The Water Mother
Encyclopedia
The Water Mother is a Chinese fairy tale
collected by Wolfram Eberhard
in Folktales of China. It does not exist in early text, although the cult of the Water Mother existed from the time of the Sung
dynasty.
It is Aarne-Thompson type 565. Other tales of this type are Sweet Porridge
and Why the Sea Is Salt
-- Why the Sea Is Salt also using it as an explantory legend.
told her not to, and gave her a stick to strike the pail with. She was to tell no one and to never strike twice.
For a time, she was happy, but her mother-in-law spied on her, stole the stick, and struck the pail twice. This caused a flood that drowned many houses and her daughter-in-law. The pail had become a spring. Afterward, a temple was raised for the daughter-in-law, and they called her the Water Mother.
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
collected by Wolfram Eberhard
Wolfram Eberhard
Wolfram Eberhard was a professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley focused on Western, Central and Eastern Asian societies.-Biography:...
in Folktales of China. It does not exist in early text, although the cult of the Water Mother existed from the time of the Sung
Sung
Sung may refer to several things:*The Song Dynasty, a dynasty of Ancient China.*An alternate transliteration of the Korean family name Song.*An alternate transliteration of the Korean family name Seong.*The Korean family name Sung....
dynasty.
It is Aarne-Thompson type 565. Other tales of this type are Sweet Porridge
Sweet Porridge
Sweet Porridge, often known in English under the title of The Magic Porridge Pot, is a folkloric German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm, as tale number 103 in Grimm's Fairy Tales, in the 19th century. It is Aarne-Thompson type 565, the magic mill...
and Why the Sea Is Salt
Why the Sea Is Salt
Why the Sea Is Salt is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr. Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book ....
-- Why the Sea Is Salt also using it as an explantory legend.
Synopsis
A woman lived with her mother-in-law and daughter; though she was dutiful, her mother-in-law hated her. One day, she decreed that they could not buy water from water-carriers, but her daughter-in-law would have to carry it from the well. The work was too hard for her, but she was beaten when she failed. One day, she thought of drowning herself in the well. An old womanDonor (fairy tale)
In fairy tales, a donor is a character that tests the hero and provides magical assistances to the hero when he succeeds.The fairy godmother is a well-known form of this character...
told her not to, and gave her a stick to strike the pail with. She was to tell no one and to never strike twice.
For a time, she was happy, but her mother-in-law spied on her, stole the stick, and struck the pail twice. This caused a flood that drowned many houses and her daughter-in-law. The pail had become a spring. Afterward, a temple was raised for the daughter-in-law, and they called her the Water Mother.