In “The Fisherman and His Wife,” the enchanted prince is a flounder. The fisherman catches the talking fish, which identifies itself as an enchanted prince and begs to be released.
The tale was collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and appeared as KHM 19 in the 1812 edition of Children’s and Household Tales. Its German title, “Von dem Fischer un syner Fru,” reflects its Low German origin. The fish is sometimes called a turbot in translations, a related flatfish and an important source of confusion.
After the fisherman frees it, his wife repeatedly demands increasingly grand wishes: a cottage, a palace, royal titles, and ultimately power approaching the divine. The story is an anti-fairy tale about dissatisfaction and greed. It is classified as ATU 555, a folktale type centered on a dissatisfied couple and a magical fish.