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Moses in the Bulrushes: Difference between revisions
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See also [[Changeling Fantasy]]. Compare [[Door Step Baby]], [[Switched At Birth]], [[Separated At Birth]], [[Muggle Foster Parents]], [[Wonder Child]], [[Wild Child]], [[Noble Fugitive]]. See also [[Parental Abandonment]], [[Fling a Light Into The Future]], and [[The Ark]] which is another ancient motif. Results from a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod]].
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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** 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.
** Pratchett also subverted this in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]''. 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}}.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]''. Parents killed? Yep. Whisked away? Yep. [[Door
** His adoptive parents not to know about it?
** However, one thing doesn't quite fit the trope: the Dursleys were complete [[Jerkass|jerkasses]] who existed only to make Harry as miserable as possible. It's pretty clear that Petunia is taking out on Harry all her resentment for the Wizarding World that took her sister away from her and then killed her. It may explain her smothering of Dudley as well, she's determined NOT to lose him.
** {{spoiler|Has to sacrifice his life freely in order to save everyone? Yep!}}
* Simon, the hero of [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Memory Sorrowand Thorn|Memory, Sorrow and Thorn]]'' trilogy, is this. Orphaned shortly after his birth with nothing but a name and a [[Orphan's Plot Trinket|mysterious ring]], taken in by chambermaids, raised as a scullion, befriended by a [[The Obi
* {{spoiler|(King Bel)garion (of Riva)}} in ''[[The Belgariad]]'' is a slightly further-removed example -- he's the descendant of the original [[Moses in The
* In the [[Chivalric Romance]] ''[[Havelok]]'' is dumped as a child by the [[Big Bad]] in a castle and then sent to be drowned by a fisherman. Then, the fisherman has a [[Heel Face Turn]] and decides to protect and raise the boy instead to fulfill his [[The Chosen One|destiny]] after a weird mark shows his heritage.
* In the [[Chivalric Romance]] ''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.
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* In the [[Chivalric Romance]] ''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 [[Chivalric Romance]] ''[[Tristan and Iseult (Literature)|Tristan and Iseult]]'', Tristan, poisoned during his [[Poisoned Weapons|duel against Morholt]], is sent on a craft without rows 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 ''[[Le Morte Darthur (Literature)|Le Morte Darthur]]''), King Arthur, on finding out that he has [[Brother
** And, in Lord Tennyson's version ''[[Idylls of the King]]'' Arthur himself is found this way, and is not necessarily son of Uther so much as the God sent King.
* In the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' 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.
* An interesting variation occurs in [[L Frank Baum]]'s second [[Land of Oz (Literature)|Oz book]], ''[[The Marvelous Land of Oz (Literature)|The Marvelous Land of Oz]]'': 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, [[Gender Bender|who turned her into a boy]], who just happens to be... [[Tomato in The Mirror|Tip]]! Needless to say Tip was [[Girls Have Cooties|not particularly pleased by this development]]. But [[Second Law of Gender Bending|he got used to it]].
* Inverted in the [[Star Trek]] 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 [[Robert E Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "A Witch Shall Be Born". Alas, owing to a [[Curse]] she ''was'' the calamity, and since exposure failed to kill her, she returned to [[The Usurper|usurp]] her sister's throne, use [[Cold
* Hector Malot's 1878 French novel "Nobody's Boy".
* Scyld Scefing, later to become king of Denmark, is washed up in this way on the shore of Denmark in ''[[Beowulf (Literature)|Beowulf]]''. His parentage and place of origin is never revealed.
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* For much of the series, Leela in ''[[Futurama]]'' is believed (by herself, the rest of the main cast, and the viewers) to be an alien abandoned on Earth. It is later discovered, however, that {{spoiler|she was born to a pair of mutants living in the sewers of New New York. As mutants are rejected by society and forbidden to leave the sewers, they placed her on the doorstep of an orphanage with a note written in an alien language, so that people would think she was an alien rather than a mutant.}}
** {{spoiler|In a heartwarming twist, her parents did watch over her for her entire life as they best could and as soon as Leela discovers them she tries as hard as she can to have a close, normal parental relationship with them (while still living above ground where mutants are banned).}}
* [[Winx Club|Bloom]], or rather [[
* ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'' reveals Po to be this, finally explaining how a panda can have a goose as a father.
* While it's pretty clear that Tygra from ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|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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