he must bring him the daughter of the king of the Franks. Gille Mairtean turned himself into a boat and carried him to France. The boat ran himself into the cleft of a rock, and sent Ian to say he had been shipwrecked. The royal court came down to see the boat, and music came out of it. The princess said she must see the harp that played such music, and Ian and Gille Mairtean carried her off. She was angry, he explained why he needed to carry her off, and she said she would rather marry him. They returned to the king, and Gille turned himself into a beautiful woman, and had Ian give him instead of the princess. After Ian received the bay colt, Gille bit the king, knocking him unconscious, and escaped, and they returned to the Big Women. Gille turned himself into a bay colt, and after Ian received the sword, threw it at all the Big Women, killing them. They returned to the giant, and Gille turned himself into a sword and, once Ian had received the blue falcon, cut off the giant's heads. Gille warned Ian how to carry what he had brought back to the castle, to prevent his stepmother turning him into a bundle of sticks. He obeyed, and his stepmother was turned into a bundle of sticks herself. So Ian burned her, married the princess, and lived ever afterwards in friendship with Gille Mairtean the fox. Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 550, "Bird, Horse and Princess" (formerly, "The Search for the Golden Bird"). Scottish literary critic W. P. Ker compared the tale to the medieval Dutch romance of (Gawain), since both stories are characterized by a hero taking part in a chain of quests. Motifs Folklorist Patrick Kennedy stated, on his notes to the Irish tale The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener, that the quest for the bird with the help of an animal "occurs in Mac Iain Direach ('Son of John the Upright')". Alan Bruford argued that the name of the hero was a corruption of literary name Mac an Dìthreabhaich. Variants Scotland Campbell published another variant, titled An Sionnach or The Fox, from a man named Jon the tinker, in 1859. In this tale, Brian, the son of the King of Greece, in order to marry the hen's