Fairy Tale Spotlight: The White Trout [Short Story Review]

[This blog spoils the entire story.]

The full title of this one is actually "The White Trout; A Legend of Cong." It was written by S. Lover. A lot of these Irish Fairy Tales were published in the 1800s, but I generally struggle to find the exact years of publication. I'm just gonna stop trying to do that.

The story here is about a woman who is about to be married, but her husband dies before they can. She bemoans his passing for many years, but one day she just disappears completely. It was believed by the locals that the fairies came and took her away.

Sometime after she disappeared, a white trout appears in the nearby waters. A white trout is an unusual color for a trout, so nobody wanted to touch it for belief that it might be a fairy creature. However, there was a soldier in town that did not believe in the fairies, so he caught it with the intent to cook it up and eat it.

The soldier attempts to fry the white trout in his frying pan, but it doesn't seem to work. The fish remains unburnt. He tries it over and over, flipping the fish back and forth, but nothing works. He then thinks maybe looks could be deceiving and so decides to cut into the fish anyways to have a taste.

The moment he cut the fish, he hears the terrible scream of a woman and red blood comes out of the fish. The trout then turns into a beautiful woman who has a cut on her that is bleeding. She accuses him of cutting her and explains that she is waiting for her husband to come back, and this husband can do very bad things to him if he does not repent of this sin that he has committed upon her. Interestingly, she tells him to go to church and the confessionals regularly too. (This is an odd thing for a fairy to advise.)

Naturally, the soldier promises to put her back in the water and to change his entire life. Once she transforms back into a fish, he puts the white trout on a clean plate and delivers it back to the water. Once he does this, the entire body of water turns blood red for a little bit but soon washes out clear. The man completely and utterly held true to his promise and became a good and sinless man afterwards.

This is a very strange Irish fairy tale because it seems like the woman was not so much a fairy but a human that had been turned into a fish. Most fairies dislike the church and wouldn't really make Christian suggestions. That said, it does seem implied that the broken-hearted woman was kidnapped by the fairies and turned into the white trout, where she lives in this strange ghostly state for eternity.

There is also the vaguest of hints that she may have married one of the fairies, and that is the husband she is referring to that may do bad things to the soldier. All very interesting, but also not very clear.

I would recommend "The White Trout," but I can't really do that since the version I have was written in thick dialect. At the very least, I was able to give you my own personal translation. Cheers.

This blog was written on August 30, 2023.

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