The Enchanted Frog King,

by J. W. Cassandra

This tale is the next tale in the volume Bluebell Pixie's Tales. It tells about a fisherman who unwittingly causes a lot of trouble. The tale is about the ordeal of her sons, the three brothers, and how they are finally freed with the help of the princess, who has a little magical power, although not enough for everything.

Bluebell Pixie also introduces the story to the little boys in the fairy tale, and finally, singing at the top of his voice, she jumps on. If you read the tale, you will find out what Buebell Pixie sings merrily about...

And now let the story of the Enchanted Frog King begin!

Bluebell Pixie was walking slowly on the dust-covered road, she was sighing sometimes even, because she was quite thirsty, but she could not find water anywhere. As she was ambling, the wind suddenly swept the chill of a river toward her. On the river bank children were collecting frogs, and this reminded Bluebell Pixie of the story of the enchanted Frog King. She dipped some water from a butterbur into a nutshell, and after drinking, she raked out the fairy tale to teach the boys what bad it is to cause suffering to others. And the fairy tale has already begun:

Once upon a time, there lived a fisherman on the bank of a river. This fisherman had three sons, who were naughty, and always had been up to some mischief. Once the fisherman could no longer bear the perpetual struggle with them, and burst out bitterly:

"If only one of you turned into a fish, the other into a serpent and the third one into a frog!"

Scarcely he said this, his three sons turned at once: the eldest into a fish, the middle into a little snake and the youngest into a toad.

"What have you done, you miserable!" His wife was lamenting. "Redeem your fault at once!"

The fisherman gave himself up to sorrow, he did not want such a cruel wicked thing to his sons, he wanted only them to be good. But now his sonwho had become a fish, slipped into the river, his serpent-son slipped away in the grass, and the toad perished in the lush undergrowth on the river bank.

The fisherman set out to search for the person who would his sons turn back into human. He went and was walking along, but he never left the river, for his son who had become a fish, followed him, his frog-son jumped beside him, and his serpent-son followed him on the ground crawling.

So he went on and on, even not knowing from how long, when suddenly a bewitchingly beautiful princess was rushing toward him on the river bank in her carriage of twelve horses.

"Please, stop, beautiful princess, help me", beseeched her the fisherman, "maybe, you can help me with my great trouble!"

The carriage stopped, the steeds were snorting, and the princess listened to the wretched fisherman attentively. The poor fisherman was wailing and crying, how he could tell such a thing, but the princess comforted to him:

"Do not worry so much, you fisherman, I will try to help them!" And saying so, she bended down, lifted the little snake up, and touched it with her golden-diamond crown, which changed the spell tot he extent that the serpent-boy became the Snake King: a little golden crown twinkled on his head.

The the princess's crown touched the fish appearing suddenly from the water, and that fish-boy became the Fish King: and he also had on his head a twinkling little golden crown. The fisheman was only staring: how will be able to be these men again, his three sons? Then the princess touched also the toad with her crown, and the frog-boy became the Frog King.

Then the princess's magic power unraveled the mouths of the Fish King, the Serpent King and the Frog King, and they said this to their father in turn:

"Our good father, we know well that we have annoyed you a lot, you have grieved a lot for us, please, do one thing for us yet: go to the Witch of Heaven-Earth-Water, aboding at the bottom of the sea, and take her three strands of hair from her, but let they be grey, otherwise we will never more be your three sons again!"

They told how much troublesome it is to live in the skin of fish, snake and frog: the fish gapes in vain, it remains silent, its suffering the word cannot alleviate; the serpent's forked tongue frightens the man away, he is frightenedby its hiss,and if he notieces it, at once kills it; the grief-stricken croak on the bank of the river or on the lake at most is a melody to good people, but the mischievous children collect them to climb on ladders, at the rascal boys' own pleaseure. All these sufferings are not helped by tears the tears what neither the fish, the snake, nor the frog can weep; nor the word, for people do not understand them, behold, not even their own father or mother!

The poor fisherman asked them, where he could find the Witch of Heaven-Earth-Water.

But not even his sons who had become kings, knew that. Then the princess sat the fisherman in her carriage, they poured some water into a little pot, and put the Fish King in it, the Serpent King slipped under the seat, and the Frog King jumped up on t he seat between his father and the princess.

They have been travelling in this manner for three days, that was a year at that time. They reached the enormous sea on the evening of the third day, depth of which hid the Witch of Sky-Earth-Water.

What shall the fisherman do? He asked nicely the princess to touch the sea with her crown, and he started to sing a sad song, in which he sang, how his sons had become fish, serpent and frog, and how much they suffered. The pathetic song affected the princess, but not the witch: she did not come to the surface of the water, but the princess descended to her, and took the fisherman with herself, and the three changed brothers waited: the Fish King in the foams near the sea shore, and the other two on the shore.

Well, a day had gone, when their father and the princess appeared again: they brought the three silver hair of the Witch of the Sky-Earth-Water.

They braided them at the command of the Serpent King and the fisherman and the princess bound together the three enchantrd brothers with this braid. As they were bound, the fisherman touched all of them in turn:

"I do not regret,any more, whatever naughty you were, I forgive you all, let turn again into man, into my three sons!"

For saying this, the Fish King shuttered and the fisherman could embrace his eldest son crying and laughing; then the Serpent King shuttered, and the fisherman could rejoyce over his middle son. But the braid unbraided by the time it could have touched the Frog King and so he remained Frog King.

Oh, the tears fell of the two boys, of their father and even of the princess! Frog King was croaking sorrowfully, it was jumping, desperately trying to give them something to understand, but they already did not understand its speech.

The two boys would hve tried the princess's crown again, but she knew that such a magic happens only once, therefore she did not want to touch the Frog King with it.

The fisherman tried to braid the witch's hair again, but the braid was unbraiding on and on, and the Frog King disappeared.

Well, they despaired truly only then! However, the princess sat them in her carriage there and then, and they drove to the fisherman's shack. There the boys mother has cried both her eyes out, she did not believe she would ever see them again. She was overjoyed when they arrived, but she soon felt even deeper sorrow, because her youngest son was lost, even if he was the Frog King!

The princess listened to the howling of the wind, then she consulted with her twelve steeds, but she could not guess, where the Frog King could be. Of course, because the poor frog fell into captivity of a bad boy, who noticed the twinkling of its golden crown, rudely deprived him of it from the frog, and locked the Frog King into a jar, to climb up and down on his ladder. In addition, if the frog did not want to crawl, he poked it with a sharp stick.

The poor Frog King was jumping up and down the ladder without its crown and was croaking in despair. Finally, the stick of the boy drilled a hole in the the cover of the bottle, so large that the frog's croak could be heard.

The princess heard it at last, and she set forth for it on her carriage. She was listening to Frog King's croaking, and was gallopping to it through three days and nights, when finally she found the frog at the naughty boy, in the bottle. She took the Frog King at once of him, embraced to herself and carried to the fisherman's shack.

On the way, the Frog King's crown helped her understand as it was telling her its suffering and thanks her for rescuing it. Because let me not forget out that the princess won back the Frog King's little crown from the amazed naughty boy and fitted to its head. The Frog King's suffering attached deeply the princess, so deeply that she embraced it to herself in the carriage as they dashed toward the shackl and kissed it. Her tears fell on the frog's skin…

And behold a miracle! Frog King got rid of the spell and turned back into the youngest son of the fisherman. But the tears of the princess not only turned it back, but he became a royal prince! When they arrived at the fisherman's shack, it was only true happiness!

The fisherman, his wife, the brothers were all happy that their younger brother who had suffered the longest, was found, even how much were they happy that the princess chose him to be her husband! The fisheman's shack turned into a palace from the touch of the princess's crown, and they all fit well in it.

The Frog King and the princess had a great wedding, the guests had amused for a week. If the guests had not have amused themselves, my fairy tale would continue! It is over, run away with it!

The boys winked at Bluebell Pixie respectfully, on the enchanting bag shining on her shoulder, and they released the tiny amphibians all in turn, then waved merrily after Bluebell Pixie, who was singing so:

Today here and tomorrow there,
hip-hop, I am here right off!
Frog King accompanies me,
it is croaking in the mists.

Come with me and wander,
here is my bag on your shoulder!
Sing at the top of your voice: "Ahoy,
Bluebell Pixie is here once more!..."

Written: December 2005, by J. W. Cassandra
Translated: 14 / 07. 2025., by J. W. Cassandra

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