The Fisherman and His Wife
E786880
The Fisherman and His Wife is a German fairy tale about a poor fisherman and his increasingly greedy wife, whose endless wishes to a magical fish ultimately lead to their downfall.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Fisherman and His Wife canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9244173 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Fisherman and His Wife Context triple: [Brothers Grimm fairy tales, includesWork, The Fisherman and His Wife]
-
A.
Tale of the miller and his wife
The "Tale of the Miller and His Wife" is a short inset story from Apuleius’ Metamorphoses that illustrates themes of marital conflict, deception, and domestic misfortune within the larger narrative.
-
B.
The Tale of Tsar Saltan
The Tale of Tsar Saltan is a narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin that retells a Russian fairy tale about a wronged tsarina, her miraculous son Prince Gvidon, and the magical island kingdom they come to rule.
-
C.
The Poor Fisherman
The Poor Fisherman is a symbolist painting by French artist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes that portrays a solitary, impoverished fisherman in a stark, dreamlike landscape, reflecting themes of poverty, isolation, and spiritual resignation.
-
D.
The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
"The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" is a classic Russian fairy-tale poem by Alexander Pushkin about a magical fish that grants wishes and the destructive greed of the fisherman's wife.
-
E.
The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich
"The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" is a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol that humorously depicts a petty feud between two landowners in a small Ukrainian town.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Fisherman and His Wife Target entity description: The Fisherman and His Wife is a German fairy tale about a poor fisherman and his increasingly greedy wife, whose endless wishes to a magical fish ultimately lead to their downfall.
-
A.
Tale of the miller and his wife
The "Tale of the Miller and His Wife" is a short inset story from Apuleius’ Metamorphoses that illustrates themes of marital conflict, deception, and domestic misfortune within the larger narrative.
-
B.
The Tale of Tsar Saltan
The Tale of Tsar Saltan is a narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin that retells a Russian fairy tale about a wronged tsarina, her miraculous son Prince Gvidon, and the magical island kingdom they come to rule.
-
C.
The Poor Fisherman
The Poor Fisherman is a symbolist painting by French artist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes that portrays a solitary, impoverished fisherman in a stark, dreamlike landscape, reflecting themes of poverty, isolation, and spiritual resignation.
-
D.
The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
"The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" is a classic Russian fairy-tale poem by Alexander Pushkin about a magical fish that grants wishes and the destructive greed of the fisherman's wife.
-
E.
The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich
"The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" is a satirical short story by Nikolai Gogol that humorously depicts a petty feud between two landowners in a small Ukrainian town.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
German fairy tale
ⓘ
folk tale ⓘ literary fairy tale ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Germany ⓘ |
| culturalOrigin | German folklore ⓘ |
| ending | the fisherman and his wife lose all their gains and return to their original hut ⓘ |
| featuresCharacter |
fisherman
ⓘ
fisherman’s wife ⓘ magical fish ⓘ |
| featuresCharacterType | talking animal ⓘ |
| featuresMotif |
ever-increasing demands
ⓘ
magic fish ⓘ rise and fall ⓘ wishing ⓘ |
| hasAdaptation |
animated film adaptations
ⓘ
children’s picture books ⓘ radio and audio drama adaptations ⓘ stage adaptations ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeTitle | The Fisherman and His Wife (English title) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasAntagonisticForce | wife’s greed ⓘ |
| hasConflictType |
man versus self
ⓘ
man versus supernatural ⓘ |
| hasGenre |
fairy tale
ⓘ
moral tale ⓘ |
| hasSetting |
sea
ⓘ
seaside cottage ⓘ |
| hasSupernaturalElement | enchanted fish ⓘ |
| hasTargetAudience |
children
ⓘ
families ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
abuse of power
ⓘ
consequences of excessive ambition ⓘ contentment ⓘ greed ⓘ |
| moral |
Be content with what you have.
ⓘ
Greed leads to downfall. ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narration ⓘ |
| narrativeStructure | repetitive escalating wishes ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | German ⓘ |
| plotSummary | A poor fisherman catches a magical fish that grants wishes, but his wife’s escalating demands eventually cause them to lose everything and return to their original poverty. ⓘ |
| teaches | dangers of insatiable desire ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Fisherman and His Wife Description of subject: The Fisherman and His Wife is a German fairy tale about a poor fisherman and his increasingly greedy wife, whose endless wishes to a magical fish ultimately lead to their downfall.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.