There once was a fisherman and his wife who lived in a hovel by the seashore. The fisherman went out everyday with his hook and line to catch fish. One day the fisherman was staring down into the clear water, with his rod, when he caught a big flounder. When he hauled it in, the flounder looked him in the eye.
"Fisherman, listen to me. I am not a real fish but an enchanted prince. What good shall I be to you if you land me? Put me back in the water please."
"Well," said the fisherman, "no need of so many words about the matter. As you can speak I had much rather let you swim away."
He willingly let it go free. When he got back to the pigsty and told his wife what had happened, she asked, "What reward did the fish offer you?"
"Why nothing," he replied. "What could we want?"
"Somewhere better to live than in this stinking hovel for a start! Go back this minute and ask that flounder to give us a cottage!"

When the fisherman went back to the sea, it was green and yellow and not nearly so clear. He called,
"O man, O man, of man you be,
Or flounder, flounder, in the sea,
Such a tiresome wifeI've got,
For she wants what I do not."

The flounder came swimming from the waves.
"What does she want?"
"She wants a cottage. She's fed up with living in a pigsty."
"Go home," said the flounder. "She has it already."

For a fortnight, the fisherman and his wife lived happily in their new cottage.
One morning the wife said, "This cottage is so tiny. The least that the flounder could have done was to give us a castle, considering that you set him free."
The fisherman went back to ask for a castle. When he came to the seaside, the water was purple and dark blue and grey and thick and foaming. Again he stood on the shore and repeated the same request, and again the flounder granted the wish.

The fisherman returned home to find his wife standing on the steps of a great stone castle with marble floors and walls hung with rich tapestries. The furniture was gold, and servants looked after their every wish. By the next morning the wife was no longer satisfied.
"Look at all that country. Go and tell the flounder we want to be king of all this."
So the fisherman went back to the sea, and again called to the flounder. The waves were dark grey and menacing, and had an ill smell.
"What does she want now?" asked the flounder.
"She wants to be king," said the fisherman.
"So be it," said the flounder. "She is king already."

The fisherman returned home to find his wife living in an even grander castle, with more servants and guards. She was sitting on a golden throne, studded with diamonds, with a golden crown on her head and a golden sceptre in her hand.
"Now you are king, let that be an end to it," said the fisherman, regretting his weakness towards his wife.
"Nonsense," snapped the wife. "Now I am king, I want to be emperor. Go back to the flounder and demand that I be emperor."
The sea was black and fierce. Despite his concern and fear, the fisherman still asked the flounder to make his wife emperor, and the flounder granted his wish.

It took almost no time at all before being emperor wasn't enough for the wife, as greed feeds off itself, and there is no end to it.
"I want to be pope," she commanded.
When the fisherman went back this time, the sea was roaring. Even still, the flounder agreed to make his wife pope.

When he returned, he saw a cathedral surrounded by palaces. Inside, his wife sat on a great throne, and all the emperors and kings of the world were lined up to kiss her feet.
"You must now be satisfied," pleaded the fisherman.
"Perhaps," said his wife.
That night the fisherman slept soundly for the first time since he first met the fish, believing that his wife's desires had finally been fulfilled. But the wife tossed and turned, wondering if there was something even more wonderful she could have asked for.
At sunrise, she woke her husband and declared, "I want to be God."
He protested, but she screamed, tore her hair, kicked him and chased him out of the palace. He ran down to the sea. A dreadful storm raged, the mountains trembled, rocks fell in the sea, and huge black waves violently crashed on the shore. The sky was an angry red.
Unable to hear himself shouting, the fisherman cried:
"O man, O man! If man you be,
Or flounder, flounder, in the sea,
Such a tiresome wifeI've got,
For she wants what I do not."
"What does she want now?" asked the flounder.
"She wants to be God," stammered the fisherman.

"Go back to her. You'll find her in the old hovel." There they are, sitting there to this very day.

Adapted and reprinted from Household Stories, by the Brothers Grimm, translated by Lucy Crane, 1886, republished in 1963, Dover Publications, New York

Q: Why do you think the wife kept wanting more and more from the fish?

Q: Are there modern-day people who display a lust for power, material possessions and wealth? In your culture, how do people value power, wealth and position in society?

Q: Why do you think the fish granted all her wishes except the last?

Q: Why wasn't the fish able to grant her final wish? You may want to discuss the fact that all the wife's other wishes kept increasing her power, wealth and position in society, but her desire to be God was of a different nature. She saw God as the ultimate power, whereas in the spiritual traditions, God has no definable qualities, and encompasses all qualities.

Q: What was the role of the fisherman in this story? Was he involved in his wife's greed or not?

Q: Have you ever been too scared or timid to correct another person, when you know that it would be better to do so? How does this make you feel? Do you think that we have an obligation to correct our fellow human beings when we see them doing something against Nature and against themselves? This could be parents, brothers and sisters, or friends at school. Or do you think we should allow them to learn from their own mistakes? Is there a way to find a balance between being active in helping others and allowing people to learn from experience? Do you think prayer can be useful in this? How can you use prayer to aid in correcting both yourself and others?

O, Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes
Putting bar to our advancement,
Thou art the only God and power
To bring us up to that stage.