It gives an account of the history of the Isle of Man and its rulers, ranging from the Gaelic god Manannán mac Lir up to Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby.
[3] The poem begins with an account of Manannán mac Lir, first ruler of the Isle of Man, who defended the island by magical illusions and by shrouding it in mist.
On Lord Scrope's death it passed to the king of England, who gave it first to the Earl of Northumberland and then, in reward for his services in battle, to Sir John Stanley.
[6] A 1778 printing of the poem, cited in Charles Vallancey's Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis IV (1786), is now lost, but an 1802 pamphlet giving its text survives in two copies.
The ballad's appearance in Joseph Train's Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man (1845) ensured its survival,[8] though it was given little attention by later 19th-century Manx historians, some of whom doubted its authenticity.