History Main / MosesInTheBulrushes

* In ''Webcomic/{{Zelfia}}'', Mayy's birth mother attempts to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this when she leaves her infant daughter on the doorstep of a human florist. [[RealityEnsues The florist promptly calls Child Protective Services and puts the child into the foster care system.]]

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', [[spoiler: this is the generally accepted story for Aegon VI Targaryen, the apparently murdered son of Rhaegar Targaryen, suddenly popping up in the Free Cities...if it really is him. It is more commonly believed by the fandom that Aegon -- while believing himself to be Rhaegar's son -- is really a female-line descendant of the bastard Targaryens branch, the Blackfyres.]]
** [[spoiler: Seems like Jon Snow shares this background too. He was raised as the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark, but is believed to be the son of Ned's sister Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.]]
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's "[[Literature/TimePatrol Brave To Be A King]]", the story of how Cyrus was like this was brought up and dismissed. [[spoiler:A time traveler was taken for the abandoned infant, now grown up.]]
* In Creator/PatriciaAMcKillip's ''Literature/TheForgottenBeastsOfEld'', Tamlorn, the child of Queen Rianna, is brought to the sorceress Sybel to keep him safe. She raises him in ignorance of his heritage.
* An interesting variation occurs in ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth''. Tom's wife dies in childbirth, so he decides to leave the child in the forest because he has a hard time feeding his other sons too, so the child would surely die if Tom kept him. Later the child is found and is raised by monks. Then Tom gets to build a cathedral for the same monks, so the child grows up being near his father without even knowing about it. [[spoiler: His true identity is only revealed to Philip and him at the end of the story, long after Tom's death.]]
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's "Literature/TimeLag," Elva gives her baby to one of their marginally intelligent ServantRace and tells it to flee the attack. The story, however, focuses on her. [[spoiler:At the end, her rescuers tell her that he survived, is now (owing to the title time lag) an old man, and the father of one rescuer, who was named for her dead husband and is, in turn, the father of her great-grandson.]]
* A weird version of this trope occurs in ''Literature/TheQuestOfTheUnaligned''. In order to ensure his elemental impartiality, Crown Prince Alaric of Caederan is sent to be raised by foster parents in magicless Tonzimmiel, ignorant of his true heritage. While the plan was to retrieve him around his tenth birthday, this fails when his foster parents die and he disappears into Tonzimmiel's orphanage system. He is located mere weeks before he must be crowned in order to avert a civil war.
* Cadance, according to ''Literature/TwilightSparkleAndTheCrystalHeartSpell'', making her reveal as the [[RightfulKingReturns Crystal Princess]] even more {{Troperiffic}}.
* ''Literature/IAmMordred'': Mordred is found by a fisherman when he's cast adrift to die at sea in a coracle.
* In ''Literature/{{Spartan}}'', the protagonist is abandoned by his father to Mount Taygetus to die from exposure. Luckily, he is rescued by an old helot and he is raised with love. [[spoiler: At the end, he frees his nation]].

* Was done to Hera in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' until her parents recovered her.
* Emma Swan from ''Series/OnceUponATime'' was sent to the non-magical world as a baby so that she may one day be prepared to face the evil queen who was trying to kill her. She was [[spoiler:initially supposed to be sent with her mother, Snow White, so that she wouldn't grow up ignorant about her home world and mission, but the plan was averted at the last minute and a humanized Pinnochio was sent in her place.]] Unfortunately, [[spoiler:Pinnochio abandoned Emma in the orphanage that they were sent to and]] Emma grew up without knowing her real heritage, except for the blanket that Snow White wrapped around her the day she was teleported away.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'': Lloyd was abandoned by his birth father (who thought he had died) and raised by a dwarf.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'': As explained in the ExtendedGameplay, the Hero is [[spoiler:the son of the wayward prince of Argonia and a Dragovian princess. His pet mouse is actually his grandfather in disguise, who protected him when his Dragovian brethren sealed The Hero's memories (which conveniently immunized him from all curses) and sent him away. His Argonia heritage paves the way for ''him'' to marry Medea rather than Prince Charmles.]]
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'': After the fall of Dundrasil, the infant Luminary's basket fell into a river while the survivors were escaping from monsters. He's found later by an old gentleman known as Chalky, who would adopt him as his own grandson.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': It's revealed that Link is a Hylian, left in Kokiri Forest by his mother as she died at the feet (roots?) of the Great Deku Tree.
* ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'': Oswald wasn't abandoned, but was adopted by Lord Melvin of Ringford who [[spoiler:found him after [[NobleFugitive his parents]] had been murdered by assassins sent by Oswald's grandfather- King Gallon of Titania.]] Possibly a subversion as Melvin DIDN'T raise Oswald with care and love to be a noble and good man but raised him distantly to be a cold, emotionless killing machine.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'': A variation occurs, but it was never really elaborated on until the DS version: [[spoiler:as a baby, Cecil's father, the Lunarian [=KluYa=], was murdered, and his mother Cecilia died in childbirth. Cecil's brother Theodore (later known as Golbez), abandons the baby Cecil at the edge of Baron's woods since the evil influence of Zemus led him to believe that Cecil's birth was the direct cause of his parents' deaths. Cecil is taken in and raised by the King of Baron.]]

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'': In the backstory, the first Archon of Tevinter was set adrift in a basket with an OrphansPlotTrinket just after birth to protect him from his usurping uncle. He would go on to found TheEmpire.
* ''VideoGame/AvencastRiseOfTheMage'': As a baby, the player character is found in a basket on a river under a [[VaguenessIsComing portentously stormy sky]], an OrphansPlotTrinket amulet in his hands. Turns out he's [[spoiler:one of [[CainAndAbel two]] Kyranians who survived the EldritchAbomination Morgath destroying their people, and TheOnlyOne who can defeat Morgath -- because he's the missing piece of the FusionDance the Kyranians attempted to repel him in the first place]].

* Happens in ''Webcomic/ComplicatedNess''. In the novel version, Ozzie finds a baby Ness in his bag at the airport when he first lands in the USA. This was to protect him from the color war.
* Agatha Heterodyne, the main character of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', was raised as Agatha Clay by constructs serving her family after her family's ancestral home was all but destroyed and her father and uncle disappeared fighting the forces of [[HiddenVillain The Other]]. It's not until she's well into young adulthood and the events of the story kick off that she or anybody not in the loop even suspect that she is fact the lost (and possible last) heir of the infamous and powerful House of Heterodyne.
* ''Webcomic/DragonSanctuary'' has Dean, one of the last Kiatas, found by Ellen Conin and raised by her, though Lieutenant Merno always kept an eye on him and formed a friendship with the boy. Later on Dean's told that he was never truly abandoned, as Ellen raised him at Merno's request (since he's also Merno's nephew). Ellen and Dean's sister Meale always knew the truth.

* While it's pretty clear that Tygra from ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}} [=ThunderCats (2011)=]]]'' is adopted (considering how he's a Tiger in a royal family of Lions), it was never brought up in the show itself until the episode "Native Son". [[spoiler:His father Javan sent him away in a hot air balloon when he was unable to sacrifice him to the Ancient Spirits in order to save their clan from a deadly disease. The balloon eventually found its way to the city of Thundera, where he was raised by King Claudus and his queen and would later gain an adoptive brother, Lion-O.]]

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* In ''Manga/{{Vagabond}}'' Sasaki Kojiro is found by his foster parent this way after being sent by his samurai father from a besieged castle on the brink of falling. Kojiro wasn't actually alone on the boat from the start, but the adults accompanying him had been swept overboard and killed by the time he reached his destination.

* Superman is not the only Creator/DCComics hero to invoke this trope. Comicbook/{{Aquaman}}, at least in some versions of his origins, was cast away from Atlantis at birth and raised by a lighthouse keeper who named him Arthur Curry.
* Nightcrawler of the Comicbook/XMen was thrown over a waterfall by his mother; later he is rescued and adopted.
* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': Subverted by the Homelander, whose public origin story is the same as Superman's. [[spoiler:In reality, he was raised in a lab near an atomic bomb that was set to explode if his powers got out of control.]]
* ''ComicBook/ArakSonOfThunder'': Slightly older than is the norm for this trope, but as a boy Bright-Sky-After-Storm survived the attack that wiped out his tribe when he was knocked unconscious and fell into a canoe which was then washed out to sea. He was found by a Viking longship and adopted by one of the Vikings who trained him as a warrior. This started him on the path that would eventually see him become a knight of Charlamagne.

* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': Iris was abandoned by her birth parents in the woods to die, but [[RaisedByWolves she was found and taken in by Dragon-type Pokémon]].
* ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'': Izuku is [=Kal-El/Superman=], giving him this backstory. The narration describing his rocket leaving Krypton even refers to him as "precious cargo", referencing the lyrics of [[WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt "Deliver Us"]] as Moses' mother lays him in the river.

%%* ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' and ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', by virtue of having Moses as the protagonist.
%%** And parodies such as ''Film/WhollyMoses''

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, although the trope is slightly distorted in their cases. For one, they are directly given to the Larses and Bail Organa, though not by their parents. Bail knew who Leia was and that she could play a major role in striking against the new Empire, but it looks like the Larses knew less about Luke and the goals Obi-Wan had for him. The prequel trilogy implies they have a pretty good idea of it and just don't want him getting involved.

* ''Film/EvilRoySlade'': In a teaser, the titular character was the last survivor of an Indian attack. The Indians looked at him, then walked away. Then wolves found him, sniffed him for a bit, and ran away yelping. As the credits roll, we see Roy as a very angry toddler stalking out of the desert, toward the camera.
* ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter'': Rachel Cooper finds the two Harper children washed up on shore in a little boat amid the bullrushes near her farm. Although they're both a bit older than baby Moses, they're still compared to the Biblical event.

* ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans1981'': Baby Perseus, being an illegitimate demi-god, is locked into a coffin with his young mother and thrown into the sea, but Zeus has Poseidon make certain the waters will gently take Perseus and his mother to safety. Perseus is then raised on an island paradise. This scene is based on the original Greek myth of Perseus.
* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': Will Turner was rescued by the British navy from the wreck of a pirate ship he was in. Elizabeth hid the evidence that he is related to pirates.
* ''Film/ShaolinPrince'': The titular character is a prince who barely survives when an evil warlord intending to usurp the throne massacres the palace, killing everyone save for a loyal bodyguard carrying the baby, who then deposits him in the steps of the local Shaolin Temple. The monks promptly adopts the baby prince and raises him to be a warrior, and decades later the prince decide to travel to the city and seek his true lineage.
* ''Film/WarCraft2016'': Draka sends her son in his basket on a river to save him from falling into Gul'dan's hands, and TheStinger has him picked up by humans.
* ''Film/KingArthurLegendOfTheSword'': Uther sends Arthur off down the river in a boat while he fights Vortigern. He's found and then adopted by some kindly prostitutes when it drifts past Londinium. Unlike in most examples, here Arthur is not an infant but a young boy when this happens.
* ''Film/{{Thor}}:'' Loki was abandoned by his father Laufey as an infant for being too small for his race and left to die of exposure before Odin found and adopted him. Odin [[ObliviousAdoption did not tell him the truth]] until Loki [[GoMadFromTheRevelation found out the hard way]].

* Herodotus reports in ''Literature/TheHistories'' that UsefulNotes/CyrusTheGreat fit this. According to Herodotus, Cyrus' maternal grandfather Astyages, King of the Medes, had a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dream]] that his advisors interpreted as meaning daughter Mandane (whom he had married off to King Cambyses I of Persia and was then pregnant with Cyrus) would give birth to a son who would overthrow him. Astyages, therefore, called his daughter to live at his capital so that she could give birth under his court's supervision, and then ordered one of his generals, Harpagus, to kill the child. Harpagus didn't have the heart and passed the job on to a shepherd. The shepherd didn't have the heart either, and (as it happened) his wife had just given birth to a stillborn son. So the shepherd passed off the stillborn baby off as the "murdered" royal child and raised Cyrus as his own. Eventually, Cyrus' royal ancestry is recognized, etc., etc., and he goes on to overthrow his grandfather ([[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight as prophesied]]), but there's a lot of interesting stuff before then we really don't have space for now. Almost needless to say, there's basically no evidence to support this except the word of Herodotus, and even he probably got the story from somewhere else.

* This is Shasta's {{Backstory}} in Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'', part of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''... Except for the part where his adoptive father is horribly nasty and tries to sell him as a slave. The talking horse Bree is actually the one who helps teach him values.

* Simon, the hero of Creator/TadWilliams' ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'' trilogy, is orphaned shortly after his birth with nothing but a name and a [[OrphansPlotTrinket mysterious ring]]. He is taken in by chambermaids, raised as a scullion, befriended by a wise doctor, forced to flee into the wilderness when [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive evil takes over his home]], [[TheHerosJourney goes on adventures]], and eventually [[WhereItAllBegan returns to the Hayholt]] to battle the BigBad SealedEvilInACan Storm King. [[spoiler:Naturally, it turns out that he is a direct descendant of the former king and therefore the only valid claimant to the throne, since just about all of the other eligible characters have been killed.]]
* [[spoiler: (King Bel)garion (of Riva)]] in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is a slightly further-removed example -- he's the descendant of the original Moses In The Bulrushes, a few hundred years down the line -- strange birthmark and all, although the heirloom sword would be an immediate giveaway apart from the fact that it stayed in the throne room -- he claims it when he finds out his station.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''The Swan Children'', the [[ShapeshiftingLover swan maiden]] who marries a king gives birth to children, and her wicked mother-in-law has them exposed, replacing them with animals that she claims her daughter-in-law has given birth to.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Literature/TristanAndIseult'', Tristan, poisoned during his [[PoisonedWeapons duel against Morholt]], is sent on a craft without oars or sail in hopes of happening onto someone who can cure him; said person happens to be Iseult, who turns out to be Morholt's niece.
* In the Medieval French ''Suite du Merlin'' (and works which followed its story, including Thomas Malory's ''Literature/LeMorteDarthur''), King Arthur, on finding out that he has [[BrotherSisterIncest fathered a son on his own half-sister]] who is prophesied to kill him, orders all the boys born around the right time to be put out to sea in a ship, which is then wrecked. Naturally, the only survivor is the son in question, Mordred, who is found and fostered by a shepherd and brought to court at fourteen years old, where his true lineage is recognized. Something of a subversion in that this is usually a heroic-origin trope, and Mordred is about as unheroic as you get.
** And, in Lord Tennyson's version ''Literature/IdyllsOfTheKing'' Arthur himself is found this way, and is not necessarily the son of Uther so much as the God-sent King.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series, Rand learns that his father found him as a baby on the slopes of Dragonmount after his mother died in battle. This is a key part of the Prophecies of the Dragon, which requires that he be raised by the blood of Manetheren.

* Inverted in the Franchise/StarTrek novel ''The [=IDIC=] Epidemic'', in which a young woman thought to have been the sole survivor of a destroyed Vulcan colony is discovered to be Romulan instead. The likely explanation is that she was kidnapped in infancy by a Romulan noble family's rivals, then left to be adopted by Vulcans, so her presence among the Romulan Empire's hated enemies could later be revealed, bringing shame upon her biological parents' name. Ironically, she ''still'' winds up becoming a savior of sorts, as her Romulan blood turns out to be the key to stopping a plague within the Federation.
* Salome in Creator/RobertEHoward's Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn". Alas, owing to a {{Curse}} she ''was'' the calamity, and since exposure failed to kill her, she returned to [[TheUsurper usurp]] her sister's throne, use ColdBloodedTorture on that sister, and institute a ReligionOfEvil with HumanSacrifice.

* Scyld Scefing, later to become king of Denmark, is washed up in this way on the shore of Denmark in ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''. His parentage and place of origin are never revealed.

* In Creator/DevonMonk's ''Literature/DeadIron'', Rose Small's backstory was being abandoned on the step of her adoptive parents' home.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]
* In ''Ghosts of the Past'', sequel of ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', it's revealed that Gwion Bach (better known as [[spoiler: Doctor Strange]]) was a textbook case of this, set adrift by his desperate mother as the forces of Uther Pendragon slaughtered their people. He was found by a fisherman and raised as Taliesin (in Camelot, ironically enough), and as he notes, he didn't know anything about where he came from, even that he was adopted, until his teens.
** Then, of course, there's Clark Kent, who knows there's ''something'' different about him, but takes a while to discover his true origins.
* Invoked in ''FanFic/TheDarkLordsOfNerima'' (A ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''-''Manga/SailorMoon'' crossover) where it looks like we are being set up for the Amazons to be given a Moon Kingdom origin story with a folktale of their founding based on a set of baby twins sent to Earth in a lifepod along with the records of the Fall of the Kingdom so they will be safe [[spoiler:then [[TearJerker heartbreakingly]] subverted when it is revealed that the two most holy relics are tiny infant skeletons]].
* [[spoiler:Sonic the Hedgehog himself]] was one of these in ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos''; Maledict launched him into space as an infant in a capsule to euthanize him - he survived and eventually landed on Mobius. And until Episode 53, Maledict had no idea his son was alive.
* In ''FanFic/TouhouIbunshu'', sometime before the start of the series, the Moon's Tsukito Academy was assaulted and leveled. The two remaining survivors, Reisen Udongein Inaba and an infant Lunarian, managed to access a teleport pad and escape to Gensokyo. However, after arriving, Reisen was attacked by a very vicious youkai, losing the child. [[spoiler:Said youkai was Remilia Scarlet, who raised the child as a servant of her household and gave her the name Sakuya Izayoi.]]
* In ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', Iris was abandoned by her birth parents in the woods to die, but [[RaisedByWolves she was found and taken in by Dragon-type Pokémon]].
* In ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'', Izuku is [=Kal-El/Superman=], giving him this backstory. The narration describing his rocket leaving Krypton even refers to him as "precious cargo", referencing the lyrics of [[WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt "Deliver Us"]] as Moses' mother lays him in the river.

* In the first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' movie, the human mother just so manages to deposit her young son with the protagonist animals before dying. Counts, because how could she know that they would take care of him?
* In ''Animation/TreasureOfSwampCastle'', Princess Szaffi is lost in a flood and adopted by a gypsy woman.
* The Creator/{{Disney}} version of ''{{WesternAnimation/Hercules}}'' rewrites the hero's origins to make him an originally fully divine son of Zeus and Hera, who was then merely raised among humans, rather than a half-divine hero.

* ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' and ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', by virtue of having Moses as the protagonist.
** And parodies such as ''Film/WhollyMoses''
* The Penguin in ''Film/BatmanReturns'' (1992) is a villainous version of this trope; the Penguin even plans to kill the firstborn of every family in Gotham as revenge for his upbringing.
* Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies, although the trope is slightly distorted in their cases. For one, they are directly given to the Larses and Bail Organa, though not by their parents. Bail knew who Leia was and that she could play a major role in striking against the new Empire, but it looks like the Larses knew less about Luke and the goals Obi-Wan had for him.
** The prequel trilogy implies they have a pretty good idea of it and just don't want him getting involved.
* Parodied in the movie ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist''. The baby Chosen One, having narrowly escaped the thugs that killed his parents, ends up rolling down a steep hill. He is found by a peasant woman, who picks him up, hugs him... and sends him rolling down the hill again. Chosen One also has an identifying mark of destiny -- his tongue is a living creature.
* This is one of the few tropes that the movie ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' actually played straight: Lone Starr was raised in a monastery, with only a medallion to tell him of his past. No one could tell him what it meant until he encountered Yoghurt... who told him in a fortune cookie that he was a prince, with just enough time to sweep Princess Vespa off her feet.
* In a teaser for the Western spoof ''Film/EvilRoySlade'', the titular character was the last survivor of an Indian attack. The Indians looked at him, then walked away. Then wolves found him, sniffed him for a bit, and ran away yelping. As the credits roll, we see Roy as a very angry toddler stalking out of the desert, toward the camera.
* In ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter'', Rachel Cooper finds the two Harper children washed up on shore in a little boat amid the bullrushes near her farm. Although they're both a bit older than baby Moses, they're still compared to the Biblical event.
* Elora Danan in ''Film/{{Willow}}'': born with a birthmark that destined her to bring about [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Bavmorda's]] downfall. Her mother sends her away with a benevolent nursemaid and is then is killed by Bavmorda's enforcers. Willow finds her floating down a river, having been sent away to safety by the nursemaid moments before said nursemaid was tracked down and murdered.
* In ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|1981}}'', baby Perseus, being an illegitimate demi-god, is locked into a coffin with his young mother and thrown into the sea, but Zeus has Poseidon make certain the waters will gently take Perseus and his mother to safety. Perseus is then raised on an island paradise. This scene is based on the original Greek myth of Perseus.
* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' Will Turner was rescued by the British navy from the wreck of a pirate ship he was in. Elizabeth hid the evidence that he is related to pirates.

* In ''Film/WarCraft2016'', Draka sends her son in his basket on a river to save him from falling into Gul'dan's hands, and TheStinger has him picked up by humans.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/PricklyCity'', when Carmen coaxes Winslow into talking about his past, he starts with being found in a basket among reeds.
[[/folder]]

* Lloyd in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' was abandoned by his birth father (who thought he had died) and raised by a dwarf.
* In ''VideoGame/CastleOfTheWinds'', the BigBad kills your parents in an attempt to kill you, the ChosenOne. Your parents knew it was coming, however, and left little baby Player in the hands of an elderly farmer couple.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', [[spoiler:Princess Garnet is revealed to be one of the last Summoners, who survived a great catastrophe by going away with her mother on a boat. Her mother, though, had died as soon as they got to Alexandria. Also, Zidane qualifies once the full scope of his origin is revealed]]
* Seemingly played straight in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' with Pelleas, lost heir to Daein, except that he isn't taken in by a family and grows up in an orphanage. However, it's subverted when [[spoiler:[[HundredPercentCompletion after fulfilling a boatload of conditions]], you find out in the epilogue that [[DeadpanSnarker Soren]] is the true heir. A subversion in that not only does he not become king, but he also doesn't even ''know''.]] Made particularly ironic when it's revealed that Pelleas' special birthmark that identified him as the heir is [[spoiler:actually a Spirit Charmer mark; Soren, who has the genuine Brand, probably owes his survival to being confused for a Spirit Charmer.]]
** Micaiah is one of these as well.
* The PlayerCharacter of ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' was a baby Spirit Monk taken from the destruction of Dirge and raised by Master Li to reclaim his/her heritage.
* As explained in the ExtendedGameplay of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'', The Hero is [[spoiler:the son of the wayward prince of Argonia and a Dragovian princess. His pet mouse is actually his grandfather in disguise, who protected him when his Dragovian brethren sealed The Hero's memories (which conveniently immunized him from all curses) and sent him away. His Argonia heritage paves the way for ''him'' to marry Medea rather than Prince Charmles.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' after the fall of Dundrasil, the infant Luminary's basket fell into a river while the survivors were escaping from monsters. He's found later by an old gentleman known as Chalky, who would adopt him as his own grandson.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', it's revealed that Link is a Hylian, left in Kokiri Forest by his mother as she died at the feet (roots?) of the Great Deku Tree.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Variant used in ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' with Oswald who wasn't abandoned, but adopted by Lord Melvin of Ringford who [[spoiler:found him after [[NobleFugitive his parents]] had been murdered by assassins sent by Oswald's grandfather- King Gallon of Titania.]] Possibly a subversion as Melvin DIDN'T raise Oswald with care and love to be a noble and good man but raised him distantly to be a cold, emotionless killing machine.
* Another variant is in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIII'', where Gwydion, the game's protagonist, is really [[spoiler:Prince Alexander]], who was kidnapped and enslaved by the evil wizard Manannan.
* This trope serves as part of the opening cinematic of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro: A New Beginning'', with Spyro's egg literally floating down a river on a makeshift raft.
* A variation occurs in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', but it was never really elaborated on until the DS version: [[spoiler:as a baby, Cecil's father, the Lunarian [=KluYa=], was murdered, and his mother Cecilia died in childbirth. Cecil's brother Theodore (later known as Golbez), abandons the baby Cecil at the edge of Baron's woods since the evil influence of Zemus led him to believe that Cecil's birth was the direct cause of his parents' deaths. Cecil is taken in and raised by the King of Baron.]]
* Xiba from ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soulcalibur V]]'' is [[spoiler:the biological son of Kilik and Xianghua. Unfortunately, because of that, he inherited his father's Evil Seed. And so, after consulting Edge Master for advice, Kilik puts him in the care of Kong Xiuqiang]]. 17 years later, does he look Malfested to you?
* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', Grey Mann was captured and raised by an eagle soon after his birth. He eventually kills the other chicks, eats them, and then climbs down the mountain. He ultimately kills his brothers, Redmond and Blutarch.
* In the backstory of ''Franchise/DragonAge'', the first Archon of Tevinter was set adrift in a basket with an OrphansPlotTrinket just after birth to protect him from his usurping uncle. He would go on to found TheEmpire.
* In ''VideoGame/AvencastRiseOfTheMage'', as a baby, the player character is found in a basket on a river under a [[VaguenessIsComing portentously stormy sky]], an OrphansPlotTrinket amulet in his hands. Turns out he's [[spoiler:one of [[CainAndAbel two]] Kyranians who survived the EldritchAbomination Morgath destroying their people, and TheOnlyOne who can defeat Morgath -- because he's the missing piece of the FusionDance the Kyranians attempted to repel him in the first place]].

* In ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter'', Missus Hooper finds the two Harper children washed up on shore in a little boat amid the bullrushes. Although they're both a bit older than baby Moses, they're still compared to the Biblical event.

* Arika in ''Anime/MaiOtome'' appears to be the infant princess set adrift to escape invaders in the very first scenes of the series. Then again, so does ''Nina'', and the official story was that it was Mashiro. The series plays with the ambiguity for a while before TheReveal (heated fan debates and inevitable EpilepticTrees continued all the way until episode 23 aired). As it turns out [[spoiler: That was Arika as an infant in the first scene but that wasn't actually the princess but instead the daughter of the King's retainer being set adrift. The actual princess was Nina, who was snuck out in a different fashion off-screen. Mashiro was a fake, but is allowed to continue to reign anyway.]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', it's revealed that Link is a Hylian, left in Kokiri Forest by his mother as she died at the feet (roots?) of the Great Deku Tree.

* Arika in ''Anime/MaiOtome'' appears to be the infant princess set adrift to escape invaders in the very first scenes of the series. Then again, so does ''Nina'', and the official story was that it was Mashiro. The series plays with the ambiguity for a while before TheReveal (heated fan debates and inevitable EpilepticTrees continued all the way until episode 23 aired). As it turns out [[spoiler: That was Arika as an infant in the first scene but that wasn't actually the princess but instead the daughter of the King's retainer being set adrift. The actual princess was Nina, who was snuck out in a different fashion off-screen. Mashiro was a fake, but is allowed to continue to reign anyway.]]

* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': Yusei Fudo's father evidently borrowed Kal El's spaceship to save his son from Zero Reverse.
* ''Manga/ViolinistOfHameln'' has Princess Flute, who was slipped out of her kingdom during a war (in which her older brother had already tragically died). She was eventually left on a doorstep in a small village far, far to the south of her home country, with only a letter saying "take me" and a [[OrphansPlotTrinket crucifix]] - but in a {{Subversion}} of the trope, was ignored by the house's inhabitants and the passersby tried to act like she didn't exist. She would have died had not the visiting elder of a nearby village taken pity on her.
* In ''Manga/{{Vagabond}}'' Sasaki Kojiro is found by his foster parent this way after being sent by his samurai father from a besieged castle on the brink of falling. Kojiro wasn't actually alone on the boat from the start, but the adults accompanying him had been swept overboard and killed by the time he reached his destination.

See also ChangelingFantasy. Compare DoorstopBaby, SwitchedAtBirth, SeparatedAtBirth, MuggleFosterParents, WonderChild, WildChild, NobleFugitive. See also ParentalAbandonment, FlingALightIntoTheFuture, and TheArk which is another ancient motif. Results from a NiceJobBreakingItHerod.

* Subverted in the case of Superman's foster son, Chris Kent/[[spoiler: Lor-Zod]]. At first it looks, and Superman believes, this trope has happened, but in reality [[spoiler: Lor-Zod was sent to Earth by his father, the villain General Zod, to provide a link that he can use to escape the Phantom Zone]]

* The Creator/{{Disney}} version of ''{{Disney/Hercules}}'' rewrites the hero's origins to make him an originally fully divine son of Zeus and Hera, who was then merely raised among humans, rather than a half-divine hero.

* Agatha Heterodyne, the main character of ''{{Webcomic/Girl Genius}}'', was raised as Agatha Clay by constructs serving her family after her family's ancestral home was all but destroyed and her father and uncle disappeared fighting the forces of [[HiddenVillain The Other]]. It's not until she's well into young adulthood and the events of the story kick off that she or anybody not in the loop even suspect that she is fact the lost (and possible last) heir of the infamous and powerful House of Heterodyne.

* ''Film/{{Thor}}:'' Loki was abandoned by his father Laufey as an infant for being too small for his race and left to die of exposure before Odin found and adopted him. Odin did not tell him the truth until Loki found out the hard way.

** Pratchett also subverted this in ''Discworld/WyrdSisters''. After the true heir to the throne of Lancre is revealed, everyone discovers he doesn't want to be king, and would rather be an actor, like his adopted father. Fortunately, an alternative heir is found when Magrat realizes he has a half-brother, who turns out to be [[spoiler:the court jester. In a further subversion, Magrat later discovers that the half-blood was not because the king disported with the jester's wife; it was because while the king was out disporting himself with the peasants, the queen got lonely]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', Bloom is an ordinary Earth girl. Or at least that's how she seems until she discovers that she is a fairy and has magic powers. Later she learns from her parents that her father saved Bloom from a fire and adopted her. Eventually, she learns that she is the lost [[EverythingIsBetterWithPrincesses princess of Domino]], the planet that was destroyed by the Ancestral Witches.

* ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' is the classic modern example, with his parents sending him off to space to escape the destruction of Krypton.

* ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' is the classic modern example.

* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': Subverted by the Homelander, whose public origin story is the same as Superman's. [[spoiler:He was raised in a lab near an atomic bomb that was set to explode if his powers got out of control.]]

River, deliver him there.

->''"Moses was found in the stream\\
Li'l Moses was found in the stream\\
He floated on water\\
'Til old Pharaoh's daughter\\
She fished him -- she says -- from that stream."''
-->-- "It Ain't Necessarily So", from Gershwin's ''Theatre/PorgyAndBess''

* Hector Malot's 1878 French novel "Nobody's Boy".

* In, ''{{Webcomic/Zelfia}}'', Mayy's birth mother attempts to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this when she leaves her infant daughter on the doorstep of a human florist. [[RealityEnsues The florist promptly calls Child Protective Services and puts the child into the foster care system.]]

** And parodies such as ''WhollyMoses''

Often the hero is an [[BlueBlood aristocrat]] or even a [[RoyalBlood prince(ss)]], whose nurture by a humble family gives him a refreshingly egalitarian view on things when he finally [[ReallyRoyaltyReveal discovers his heritage]] and takes his rightful position. Conversely, as in the tale of Moses, the hero can be a child of commoners who gets adopted and raised in privelege by upper class parents, only later to discover the plight of their oppressed people. A vital stage in the GenocideBackfire plot.

* Arika in ''Anime/MaiOtome'' appears to be the infant princess set adrift to escape invaders in the very first scenes of the series. Then again, so does ''Nina'', and the official story was that it was Mashiro. The series plays with the ambiguity for a while before TheReveal (heated fan debates and inevitable EpilepticTrees continued all the way until episode 23 aired). As it turns out [[spoiler: That was Arika as an infant in the first scene but that wasn't actually the princess but instead the daughter of the King's retainer being set adrift. The actual princess was Nina, who was snuck out in a different fashion off screen. Mashiro was a fake, but is allowed to continue to reign anyway.]]

** ''Dragon Ball Minus'' (and ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'', which adapts some elements of ''Minus'') retcons / revisions Goku's origin into a more traditional example. Goku's parents were suspicious of Frieza's decision to recall all the Saiyans to their home planet at once, and sent Goku to Earth for his own protection. They neglected to explain this to Raditz, who assumed his brother had been sent on a standard mission.

* ''Manga/ViolinistOfHameln'' has Princess Flute, who was slipped out of her kingdom during a war (in which her older brother had already tragically died). She was eventually left on a doorstop in a small village far, far to the south of her home country, with only a letter saying "take me" and a [[OrphansPlotTrinket crucifix]] - but in a {{Subversion}} of the trope, was ignored by the house's inhabitants and the passersby tried to act like she didn't exist. She would have died had not the visiting elder of a nearby village taken pity on her.
* In ''Manga/{{Vagabond}}'' Sasaki Kojiro is found by his foster parent this way after being sent by his samurai father from a besieged castle on the brink of falling. Kojiro wasn't actually alone on the boat from the start, but the adults accompanying him had been swept overboard and killed by time he reached his destination.

* In ''FanFic/TouhouIbunshu'', some time before the start of the series, the Moon's Tsukito Academy was assaulted and leveled. The two remaining survivors, Reisen Udongein Inaba and an infant Lunarian, managed to access a teleport pad and escape to Gensokyo. However, after arriving, Reisen was attacked by a very vicious youkai, losing the child. [[spoiler:Said youkai was Remilia Scarlet, who raised the child as a servant of her household and gave her the name Sakuya Izayoi.]]

* In teaser for the Western spoof ''Film/EvilRoySlade'', the titular character was the last survivor of an Indian attack. The Indians looked at him, then walked away. Then wolves found him, sniffed him for a bit, and ran away yelping. As the credits roll, we see Roy as a very angry toddler stalking out of the desert, toward the camera.

* Elora Danan in ''Film/{{Willow}}'': born with a birthmark that destined her to bring about [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Bavmorda's]] downfall. Her mother sends her away with a benevolent nursemaid and is then is killed by Bavmorda's enforcers. Willow finds her floating down a river, having been sent away to safety by the nursemaid moments before said nursmaid was tracked down and murdered.

* In the ''Literature/LoneWolf'' spinoff series ''World of Lone Wolf'', the hero Grey Star was an infant who was stranded on the legendary Shianti's island after an especially violent storm. This was nothing short of miraculous since the island had enchantments specifically meant to prevent anyone from reaching it without the Shianti's permission. The Shianti sensed that destiny had a hand in the child's arrival and raised him as their own. This was especially fortuitous, since Shasarak the Wytch-King [[spoiler:a rogue Shianti]] had established an Evil Empire that threatened all of Southern Magnamund. The Shianti were forbidden to interfere directly, but nothing prevented them from sending their adopted human son Grey Star armed with their magical knowledge against Shasarak.

* Herodotus reports in ''Literature/TheHistories'' that UsefulNotes/CyrusTheGreat fit this. According to Herodotus, Cyrus' maternal grandfather Astyages, King of the Medes, had a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dream]] that his advisors interpreted as meaning daughter Mandane (whom he had married off to King Cambyses I of Persia and was then pregnant with Cyrus) would give birth to a son who would overthrow him. Astyages therefore called his daughter to live at his capital so that she could give birth under his court's supervision, and then ordered one of his generals, Harpagus, to kill the child. Harpagus didn't have the heart, and passed the job on to a shepherd. The shepherd didn't have the heart either, and (as it happened) his wife had just given birth to a stillborn son. So the shepherd passed off the stillborn baby off as the "murdered" royal child, and raised Cyrus as his own. Eventually, Cyrus' royal ancestry is recognized, etc., etc., and he goes on to overthrow his grandfather ([[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight as prophesied]]), but there's a lot of interesting stuff before then we really don't have space for now. Almost needless to say, there's basically no evidence to support this except the word of Herodotus, and even he probably got the story from somewhere else.
* The villainous Benedetto ("blessing") from ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' is a definite subversion of this trope. He is the product of an adulterous affair and left for dead by his [[ParentalAbandonment parents]]. He is raised by criminals, and is much worse than his adoptive family. If they manage to impart any values to him, it is an utter hatred of his birth father.

* A version occurs in ''Literature/TheDeedOfPaksenarrion'' by Creator/ElizabethMoon: In ''Oath of Gold'', the third book of the trilogy, Paks takes up the task of locating the rightful king of Lyonya, a man with elven blood and specific birthright powers that make him the only one the [[OurElvesAreDifferent elves]] will accept as ruler. He was stolen by evil forces as a child, and, it turns out, enslaved for some years and forced to endure some terrible things that the book doesn't go into great detail on. A visitor contrived to give him a chance to escape, and he found his way to some distant relatives who didn't realize who he was, but raised him well. He went on to make his own life, and it isn't until Paks figures out who he is that his true purpose and powers are revealed - but it turns out that half a dozen people ''actually knew where he was'', but feared to bring the truth to light, because 1) his time in the hands of the evil ones could have damaged him beyond help (specifically, making him an unstable ruler or making him unable to wield the powers needed to perform his duties as king), and 2) until shortly before the story begins, his sister was alive and showed great promise as a ruler.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Lay La Freine'' -- and many others -- a woman gives birth to multiple children, and another woman taunts her, saying that this is possible only in cases of adultery. This other woman is promptly punished for her slander with a multiple birth of her own, and exposes the excess children to avoid being charged herself.

* In the Medieval French ''Suite du Merlin'' (and works which followed its story, including Thomas Malory's ''Literature/LeMorteDarthur''), King Arthur, on finding out that he has [[BrotherSisterIncest fathered a son on his own half-sister]] who is prophesied to kill him, orders all the boys born around the right time to be put out to sea in a ship, which is then wrecked. Naturally the only survivor is the son in question, Mordred, who is found and fostered by a shepherd and brought to court at fourteen years old, where his true lineage is recognized. Something of a subversion in that this is usually a heroic-origin trope, and Mordred is about as unheroic as you get.

* An interesting variation occurs in Creator/LFrankBaum's second [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz book]], ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'': Tip, the young protagonist, spends almost the whole book searching for the missing Princess Ozma of Oz: It turns out the Wizard gave her to a witch, [[GenderBender who turned her into a boy]], who just happens to be... [[TomatoInTheMirror Tip]]! Needless to say Tip was [[GirlsHaveCooties not particularly pleased by this development]]. But [[SecondLawOfGenderBending he got used to it]].

* Scyld Scefing, later to become king of Denmark, is washed up in this way on the shore of Denmark in ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''. His parentage and place of origin is never revealed.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', [[spoiler: this is the generally accepted story for Aegon VI Targaryen, the apparently murdered son of Rhaegar Targaryen, suddenly popping up in the Free Cities...if it really is him. It is more commonly believed by the fandom that Aegon, while believing himself to be Rhaegar's son, is really a female-line descendant of the bastard Targaryens branch, the Blackfyres.]]

* An interesting variation occurs in ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth''. Tom's wife dies in childbirth, so he decides to leave the child in the forest because he has hard time feeding his other sons too, so the child would surely die if Tom kept him. Later the child is found and is raised by monks. Then Tom gets to build a cathedral for the same monks, so the child grows up being near his father without even knowing about it. [[spoiler: His true identity is only revealed to Philip and him at the end of the story, long after Tom's death.]]
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's "Literature/TimeLag," Elva gives her baby to one of their marginally intelligent ServantRace and tells it to flee the attack. The story, however, focuses on her. [[spoiler:At the end, her rescuers tell her that he survived, is now (owing to the title time lag) an old man, and the father of one rescuer, who was named for her dead husband and is in turn the father of her great-grandson.]]

* Cadance according to ''Literature/TwilightSparkleAndTheCrystalHeartSpell'', making her reveal as the [[RightfulKingReturns Crystal Princess]] even more {{Troperiffic}}.

* In ''Literature/{{Spartan}}'', the protagonist is abandoned by his father to Mount Taygetus to die from exposure. Luckily, he is rescued by an old helot and h is raised with love. [[spoiler: At the end, he frees his nation]].

* Emma Swan from ''Series/OnceUponATime'' was sent to the non-magical world as a baby so that she may one day be prepared to face the evil queen who was trying to kill her. She was [[spoiler:initially supposed to be sent with her mother, Snow White, so that she wouldn't grew up ignorant about her home world and mission, but the plan was averted at the last minute and a humanized Pinnochio was sent in her place.]] Unfortunately, [[spoiler:Pinnochio abandoned Emma in the orphanage that they were sent to and]] Emma grew up without knowing her real heritage, except for the blanket that Snow White wrapped around her the day she was teleported away.

** Krishna is another. A prophet told Kamsa, King of Mathura, that his sister's offspring with Vasudeva would one day overthrow him. So he had her imprisoned. When she had a child, its body was thrown against the prison wall. Krishna and Balarama were smuggled out of the prison, and raised by farmers in the countryside. Later, he and Balarama returned to Mathura, killed Kamsa, and freed their parents.
* Romulus and Remus, legendary founders of Rome, are an example where the villain cast them out to die. Their mother was not only a Vestal Virgin, but had been forced to become one by the relative who murdered her father for the throne. Since they were not only the offspring of a disgraced Vestal Virgin, but also a threat to his throne, the king ordered them to die by exposure. Luckily, a she-wolf found them and nursed them before they were found by shepherds who took them in and raised them.
* A more tragic subversion is the story of Oedipus. His father. King Laios, lived under a curse that stated that his own son would kill him. To defy fate, he hammered a spike through his infant son's feet and left him on a hill to die. The baby was found by farmers who named him Oedipus ("swollen foot") and raised him. As an adult, he got into a fight with a stranger on the road and killed him. He didn't realize that [[YouCantFightFate this stranger was in fact his birth father, King Laios.]] And it keeps going FromBadToWorse.

* In ''VideoGame/CastleOfTheWinds'', the BigBad kills your parents in an attempt to kill you, the ChosenOne. Your parents knew it was coming, however, and left little baby Player in the hands of a elderly farmer couple.

* Seemingly played straight in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' with Pelleas, lost heir to Daein, except that he isn't taken in by a family and grows up in an orphanage. However, it's subverted when [[spoiler:[[HundredPercentCompletion after fulfilling a boatload of conditions]], you find out in the epilogue that [[DeadpanSnarker Soren]] is the true heir. A subversion in that not only does he not become king, he doesn't even ''know''.]] Made particularly ironic when it's revealed that Pelleas' special birthmark that identified him as the heir is [[spoiler:actually a Spirit Charmer mark; Soren, who has the genuine Brand, probably owes his survival to being confused for a Spirit Charmer.]]

* As explained in the ExtendedGameplay of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'', The Hero is [[spoiler:the son of the wayward prince of Argonia and a Dragovian princess. His pet mouse is actually his grandfather in disguise, who protected him when his Dragovian bretheren sealed The Hero's memories (which conveniently immunized him from all curses) and sent him away. His Argonia heritage paves the way for ''him'' to marry Medea rather than Prince Charmles.]]

* Variant used in ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' with Oswald who wasn't abandoned, but adopted by Lord Melvin of Ringford who [[spoiler:found him after [[NobleFugitive his parents]] had been murdered by assassins sent by Oswald's grandfather- King Gallon of Titania.]] Possibly a subversion as Melvin DIDN'T raise Oswald with care and love to be a noble and good man, but raised him distantly to be a cold, emotionless killing machine.

* A variation occurs in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', but it was never really elaborated on until the DS version: [[spoiler:as a baby, Cecil's father, the Lunarian [=KluYa=], was murdered, and his mother Cecilia died in childbirth. Cecil's brother Theodore (later known as Golbez), abandons the baby Cecil at the edge of Baron's woods, since the evil influence of Zemus led him to believe that Cecil's birth was the direct cause of his parents' deaths. Cecil is taken in and raised by the King of Baron.]]

* Happens in, ''Webcomic/ComplicatedNess''. In the novel version Ozzie finds a baby Ness in his bag at the airport when he first lands in the USA. This was to protect him from the color war.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', Bloom is an ordinary Earth girl. Or at least that's how she seems until she discovers that she is a fairy and has magic powers. Later she learns from her parents that her father saved Bloom from a fire and adopted her. Eventually she learns that she is the lost [[EverythingIsBetterWithPrincesses princess of Domino]], the planet that was destroyed by the Ancestral Witches.

** ''Dragon Ball Minus'' retcons / revisions Goku's origin into a more traditional example. Goku's parents were suspicious of Frieza's decision to recall all the Saiyans to their home planet at once, and sent Goku to Earth for his own protection. They neglected to explain this to Raditz, who assumed his brother had been sent on a standard mission.