"The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" (
German: Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich, literally "The Frog King or the Iron Henry") is a German
fairy tale collected by the
Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in
Grimm's Fairy Tales (KHM 1). Traditionally, it is the first story in their folktale collection. The tale is classified as
Aarne-Thompson type 440.[1]
"The Frog Prince" can be compared to the similar European fairy tale "
The Frog Princess".
Origin
Editions
The story is best known through the rendition of the
Brothers Grimm, who published it in their 1812 edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Grimm's Fairy Tales), as tale no. 1.[1] An older, moralistic version was included in the Grimms' handwritten Ölenberg Manuscript from 1810.
Jack Zipes noted in 2016 that the Grimms greatly treasured this tale, considering it to be one of the "oldest and most beautiful in German-speaking regions."[2]
Sources
The Grimms' source is unclear, but it apparently comes from an oral tradition of Dortchen Wild's family in
Kassel.[1] The volume 2 of the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen, published in 1815, included a variation of this story entitled Der Froschprinz (The Frog Prince), published as tale no. 13. As this version was not included in later editions, it has since remained relatively unknown.[1]
It has been postulated by some scholars that parts of the tale may extend back until at least Roman times; an aspect of the story is referred to in
Petronius' Satyricon, in which the character
Trimalchio remarks, "qui fuit rana nunc est rex" ("The man who was once a frog is now a king").[3] Other scholars, however, argue that this may actually be a jab at the emperor
Nero, who was often mockingly compared to a frog.[4]
FolkloristStith Thompson suggested that the story of the Frog King in the German tradition began with a 13th-century literary tale written in Latin.[5]
Plot
In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends the Frog Prince, whom she met after dropping a golden ball into a pond under a linden tree, and he retrieves it for her in exchange for her friendship. The Frog Prince, who is under a wicked
fairy (or
sorcerer)'s spell,
magically transforms back into a handsome prince. In the original Grimm version of the story, the frog's spell was broken when the princess threw the frog against the wall, at which he transformed back into a prince, while in modern versions the transformation is triggered by the princess kissing the frog (a motif that apparently first appeared in English translations).[6]
In other early versions, it was sufficient for the frog to spend the night on the princess' pillow.[7]
The frog prince also has a loyal servant named Henry (or Harry) who had three iron bands affixed around his heart to prevent it from breaking in his sadness when his master got under a spell. When the frog prince reverts to his human form, Henry's overwhelming happiness causes all three bands to break, freeing his heart from its bonds.[8]
It is
Aarne–Thompson type 440.[9] According to German folklorist
Hans-Jörg Uther, variants are registered across Europe.[10] In addition, scholars
Lutz Röhrich,
Waldemar Liungman [
sv], and
Jurjen van der Kooi noted that, apart from some isolated attestations in the southern part of the continent and in Eastern Europe, variants of the tale were collected in the northern part of Europe, comprising a sort of "core area": Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and Netherlands, extending to Ireland and Great Britain.[11][12][13]
However, Röhrich and van der Kooi remarked that the variants collected from oral tradition, even in America, clearly go back to a European original, and Uther argues that they are dependent on the Grimm's tale.[14][15][16] That argument does not take into account the Scottish version of the story found referenced in the 16th century Scottish text "Complaynt of Scotland" see Opie and Opie "The Classic Fairy Tales" (1974)p.183.
Other tales
Other folktales similar to "The Frog Prince" are:[17]
"The Frog Prince". The first English translation of the above tale.
Edgar Taylor, the translator, not only changed the title, but altered the ending in a substantial and interesting manner.[18]
"The Wonderful Frog" (W. Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf, Hungary).[19]
"The Maiden and the Frog" (James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, England).
"Oda und die Schlange" (Oda and the Snake) (Ludwig Bechstein, Germany) – a variant where a serpent replaces the frog[20]
"The Kind Stepdaughter and the Frog" (W. Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf, England).
"The Frog Prince" (H. Parker, Sri Lanka).
"A Frog for a Husband" (William Elliot Griffis, Korea).
"The Toad Bridegroom" (Zong In-Sob, Korea).
A similar tale type is
ATU 402, "The Animal Bride". In these tales, a female animal (
mouse,
cat or
frog) helps a prince with three tasks and after marrying him, assumes human form. In Puddocky (old word for
toad), another German folk tale, and likewise "Tsarevna Lyagushka" (The Frog Princess), a Russian folk tale, the male and female roles of the frog prince are reversed. Prince Ivan Tsarevitch discovers the enchanted female frog, who becomes Vasilisa the Wise, a sorceress.
In a
Latvian tale, Little White Dog, a girl is tasked with getting water from a well without getting the bucket wet. A little white dog appears and promises to help her if she accepts him as her bridegroom.[21]
Predecessors
A possible parallel in
Antiquity may be found in the story of
Amymone, who was one of the
Danaides. She went to fetch water in a jug because of a drought season caused by the gods. A
satyr tried to force himself on her, but the god
Poseidon rescued her. It has been suggested that the amphibian suitor and the handsome prince may have been separate characters at first.[22]
Cultural legacy
Adelheid Wette based her 1896 play on "The Frog Prince," although she called it "The Frog King."
The Frog (1908), directed by
Segundo de Chomón, is the first film adaptation of "The Frog Prince".[23]
Margarete Schweikert based her 1913 children's operetta "The Frog King" on the Grimm Brothers' fairytale "The Frog Prince."
Stevie Smith's poem "The Frog Prince" (1966) suggests the thoughts of the prince as he waits for disenchantment.[24]
Anne Sexton wrote an adaptation as a poem called "The Frog Prince" in her collection Transformations (1971), a book in which she re-envisions sixteen of the Grimms' fairy tales.[25]
Robin McKinley's 1981 collection of short stories The Door in the Hedge contains a version of the tale, entitled "The Princess and the Frog".
The 1995 video game Yoshi's Island features a frog as a
boss called Prince Froggy.
Linda Medley's graphic novel Castle Waiting from 1996 contains a character named Iron Henry or Iron Heinrich, who has 3 iron bands around his heart to repair the heartbreak he suffered when his son died of a fearful curse.
In the second episode of Adventures from the Book of Virtues (1996), Plato the Bison and Annie try to convince their friend Zach to tell his father the truth by telling him three stories, including one about "The Frog Prince." In this version, the title character was transformed into a frog for lying to a
witch and breaking his promise. He is voiced by
Jeff Bennett while the princess is voiced by
Paige O'Hara.
Prince Charming is a 2001 film adaptation of the fairy tale, starring
Martin Short,
Christina Applegate and
Sean Maguire as the title character. The prince is cursed to remain a frog until a maiden breaks his spell, giving him extreme longevity and allowing for the modern setting of the film.
In Shrek 2, Fiona's father King Harold is secretly the frog prince. However, unlike the fairy tale where the princess meets him as a frog and her actions make him human, he becomes human through a deal with the Fairy Godmother.
A musical version of The Frog Prince, written by Dieter Stegmann and Alexander S. Bermange, was presented at the Amphitheater Park Schloss Philippsruhe in Hanau, Germany as part of the Brothers Grimm Festival in 2005.[citation needed]
French graphic novel Garulfo (1992-2002) is a fairy tale about a frog who asks a witch to transform him into a prince - so that he can live life at the top of the food chain.
Bill Willingham's graphic novel series Fables features many
fairytale characters living as refugees in
New York, including "Flycatcher" the former Frog Prince, now a janitor and errand boy.
A chamber opera for children based upon The Frog Prince, written by Jacob A. Greenberg for Brown Opera Productions and the Providence Athenaeum, was performed in 2008.[27]
The tale was adapted for
German television as one of the episodes of fairy tale series Sechs auf einen Streichen ("Six at one Blow"), in the 2008 season.
The Princess and the Frog, a 2009
Disney animated film, is loosely based on the 2002 novel The Frog Princess by
E. D. Baker. The film starred
Anika Noni Rose and
Bruno Campos and was directed by
Ron Clements and
John Musker. The Frog Prince story itself is mentioned several times in the film, being read to Princess Tiana as a child and inspiring the spoiled Prince Naveen (who has been transformed into a frog) to suggest Tiana kiss him to break his spell. However, the kiss fails, turning her into a frog as well.
The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati's Script Development Division adapted the one-act musical Princess & Frog in 2020. The stage musical is adapted from the full-length musical Croaker written by Jason Marks and Debra Clinton.
The English alternative rock band
Keane released a song titled "The Frog Prince" within their 2004 UK number-one album Under The Iron Sea.
"The Frog Prince" is a main character of the "Neverafter" season of the tabletop role-playing game show Dimension 20, in this adaption more often referred to as "Prince Gerard" or his full title "Prince Gerard of Greenleigh". He is played by Brian K. Murphy.
^Zipes, Jack. (2016). The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The complete first edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 479.
ISBN978-0691173221.
^Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 262.
ISBN978-951-41-0963-8.
^Röhrich, Lutz. "Froschkönig (AaTh 440)" [Frog King (ATU 440)]. Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online. Edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 [1987]. p. 413.
https://doi.org/10.1515/emo.5.058. Accessed 2023-08-26.
^Kooi, Jurjen van der. "De kikkerkoning". In: Van Aladdin tot Zwaan kleef aan. Lexicon van sprookjes: ontstaan, ontwikkeling, variaties. 1ste druk. Ton Dekker &
Jurjen van der Kooi & Theo Meder. Kritak: Sun. 1997. p. 182.
^Liungman, Waldemar (2022) [1961]. Die Schwedischen Volksmärchen: Herkunft und Geschichte. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. p. 102.
doi:
10.1515/9783112618004-004.
^Röhrich, Lutz. "Froschkönig (AaTh 440)" [Frog King (ATU 440)]. Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online. Edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 [1987]. p. 413.
https://doi.org/10.1515/emo.5.058. Accessed 2023-08-26.
^Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 262.
ISBN978-951-41-0963-8.
^Kooi, Jujen van der. "De kikkerkoning". In: Van Aladdin tot Zwaan kleef aan. Lexicon van sprookjes: ontstaan, ontwikkeling, variaties. 1ste druk. Ton Dekker &
Jurjen van der Kooi & Theo Meder. Kritak: Sun. 1997. p. 182.
Livo, Norma J. (1976). "Variations on a Theme: Frogs". Language Arts. 53 (2): 193–212.
JSTOR41404128.
Massey, Irving (1983). "The Effortless in Art and Ethics: Meditations on 'The Frog King, or Iron Henry'". The Georgia Review. 37 (3): 640–658.
JSTOR41398572.
Pettman, Dominic (2017). "Animal Bride and Horny Toads". Creaturely Love: How Desire Makes Us More and Less Than Human. U of Minnesota Press. pp. 66–72.
ISBN978-1-4529-5380-9.
JSTOR10.5749/j.ctt1n2ttdv.15.
Siegel, David M.; McDaniel, Susan H. (1991). "The Frog Prince: Tale and toxicology". American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 61 (4): 558–562.
doi:
10.1037/h0079283.
PMID1746631.
Notes:p indicates a previous tale type extant until 2004. "AaTh" refers to the
Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index pre-2004; "ATU" refers to the system post-2004.