Thread: There is a peculiar plot found in many Eurasian fairytales: Brothers (mostly three) have to complete a task (like kill a dragon), which will get them a princess and a throne...And all the brothers fail, except the youngest, who gets both the girl and the throne...

Examples:

Russian: Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarevitch_Ivan,_the_Firebird_and_the_Gray_Wolf

Serbian: The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Peahens_and_the_Golden_Apples

German: The Queen Bee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queen_Bee

Iranian: Simorgh

https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Mythology/simorgh_story.htm

One interpretation of this fairytale plot is that it describes Ultimogeniture, the inheritance practice in which all the family land and the family house is inherited by the youngest son...

The fact that this plot is found in stories from Europe to Central Asia is very interesting, because in most parts of Eurasia in the past it was the oldest son who inherited all the property or the property was split equally between all the sons...

There were some exception to this rule though:

Ultimogeniture was particularly prevalent in Russia, where it was enshrined in law in The Pravda Russkaya, or Yaroslav’s Law, written ca. 1017 AD by Yaroslav the Wise...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russkaya_Pravda
http://web.grinnell.edu/individuals/kaiser/exrp.html

Ultimogeniture was recorded in the 18th and 19th century in many Slavic countries like Russia, Poland, Serbia...

https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1092923/FULLTEXT01.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228481620_Between_'Traditional'Collectivity_and_'Modern'Individuality_an_Atomistic_Perspective_on_Family_and_Household_astride_the_Hajnal's_Line_Upper_Silesia_and_Great

http://www.nec.ro/data/pdfs/publications/research-and-symposia/social-behaviour-and-family-strategies/Karl_KASER.pdf

Among Mongols, Ultimogeniture (the inheritance by the youngest son) was practiced in combination with Primogeniture (the inheritance by the oldest son) and several other inheritance rules. Which caused chaos... http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66009/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_libfile_shared_repository_Content_Neumann,%20I_Remnants%20of%20the%20Mongol%20imperial%20tradition_Neumann_Remnants_of_the_Mongol.pdf

Ultimogeniture was also practiced in certain parts of England where it was called "Borough-English" and was by the Normans called “the custom of the English towns”...

And in some parts of Eastern Germany, Denmark and Austria...

Now this is interesting. The origin of the Ultimogeniture in England, Germany, Austria and Denmark is unknown...

Thomas William Shore, in his 1906 book “Origin of the Anglo–Saxon race” attributed this custom "to the West Slavic tribes which were part of Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain" and "to the West Slavic tribes who once lived in Germany, Austria and Denmark" https://archive.org/details/originofanglosax00shoruoft

Some have argued that this custom was brought to Europe by the Steppe nomads, like the Huns, Mongols and Turks...

But I couldn't find any mention of Ultimogeniture being practiced by the Huns or Turks who both practiced Primogeniture. And as I said, Mongols had several different conflicting inheritance rules which leads me to believe that they adopted Ultimogeniture from someone else...

Who? Well, I do believe that the Ultimogeniture originated in the nomadic societies of the Eurasian steppe...But much earlier, among Indo-Europeans who controlled the steppe during the Bronze and Iron Age...

Why do I think so? Because we find Ultimogeniture at the core of the Ancient Greek myths...

There, Uranus gets overthrown by his youngest son Cronus. Only to be overthrown by his youngest son Zeus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus_(mythology)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronus 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus 

But, maybe I am wrong...Interestingly David, the youngest of 8 sons, becomes the king of Jews...Even though the ancient Hebrew law says that it is the "firstborn" who inherits his father's property...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David 

I wonder what's going on here...