Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K85 — Horse brothers.
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 antagonist owns the fastest horse. The hero obtains an even faster horse (usually the brother or sister of this horse), which is the only one that surpasses the antagonist's horse and usually orders the antagonist to throw off his rider.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K85 has 5 other sub-motifs
RelatedK85. The antagonist owns the fastest horse. The hero obtains an even faster horse (usually the brother or sister of this horse), which is the only one that surpasses the antagonist's horse and usually orders the antagonist to throw off his rider.
K85a. When assessing the speed of a horse, the speed of thought (lightning, or something else) and wind are compared.
K85b. The three-legged horse is distinguished by its strength and speed, and is ridden by a rider of non-human nature.
K85c. A three-legged horse is strong and fast, but its four-legged brother is faster.
K85d. Covered with skins (coated with resin and sprinkled with sand, etc.), the mighty horse becomes invulnerable to the bites of other horses.
K85e. Magical horses live in water.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F87A | 100.00% | A snake crawls onto the clothes of a girl bathing, climbs down in exchange for a promise to marry him, and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to children. Together with them, she visits her relatives. They call the snake out of the water and kill it. After that, the wife transforms her children and/or herself into birds. |
| L110C | 100.00% | An elderly couple makes a child out of clay (wood, straw, dough). The doll comes to life and eats everyone it sees. Usually a goat (ram) breaks it, and those who have been swallowed come out alive. |
| K27Q1 | 99.99% | The hero is sent to bring lioness milk in a wineskin made from a lion skin (usually from a lion cub's skin). |
| K2A3 | 99.94% | The hero's companions leave him on the mountain, destroying the rope (chain) by which he climbed up or which he lowered down. |
| B33G | 99.91% | Horsemen or horses represent celestial bodies or different periods of the day. |
| I47A | 99.91% | The rainbow is associated with the wedding of a fox or jackal. |
| I87F | 99.91% | Before modern humans, there lived others who differed in strength, height, nobility, or other qualities. They disappeared after committing suicide. |
| K181A | 99.91% | When a person puts their hand on a horse's back, it bends over and falls. This is a sign of heroic strength. |
| K73B7 | 99.91% | The hero saves the magical wife from her enemy at a time when both the future wife and the enemy have zoomorphic appearances. Later, the rescued woman becomes a woman. |
| L108G | 99.91% | The character is black and must sit in water until he turns white. The antagonist carries him away. |
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
28 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 28 traditions: 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, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Latvians, Estonians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Ingush, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Nogai, Georgians, Armenians, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Transylvanian Saksons, Bosnians, Russian Federation
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