A Princely Frog
Kentitrix speaks:
Well met, Mythstitcher, you have reached the beginning of our yarn.
There was once a frog – or was there?
“Oh, Froggy went wooin’ and he did ride,
With sword and pistol by his side.
He brought a gift from water cold,
A slipp'ry, yellow ball of gold.”
Go back, my curious ones, to when storytellers began to unfurl the stories which came to be told around campfires. Frogs were often not frogs at all, but shape-shifted beings, either wearing cloaks woven of their own conjuring, or perhaps they were unfortunate humans cursed into the form of a frog – for do not all frogs change shape as they grow?
Which came first, the frog or the Fae?
And might we not ponder that even an ill-starred prince, magicked into froggy form, could have committed some ill-intentioned act which led to such a fate? The slandering of some seemingly frail old woman (perhaps one of my sisters, shielded by a shift of disguise) suggests he might not have been the Charming Prince of much sweet telling. There are many tales, from many lands, which tell of frogs as bringers of ill fortune.
Froggy was well armed, with sword and pistol.
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"As I walked along Nature's happy highway, I saw a frog. He leap'd joyfully in the sunlight, as though reaching for the golden globe of a yellow water-lily bloom. What was his story, what his fate? "
Embroidery Whisperer
But back to our story: There was a “frog” who strapped upon himself weapons of war and stepped out, one fine day, to court a mouse. With him he brings a gift, a plaything, a ball of gold. (This takes us into the realm of another well-worn legend: the Frog Prince. A princess loses her favourite plaything, a ball of pure, glimmering gold, fallen into a murky pond. From the depths, a frog croaks that he will return the ball, but only if she welcomes him to her table and into her bower. Hardly the generous action of a humble hop-toad!) Our Froggy has a grand gift, indeed, for his intended.
What happens when he reaches Miss Mousie’s door?
Click on Miss Mousie's tail to find out!