Frog or Prince?

On Friday the 13^th a frog climbed my balcony, reminding me of an old saying...

You'll have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your prince.

How many times have you heard that comment? I don't know about you, but it never encouraged me in my pursuit of true love.

Frogs are amphibians, not very prince like, and many people find them disgusting. In contrast, in Scotland, the frog is an item of luck and decorative items portraying frogs are often given as house warming gifts. I actually find frogs kind of cute. A frog scat rug lays on the floor in my kitchen and little frogs sit atop the drain baskets in the double sinks.

Most frogs have squat bodies, webbed digits, protruding eyes, bifid tongue and no tail. I wonder what it is about the small creatures that garner them fame through folklore and faerie tales.

In the Brothers Grimm original version of the tale The Frog Prince, a spoiled princess meets a frog. When she throws it at the wall in disgust, the spell is broken and the frog transforms into a handsome prince. A more violent means of undoing transformation magic is told in The Well of the World's End where the frog must be beheaded to transform into a prince. In our vanilla world, later versions of The Frog Prince has the princess kissing the frog to transform him into a prince.

In medieval Europe, frogs were seen as the symbol of the devil due to their association with witchcraft and potions. In one episode of the BBC's popular series Merlin, a man is thought to be a sorcerer when a woman claims to have seen frogs jumping from his mouth.

What is your take on frogs? Have you read stories with frogs? Used them in stories?

~ Dawn Marie Hamilton