The Gold-Children
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The Gold-Children is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 85. It is Aarne-Thompson type 555, the fisherman and his wife, followed by type 303, blood brothers.
[edit] Synopsis
A fisherman caught a golden fish, who gave him and his wife a rich castle on the condition that he not tell anyone where he had gotten it. His wife badgered the knowledge from him, but he caught the fish again and regained the castle, and when she badgered it out of him again, he caught the fish a third time. The fish saw it was fated to fall into the fisherman's hand and told him to take it home and cut it into six pieces, giving two to his wife and two to his horse, and bury two in the ground. When he did, his wife gave birth to twins of gold, the horse gave birth to two foals of gold, and two golden lilies sprouted from the ground.
When they were grown, they set out, telling their father that the lilies would wither if they were ill and die if they were dead. People mocked them, and one went back to his father, but the other went on, through a forest filled with robbers. He covered himself with bearskins to hide the gold from the robbers, and wooed a maiden. She agreed to marry him. Her father was shocked by his being covered with bearskins, but the maiden insisted, and her father was glad when he saw him, all golden, the next morning.
He went out to hunt a stag and asked a witch after it. The witch told him that she knew of the stag, but her dog barked at him, he threatened to shoot it, and the witch transformed him into stone. His brother saw his lily had withered and went to help him. He did not approach the witch closely enough to be transformed, but threatened to shoot her if she did not restore his brother. The witch did so, and one brother went back to his bride and the other to their father.
[edit] See also
- The Knights of the Fish
- The Fisherman and His Wife
- The Two Brothers
- The Three Princes and their Beasts
- The Enchanted Doe
