History Main / MosesInTheBulrushes

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Literature/{{Havelok}}'' is dumped as a child by the BigBad in a castle and then sent to be drowned by a fisherman. Then, the fisherman has a HeelFaceTurn and decides to protect and raise the boy instead to fulfill his [[TheChosenOne destiny]] after a weird mark shows his heritage.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Literature/KingHorn'', the boy Horn is set adrift in a boat by the usurper of his father's throne. Similarly, in ''Literature/{{Havelock}}'', the fisherman the usurper hired to kill Havelock actually smuggled him to England.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''King Horn'', the boy Horn is set adrift in a boat by the usurper of his father's throne. Similarly, in ''Havelock'', the fisherman the usurper hired to kill Havelock actually smuggled him to England.
* 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 ''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.]]

* Myth/JapaneseMythology: Hiruko was cast into the sea before he turned three years old[[note]]In the past, due to high infant mortality rate, Japanese children were only deemed to survive when they turned three years old. This was the original basis for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichi-Go-San Shichi-Go-San]] festival.[[/note]] by his parents, Izanagi and Izanami, because he was [[BodyHorror born without bones]]. An Ainu man found and took care of him, and he grew up to become Ebisu, one of the Seven Lucky Gods

* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros'', Princess Daisy's mother dies smuggling her to our world, leaving her on the doorsteps of a church to be raised by nuns.

* ''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/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.]]
* ''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]]

[[folder:Comic Stips]]

* ''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.
* 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.

* ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' is the classic modern example, with his parents sending him off to Earth to escape the destruction of Krypton.
** A twisted variant happens in ''Superman: The Dark Side'' where Superman is raised by Darkseid. Darkseid eventually translates a message where Jor-El says he coded the anti-life equation into Superman's genes so he could enslave Earth using superior Kryptonian science. His father would not be proud of his foolish attachment to these primitives.

* 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]]
** And (sadly) subverted in the storyline "Superman and the Legion of Superheroes". Two members of a dying planet try to [[InvokedTrope invoke this trope]] by launching their son to Earth, hoping Earth will make him as great as Superman. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, the alien child lands on Earth in the xenophobic 31st Century, where it is immediately shot and killed by the couple who find it.]]
* Nightcrawler of the ''Comicbook/XMen'' was thrown over a waterfall by his mother; later he is rescued and adopted.

** In ''Ghosts of the Past'', , 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.

* In ''Literature/TheDancingWaterTheSingingAppleAndTheSpeakingBird'' and ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/96threelittlebirds.html The Three Little Birds,]]'' the king's [[WonderChild children]] are abandoned and grow up in ignorance of their birth, until a magic bird informs the king and children of the truth.

* Named for the Literature/BookOfExodus's example of this trope in action: Moses was set adrift in a basket of reeds to escape the slaying of all newborn male Hebrew slaves; he was found and raised by the daughter of Pharaoh. (In this example, however, the baby is born to peasants and raised among royalty instead of the other way 'round.) (Exodus 2:3-6) That, and, since his biological mother was his nursemaid, he was familiar with his background from an early age.
* Herakles/Hercules, Sargon of Akkad, Oedipus, Cyrus the Great, and Myth/KingArthur are just a few of many examples from mythology. Larry Gonick (the artist of ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'') has theorized that this is a common trope in the myths of ethnic groups who have a hero from a different ethnic group; according to the myths, he's actually one of them but was swapped as a baby.
* In some versions, King Arthur tries to avert the prediction that his son Mordred will kill him by having him put out to sea on a raft. In some cases, it's said that he actually put all the children who shared that birthday onto a raft, to avoid the shame of killing his own son. Either way, a fisherman ends up finding and raising Mordred.
* [[Myth/NorseMythology The Norse and German]] legend of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigurd Sigurd,]] the dragon slayer who was raised by a blacksmith to discover that he was the rightful heir to a kingdom. Depending on the source this one also counts as an InterspeciesAdoption.
* OlderThanFeudalism: This is extremely prevalent in Hindu Mythology

** 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.

* Scyld Scefing, the legendary ancestor of the Danish royal lineage is described as arriving this way in ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''.
* Perseus and his mother Danae were set adrift in a casket put out to sea by her father (Perseus' grandfather) Acrisius. Acrisius did this because he heard a prophecy declaring that his own grandson would kill him one day. Unfortunately for him, YouCantFightFate in Myth/ClassicalMythology, so Perseus and his mother survived. Perseus' father Zeus had his brother Poseidon, god of the sea, ensure that their voyage was a peaceful one. Eventually, the casket reached the island of Seriphos where they were taken in by the fisherman Dictys.

Sometimes the infant is [[LeftForDead abandoned]] in the wilderness by the villain, who doesn't want to murder the child directly, and instead wants it to die from exposure. This never works out as planned. Alternatively, the antagonist, asserting that [[EvenEvilHasStandards murdering a baby is a line they will not cross]], intentionally sends them away, as whatever awaits for them is surely a better alternative than facing death.

Sometimes the infant is [[LeftForDead abandoned]] in the wilderness by the villain, who doesn't want to murder the child directly, and instead wants it to die from exposure. This never works out as planned. Alternatively, the antagonist, asserting that [[EvenEvilHasStandards murdering an baby is a line they will not cross]], intentionally sends them away, as whatever awaits for them is surely a better alternative than facing death.

Sometimes the infant is [[LeftForDead abandoned]] in the wilderness by the villain, who doesn't want to murder the child directly, and instead wants it to die from exposure. This never works out as planned.

* Series/MosesTheLawgiver: Pharaoh has ordered all male Israelite infants to be drowned in the Nile River. Yokebed secretly gives birth to a son. Her daughter Miriam has a plan to save the baby. She makes a basket, puts her brother inside it, and heads near an Egyptian ceremony at the Nile. The Princess Bithia is undergoing a fertility ritual to bless her with a child. Knowing this, Miriam casts the basket adrift, where it is soon spotted by the Princess. Discovering the baby inside, Bithia takes this as a sign and adopts the child, naming him Moses.

* ‘’ Series/MosesTheLawgiver’’: Pharaoh has ordered all male Israelite infants to be drowned in the Nile River. Yokebed secretly gives birth to a son. Her daughter Miriam has a plan to save the baby. She makes a basket, puts her brother inside it, and heads near an Egyptian ceremony at the Nile. The Princess Bithia is undergoing a fertility ritual to bless her with a child. Knowing this, Miriam casts the basket adrift, where it is soon spotted by the Princess. Discovering the baby inside, Bithia takes this as a sign and adopts the child, naming him Moses.

* ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956'': After hearing the prophecy of a Hebrew deliverer, Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt orders the death of all newborn Hebrew males. Yochabel saves her infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile.
Bithiah, the Pharaoh Rameses' recently widowed daughter, finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy.

* ''Film/TheTenCommandments'': After hearing the prophecy of a Hebrew deliverer, Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt orders the death of all newborn Hebrew males. Yochabel saves her infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile.

* ''Series/UltramanTriggerNewGenerationTiga'' reveals the true parentage of the series' protagonist, Kengo Manaka, a human vessel for the titular Ultra. As it turns out, 21 years ago, Kengo as a baby was found by his mother, then an archeologist, who is excavating the statue of Ultraman Trigger, and adopted him on the spot, and as Kengo grew to adulthood, he became TheChosenOne inheriting Ultraman Trigger's light.

* In ''Literature/TheDancingWaterTheSingingAppleAndTheSpeakingBird'' and ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/96threelittlebirds.html The Three Little Birds]]'', the king's [[WonderChild children]] are abandoned and grow up in ignorance of their birth, until a magic bird informs the king and children of the truth.

** It's all but admitted out loud that Carrot Ironfoundersson is the long-lost heir to the long-empty throne of Ankh-Morpork. He was found in the wild and raised by dwarfs (and still considers himself an unusually tall dwarf[[note]]which by dwarven law and custom he really is, having gone through all the appropriate cultural and spiritual rites expected of an adult dwarf, which becomes a plot point when the Watch come into conflict with dwarven ethno-nationalists in ''Literature/{{Thud}}''.[[/note]], and he has both a crown-shaped birthmark and a sword (which, while not enchanted, is far from ordinary). Carrot, however, is happy with his position as a captain in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, has no intention of reclaiming the throne, and even goes out of his way to obfuscate any more evidence he's the lost king of Ankh.

* [[Myth/NorseMythology The Norse and German]] legend of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigurd Sigurd]], the dragon slayer who was raised by a blacksmith to discover that he was the rightful heir to a kingdom. Depending on the source this one also counts as an InterspeciesAdoption.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwenllian_ferch_Llywelyn Princess Gwenllian]], daughter of the last native Prince of Wales, fits into this trope. Her mother died in childbirth, her grief-stricken father got himself killed fighting the English less than a year later, and she and her cousins were taken prisoner by King Edward I. Gwenllian was reared in a convent from infancy onward; Edward didn't want to kill her because she was a baby, she was a girl, and she was a member of his own family (her mother had been his niece), but he wanted her kept where the Welsh couldn't make her a symbol of uprising. She eventually was made aware of her own status, but she never left the convent.

** It's all but admitted out loud that Carrot Ironfoundersson is the long-lost heir to the long-empty throne of Ankh-Morpork. He was found in the wild and raised by dwarfs (and still considers himself an unusually tall dwarf), and he has both a crown-shaped birthmark and a sword (which, while not enchanted, is far from ordinary). Carrot, however, is happy with his position as a captain in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, has no intention of reclaiming the throne, and even goes out of his way to obfuscate any more evidence he's the lost king of Ankh.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyroANewBeginning'': This trope serves as part of the opening cinematic, with Spyro's egg literally floating down a river on a makeshift raft.

* ''Seeries/DoctorWho'': Used in a throwaway line by the Doctor in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" to explain why NubileSavage Leela has NoSocialSkill: he tells Professor Litefoot that she was found floating down the Amazon in a hatbox.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2954 Percy decides to launch Yarnie to another planet, a la Superman, so he can leave without worrying about his "child."]]

Also known as a Foundling Tale. Contrast with CinderellaCircumstances, ChangelingTale (which is the [[InvertedTrope inverse]] of this trope).