| Summary: | In some traditional versions of four epic ballads, “El rey moro que reta a Valencia”, “Valdovinos sorprendido en la caza”, “La pérdida de don Beltrán” and “Gaiferos libera a Melisenda”, the hero’s horse marvellously acquires the ability to speak. This article aims to provide a monographic study of this motif, collating the ancient texts of these ballads, together with the versions collected from the modern oral tradition. Specifically, it proposes to analyse the function and meaning of this motif, to trace its temporal, geographical, and linguistic evolution, to establish possible affiliations regarding origin and to detect whether types and subtypes can be identified in the compositions that recover the motif.
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