The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 313, "The Magic Flight" ("Girl Helps the Hero Flee") or "The Devil's (Ogre's/Giant's) Daughter".

The prince wanders off into a forest and meets a witch (Baba Yaga), who informs him that the daughters of the Sea Tsar come to bathe in a lake in bird form (the animals vary between versions).

The king's sons spies on the bird maidens bathing and hides the garment (featherskin) of the youngest one, for her to help him reach the kingdom of the villain of the tale (usually the swan-maiden's father).

[21] According to linguist Horace Lunt, the terms in the original Russian text, kólpik and kólpica, are taken to show closely related meanings in the Slavic languages, denoting "a large white bird": 'swan', 'spoonbill' (although he disagreed with this one), 'Swan-Maiden', 'Swan-Maiden (in fairy tales)' and 'young female swan' (which he considered to be the best translation).

[35] Similarly, according to Russian folklorist Lev Barag [ru], type 313B, with the starting episode of the quarrel between animals and the hero's father rescuing the bird, only appears in "East Slavic, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Lithuanian, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, French, Scottish and Irish" variants.

Out of these variants, tales number 219–221 and 224 begin with the hero's father (soldier, hunter, archer) meeting the eagle, flying on its wings and receiving a magical casket that he cannot close.

[37][38] In a translation of a Russian variant, titled Die Entenjungfrau ("The Duck Maiden"), a mouse and a sparrow fight and summon all creatures of land and air for a battle.

This Czar, a sovereign of "pagan lands", orders the man to give him the golden city, or what he does not know he has at home (his newborn son).

[39] In a tale collected in the White Sea region from Russian storyteller Matvei M. Korguev [ru] with the title "Как Елена-королевна вывела царского сына от волшебного короля" ("How princess Elena saved the Czar's Son from the Magic King"), a merchant sows his fields.

One day, he shoots an arrow through an old woman's window, and she mockingly tells the boy his father made a deal with the magic king.

The tsar announces a grand ball to which his sons and his wives are invited, and Maria takes off her frog skin to appear as human.

When she comes home, she reveals the prince her cursed state would soon be over, says he needs to find Baba Yaga in a remote kingdom, and vanishes from sight in the form of a cuckoo.

[41] In a Ukraine variant translated into Hungarian with the title A varázstojás ("The Magic Egg"), a sparrow and a mouse argue over their respective shares of the harvest, then all animals war against each other.

The tale continues with the "Magic Flight" episode (hero and heroine transform into different things) and concludes with the "Forgotten Fiancée" motif.

[42] According to folklorist Bronislava Kerbelyte [lt], out of 132 variants of type ATU 313 (including its subtypes A, B and C) in Lithuania, 46 are reported to contain the sequence with the rescued eagle and the hunter gaining a box he must not open.

In the Estonian variants, the male character heals a bird, takes an aerial journey on its back and receives a box he must not open.

Back home, the eagle begins to eat their poultry and geese, to the wife's annoyance, who tells her husband to kill the bird.

After its strength is restored, the eagle says it will go on a three-day journey to check if its body is strong enough, then it will return and carry the man to be rewarded for his kindness.

Suddenly, an old man with gray beard appears to him and offers to close the box, in exchange for delivering him, in three years time, the thing the fisherman has forgotten, but will know it at home.

The old woman, then, tells him to shoot his arrow and follow it until he reaches a bright river where Tun's twelve daughters will bathe in the shape of swans, and he must hide the garments of the youngest.

The youth follows her instructions and arrives at the river; twelve swans alight near the water, become maidens, and leave their garments by the shore.

The next two days, Tun orders the youth to have a river flow next to the palace, with a garden nearby and bird chirping on it, and lastly for him to erect a crystal bridge.

[53] Author James Riordan translated a tale from the Tatar people with the title Shaitan the Devil and His Forty Daughters, a man named Safa looks for adventure and rescues a swan in a lake from a black witch.

Safa closes the box and returns home, only to find his wife gave birth to a son, and immediately regrets his deal.

Years later, Safa's son, a jigit, decides to fulfill his father's deal, and stops by a lakeside, waiting for the coming of Shaitan the Devil.

[54] In a tale from the Bashkir people with the title "Майсарвар" ("Maysarvar"), a mole and a gray crow are friends at first and work together to sow cereals.

After three years, the Samrigush takes the man on an aerial journey, but first it nearly drops him in three dangers (flames, a forest with predatory animals, and the sea) to teach him a lesson.

Once there, an old woman gives difficult tasks for the boy: to raze a forest to the ground, show wheat, harvest it and make bread - all in one night; then he is to sew her boots with one hand while the other holds a burning wick; tame a wild horse and identify her youngest daughter among her identical sisters.

One day, they fight over how to share the bread between them, which leads to a bad row that escalates to a war between the beasts of the land and the birds of the air, leaving a hawk as the only survivor.

[57] The tale is also known in Russian compilations as "Морской царь и Елена Премудрая" or The Sea Tsar and Elena, the Wise, adapted by author Irina Karnaoukhova (fr).