[3] Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson catalogued about 500 tales under this type, of which over 200 were Irish, and the remainder, from the rest of Europe and European colonies in America.

The third raven says, again in different variants, that the princess would faint and die unless someone draws three drops of blood from her right breast; or a dragon would attack their bridal chamber and unless driven off, kill them.

British translator Edgar Taylor, in his original notes to the Grimm Brothers' tale, remarked that the story "contain[ed] so much of Orientalism", which would lead one to imagine oneself in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments.

[5] Australian folklorist Joseph Jacobs pointed out, in his commentaries on his own reconstruction (John The True), in his work Europa's Fairy Book, that the story showed striking parallels with tales of Indian literary history and suggested them as a possible point of origin, due to the antiquity of the sources, such as Panchatantra and Somadeva's 11th century work The Ocean of Stories (or Kathasaritsagara).

[8] According to scholar A. K. Ramanujan, the tale type shows a "motif cluster": the three perils that menace the couple and the faithful servant that overhears the birds' talk.

[9] Graham Seal pointed out that Faithful John is a "figure of European and Asian folktales" who demonstrates the virtues of loyalty and trust.

[10] Indeed, variants of the tale have been collected from "all over Europe", as well as from India, Turkey, Middle East, South America and the West Indies.

[12] Croatian folklorist Maja Bošković-Stulli noted that the theme was explored as the subject matter of a Serbo-Croatian epic song: Pero Vitkovic offers to bring the Banica of Misir (the margravine of Egypt) as bride to Viennese Prince Karlo, despite his mother's objections.