The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish

The old man and his wife live by the sea . The old man earns food for fishing, and the old woman spins yarn. Once in the network of an old man an unusual goldfish comes across, capable of speaking in a human voice (tongue). She promises any ransom , at his request, and asks to let her go to sea, but the old man lets go of the fish without asking for a reward . Returning home to a dilapidated dugout , he tells his wife about what happened. Cursing her husband, she makes him return to the sea, call for a fish and ask for at least a new trough instead of a broken one. At the sea, the old man calls for a fish that appears and promises to fulfill his desire, saying: "Don’t be sad, step yourself with God."

After returning home, he sees his wife a new trough. However, the old woman’s desires are increasing - she makes her husband return to the fish again and again, demanding (first for both, and then only for himself) more and more:

• get a new hut ;
• to be a pillar noblewoman ;
• to be a "free queen ".

The sea to which the old man comes gradually changes from calm and blue to black and stormy. The attitude of the old woman to the old man is also changing: at first she still scolds him, then, becoming a noblewoman, sends him to the stable, and after becoming the queen, she completely banishes him. In the end, she calls her husband back and demands that the fish make her "mistress of the sea", and the fish itself should be in her service. The fish does not answer the old man’s next request, and when he returns home, he sees the old woman sitting in front of the old dugout at the old broken trough.

The proverb “to stay with nothing ” entered the Russian culture - that is, to pursue more, and to remain with nothing.

According to the widespread version, the plot of the fairy tale is based ^[2] on the Pomeranian fairy tale “ About the Fisherman and His Wife ” ( German: Vom Fischer und seiner Frau , KHM 19, in the index of fairy tales from Aarne-Thompson No. 555) from the collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm ^{[3 ] [4]} , with which it has a common plot line, and also echoes the Russian folk tale “The Greedy Old Woman ” (where a magic tree appears instead of a fish) ^[5] . An older version of the plot is the Indian fairy tale “Golden Fish”, with local national flavor, here the Golden Fish is the powerful underwater spirit of Jala Kamani .

Toward the end of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the old woman becomes the pope (a hint of popess John ) and seeks to become a god. In the first handwritten edition of the fairy tale by Pushkin, the old woman was sitting on the Tower of Babel , and on it was the papal tiara :

Another week goes by
His old woman frowned again
Find the man ordered -
They bring the old man to the queen
The old woman says to the old man:
“I do not want to be a free queen ,
I want to be a pope ! ”
The old man did not dare to argue,
Do not dare across the word to say.
He went to the blue sea
Sees: stormy black sea,
And so the angry waves go
So howl sinister howl.
He began to click a goldfish.

"Welcome, she will be the pope."

The old man turned back to the old woman.
Before him is a Latin monastery,
On the walls are Latin monks
They sing the Latin mass.

In front of him is the tower of Babel.
At the top on the top
His old old woman is sitting.
On the old woman the Sarachinskaya hat,
On the cap is a Latin crown,
There is a thin needle on the crown
On the spoke, Strofilus is a bird.
The old man bowed to the old woman
He shouted in a loud voice:
"Hello, old woman,
Am I tea, your darling happy? "
The stupid old woman answers:
“You're lying, you're empty city
My darling is not happy at all
I don't want to be a pope
And I want to be the mistress of the sea,
To live in the sea-ocean,
To serve me a goldfish
And I would have been on my premises. ”

- Bondi S.M. New Pages of Pushkin. - M .: “World”, 1931.

This episode was not included in the final version, so as not to deprive the work of Russian color. However, the Pope also appears in some other works of the Russian epic, for example, in the famous Pigeon Book .

• In 1937, the Mosfilm studio shot a color (according to the method of Pavel Mershin ) puppet cartoon " The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish ". Screenwriter and Director: Alexander Ptushko .
• In 1950, at the Soyuzmultfilm studio , based on the script by Mikhail Volpin, they released a hand-drawn animated film, The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish . The director is Mikhail Tsekhanovsky , the composer is Yuri Levitin .
• In the film “After the Rain on Thursday” (1986), Ivan Tsarevich and Ivan the Foundling play the puppet show of this tale before Koshchei.
• In 1986, the Czechoslovak director filmed the cartoon Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish / O rybári a rybce
• In 1997, a musical performance based on a fairy tale (staged by Gennady Egorov ) was staged at the Patriot Drama Theater "Patriot" ROSTO .
• In 1998, the Puppet Theater of the Moscow City Palace of Children’s (Youth) Creativity staged the opera “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”. Directed by Elena Plotnikova , composer Elena Mogilevskaya .
• In 2002, the Soyuzmultfilm film studio created a puppet animated film " About the Fisherman and the Fish ". Directed by Natalia Dabizha , composer Gennady Gladkov .
• In 2017, the children's play “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” was staged at the Arkhangelsk Drama Theater named after M.V. Lomonosov . Director - Anastas Kichik.

• gold fish
• The Tale of the Fisherman and His Wife (cartoon)
• Goldfish (Minkus ballet) - ballet to the music of Ludwig Minkus
• Goldfish (Cherepnin's ballet) - a ballet to the music of Nikolai Cherepnin , created in 1937

• Dykhanova B. S. Once again about the "hints" and "lessons" of Pushkin's folklore stylization ("The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish") // Izvestiya VGPU , No. 4 (265), 2014. - Voronezh: VGPU , 2014. - S. 131–133 .
• Kotlyarova T. V. Secrets of the sources of Pushkin's tales // Materials of the scientific and practical conference “Literature without Borders”, which took place as part of the VIII Regional Forum “Citizenship through Education” in KGBPOU “Yenisei Pedagogical College”. December 3-4, 2015 - Yeniseisk, 2015
• Shatsky E.O. Tale in the original and in translation // "Primary School". 2013. No 5

• Illustrations by Boris Dekhterev to “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”