The Frog-King, or Iron Henry by The Brothers Grimm

A Fairytale Treat

From the complete illustrated fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm

I've read some of Grimm's tales before and  I've bought the book recently. Actually I didn't buy it, my little brother(  the irritating bug) and I bought it so we co-own it. I don't think reviewing the whole book would do the different tales justice so I'll do it separately. It's worth it. We all love or loved fairy tales.

The Frog-King or Iron Henry is where The Princess and The frog is derived from (I think). . I'm basing this solely on the fact that there's a princess and a frog in this story. It's the first story from the book( my edition).

"In old times when wishing still helped one,

The story is written really fairy-tale like(like fairy tales are ) and five pages long and illustrated with one picture of the princess taking the frog up the stairs.

This is the tale of a beautiful Princess, whose more radiant than the sun itself. One day she goes off to play with her golden ball. She drops the ball into a fountain. She cries and wishes she had her ball back. So then the Frog appears and promises the Princess her ball back and in return the Princess will take him, the Frog, to her castle, she will allow him to eat with her and sleep in her bed. The Princess thinking the frog couldn't possibly get her ball back agrees. The frog retrieves her ball and the Princess was so happy she then runs home forgetting the Frog. At dinner with her father, the King, they hear some one knocking at the door.

"Princess! youngest Princess!

"Open the door for me!

"Dost thou not know what thou saidst to me

'"yesterday by the cool waters of the fountain?
"Princess,youngest princess!
"Open the door for me!'

The King hears this and asks the Princess what it's all about. After she explains he tells her to keep her promise to the frog. So she reluctantly gets the frog. She had promised to let the frog eat from her plate. this She  does . she hates this. She had also promised to let the Frog sleep in her bed, so she again reluctantly takes the Frog upstairs to her room. In the Princess and the Frog we know, the Frog turns into a Prince after he's kissed by the Princess. According to Grimm the Frog turns when the Princess throws him against a wall. Preferable and much more amusing. The prince then tells he's tale and then returns to his kingdom. Happily ever after.

It's a really nice tale and different. It's called the Frog-King because well the Frog is the king. Iron Henry is and alternative title. In the story the Prince is brought back to his kingdom by his most faithful servant, Henry. When the Prince was turned into a frog Henry had three iron bars placed around his heart, which broke one by one when the prince turned back in to prince. 

There a lot of use of what I''ll call old English, a lot of doth, saidst, thou etc. I'm guessing the moral of the story is that you should keep your promises .Hope you enjoyed this tale .

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