The Fisherman and the Golden Fish

Vom Fischer und seiner Frau
Alexander Zick
1975

The folk tale of the fisherman and the golden fish tells the story of a poor fisherman who caught a magical, golden fish. The fish told him to let her go, and she would grant him anything he asked. So much was the fisherman fascinated by the fish's magic that he let her go without asking for anything in return. When he came home to his wife, empty-handed, he shared what had happened with her and she got mad. His wife demanded that he go back to the fish and ask her for a better house, better clothes, wealth, power, and servants. At each separate demand, the wife sent her husband back to the sea to talk to the fish. For each favor, the fisherman went back to the magical fish and reluctantly asked her for the things his wife demanded. Finally, the fisherman's wife wanted that her husband go back to the fish and demand that she, the fisherman's wife, be made a God. When the fisherman goes back to the magical fish with his wife's last request, the magical fish takes everything she had given them away. The story ends with the fisherman and his wife poor once again.

I was first introduced to this story, The Fisherman and his Wife, through Alexander Pushkin's poem, written in Boldino (at his father's estate), Russian in 1833. Inspired by the German fairy tale in the Brothers Grimm 1812 first edition of Children's and Household Tales, Pushkin's version differs ever so slightly from the original German fairy tale. It includes all of the main ideas, the biggest one being greed. The biggest difference between the two that stands out the most to me is the wife's final request. In the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the fisherman's wife wants to become a God. In Pushkin's adaptation, the wife wants to become so powerful that even the golden fish - who she expects to grant her this wish - must serve beneath her, the fisherman's wife. Her AUDACITY is what got the fish. 

Pushkin's self-portait

According to Robert Chandler, Pushkin's poem was a direct commentary on the political scene of Russia at the time. During the autumn of 1833, which Pushkin spent in Boldino - to self isolate - he composed several very well known works, all referencing Catherine the Great and her reign. Because "A Tale about a Fisherman and a Fish" was written that same fall, it must be part of his tribute to Catherine the Great. Chandler explains this with Catherine the Great's desire to rule over the Black Sea - like the wife wanted to rule the sea and the golden fish. You can read more at the SOURCE.  

In both versions, when the fisherman arrives at the sea at the beginning, the water is calm and peaceful. Throughout the entire poem, each time his wife sends him back with more requests, the sea becomes angrier and more violent. Of course, this represents the golden fish's thoughts on the whole ordeal. Yay symbolism! 

Something I hadn't realized was that there are several other well-known written works that include direct references to this fairy tale. Virginia Woolf included it in To the Lighthouse and Günter Grass's The Flounder is based on the same plot. (Something tells me there might be more, but nothing on THE 💥WIKIPEDIA💥. I might be wrong.)

The Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm gathered this story from Philipp Otto Runge, a German Painter. Runge shared a manuscript of the story with them in 1809. It looks like Runge shared this manuscript with other interested parties as well, not just the Grimms, becuase in 1812, the same year that the Brothers Grimm published their first edition, Johann Gustav Büsching published his own version based off Runge's manuscript. His publication occurred several months prior to Grimms'. Hmmhmhmhm.

While this version of the story was no. 19 in the Brothers Grimm collection, no. 85 was another version of this same story. Very similar in its premise, The Gold Children begins about the same way as The Fisherman and His Wife, but develops into a completely different story with a different moral. The Gold Children, in turn, are noted by the Brothers Grimm to be extremely similar to The Two Brothers, no. 60. I have linked the full stories under all of the green links.

I promise another article on The Brothers Grimm themselves, as they were some quirky dudes 👽. And I've always wanted to write about Pushkin, too, so STAY TUNED!!