[2] It is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 313, "Girl Helps the Hero Flee" or "The Magic Flight".
[2] An old widow has a foolish son named Jack, who sits by the ashes and plays cards with his pet, a collie-dog.
When he is 21 years old, he leaves home to seek his fortune elsewhere and goes to the "Land of Enchantment", where - the narrator describes - animals and birds can talk.
The third old lady says Jack is close to the Green Man of Knowledge's castle, and warns him that the bridge leading to the castle is a trap, since it turns into a spider's web, so he must secure the help of the Green Man's youngest daughter, the most powerful of the three, by stealing the her garments when she becomes a white bird to bathe in the river with her elder sisters.
That night, the Green Man's youngest daughter comes to Jack's room and tells him "he spelled her", and that she loves him, so she will help him in whatever her father asks of him.
Jack returns the ring, and later the Green Man's daughter reveals only her pinkie finger was broken, which she hid with a glove during dinnertime.
At last, the Green Man's daughter convinces Jack to run away from her father, and advises him to choose a lame mule (which is herself, under a new form) as his mount.
During the flight, the Green Man comes after the pair, and his daughter asks Jack to check her ear for anything to deter her father: first, he finds a drop of water, which creates a lake; next, a small stone that becomes hills and mountains; lastly, a spark of fire, which morphs into a conflagration behind them that consumes the Green Man.
Safe at last, the Green Man's daughter and Jack leave the Land of Enchantment and prepare to go to his village.
The Green Man's daughter asks Jack to wait for him for a year and a day, but he cannot be kissed by anyone, lest he forgets about her and their adventures.
[14] In the same vein, William Bernard McCarthy reported that in Irish tradition the swan maiden is frequently appears in tale type ATU 313 ("The Master Maid", "The Magical Flight", "The Devil's Daughter").
[15] In that regard, Norwegian folklorist Reidar Thoralf Christiansen suggested that the presence of the Swan maiden character in tale type ATU 313 "could be explained by the circumstance that in both cycles a woman with supernatural powers plays a leading part".
[16] Folklorist Katharine Mary Briggs reported a similar story from Scotland, titled Green Sleeves.
[17][18] According to Hamish Henderson, Green Sleeves was the first "Scots-English version", collected by author Peter Buchan on 4th February 1829, but was only published in 1908.
[19] In a Welsh Gypsy tale, Ō Grīnō Mūrš or The Green Man of Noman's Land, a youth named Jack is great at gambling.
This first old woman blows a horn and summons the people, then the birds, to see if anyone knows the location of No Man's Land.
The youth follows the old woman's instructions: Jack steals the youngest's feathers and promises to return them if she carries him to her father's castle over the lake.
The Green Man greets him and orders him to perform tasks: first, to clean out the stables; then, to cut down large trees before midday; next, to build a barn and to thatch its roof with feathers.
[20][21][22] In a Gaelic story titled The Tale of the “Bodach Glas”, a prince likes to go to a green knoll and find anyone who can play shinty with him.
Not knowing of the Bodach's dwelling place, the prince's stepmother suggests he requests the help of her three sons, who each live at different distances from the furthest ends of the world.
The prince gets the ring and climbs down the ladder, but misses a step, so he repeats the action to help the girl resume her human shape.
Back to the prince and the girl, they reach his father's house, and she warns him not to let any being - human or animal - kiss him, lest he forgets her.
[23] In an Irish tale, The Story of Grey Norris from Warland, John, a king's son, plays ball in the ball-alley.
The eagle tells him that three maidens will come to bathe in the water in the form of swans; he should hide the youngest's garment, because she is Grey Norris's daughter.
The next day, John is made to clean out the stable for a needle, and his daughter advises the human prince to choose the rusty fork to do the chore.
Grey Norris's daughter shoots a single a bird with a gun, takes three feathers and magically creates a bridge.
The princess tells John to place cowdung on Grey Norris's head and in other parts of his body, then prepare two horses, for they will escape that night.
The old man places a geasa on the prince that he is not to eat two meals at one table nor sleep two nights at one bed until he says "God save all here".
As three of the daughters leave the water and fly back to their father, the youngest begs the prince to return her hood, and suggests she may help him in the future.
The old man's daughter tells the prince to check behind the horse's ear for anything: first, a drop sweat, which becomes a sea; then a nut, which becomes a wood to hinder the pursuit.