What ho!
A couple years ago, I got myself a colossal book of Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales from Barnes and Noble, just for the heck of it. So far, I haven't read it much, so this summer I'm going to read one story every couple of days and do a quick sum-up of each one.
Here's the first one.
The Frog King by The Brothers Grimm
Once upon a time, there was a king with a lot of daughters who were all pretty, especially the youngest one, not to be confused with those other kings in those other stories who have a lot of daughters who are all pretty, especially the youngest ones.
Anyway, the youngest daughter had a golden ball that was her favorite toy, and one day she took it down to the woods and was playing with it next to a well. She isn't given a name, so I'm going to call her Tallulah. Tallulah was playing with her ball, and it fell in the well, so Tallulah threw a tantrum.
A frog who lived in the well heard her throwing a tantrum, so he came up and asked her what's all the noise about. Tallulah told the frog that she had dropped her ball in the well. The Frog asked her what she would give him if he went and brought her ball back up. Tallulah offered him her clothes and pearls and crown, but the Frog said, no, he doesn't look good in Princess Dresses, because they make him look fat, and he doesn't want her pearls or crown. So the Frog made Tallulah promise that if he got her ball, she would bring him back to the castle and share her food and bed and stuff with him. Tallulah promised, so the Frog went down the well, found the ball, and brought it back up. Then Tallulah forgot her promise, took the ball, and made like a tree because she was a brat.
The next day, Tallulah was having dinner with The King, and there was a Wet Knock at the door. This was a time before servants had been invented, so Tallulah went and opened the door. It was The Frog, so she slammed the door on his face and went back to eating dinner with The King. The King asked her who it was, and Tallulah explained about The Frog and the ball and the promise. The King told her to open the door, brat, so she opened it and let The Frog in. The Frog asked her to put him up on the table so he can eat her food, and she whined about this for a while until The King ordered her to do what The Frog wanted.
That night, Tallulah took The Frog to her room, and put him in a corner to sleep. But The Frog wanted to sleep in her bed, so she threw another tantrum, and then she chucked The Frog against her bedroom wall. Then, The Frog turned into a Prince, and told her that he loved her even though she had just chucked him against her bedroom wall, and that a Wicked Witch had turned him into a Frog and only Tallulah could undo the Enchantment.
A common misconception with this story is that The Frog turns into a Prince after Tallulah gives him a kiss, instead of chucking him at the wall. But in those days, Wicked Witches didn't have the technology to create enchantments so powerful that only True Love could break them, and could only use weaker spells that could be broken by chucking someone against a wall.
So, The Frog turned into a Prince, and said to Tallulah, "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but I'm really a Prince, so marry me maybe." Tallulah said that that was a terrific idea, so the next day, the Prince's carriage came to the Palace to pick them up.
The Prince's servant, Henry, was the carriage driver. He's the only character in the story who actually has a name. Henry had been very sad when The Prince disappeared, so he wrapped a bunch of iron around his chest to stop his heart from exploding from grief. But on the way to The Prince's Kingdom, Henry's iron stuff started breaking because he didn't need them anymore, like Forrest Gump with his leg braces. The Prince thought that the carriage was breaking, but Henry said no, it's just the iron bands snapping.
The End
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