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«The Frog Princess»

The Frog Princess is a fairy tale that exists in many versions from several countries.

Russian variants include the Frog Princess or Tsarevna Frog (Царевна Лягушка, Tsarevna Lyagushka) and also Vasilisa the Wise (Василиса Премудрая, Vasilisa Premudraya).

The king (or an old peasant woman, in Lang's version) sets his three sons to marry, and tests their chosen brides. The king tells them to shoot arrows and find their brides where the arrows land, and the youngest prince's arrow is picked up by a frog. The two older sons may already have girls picked out, but the youngest son -- Ivan Tsarevich in the Russian version—is at a loss until a friendly frog takes pity on him and offers to marry him. In Calvino's version, the princes use slings rather than bows and arrows. In the Greek version, the princes set out to find their brides one by one; the older two are already married by the time the third sets out. Another variation involves the sons chopping down trees and heading in the direction the fallen tree points in order to find their brides.

The king assigns his three prospective daughters-in-law various tasks, such as spinning cloth and baking bread. In every task the frog far outdoes the lazy brides-to-be of the older brothers; in some versions, she uses magic to accomplish the tasks, the other brides attempt to emulate her and cannot do the magic. Still, the young prince is ashamed of his froggy bride, until she is magically transformed into a princess.

In the Russian versions of the story, Prince Ivan and his two older brothers shot arrows in different directions to find brides for themselves. The other brothers' arrows landed in the houses of the daughters of an aristocratic and a wealthy merchant. Ivan's arrow landed in the mouth of a a frog in a swamp, who turns into a princess. Princess Frog is usually a beautiful, intelligent, friendly, skilled girl. She was obligated to spend 3 years in a frog's skin for disobeying her father. Her last test may be dancing, with the frog bride having shed her skin; the prince then burns it, to her dismay. If he had waited, she would have been free, buthe has lost her. He then sets out to find her again and meets up with Baba Yaga, whom he impresses with his spirit, demanding to know why she has not offered him hospitality. She may tell him that Koschei has his bride captive, and how to find the magic needle, without which Koschei will be helpless; with that, he rescues his bride. In other versions, his wife flies into Baba Yaga's hut as a bird; he catches her, she turns into a lizard, and he can not hold on. Baba Yaga rebukes him and sends him to her sister; there he fails again, but is sent to the third sister, where he catches her, and no transformations break her free again. In some versions of the story, the transformation is a reward for her good nature; in others, she is transformed by witches out of amusement; and in others, she is revealed to have been an enchanted princess all along.

Marshall Islands, 2002, Frog Princess

USSR, 1984, The Princess Frog

USSR, 1984, Ivan and frog

USSR, 1984, Ivan and the Old man

USSR, 1984, Crowd and mute swans

Marshall Islands, 2002.04.26, Majuro. The Frog Princess

Russia, 2003.11.03, Frog Princess