The Daughter Of King Under-Waves

[1] He listed as his source Roderick MacLean, a tailor of Ken Tangval, Barra, who reported hearing it from old men in South Uist, including Angus Macintyre, Bornish, who was about eighty.

This form of the tale appears in Hrólfr Kraki's saga and also in Child ballad 32, King Henry.

There he shouted that he wanted either the cup or battle, and the king three times sent out forces against him, and Diarmaid killed them all.

The little russet man bore him back and told him how to cure the woman, and warned him that he would take a great dislike to her when he did, and should say so and accept only a return to his own land from the king.

The loathly lady is a common motif, appearing in such tales as The Marriage of Sir Gawain.