History Literature / TheFrogPrince

The story begins when a young princess loses her golden ball down a well and a nearby frog offers to retrieve it for her. In return, however, he demands that she keep him near her as a close companion, and share her food, her drink, and her bed with him. The princess is repulsed by the frog, but, reasoning that he has no way to enforce the promise, agrees. The frog returns her ball, and she runs home without him.

Later that night, the frog appears at the castle, and the king insists on the princess keeping her promise to him. Come night-time, however, the princess refuses to let the frog sleep on her pillow, and angrily throws him against the wall. To her shock, what lands is a handsome (and very forgiving) prince, and the two of them [[LoveAtFirstSight fall in love]] and marry.

As they ride off into the sunset, they hear three loud cracks from outside the coach - it was the prince's faithful servant, Henry, who had had his heart bound with iron straps to keep it from breaking when the prince was enchanted. The cracking sounds were the bonds breaking as the man's heart swelled with happiness.

The DistaffCounterpart ''[[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0402.html The Frog Princess]]'' is also a widespread tale. In the former [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn USSR]], the princess version is way more well known than the prince version. The UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n version also has a number of features: there, king's three sons shoot their bows randomly, and where the arrow falls, they'll find their wives. The younger son blindly shoots to the marshes, and as the Frog Princess finds his arrow, he has to marry her. Also, the Russian version does not end with frog's transformation back to a girl, but rather sets it as a starting point for more adventures.

* HappilyEverAfter: After breaking the curse, the formerly frog prince and the princess, her liberator, marry.

** Interestingly averted in Creator/TheCannonGroup's loose 1986 film adaptation in which the princess is a preteen girl and the frog is a FunnyAnimal, and their relationship is played more for OddFriendship than romance. When she gives him a kiss on the cheek in the climax, it changes him back into a human specifically because she is a princess (answering the question of whether she or her sister, both of whom were adopted, is the one with actual RoyalBlood).

%%* BeastAndBeauty

%%* HappilyEverAfter

%%* SlapSlapKiss: In the original.

A lesser-known [[Literature/EastOfTheSunAndWestOfTheMoon Norwegian variant]] features trolls and other mythical beasts who punish the girl and send her on a quest for disobeying her [[BalefulPolymorph enchanted animal companion]]. Contrast [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Persephone]]; and other fantastic-bridegroom myths, wherein the original {{aesop}} was made in part to help young women accept an ArrangedMarriage to someone they may not like very much ("Don't worry what he looks like, sweetie, he'll be a good husband if you're a good wife.")

A more-encouraging reading of this story by Carol S. Pearson points out that the prince is only transformed after the princess becomes disgusted with the frog's behavior and throws him into the fire - suggesting his demands were *meant* to be offensive, in order to provoke this reaction. If the princess had done as her father expected, suppressed her real feelings, and meekly acquiesced to everything, the prince would have remained a frog. [[ValuesResonance Only by recognizing his behavior is unacceptable]], promise or no promise, can the curse finally be broken.

* AnimatedAdaptation: Disney's ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog''

** Disney's ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' which moves the story to 20th Century New Orleans and changes the Princess into an impoverished but hardworking [[RaceLift black woman]] named Tiana.

%%* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses

* ShirtlessScene: Creator/RobinWilliams as the prince in the ''Faerie Tale Theatre'' production of "The Frog Prince" is naked when he transforms back into a man, covered only by a ModestyBedsheet.