the title "Уж-Царевич і Вірна Жона" ("Snake-Prince and his Wife"), a childless Tsaritsa is instructed to catch a pike, cook its head and eat it.

[30] Vuk Karadžić collected and published a Serbian variant titled Zmija mladoženja ("The Snake Bridegroom"): a queen wishes for a son, even if it is a serpent.

[35] Italian author Italo Calvino located "other versions" wherein the snake prince sheds off his seven skins in Tuscany, Campania, Sicily and Piedmont.

[36] In a Portuguese variant collected by Adolfo Coelho with the title O Príncipe Sapo ("The Prince a Toad"), a queen wishes that God may give her a son, even if it is a frog.

[37] Spanish scholar Julio Camarena [es] calls type 433B El príncipe serpiente mata a las novias ariscas/antipáticas ("The serpent prince kills the unpleasant brides").

At the last leg of her journey, the princess cracks opens the nuts to use its contents to buy three nights in her husband's bed from a false bride (tale type ATU 425A).

Lukja crosses through the passage with one of her husband's scales as protection amulet and reaches the confines of the Underworld, a place of a red sun, a green sky and black trees.

Lukja learns that her father-in-law has become deaf, the mother-in-law has lost her speech, and her husband is blind, and that the only cure are the objects that she received as payment from the Shtriga.

[44] In a Judeo-Spanish variant summarized by scholar Reginetta Haboucha and sourced from Skoplje, a childless queen longs to have a son, envying the fact that even a snake has its brood.

[45] In a South Macedonian tale titled "Трите волшебни прачки" ("Three Magic Rods"), a queen prays to have a son, and gives birth to a snake.

The girl goes to her mother's grave and the woman's spirit advises her daughter to plant two rods, one yellow and one red, in front of the palace, and tells the prince to come through the green one.

[52] In another Bulgarian type, derived from a single Bulgarian variant and classified as *433B, "Завареница се омъжва за змия, при раждането на която бабува"[53] or "Stieftochter heiratet den Drachen, bei dessen Geburt sie Hebamme war"[52] ("Stepdaughter marries dragon to whom she was a midwife to"), an old woman wishes to have a son, even if it is a snake; midwives come to deliver the snake baby and it bites them all to death; a woman sends her stepdaughter to be the prince's midwife to die, but she goes to her mother's grave for counsel and survives; the stepmother tries to kill her again by sending her to tutor the prince and eventually to marry him, since he has killed every bride, but the girl survives by following her dead mother's advice and disenchants the dragon into a human youth.

Her step-mother takes her to the forest to get some herbs, while she dresses her own daughter as the girl and passes her off as the serpent prince's true wife.

[55] Georgian scholarship registers its own tale type for the second part of the story (exiled heroine finds a dead man).

The girl's stepmother, disgusted at her stepdaughter's survival, removes her clothes and banishes her from the palace, then dresses her own daughter to fool the now human snake prince.

When the snake tries to attack her, the girl shows him the silver armlet, and whips the prince, telling him that archangel Gabriel ordered him to become "a son of Adam" (human).

Now with four people arguing over her (the snake prince, the revived man, the tree and the cured qadi), the girl prays for Allah to escape this discussion, and she is promptly elevated to the Heavens.

The girl goes to her godmother, Virgin Mary, who advises her to wear seven skirts and to take a bowl of perfumed water to help disenchant him.