One night a young princess was out walking when she came across a large pond. Sitting down for a rest she took a golden ball from her pocket and threw it into the air and caught it.
This she did again and again but one time she threw the ball so high that when it came down, she wasn’t able to catch it. The ball bounced away until it fell right into the pond.
Upset she had lost her favourite thing in the world, the princess started to cry when just then a frog popped its head out of the water and said, ’Why are you crying?’
Slightly surprised to see a talking frog the princess replied, ’My golden ball has fallen into the pond. If you help me get it back, I will give you all my clothes and jewellery.’
The frog looked at the princess and replied, ’I don’t want your jewels and fine clothes; but if you promise to let me eat from your golden plate and sleep on your bed, I will get your ball for you.’
’What nonsense,’ thought the princess, ’But if he can get my ball then I will tell him he can have whatever he wants.’
So, she agreed to the deal and the frog gave a little smile before diving under the water. After a little while he came up again with the ball in his mouth and threw it to the princess.
The princess jumped up happy to have the ball in her hands again and never gave another thought for the frog as she ran home with it as fast as she could.
The frog called after her, ’Hey, take me with you!’ But she didn’t stop and disappeared into the night.
The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a strange noise, tap, tap–plash, plash, and then there was a gentle knock at the door, as a little voice cried out:
Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to my true love here!
And remember the words that you and I said
A promise is a promise, I want to be fed!
The princess ran to the door and opened it to see the frog sitting there. Instantly she remembered her promise and didn’t know what to do, so, in a panic she slammed the door shut again and ran back inside.
Her father, the king, asked what the matter was. She told him about what happened the previous night and said she didn’t know what to do.
The king, who was very wise, replied, ’As you have made a promise you must keep it; so go and let him in.’ This she did, and the frog hopped into the room and onto the table where the princess was sitting.
The frog then said, ’Please put your plate nearer to me, so I can eat from it.’ which she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, ’Now I am tired; carry me upstairs, and put me on your bed.’
The princess reluctantly took him in her hands and put him on the pillow of her bed, where he slept all night.
As soon as it was morning he jumped up, hopped downstairs and left the house. ’Now, then,’ thought the princess, ’at last he is gone, and I shall not be bothered by him anymore.’
But she was wrong as the next night she heard the same tapping at the door and the frog came once more and said:
Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to my true love here!
And remember the words that you and I said
A promise is a promise, I want to be fed!
When the princess opened the door, the frog came in, ate her food and slept on her pillow just as before, until the morning when he left. And the third night he did exactly the same thing again.
But when the princess awoke the following morning, she was amazed to see that instead of the frog, a handsome prince was standing at the end of her bed.
He told her that he had been cursed by a wicked fairy who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been forced to live as a frog until a princess would take him out of the pond and let him eat from her plate and sleep on her bed for three nights.
’You,’ said the prince, ’have broken the spell, and now all I wish for is that we can marry, and I will love you for the rest of your life.
The young princess was the happiest girl in the world and said ’Yes’ straight away and as the prince said, they lived happily ever after.
The end
To watch the animated video of this Fairy Tale on the Oxbridge Baby YouTube Channel click here (please note these links take you to an external website).