Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H51 — The Devil's Horse.
Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of motif
OverviewThe horse is a predator or is associated with God's enemy.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K100F2 | 99.72% | A captured supernatural character breaks his chains and escapes to freedom after being given water (or wine, etc.) to drink. |
| K27F1 | 99.41% | A character builds a bridge (usually from precious materials) in an implausibly short time. |
| J62 | 99.38% | The character turns those who come to him into inanimate objects (usually stones). (In variants of the ATU 303 plot, the motif is often absent; original texts are needed). |
| K2B | 99.32% | The occupations or names of the hero's companions are unusual and different for each one, but their specific abilities, which can be inferred from these names, are insignificant for the development of the plot. Cf. motif K66, "Heroes with different abilities". |
| M157A4 | 99.29% | The character proves the absurdity of another's statements by claiming that he (or someone else) fished on a mountain, extinguished a fire with straw, sowed wheat in the sea, watched flying fish, etc. (or he himself imitates such actions). The absurdity of the statements stems from the incorrectly chosen locus or means for performing certain actions. |
| K135 | 99.25% | By accidentally defeating powerful opponents, a physically weak and timid person gains honour. |
| L96 | 99.23% | The character has the ability to transform into animals or objects. Sold in this form, he achieves his goal and becomes human again. |
| K24C | 99.21% | A young man comes to an old man (less often – to an old woman), who teaches him how to get a magical wife by hiding her bird clothes. Usually, the young man gives away the clothes for the first time and lives with the old man until the girls fly back. |
| E9O | 99.17% | A man marries a woman who has the appearance of a frog or toad. |
| M39A3 | 99.13% | fool kills a man, throws him into a pond, well, etc. A clever man throws a goat there. A fool searches for a corpse in the pond, asks if the victim had horns, etc. Everyone is obviously crazy, and the murder charge has been denied. {The Buryat and Yakut versions may be recent Russian borrowings. The ATU 1581B definition also includes an episode where a human corpse was replaced with a goat carcass, but most of the texts that have been verified do not contain this motive}. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
DistributionDrag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below
Traditions
47 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 47 traditions: Khoekhoe (=Hottentot; incl Nama, Korana); Damara, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Northern Munda of Kharwar branch: Birhor, Ho, Mundari, Kol, Asur (including Agaria, Kol, Birjhia), Bhumij, Oraon (Kurukh), Gondi (mostly Northern Gondi), Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), Kirati (Kiranti): Rai (incl Thulung), Limbu, Newar, Dutch, Flemish, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Setu, Finns, Vepsians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Uzbek, Wakhi, Ishkashimi (including Sanglich), Munji, Tajik, Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Svans, Armenians, Gagauz, Kazakh, Mordvins, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Greece, Russian Federation
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