Stith Thompson motif index · Motif

Thompson B375.1 — Fish returned to water: grateful

B375.1
Thompson motif reference
B
Animal Motifs
2
Associated ATU tale types

Description

Motif

Fish returned to water: grateful. *Fb "fisk"; Hartland Science 174.—India: Thompson-Balys; Chinese: Graham.—Two special forms of this motif are common; in both the fish is returned to the water and rewards the captor. (1). The "King of the Fishes" form: a man captures the king of fishes (B243) who as a reward for the release tells the man to feed parts of his body (when he is later captured) to his wife and parts to certain animals. As a result the hero and congenital helpful animals (B311) are born: *Type 303; BP I 528 (Gr. Nos. 60, 85); Sébillot Incidents s.v. "poisson", Gaster Exempla 251 No. 373.; Missouri French: Carrière.—For other references see B243.—(2) The "Fisher and his Wife" form. The king of the fishes in this case grants the man's wife the power of fulfilling all her wishes; *Type 555; BP I 138 (Gr. No. 19); see C773.1.2.

Associated ATU tale types

Concordance

These links are derived from the Thompson motif references stored in the Folklore Database's ATU concordance.

ATUTitle
ATU 555 The Fisherman and his Wife,
ATU 675 The Wish-Fish