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Overview
The youngest of three sisters, mocked as Hearth-Cat for her household work, saves a live yellow fish that her father brought for supper. She keeps it in water in her room until it repeatedly asks to be thrown into the well. There it calls her down, takes her hand and guides her into a palace of gold and precious stones.
The fish supplies sumptuous clothing, golden slippers and a carriage so she can attend the same feast as her sisters. Departing hurriedly, she loses a slipper; the king finds it and announces marriage to its owner. Back at the well, the fish instead asks her to marry him. Although she initially objects to marrying a fish, she finally agrees, and he immediately becomes a human prince.
He identifies himself as the king’s long-enchanted son and tells her how to explain her existing engagement when the slipper fits. The delighted father retrieves him from the well and marries them. This fish-prince is the girl’s husband, not an asserted reincarnation of her dead mother or the same character as the wish-fish of the baker’s son. The tale’s two Hearth-Cat heroines also belong to separate accounts.
Origins & earliest records
Consiglieri Pedroso, Portuguese Folk-Tales, translated from the original manuscript by Henriqueta Monteiro, London: Elliot Stock for the Folk-Lore Society, 1882; tale XXIV, pp. 97–100. The selected account does not identify an individual narrator or collecting locality.
Records & interpretation
The located 1882 English translation presents this figure within a complete collected narrative. Pedroso’s introductory pp. 1–2 describe the thirty published selections from his larger collection.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Portuguese Folk-Tales XXIV: The Maiden and the Fish, pp. 97–100
Located complete narrative in the original London edition; Ralston’s comparative introduction is separate commentary.
Family, evolution & connections
The yellow-fish prince and his king father
The explicit father-and-son recognition and final marriage in Pedroso XXIV, pp. 99-100.
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- The unnamed reigning king (father)
One paternal branch records the prince; his wife is labelled alongside him. The king, prince and maiden are personally unnamed. No mother or offspring are supplied. Fish appearance is the prince’s enchantment, not an animal parent. The king’s proposal to the maiden is not a completed marriage.
The unnamed reigning king in The Maiden and the Fish
The restored prince identifies the reigning sovereign as his father; the king recognizes the news and summons his son from the well. Fish and human forms are one prince. No mother or cause of the enchantment is named.
The unnamed youngest daughter called Hearth-Cat
The maiden agrees to marry the fish before he reveals his princely identity, and the king subsequently marries the restored couple. The king’s own earlier marriage proposal is refused, not another completed marriage. Her father and sisters belong to a separate household.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textPortuguese Folk-Tales, original 1882 edition scan and transcriptionResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.