ATU 753 Christ and the Smith
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The tale in brief
Christ takes a horse's legs off to shoe them and makes an old woman young again; a smith tries to do the same and fails.
Summary written for RunoVerse from Antti Aarne’s list of tale types of 1910 and the Finnic texts linked on this page.
Runosong types
Possibly related: the songs of these types tell this tale (as judged by a language model).
- Ilmarinen kengitti hevosta Ilmarinen shoes the horse · SKVR · 3 poems
Finnic and Finland-Swedish sources cited in the catalogue
The entries of the catalogue’s list of literature and variants that concern Finnic tradition.
Finnish Rausmaa 1982ff. II, Nos. 18, 19
Finnish-Swedish Hackman 1917f. I, Nos. 62(5), 156(2), 157
Estonian Aarne 1918
Full references:
- Rausmaa 1982ff.: Rausmaa, Pirkko-Liisa (ed.): Suomalaiset kansansadut 1–6. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1982–2000.
- Hackman 1917f.: Hackman, Oskar (ed.): Finlands svenska folkdiktning I A: Sagor. Referatsamling 1–2. Helsingfors: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, 1917–1920. Read online ↗ (National Library of Finland)
- Aarne 1918: Aarne, Antti: Estnische Märchen- und Sagenvarianten. Verzeichnis der zu den Hurt'schen Handschriftensammlungen gehörenden Aufzeichnungen. FF Communications 25. Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918.
Motifs and related tale types
Motifs: Creation of Monkeys: Old Woman Thrown into Fire A1861.2·Rejuvenation by Burning D1886·Resuscitation by Christ E121.2·Horse's Leg Cut Off and Replaced E782.4·Skillful Smith Calls Self Master of All Masters F663.0.1·Imitation of Magic Rejuvenation Unsuccessful J2411.1·Gods (Saints) in Disguise Visit Mortals K1811
Combines with: ATU 330 The Smith and the Devil (previously The Smith Outwits the Devil)·ATU 752A Christ and St. …·ATU 753* Christ (God) Turns a Thief into an Ass·ATU 753A Unsuccessful Resuscitation·ATU 785 Lamb's Heart (previously Who Ate the Lamb's Heart)·ATU 791 Christ and St. …
Sources
Tale-type number, title, classification, related types and the Finnic sources: Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales (FF Communications 284–286, Helsinki 2004). · Uther 2004, part I (FF Communications 284), free online ↗
Possibly related runosong types: a reading of the song types by a language model (Claude Opus 5.5, 2 November 2026); only links it rated high or medium in confidence are shown.
Motifs and combinations with other tale types: the Trilogy dataset, from Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature and the ATU catalogue.
The plot summary, the notes and the arrangement of this page are RunoVerse’s own.