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The Fisherman and His Wife
by
‘Ah, wife!’ said the fisherman, ‘the cottage is quite good enough; why do we choose to live in a castle?’
‘Why?’ said the wife. ‘You go down; the flounder can quite well do that.’
‘No, wife,’ said the man; ‘the flounder gave us the cottage. I do not like to go to him again; he might take it amiss.’
‘Go,’ said his wife. ‘He can certainly give it us, and ought to do so willingly. Go at once.’
The fisherman’s heart was very heavy, and he did not like going. He said to himself, ‘It is not right.’ Still, he went down.
When he came to the sea, the water was all violet and dark-blue, and dull and thick, and no longer green and yellow, but it was still smooth.
So he stood there and said:
‘Once a prince, but changed you be Into a flounder in the sea. Come! for my wife, Ilsebel, Wishes what I dare not tell.’
‘What does she want now?’ said the flounder.
‘Ah!’ said the fisherman, half-ashamed, ‘she wants to live in a great stone castle.’
‘Go home; she is standing before the door,’ said the flounder.
The fisherman went home and thought he would find no house. When he came near, there stood a great stone palace, and his wife was standing on the steps, about to enter. She took him by the hand and said, ‘Come inside.’
Then he went with her, and inside the castle was a large hall with a marble floor, and there were heaps of servants who threw open the great doors, and the walls were covered with beautiful tapestry, and in the apartments were gilded chairs and tables, and crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and all the rooms were beautifully carpeted. The best of food and drink also was set before them when they wished to dine. And outside the house was a large courtyard with horse and cow stables and a coach-house–all fine buildings; and a splendid garden with most beautiful flowers and fruit, and in a park quite a league long were deer and roe and hares, and everything one could wish for.
‘Now,’ said the wife, ‘isn’t this beautiful?’
‘Yes, indeed,’ said the fisherman. ‘Now we will stay here and live in this beautiful castle, and be very happy.’
‘We will consider the matter,’ said his wife, and they went to bed.
The next morning the wife woke up first at daybreak, and looked out of the bed at the beautiful country stretched before her. Her husband was still sleeping, so she dug her elbows into his side and said:
‘Husband, get up and look out of the window. Could we not become the king of all this land? Go down to the flounder and tell him we choose to be king.’
‘Ah, wife!’ replied her husband, ‘why should we be king? I don’t want to be king.’
‘Well,’ said his wife, ‘if you don’t want to be king, I will be king. Go down to the flounder; I will be king.’
‘Alas! wife,’ said the fisherman, ‘why do you want to be king? I can’t ask him that.’
‘And why not?’ said his wife. ‘Go down at once. I must be king.’
So the fisherman went, though much vexed that his wife wanted to be king. ‘It is not right! It is not right,’ he thought. He did not wish to go, yet he went.
When he came to the sea, the water was a dark-grey colour, and it was heaving against the shore. So he stood and said:
‘Once a prince, but changed you be Into a flounder in the sea. Come! for my wife, Ilsebel, Wishes what I dare not tell.’
‘What does she want now?’ asked the flounder.
‘Alas!’ said the fisherman, ‘she wants to be king.’
‘Go home; she is that already,’ said the flounder.
The fisherman went home, and when he came near the palace he saw that it had become much larger, and that it had great towers and splendid ornamental carving on it. A sentinel was standing before the gate, and there were numbers of soldiers with kettledrums and trumpets. And when he went into the palace, he found everything was of pure marble and gold, and the curtains of damask with tassels of gold. Then the doors of the hall flew open, and there stood the whole Court round his wife, who was sitting on a high throne of gold and diamonds; she wore a great golden crown, and had a sceptre of gold and precious stones in her hand, and by her on either side stood six pages in a row, each one a head taller than the other. Then he went before her and said: