The Frog Queen (Hungarian: A békakirályné) is a Hungarian folk tale featuring the marriage between a human maiden and a husband in frog guise, after she makes a vow to marry the amphibian to have access to water.
The tale is related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband: a human maiden marries an animal that is a prince in disguise, breaks a taboo and loses him, and she has to seek him out. The story shares motifs with other tales of the region, like Serbian Again, The Snake Bridegroom, and Romanian Trandafiru, The Enchanted Pig and Enchanted Balaur: the heroine must search for her husband under a curse not to bear their child until he touches her again.
Source The tale was originally published by Hungarian folklorist in the journal , and sourced from a Székely informant.
Summary In this tale, a man has three beautiful daughters. One day, feeling thirst, the eldest goes to a fountain to draw some water, when a frog appears and stops her, unless she agrees to marry the frog. The eldest girl despises the frog and goes back home. The middle sister tries her luck and she also denies the frog's request. The youngest sister goes to the fountain and invites the frog to come for a visit in her bedroom, then goes back home with a bucket of water. Some time later, the frog comes to their house to fulfill the girl's promise, and goes to her room. The girl places some pillows for the frog and the amphibian removes his frogskin, becoming a handsome youth clad in a vest with shining diamond buttons. She falls in love with him and they spend the nights together.
Eventually, three brothers come to court the three sisters: the elder two agree to marry the eldest brothers, while the youngest says she will only marry the frog. For this, her father banishes her to a pigsty with the frog; the girl cries, but the frog comforts her, telling her not to complain about her situation. That same night, the frog husband turns the pigsty into a diamond palace for them. They keep living as husband and wife, with him taking off the frogskin at night. However, on one occasion, the girl, unaware the frog is under a curse, decides to burn the frogskin by placing some coals under the bed. The now human frog senses a burning smell, then finds his frogskin burnt down. The tale then explains the frog is in fact the son of the king of Burkus, cursed into amphibian form by his stepfather. For her betrayal, the prince places two metal rings around his wife, curses her not to give birth until he places his two arms around her again, then turn a hundred metal sticks into a "boskor" and another hundred into a staff, then departs to the seventh kingdom.
As for the girl, she begins a journey and passes by a herd of golden pigs, which a shepherd explains belongs to the "rakkirály" ("crab-prince"), then directs her to Holy Monday. Holy Monday does not know of her husband's location, gives her a lump of golden hemp and directs her to her brother, Holy Tuesday. Holy Tuesday does not know of the crab-prince, either, but gives her a golden distaff and directs her to Saint Sreda (Holy Wednesday). The girl gains other golden objects: from Holy Wednesday, a golden spindle; from Holy Thursday a golden "motollál", from Holy Friday a golden hen with chicks, and from Holy Saturday a bushel of golden millet. Finally, the girl reaches the house of Holy Sunday, who guides her to the location of the crab-prince.
The girl, heavily pregnant, sits by the door of the castle and takes out the golden objects to draw the attention of the local queen, using the golden hemp with the golden distaff. The local Old Queen sights the newcomer, whom the tale calls "Frog Queen", and wishes to have the golden apparatuses, which the girl agrees to trade for a night in the crab-prince's chambers. She cannot wake him up, for he is fast asleep with a soporific wine. The next day, the girl draws out the spindle and the "motollál" as the next bribe, and trades them for a second night with the crab-prince. Again, she cannot wake him up. For the last night, the girl feeds the golden hen with chicks with the golden millet, and trades them for a last night in the prince's chambers. On the last night, the prince avoids drinking the wine, for a servant ("hamujutkája", in the original) informed him about the girl that came in his room, and warns he should not drink the wine. The Frog Queen enters the prince's chambers, then begs him to wake up and touch her belly, for her to be released from the metal rings. The prince wakes up and embraces his wife, releasing her from the rings and allowing her to give birth to their children, a pair of golden-haired boys with the Sun on their fronts and stars on their breasts. The prince reconciles with his wife.
Analysis Tale type ATU 440: The Frog Prince The first part of the tale is classified as tale type ATU 440, "The Frog Prince", or, in the Hungarian Folktale Catalogue, A BÉKAKIRÁLYFI ("The Frog Prince"). In the Hungarian type, the heroine, youngest of three daughters, gives her ring to a frog in a well; the frog comes to her house, intent on cashing in on the betrothal promise and spends the night with her; in the morning, the frog has turned into a handsome youth.Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2: A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300–749). Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. pp. 220-221. However, researcher Jozséf Liszka notes that the starting episode of the three sisters or princesses going to draw water from a well does not resemble the German tale The Frog Prince, from the definitive edition of the Brothers Grimm' collection, but an earlier tale, also called The Frog Prince, that was present in the 1815 edition, but expunged from the definitive, internationally known version. It is the tale from the 1815 edition that more closely resembles oral variants of type ATU 440 collected in Hungary, Czechia, and Slovakia.
ATU 425A: The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom The second part of the tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom".Dégh, Linda. Hungarian Folktales: The Art of Zsuzsanna Palkó. Routledge, 2014. p. 77. .Dégh, Linda. Folktales and Society: Story-telling in a Hungarian Peasant Community: Expanded Edition with a New Afterword. Indiana University Press, 1989. p. 325. . In this tale type, the princess burns the husband's animal skin and she must seek him out, even paying a visit to the Sun, the Moon and the Wind and gaining their help.Vernaleken, Theodor. In the Land of Marvels: Folk-tales From Austria And Bohemia. London: W. S. Sonnenschein & co., 1884. pp. 359-360.Kovacs, Agnes. "Az égig éro fa meséjének magyar redakcioi és samanisztikus motivumaik" [Die ungarischen Redaktionen des Märchens vom Himmelhohen Baum (AaTh 468) und ihre schamanistischen Motive]. In: Ethnographia vol. 95, n°1 (1984). p. 23. In tale type ATU 425A, the heroine journeys far and wide to encounter her husband, and finds him at the mercy of a second spouse. The supernatural husband, now human, is put to sleep by the magic potion of the second spouse, so that the heroine has no chance of rescuing him.Bálint Peter. Kedvenc Népmeséim (My Favourite Folk Tales): A hangok sokfélesége (The Multiplicity of Voices) - meseszöveg-gyűjtemény és tanulmányok (a collection of tales and studies). Hajdúböszörmény, 2010. p. 225. .
Similarly, the Hungarian Folktale Catalogue (MNK) indexes it as type AaTh 425A, Ámor és Psükhé ("Amor and Psyche"): the heroine marries an animal husband that is human underneath the animal skin, burns the animal skin, and loses him; to get him back, she travels to the houses of the Mother of the Sun, the Mother of the Moon and the Mother of the Wind, and gains objects she uses to bribe the false bride for a night with her husband.Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). pp. 212-213.
Motifs The heroine's helpers
In a study published posthumously, Romanian folklorist noted that, in Romanian and in some South Slavic variants, instead of meeting the Sun, the Moon and the Wind on the way to her husband, the heroine finds incarnations of the days of the week, like Holy Wednesday and Holy Friday. They function the same as the elements and gift the heroine with golden objects.Caraman, Petru. "Identificarea episodului despre Cupidon şi Psyche, din romanul „Metamorphoses” al lui Apuleius, cu un basm autentic popular" [Identification of the Episode on Cupidon and Psyche, in the Novel Metamorphoses by Appuleius, with An Authentic Folk Fairy Tale]. In: Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei 9 (2009): 28–33. Also, according to Hungarian scholar , the heroine's helpers are three old ladies: the mother of the Sun, the mother of the Moon and the Mother of the Wind in Hungarian variants, and Holy Friday, Holy Saturday and Holy Sunday in Romania.Purdi Mihály; Karig Sára, Hocopán Sándor (eds.). Világ Szépe és Világ Gyönyörűje. Magyarországi román népmesék. Budapest: Európa Könyvkiadó, 1982. p. 330.
The heroine's gifts According to Hans-Jörg Uther, the main feature of tale type ATU 425A is "bribing the false bride for three nights with the husband". In fact, when he developed his revision of Aarne-Thompson's system, Uther remarked that an "essential" trait of the tale type ATU 425A was the "wife's quest and gifts" and "nights bought". In the same vein, according to Hungarian scholar Ágnes Kovács, in ("Hungarian Ethnographic Dictionary"), the heroine is cursed by her husband not to bear their children until he touches her again. In her search for him, she passes by the houses of the Mothers of the Sun, of the Moon and of the Wind (or Holy Friday, Holy Saturday and Holy Sunday), where she gains (golden) apparatuses: a distaff, a spindle, and a bobbin, which she uses to trade for a night in the prince's chambers.
The heroine's pregnancy In Balkanic variants of the tale type, the supernatural husband curses his wife not to give birth to their child for a long period of time until she finds him again. In addition, according to Lithuanian professor , similar tales from Hungary, Romania and Moldova contain the motif of the supernatural husband wrapping iron hoops around the heroine's belly so she cannot give birth to their child until he lays a hand on her again.
In this regard, Hungarian scholar Ákos Dömötör, in the 1988 revised edition of the Hungarian Folktale Catalogue, separated this motif under a second typing indexed as AaTh 425L, Abroncs a Testen ("Rings on Body"): the husband places iron rings around the heroine's body so she is unable to give birth until he touches her again. Despite its own typing, Dömötör remarked that it is "identical" to type AaTh 425A (see above).Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). pp. 216-217.
Variants King's Son, Little Miklós