The Fisherman and His Wife (by Brothers Grimm)

The Fisherman and His Wife (by Brothers Grimm)

The Fisherman and His Wife is a tale about greed and excess and the question as to whether possessions can really make you happy. A fisherman catches a fish that is actually an enchanted prince and releases him back into the sea. Afterwards, he is forced by his wife to put increasingly large demands to the prince - in return for sparing his life.

There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife, Ilsebill in a pigsty, close by the seaside. One day the fisherman caught a great fish, which turned out to be an enchanted prince. The prince begged for his life and the fisherman let him go. When Ilsebill heard the story she asked her husband if he had not asked anything of the fish in exchange for his freedom. He had not, so she forced her husband to return to the seafront and call the fish to ask him for a pretty cottage for them to live in. The enchanted fish granted the wish immediately. But Ilsebill was soon dissatisfied with her lot. Again and again she demanded that her husband ask the fish for bigger and bigger things. Though the fisherman did not share his wife's desires, he bent to her will despite his own growing fear. The more excessive Ilsebill's demands, the more threatening the weather became. And yet the fisherman returned to the seafront again and again and called out the famous verse

'O man of the sea! Hearken to me! My wife Ilsebill Will have her own will, And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!

The fairy tale deals with greed and excess, with the question as to whether MORE is always BETTER, and whether the equation "possessions and power equal happiness" and therefore "more possessions and more power equal even more happiness" ultimately prove to be quite the opposite. In addition to being a very current topic, "The Fisherman and His Wife" is an enchanting film carried by two wonderful lead actors.

Based on the well-known fairytale by Brothers Grimm

Available movies:
The Wishing Table
Brother and Sister
The Frog King
King Thrushbeard
Mother Hulda
The Brave Little Tailor
Snow White
Rapunzel
Puss in Boots
Sleeping Beauty
The Goose Girl
Rumpelstiltskin
The Bremen Town Musicians
The Peasant's Wise Daughter
The Blue Light
The Princess and the Pea
The Master Thief
The Emperor's New Clothes
Jorinde and Joringel
Cinderella
The Star Money
The Worn Dancing Shoes
Little Red Riding Hood
Snow-White and Rose-Red
Hansel and Gretel
Thousandfurs
The Little Match Girl
The Little Mermaid
The Fisherman and his Wife
The Devil with the three Golden Hairs
Pretty as Seven
How Six Got on in the World
The Three Feathers
The Boy Who Set Out to Learn Fear
Princess Maleen
The Salt Princess
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
The Bearskin Prince
The Tale of the Land of Plenty
Hans in Luck
The Singing, Ringing Tree
Prince Skyblue and Fairy Lupine