The Fisherman and His Wife

A poor fisherman catches a huge fish, a butt. The butt claims it is an enchanted prince and that the fisherman will not like the taste, so he releases it back into the water. In return, the butt promises to fulfill the fisherman’s wishes. But the fisherman has no wish and goes back to his miserable hovel. The fisherman’s wife, on the other hand, immediately wishes for a nice house. When the butt fulfills this wish, the wife wants more and more, and sends her husband to the butt with new wishes again and again. The fisherman’s call to the butt sounds like a magic formula: “Mantje Mantje ite pe, Buttje Buttje in the sea, my wife the Ilsebill, she doesn’t do as I please!” The woman’s greed increases from time to time. But the satisfaction of her many wishes makes her more and more dissatisfied. The last wish is so outrageous that everything returns to the beginning.