Roads to Safe Places

You all know the story, right?

In varying degrees of kitschiness, with the Princess either kissing the frog or tossing it headfirst into a wall, with and without the "faithful Henry"?

I do  (and the poem at the end of the story always stuck in my memory and always struck me as odd, wondering why the presence of a faithful servant is required at the end of the story. Anyway.), but what I didn't know is that there are so many stories of amphibian suitors, literally from all over the world.

The Frog King; or, Iron Heinrich
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Germany (1812)


The Queen Who Sought a Drink from a Certain Well
J. F. Campbell, Scotland


The Maiden and the Frog
James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, England


The Toad-Bridegroom
Zong In-Sob, Korea

There are all from the collection of Professor D. L. Ashliman from the University of Pittsburgh.

On there, there's also a great comparison between the two German versions - and their translations.  I've always favoured the newer beginning " In den alten Zeiten, wo das Wünschen noch geholfen hat..." ( "In olden times, when wishing still did some good" which sounds prettier than anything in German).

Really a fun and informative site for fairy tale lovers!