В приказката на Братя Грим „Русалката от езерото“ се разказва за русалка, която живее в езерото до една воденица. Тя отвлича сина на воденичаря, който й е бил обещан от баща му още при раждането му в замяна на богатство и щастие. Но благодарение на самоотвержената любов на жената на момъка той е спасен от дълбините на езерото и те заживяват в любов и съгласие.
German philologist and folklorist Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm in 1822 formulated Grimm's Law, the basis for much of modern comparative linguistics. With his brother Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786-1859), he collected Germanic folk tales and published them as Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812-1815).
Indo-European stop consonants, represented in Germanic, underwent the regular changes that Grimm's Law describes; this law essentially states that Indo-European p shifted to Germanic f, t shifted to th, and k shifted to h. Indo-European b shifted to Germanic p, d shifted to t, and g shifted to k. Indo-European bh shifted to Germanic b, dh shifted to d, and gh shifted to g.
A story in the style of "parent makes bargain and inadvertently must surrender their child." Here, a once prosperous man has fallen on hard times. He encounters a water spirit, who promises fortune as long as he gives her what has just been born at his house. The father agrees, thinking this will likely be a puppy or kitten. However, he finds out as he comes onto his property that his wife has just given birth to a son. I've read variations of this but this is still an interesting and winding tale that does have a couple of twists.
True love conquers. Many fairy tale tropes and objects are used here. A wife saves her husband from a nix's clutches but they get separated again. They get reunited and the hardship was not in vain.