The Little Green Frog (

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

: ''La Petite Grenouille Verte'') is a French literary

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

, from the '' Cabinet des Fées''.

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...

included it in '' The Yellow Fairy Book''.

Synopsis

Two kings, Peridor and Diamantino, were cousins and neighbors, and the

fairies A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...

protected them, until Diamantino behave so badly to his wife Aglantino that they would not let him live. His daughter Serpentine was his heiress, but as she was a baby, Aglantino became regent. Peridor loved his wife, but was so thoughtless that for punishment, the fairies let his wife die; his only comfort was his son, Saphir. The fairies put a mirror into Saphir's bedroom, and it showed not his own face, but a beautiful girl. He fell in love. After a year, he saw she had a like mirror, and though he could not see the man reflected in it, he became jealous. His father had grown more grief-stricken with time, until it was feared he would die. A gorgeous bird appeared at his window one day, and he felt well again, but the bird vanished. He offered a great reward, but no one could find it. Saphir set out in

quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of e ...

. In the forest, while thirsty, he came on a fountain and took out a cup to drink, but a little green frog kept jumping in his cup. It told him to drink and then to talk with it, because it knew of the bird. It directed him to a castle, and told him to put a grain of sand in front of its gates. This would put everyone to sleep. He should go straight to the stable and take the horse. He obeyed until he reached the horse, when he thought it should have a harness as well, but when he laid hands on it, everyone woke. The lord took a fancy to him and let him go, and he returned to the frog. After he convinced it of his regret, it sent him back with a grain of gold, and told him to find a room and take off a maiden there, without heed to her resistance. He obeyed until she asked to put on a dress first; this woke them all, and only by the fairies' intervention was he freed. The frog sent him back with a grain of diamond and told him to find the garden, and cut off the branch with the bird he sought on it. This time he obeyed, and when he returned, he found a little rustic palace, with the maiden he had seen in the mirror. She told him that she had long admired him but never dreamed that he could see her. She told him that she had been the frog; that her name was Serpentine, and she knew nothing else of her family; and that fairies had raised her. She refused to marry him because he was a prince and she could not name her family. A fairy arrived, to tell them the truth, and bring Aglantino to them; then she carried them to Peridor's castle. The bird proved to be Constance, and Saphir and Serpentine were married.

Analysis

This is a standard medieval style

, complete with royalty, benevolent fairies, frogs (a symbol of disgust also used in

The Frog Prince "The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" (german: Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich, literally "The Frog King or the Iron Henry") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 1). ...

), and castles.

Gem analysis

The

gem A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, an ...

analysis points out the recurring themes of precious gems and the use of

gemology Gemology or gemmology is the science dealing with natural and artificial gemstone materials. It is a geoscience and a branch of mineralogy. Some jewelers (and many non-jewelers) are academically trained gemologists and are qualified to identif ...

and

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...

to make points. The names reflecting

peridot Peridot ( /ˈpɛr.ɪˌdɒt, -ˌdoʊ/ ''PERR-ih-dot, -⁠doh''), sometimes called chrysolite, is a deep yellowish-green transparent variety of olivine. Peridot is one of the few gemstones that only occurs in one color. Peridot can be found in ...

and

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sa ...

are purely for effect, but serpentine is unusual as it is dark, not a gemstone or particularly valued, and it is associated with

serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serp ...

s. The connection may be to prime readers for the

amphibian Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbo ...

transformation, as to children both

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s and snakes are considered slimy, disgusting 'creepy crawlies'. Going up in value, sand we all know to be worthless, and gold is not a gemstone, so the diamond will obviously work (also making it that three is magic, an old belief common to fairy tales). That Serpentine's royal father's name means diamond is linking her proven royal heritage with the stone, as they are in the story, chronologically.

The "gorgeous bird"

The place of the mysterious bird, Constance, is unclear and seems to reflect another

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

or a related tale. It does not seem to fit as a

fairy A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...

or a gem, but fits the magical setting. Under this lens, the tale is parallel to other European fairy tales classified as Aarne–Thompson–Uther ATU 550, "The Quest for the Golden Bird", as pointed by folklorists

Johannes Bolte Johannes Bolte (11 February 1858 – 25 July 1937) was a German folklorist. A prolific writer, he wrote over 1,400 publications, including monographs, articles, notes and book reviews. Works * ''Zeugnisse zur Geschichte unserer Kinderspiele'', ''Ze ...

and Jiří Polívka. The

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among th ...

themselves, in the annotations to their tales, noted that the anonymous tale of ''La petite grenouille vert'' was "visibly related" to their tale "

The Golden Bird ''The Golden Bird'' (German: ''Der goldene Vogel'') is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 57) about the pursuit of a golden bird by a gardener's three sons. It is classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as type ATU 550 ...

".Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm; Alfred William Hunt.
Grimm's Household Tales: With the Author's Notes
'. Translated from the German and Edited by Margaret Hunt. Volume II. London: G. Bell, 1884. pp. 495-496.

References

External links