Set in the Trossachs region of Scotland, it is composed of six cantos, each of which concerns the action of a single day.

[6] But in January 1807 he had decided to postpone the Highland work in favour of Marmion since 'it would require a journey of some length into the country not only to refresh my faded or inaccurate recollection of the scenery; But also to pick up some of the traditions still floating in the memory of the inhabitants'[7] The poem was eventually begun during a visit to the southern Highlands at the end of August and beginning of September 1809,[8] but in the early stages it seems not to have been composed in a straightforward manner, Scott writing to his Highland correspondent Mrs Clephane on 27 October of the same year: 'I have been amusing myself with trying to scratch out a Douglas tale but this is only for your own ear and family as I have not formed any serious intention of combining or systematizing the parts I have written'.

[10] There was some interruption from legal business,[11] but the first two cantos were in print by 14 March, and the next two by 14 April with the fifth in the press and the sixth within sight of completion.

[12] The first edition of The Lady of the Lake was published on 8 May 1810 in Edinburgh by John Ballantyne and Co. and in London on 16 May by Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller.

The huntsman blows his horn to try to contact someone, and wanders to the shore of Loch Katrine where a young woman, Ellen Douglas, rows across and picks him up in a skiff.

Oarsmen of Clan Alpine escort Roderick Dhu to the island, singing the boat song, 'Hail to the Chief'.

Roderick tells Malcolm to leave his territory, which he does, refusing even to borrow a boat, swimming across the loch to the shore.

With a pagan prophet, Brian the Hermit, he fashions and sets alight the fiery cross, and hands it to his henchman, Malise, to summon the members of the clan to war.

When Norman asks why Roderick is staying apart from the main body of the troops, Malise says it is the result of a prophecy made by Brian.

Brian prophesied that: 'Which spills the foremost foeman's life, / That party conquers in the strife' (stanza 6; lines 2524–25).

Blanche sings a song of hunting, to warn Fitz-James that Murdoch and the other Clan Alpine men plan to trap and murder him.

However, the two men recognize each other as worthy warriors, and the mountaineer promises Fitz-James safe passage to Coilantogle ford.

Though Roderick is stronger, he is less skillful, and is badly wounded; when Fitz-James stops to address him, the chieftain defiantly seizes him by the throat; but he has lost too much blood, and his strength fails him.

Fitz-James wins after a long struggle, and with his bugle summons medical aid for Roderick before setting off for Stirling, where a festival is taking place.

The next morning, Ellen and Allan-Bane enter the guard-room at Stirling Castle, hoping to visit Douglas in prison.

[16] Several reviewers considered that defects perceived in Marmion had been eliminated, George Ellis speaking for many when he wrote in The Quarterly Review: 'The plot is not laid in the marvellous concurrence of improbable accidents; it is not obscurely and laboriously unravelled; there is no petty intricacy or entanglement; the principal actors are not contaminated by such vices as destroy our interest in their fate; there is no inattention to Scotish feelings or Scotish character; no allusions to English black letter books; and not one word about servants' liveries'.

)[20][21] But, the Fiery cross or Crann Tara was a device for rallying people in Scotland and did not carry racist connotations.

Some of the characters' names are changed slightly: Roderick Dhu becomes Rodrigo, Ellen becomes Elena, and James Fitz-James becomes Uberto.

Other songs from the poem set by Schubert are "The Boat-Song" beginning with the famous lines "Hail to the Chief", a mourning song sung for Duncan, "Coronach", "Normans Gesang", sung by Norman to Mary when he learns that he must join the Clan-Alpine muster, and finally "Lied des gefangenen Jägers" (Song of the imprisoned huntsman), sung by Malcolm Graeme, the betrothed of Ellen Douglas, while captive in Stirling Castle.

This method of rallying supporters and publicizing their attacks was adapted by the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915 after the film, The Birth of a Nation.

[23] Any man between the ages of 16 and 60 able to bear arms who failed to arrive at the appointed tryst in full battle gear met the same fate as the goat and cross – himself slain and his chattels burnt.

[29] In September 1950, the comic-book publisher, Gilberton Company, Inc., of New York City, issued Classics Illustrated number 75, "The Lady of the Lake".

Classics Illustrated number 75 originally sold for 10 cents, and tens of thousands of copies were printed on cheap newsprint.

[30] In 1928 the poem served as the basis for a silent film The Lady of the Lake directed by James A. FitzPatrick and starring Percy Marmont and Benita Hume.