A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

A destitute fisherman, abandoned by his relatives and living on fish, catches something unusually heavy. Pulling his line brings first a woman’s hair from the water, then her head, upper body and entire person. She reassures him and says she has come to marry him. Her name is Razazavavindrano, glossed as the daughter of the waters. Her condition is secrecy about her origin: disclosure will end the marriage. The description gives a complete female body emerging from water, rather than a fishtail or half-fish form.

Villagers ask about her beauty, but the man refuses to explain. The household becomes comfortable, and she tells him to build a cattle enclosure with its gate facing the water. Around midnight herds enter it, astonishing the neighbours. Within a year she has a son. The husband’s jealous brothers resolve to extract the secret, ambush him while he gathers wood and threaten to kill him. Under that coercion he reveals the lake and how he caught her. She subsequently tells him that the broken promise means she must return to her own home.

She agrees to leave the child with him and briefly delays departure. Before leaving she makes the ground north of the village full of cattle so that father and son will be rich. His renewed pleading gains a final extension until noon. She then takes them to the place where she was caught and arranges continuing contact: they can bring the child to the lake to see her, and she will visit the house after nightfall when she wants to see him. The next day father and child see her at the shore accompanied by her father, mother and younger sister; the water family returns to its dwelling beneath the lake.

Renel’s heading gives a specific mediated contributor: an unnamed Merina person who married a Betsimisaraka woman and had lived for a long time on the coast, speaking at Tananarive. This ending differs from accounts in which an offended supernatural wife never reappears or carries all the children away. The departure breaks the marriage while preserving the son’s land household, substantial wealth and access to his mother.

Whole-body emergence on fishing lineSecrecy conditionCattle from waterside gateCoerced disclosureChild visits after marital separation
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, tale 34, pp. 187–190. The heading records collection at Tananarive from an unnamed Merina person married to a Betsimisaraka woman and resident on the coast; the narrative locates its village between Andevoranto and Tamatave. Introduction V–VIII supplies the collection-method context.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 34, pp. 187–190, with heading and explanatory notes read in retained primary text. Source-method introduction V–VIII read; local supernatural actions and complete aftermath retained.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Contes de Madagascar, première partie: Contes merveilleux

    Charles Renel, editor and translator; Malagasy collection intermediaries · 1910

    Tale 34, pp. 187–190, complete, with local/contributor heading; introduction V–VIII source chain.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical collected French narrativeRenel 1910, tale 34Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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