In the beginning (you wouldn't know it now, because I am very rich) I was very poor. One day, when I had only a handful of flour left in the larder, and no money to buy any more, nor any hope of earning anything, I carried my little brass pot down to the river. I...
Story Themes Results
Your Search Results
Court Physician
"Here comes the Satin Surgeon! Look at the Satin Surgeon! Long live the Satin Surgeon!" You would think it was Christ coming into town on his mule for all the fuss the people made when he arrived. This "Satin Surgeon" claims to be able to heal the emperor's illness. I...
Prince Who Releases the Fish
Taking the chance that I might be able to cure my father's blindness, I gathered a crew and we set sail. The physician gave us a hundred days to catch the Golden-Headed Fish, and for a hundred days we caught nothing. On the eleventh hour of the hundredth day, I cast...
Hans the Mermaid’s Son
I've been in service long enough. I'm tired of doing menial work for little men who are trying to kill me. I'll take my gold and silver back to my father the smith. And then I'll say farewell to mortal men and return to my mother in the sea. Hans the Mermaid's Son in...
Woodcutter
I have nothing but an axe and a couple of mules. Every day I go out into the forest to chop wood, and at the end of the day, the mules carry it to town. I have done this back-breaking work for twenty years. I'm out of bed by five in the morning, summer and winter. My...
River-Sucker
I'm designed to suck up rivers, but when the giant ordered me to "suck up the sea,” I did my best. I drank till I nearly burst. Then, after all my efforts, the sea just filled in again. It was clear to me that the giant would never catch what he was after. But he’d...
Fisherman’s Blessed Wife
An old woman came to me and said that I would have children if my husband could catch a little goldfish. Then she told me to cut it up into six pieces. One for me, and one for my husband. One for the dog, and one for the mare. One was to be buried to the right of the...
Surrendering King
I gave him every impossible task I could think of, and he accomplished every one. How did he do it? I'll be damned if I know how he made a flying ship, or how he fetched healing water from the ends of the earth. How did he eat and drink so much? How did he survive a...