Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book (1894), but provided no bibliographical information and its origin remains obscure.
The eagle said if they killed sixty cattle and the Irishman would throw quarter of one into its mouth every time it turned its head, it could carry him.
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 400, "The Man on a Quest for the Lost Wife".
He goes after her on a long quest, often helped by the elements (Sun, Moon and Wind) or by the rulers of animals of the land, sea and air.
[6] Despite the reclassification, according to Stefanie Rühle, in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, although both types share the sequence of the man's quest for his vanished wife, type 401 is preceded by the motif of the hero enduring three nights of torment in the princess's castle and the motif of missing out meeting his wife by sleeping through it.
[7] In a Scottish tale from Argyllshire, titled Rìoghachd Nam Beann Gorma or The Kingdom of the Green Mountains, a sergeant, a corporal and a private desert from the army.
This pleases the lady, who reveals she is the daughter of the King of the Green Mountains, having decided to marry a lowborn commoner.
The lady sets a date for their marriage and gives him some gold to buy finer garments for the occasion from a tailor.
The second time, the princess gives a penknife, and finally a gold pin, and declares she will not await for him anymore, and returns to her kingdom.
[8] In a tale titled Na Beanntaichean Gorma ("The Blue Mountains"), collected in Cape Breton, the soldiers are a "Lowlander", a Gael and an Irishman.
[9] This second tale was classified by the compiler as Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index ATU 400, "The Quest for the Lost Wife",[10] with variants in the Highlands, including the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides.