The Tale of a Frog Kissed into a Prince

by Heidi Anne Heiner

 This is an updated and expanded version of an article that originally appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Faerie Magazine and now appears as the introdution to The Frog Prince and Other Frog Tales From Around the World .

A FROG with a crown on its head.  A girl kissing a frog.  If you pay attention, you’ll notice the images appear frequently in the world around you.  These and other variations — many humorous — appear on t-shirts, in advertisements, on book covers and novelty items to name just a few.  Their shorthand message:  You have to kiss a lot of frogs to meet your prince.  Just about anyone will tell you it’s from a fairy tale, some may be able to tell you the story.  Not many people know that the familiar story isn’t really an old tale but a fairly new variation of several tales that have been circulating for centuries.

‘And so the princess kissed the frog, turning him into a prince before her very eyes.’  A frog transformed into a prince with a kiss.  That’s how “The Frog Prince” fairy tale ends in modern popular culture, but it’s not the way our ancestors knew the tale.  Most often, violence was the key to ending the enchantment in the earliest known versions traced back to Scotland and Germany. 

The Scottish tale is most familiarly known as “The Well of the World’s End” and first appeared in print in The Complaynt of Scotland in 1549, predating Shakespeare.  The title is romantic, but not nearly as easy to remember as our more familiar “The Frog Prince.”  The tale is considerably different, but obviously related to the tale of today.

Once upon a time… a stepmother gives her hated stepdaughter the impossible task of fetching water in a sieve from the Well of the World’s End.  After much searching, an old woman directs the girl to the well.  The girl dutifully tries to fill the sieve but the water never fails to run out of the vessel.  Frustrated, she sits down and cries until she hears a frog offering a solution to her problem if she will agree to do whatever he asks for one night.  The girl agrees, thinking that a frog can’t bring her any harm.  Using his advice, she successfully fills the sieve and hurries home, forgetting the frog until he appears at her door that evening.  The stepmother, angry that the girl has accomplished the impossible task, orders the girl to keep the promise.  She is delighted the girl will have to obey a nasty frog.

The frog proceeds to ask the girl to hold it on her lap, then feed it, and finally to take it to bed with her.  She sleeps with the frog in her room and awakens to hear it asking her to chop off its head.  At first she refuses, but the frog repeats the request again and again until she reluctantly agrees.  As soon as she chops off its head, a handsome prince appears before her, explaining that she has broken an enchantment over him with her actions.  He wants to marry her as reward for breaking the spell and so she marries well and escapes her spiteful stepmother, all because she kept her promises despite adversity.  

Despite its few appearances in print, the Scottish version of the tale remained popular in oral tradition and was recognized by readers, such as Sir Walter Scott, the author of Ivanhoe, when the Brothers Grimm chose to give it first billing in their fairy tale collection, Kinder-und Haus-märchen (Children's and Household Tales), in 1812 and its subsequent seven editions.  The Grimms determined it was one of the oldest German tales and collected several versions, ultimately choosing only one to appear in later editions of their book.  As the popularity of the collection grew among all ages, the Grimms edited the tale through three editions, making significant changes to the text from their original manuscript by removing the bawdier elements and emphasizing the moral of keeping promises.  They titled it “The Frog King; or, Iron Heinrich [Henry].”

Once upon a time… a princess is playing with a golden ball near a well when the ball falls into the water.  The princess is upset at losing the ball and begins to cry.  A frog appears and offers to return the ball if she will make him her companion.  The princess agrees, thinking she can easily forget the frog and the promise.  Once the ball is retrieved, she runs away, planning to never see the frog again. 

That evening the frog appears at her door and demands that she keep her bargain.  Her father, the king, learns about the promise and requires her to keep it.  So the princess reluctantly lets the frog eat from her plate and then carries him upstairs to sleep with her.  As soon as she enters the privacy of her room, however, she flings the frog against the wall to rid herself of its nuisance.  Much to her surprise, a handsome prince falls onto her bed instead of a dead frog.  He thanks her for breaking the enchantment and ultimately marries her, taking her to live with him in his kingdom. 

There’s an additional bit about Iron Henry, the prince’s loyal servant, breaking the bands around his heart with his joy for the prince’s restoration.  It’s an interesting addendum, but anticlimactic for readers.  Most modern retellings omit Iron Henry altogether, focusing on the romantic ending instead.

When Edgar Taylor translated the Grimms into English for the first time in German Popular Tales (1823), he took several liberties with the text while introducing one of the most popular books and fairy tales of all time to a larger audience.  He made several changes, but two remain the most significant.  First, he chose the title of “The Frog Prince,” providing the title by which the tale is most commonly known today in English.  Second, he removed the violence.  Instead of throwing the frog against the wall, the princess reluctantly allows the frog to sleep on her pillow for three consecutive nights.  On the third morning, she wakens to discover a handsome prince in her room instead of the frog.  They are married and return to his kingdom to live happily ever after.

But where is that famous kiss?  In the Scottish version, the girl breaks the spell by cutting off the frog’s head.  In the German version, the spell is broken when the princess throws the frog against the wall.  In other variants across Europe, the enchantment is broken when the frog’s skin is burned.  In some countries, such as Russia, the most popular versions tell of a frog princess instead of a prince who usually marries a youngest son.  Several Frog Bride tales are offered in this collection, including two from Russia. [See The Frog-Tsarevna and The Tsarevna Frog.]

No where is there a record of a kiss specifically breaking the spell. The famous kiss is a relatively recent modification to the tale, its exact origin unknown.  Many scholars believe it to be an Anglo-American addition derived from Edgar Taylor’s translation.  Perhaps someday some enterprising researcher will discover the original publication where that kiss first appeared, but for now it remains an elusive mystery. 

That’s not to say that a kiss had never been used before in folklore to break an enchantment.  It isn’t as common as other methods, but it appears in another type of tale, those often classified as Loathly Lady tales, some going back all the way to the 14th century.   One example, “The Daughter of Hippocrates,” is presented in this collection. [See The Frog Prince and Other Frog Tales From Around the World .]

So yes, the kiss has existed for several centuries in other tales, just not the Frog Prince variants.  Its first introduction remains shrouded in mystery for now, but it’s almost certainly fairly recent.  Somehow it was introduced into the tale and now it is arguably the most important, at least most recognized, element of the tale.

Consider how important the kiss’s inclusion has become, changing a tale that once emphasized the importance of keeping promises to a commentary on the frustrations of modern romance.  Women and men use images from the tales as shorthand to bemoan the search for a “true love” in the world of less than desirable dates.  Others use the tale to remind us to look below surface appearance and get to know the person beneath the skin, the main theme of another popular and similar tale, “Beauty and the Beast.” 

Mystery or not, the kissed Frog Prince is a well-known part of our popular culture, with novelists, illustrators, poets, directors and others continuously retooling the tale with their own imaginative interpretations.  An abundance of romance novels use the theme, as well as children’s picture books and mainstream fiction.  A majority of the modern retellings, barring romance novels, focus on debunking the fairy tale’s “happily ever after” message.  Some take the voice of the frog, hating to become human, while others tell of trying to seduce the princess.  Other authors take the voice of the princess, bemoaning her loss of independence and innocence or commenting on how marriage to the prince is far from ideal.  Numerous versions with varying viewpoints focus on the desire for the frog to remain a frog or return to that state.

This disenchantment with the tale’s romantic message is especially apparent in poetry.  Poets Anne Sexton and Sara Henderson Hay were pioneers with their Frog Prince poems.  Several more poets have followed the trend, from Joyce Thomas to Robert Ranke Graves.  While the poems are too numerous to list here, many of the best can be found in Disenchantments: An Anthology of Modern Fairy Tale Poetry edited by Wolfgang Mieder and The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales edited by Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson.  Few other fairy tales have been reinterpreted into poetry as often as “The Frog Prince.” 

Many respected authors, including Tanith Lee, Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip and Donna Jo Napoli [see Modern Interpretations of The Frog King], as well as lesser known ones, have brought the tale to modern fiction.  The list of fiction is extensive, and the majority of it tends towards the same disenchanted themes apparent in the poetry.  A fairly comprehensive list that is continuously updated is available on my website, SurLaLune Fairy Tales, at www.surlalunefairytales.com.  Ranging from the humorous to the macabre, the fiction is entertaining and often thought-provoking.

Although the tale is popular, not many children’s picture books of the traditional tale are currently in print, perhaps due to the violent content in the original Grimms’ tale.  Most versions are reinterpretations in modern settings with different themes.  Not to be forgotten, author Jon Scieszka and illustrator Steve Johnson have provided one of the most popular picture books of the tale, The Frog Prince Continued, a spoofy story enjoyed by children and adults explaining what happened after the original tale ended.  Unhappy with his new life, the prince attempts to turn back into a frog through a series of misguided attempts.  By the end of the book, he recognizes the love he has for his princess wife and she for him.  When they kiss, they both turn into frogs and hop happily away into a different future. 

In 2009, Disney brought greater attention to Frog Prince tales with its return to feature film-length retellings of traditional tales, namely The Princess and the Frog, loosely based on the Grimms’ tale.  The film has been the source of much controversy, especially over the introduction of Disney’s first black princess, from her name to her romantic love interest to the setting of her story.  This feature film will be the largest film and arguably the largest pop culture event using the Frog Prince to date. 

In the end, be grateful for that mysterious kiss, wherever it came from.  It’s a lot less messy and considerably more legal than chopping off heads or throwing your mate against a wall.  It adds romance and fun to an old tale, keeping it relevant and applicable to our modern world while still connecting us with a romanticized past.  It also shows how our culture continues to adapt and change fairy tales to emphasize new themes and messages.  It’s history in progress. 

By the way, Sleeping Beauty wasn’t always awakened with a kiss either.  But that’s a story for another day.