The Frog King

7-9 min read
16 pages

The frog king, the Brothers Grimm tale to read aloud. He fetches her gold ball out of the well, and she promised him rather a lot for it.

A king's youngest daughter had a golden ball, and her favourite thing in the world was to sit by the well in the wood behind the castle and throw it up and catch it.

One afternoon she threw it badly. It came down on the stone rim, bounced once, and went into the well, which was very deep and had no bottom that anyone had ever found.

She was still crying when a frog put his head out of the water. «What will you give me,» he said, «if I bring it up?»

«Anything,» she said. «My clothes, my pearls, my crown.» «I don't want those,» said the frog. «Let me be your companion. Let me eat off your plate and sleep on your pillow. Promise that, and I'll dive.»

She thought: a frog is a frog, he lives in a well, he will never come. «I promise,» she said. So he went down and came up with the ball, and she snatched it and ran, and she did not look back once.

The next evening the family were at dinner when something came up the marble stairs — flop, flop, flop — and knocked at the door, and a voice called, «King's daughter, youngest, let me in.»

She opened the door, saw what it was, shut it hard and came back to the table white as the cloth.

«What was at the door?» said her father. She told him, in as few words as she could manage.

«Did you promise?» said the king. «Yes,» she said. «Then a promise is a promise,» said the king, «and you will keep it. Go and let him in.»

So the frog came flop, flop across the floor and up onto the table, and said «Push your plate nearer, we'll eat together.» She did it because her father was watching, and she did not eat a mouthful.

«Now I'm tired,» said the frog. «Carry me up to your room.»

She carried him with two fingers and put him down in the corner. «On the pillow,» said the frog, «or I shall tell your father.» And at that she picked him up and threw him at the wall with everything she had. «There,» she said. «Sleep, then.»

What slid down the wall was not a frog. A king's son was standing in the corner of her room, looking at his own hands as though he had not seen them for a while.

«An enchantress put me in the well,» he said. «Nobody but you could have let me out, and you had to keep your word to do it, and you very nearly didn't.»

In the morning a carriage came with eight white horses, driven by a servant called Faithful Henry, who had worn three iron bands round his chest since the day his master disappeared, to keep his heart from breaking.

They drove away together, and on the road something cracked behind them — once, and then again, and then a third time. The prince called out, «Henry, the carriage is breaking.» «No, master,» said Henry. «That was the bands. My heart doesn't need them now.»

…read the rest in the Marytale app.

Marytale is an app of illustrated bedtime stories to read to your child — a picture on every page, no ads and no internet needed. The bookmark stays where your child fell asleep.

Try it free

Scan with your phone to get Marytale

Text source: Plot by the Brothers Grimm (1812), public domain. The text was written anew for Marytale — it is not a reprint of anyone else's version.

The Frog King characters

The princess: Loses her golden ball down a well and promises anything to get it back. She then throws the frog at the wall rather than let him into her bed — the tale is on her side about the promise and not about the throwing.
The frog: A king under an enchantment. He asks to eat from her plate and sleep on her pillow, and he holds her to every word she said at the well.
The king: Her father, who makes her keep the promise. He is the only adult in the story and he uses it to say one thing: what you have promised, you do.
Faithful Henry: The prince's servant, who had three iron bands put round his heart to keep it from breaking with grief. They snap one by one on the ride home, and the prince thinks the carriage is falling apart.

Want to know where these stories come from? The articles are here

The Frog King

The Frog King characters

More stories to read