In PYotr Ershov''s hippology: riding backwards and demonic genesis of the little humpbacked horse
The present article studies riding backwards in a fairy-tale poem by Pyotr Yershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse” as a variant of the “inversion”, or “overturning” motif, which related to such supernatural beings as sorcerers, leshies and undeads in Slavic Folklore. The htonic white horse harnessed by “reversal actions” determining her genetic relation to the devil as well as her son, the little humpbacked horse whose ability is to travel long distances in a short time links him with the devil from The Legend of John of Novgorod's Journey to Jerusalem on the Devil's Back.