There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a miserable hovel by the sea. One day, he caught a large flounder. To his surprise, the fish spoke: "Let me live! I am an enchanted prince. I am not good to eat." The kind fisherman released him.
When he returned home empty-handed, his wife was upset. "You should have wished for something!" she exclaimed. "Go back and ask for a cottage." Reluctantly, the fisherman went to the sea and called:
Flounder, flounder in the sea,
Come, I pray thee, here to me;
For my wife, good Ilsabil,
Wills not as I'd have her will.
The flounder appeared and granted the wish. The hovel became a fine cottage. But soon, the wife grew dissatisfied. "This is too small. Go back and ask for a stone castle." The fisherman, with a heavy heart, returned to the sea, which had turned dark and choppy. He repeated his call, and the wish was granted again.
Yet, the wife's greed was endless. She demanded to be king, then emperor, then pope. Each time, the fisherman returned to a sea growing ever more stormy and terrifying to plead with the flounder. Each time, her wish was granted, and her power and riches grew.
Finally, lying awake at dawn, she had her most audacious thought. "Husband," she said, poking him. "I wish to be like God, to command the sun and moon to rise."
Horrified, the fisherman protested, but she insisted. Trembling with fear, he went to the shore amidst a furious storm. The sea was black, with waves as high as mountains. He cried out his rhyme one last time.
"Well, what does she want now?" asked the flounder.
"Alas," said the man, "she wants to be like God."
"Go home," said the flounder. "You will find her back in the dirty hovel."
And there they lived, poor as before, to this very day.