Motifs of The Tree that Reached up to the Sky
The editor of the collection this was taken from, Linda Degh, cites this tale as being "Type 468, The Princess on the Sky Tree, with elements of Type 554 The Grateful Animals, Type 314, The Youth Transformed to a Horse, and type 552A The Three Animals as Brothers-in-Law.". However, this tale does not really seem to contain any of the motifs given in the Aarne-Thompson index for type 552. It does, however, contain the same sequence of events as "Marya Moryevna", in the forbidden room (C611) followed by the chase by the bad guy on magic horses (B184.1.1). This however, seems to be the only real similarity between this story and any of the other ones, other than the talking animals helping the protaginist. No one is married to a transformed animal, or any of the other motifs listed for 552. One wonders if Degh did the tale typing by reading "Marya Moryevna" as an example.
The elements from each of the other tale types for this story are listed below. (All are taken from the Tale Type Index by Aarne-Thompson.)
Type 314 The Youth Tranformed into a Horse
B316 Abused and pampered horses. Hero is ordered by ogre to feed and care for certain horses and neglect others. (This is, admittedly, stretching.)
B184.1 Magic horse
B284.1.6 Flight on magic horses.
T91.6.4 Princess flals in love with lowely boy.
Type 468 The Princess On the Sky-Tree
(No motif number given.) Ascent on a tree which reaches the sky. On its branches lives a princess.
Type 354 The Grateful Animals
Q2 Kind and Unkind (in this case, women)
B350 Grateful animals
B582.2 Animals Help Hero Win princess
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(Written, looked up, coded and puzzled over by Beth Epstein.)