How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water

Andrew Lang1901

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Series: The Violet Fairy Book, also included in Andrew Lang's fairy tale series

Summary

How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water is a folk tale from The Violet Fairy Book (1901), compiled by the Scottish writer Andrew Lang; it runs to just over a thousand words, short in length and tight in plot. The protagonist is an old farmer who, having dug up a pot of gold and silver in his field, immediately worries: his wife is quick-tongued and cannot help telling the whole village at once, and the couple have gotten into trouble for this more than once. To keep the secret, the old man does not move the treasure away directly; instead he first goes to the market and buys a live pike and a live hare, hangs the pike in the treetops, wraps the hare in a fishing net by the river, and only then reveals the good news to his wife. As the couple drive their cart back to the woods, the old man pretends to have heard that fish can now live in treetops and wild beasts in the water, and his wife repeatedly calls this absurd; but at the tree and by the river she sees with her own eyes the fish hanging in the tree and the hare caught in the net, and after initial astonishment she changes her tune, concluding that the rumor is indeed true. Through this series of seemingly absurd arrangements, the story portrays the old man's cunning and his wife's credulity and loose tongue; it is one of the more humorous short tales in Andrew Lang's fairy tale collections. This entry refers to this single story, not to the whole of The Violet Fairy Book.

Editor's review

这是一则适合十到二十分钟读完的英语民间短篇，篇幅虽小，叙事却相当完整。老人设局的每一步都环环相扣，最后“鱼在树上、兔在网中”的荒诞画面，为整篇故事收尾，也把“守不住嘴的人最容易上当”这一民间智慧讲得轻巧有趣。作为安德鲁·朗童话系列中的一篇，它出自《巫女童话集》，原书是十九世纪末至二十世纪初广泛流传的英语童话汇编，语言带着维多利亚时期讲故事的腔调，句子短、对话多、画面感强。对英语学习者来说，生词集中在森林、车马、渔猎这类生活词汇上，故事线清晰，不容易读散；对只想随手翻翻的读者来说，它也是公版英语短篇中耐读的一篇小故事。可以在 Project Gutenberg 以及 Wikisource 上读到公版全文。

Who it's for

A good fit for

想找短篇英语民间故事练阅读的初中级英语学习者
喜欢民间故事、歇后语式幽默与智斗情节的读者
为孩子挑选公版英语童话读物的家长与老师
对安德鲁·朗童话系列和编选传统感兴趣的读者

Not a good fit for

期待长篇冒险、人物成长弧线的读者——这篇只有千余词的民间笑话式故事
想要中译对照或有导读注释版本的读者，因为目前难以查到正式的中文单行本

Reading tips

先通读一遍把握老人“先设局、后透风”的顺序，再回头体会每一步为什么必要。
注意妻子几句台词的转折：从“你准是疯了”到“人们说的竟是真的”，这是全篇最见匠心的地方。
可以对照《巫女童话集》其他篇目一起读，感受朗如何把不同地区的口传故事收进同一部集子、又保留各自腔调。

FAQ

这篇故事出自哪本书？

它收录在安德鲁·朗编选的《巫女童话集》（The Violet Fairy Book，1901 年）中，是该集中的一篇民间故事；也常见于各种吉卜林之外的安德鲁·朗童话选本与鱼类主题选集中。

这本书有中文译本吗？

暂时查不到该单篇故事正式出版的中文单行本。目前流传最广的是英文公版全文，可在 Project Gutenberg、Wikisource 等平台阅读。

题目里的“鱼翔空中、兔游水中”是真的吗？

并非超自然现象，而是老人故意制造的假象：他把买来的梭子鱼挂上树梢，又把野兔塞进河边的渔网，用来让老伴相信“时代变了”。

适合多大年龄的读者？

故事本身是民间童话，没有暴力或不适内容，小学高年级以上即可读；英语原文词汇偏生活化，适合已有一定词汇量的学习者。

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Andrew Lang Author

Andrew Lang is an important figure in editing and compiling fairy tales and folk stories, though detailed information about his life is limited in publicly available Chinese sources. Four of his works are included here: The Red Fairy Book and The Blue Fairy Book from his "coloured fairy book" series, as well as The Red Romance Book and Historical Mysteries. These works show that he was skilled at collecting and retelling folk legends and fairy tales from various regions, with clear and fluent narratives, accessible language, and attention to preserving the oral tradition and imaginative quality of the stories. His fairy-tale anthologies have circulated widely and are often classified as inspirational coming-of-age reading, exercising a lasting influence on children's literature and the dissemination of folk tales in the English-speaking world.