The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish

The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish

"The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" ( _ru. Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке; Skazka o rybake i rybke) is a fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin wrote the tale in autumn 1833 and it was first published in literary magazine "Biblioteka dlya chteniya" in May 1835. The tale is about a fisherman who managed to catch a "Golden Fish" which promised to fulfill any wish of his in exchange for letting it go. The storyline is similar to the Russian fairy tale "Greedy Old Wife" (according to Vladimir Propp) and to Brothers Grimm's tale "The Fisherman and His Wife".

Plot summary

In Pushkin's poem, an old man and woman have been living poorly for many years. They have a small hut, and every day the man goes out to fish. One day, he throws in his net and pulls out seaweed two times in succession, but on the third time he pulls out a golden fish. The fish pleads for its life, promising any wish in return. However, the old man does not want anything, and lets the fish go. When he returns and tells his wife about the golden fish, she gets angry and tells her husband to go ask the fish for a new washboard (their washboard is broken), and the fish happily grants this small request. The next day, the wife asks for a new house, and the fish grants this also. Then, in succession, the wife asks for a palace, to become the ruler of her province, to become the tsarina, and finally to become the Ruler of Sea, to subjugate the golden fish completely to her boundless will. As the man goes to ask for each item, the sea becomes more and more stormy, until the last request, where the man can hardly hear himself think. When he asks that his wife be made the Ruler of the Sea, the fish cures her greed by putting her back in the old cottage and giving back the broken washboard. The moral of the story is: do not get too greedy, or you will end up with nothing.

Adaptations

*1866 - "Le Poisson d'or" ("The Golden Fish"), "fantastic ballet", choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon, the music by Ludwig Minkus.
*1937 - "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish", USSR, animated film by Aleksandr Ptushko. [http://www.animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=2491]
*1950 - "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish", USSR, traditionally-animated film by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky. [http://www.animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=3005]

References

* Alexander Pushkin: A Critical Study by A.D.P. Briggs, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1982.

External links

*ru icon " [http://www.rvb.ru/pushkin/01text/03fables/01fables/0799.htm Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке] " available at "Russian Virtual Library"
* [http://home.freeuk.com/russica4/books/goldfish/gfish.html "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish"] , transl. by Louis Zellikoff
* [http://kinejo.blogsome.com/2007/06/06/p13/ "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" (1950 film)] available online in Russian with Esperanto subtitles

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