The Frog Prince

A common curse among members of the magical community, specifically witches is to turn a Prince into a Frog, or sometimes a Beast. The spell can only be broken with true love or in some cases the death of the cursed subject. Here are several instances of the Curse in action.

## **Ambrose "Flycatcher"-Post 1314 (German)**

Ambrose was born a prince to King Henry. When he was a young man, Frau Totenkinder turned him into a frog. King Henry was originally unaware of his transformation, thinking his son was dead. He would become stern-faced and become a resident of Castle Waiting, the former home of Briar Rose.

A spoiled princess reluctantly befriended the Frog form Ambrose, whom she met after dropping a gold ball into a pond, and he retrieved it for her in exchange for her friendship. Ambrose magically transformed back into his original form. Versions of the story vary but the spell was broken either when the princess threw it against the wall, or by the princess kissing the frog. In other early versions, it was sufficient for the frog to spend the night on the princess' pillow.

The frog prince also had his father and loyal servant Henry, who had three iron bands affixed around his heart to prevent it from breaking in his sadness over his son's curse. When the frog prince transformed into his human form, Henry's overwhelming happiness caused all three bands to break, freeing his heart from its bonds.

(It is uncertain when this story took place, but Henry, referred to as Iron Henry, appears in *Castle Waiting* which is about residents living in Briar Rose(Sleeping Beauty's) abandoned Castle. So it must take place after that. This places it after 1314).

Ambrose and the Princess married but his curse still lingered. Anytime he got nervous, he turned into a frog again but a kiss from his wife would turn him back. Together, they had eight children and ruled their kingdom in peace.

Ambrose and his Princess became embodied in the land of Everealm(where classic fairy tales often repeat themselves in a sort of time loop). This made the two of them immortal. The human Ambrose and his wife in the mortal world presumably lived happy lives as the royal family of a German kingdom until their deaths.

The Everealm Ambrose did not have the same luck. When the Adversary reached his kingdom(sometime post 1883), Ambrose was set to face them; however, the enemies broke into his room as he was putting on his armor. Startled, he turned into a frog. He could do nothing but watch as wife and his children were murdered; his wife and eldest daughter were raped before they were killed. How Ambrose eventually returned to his human form is unknown, though it is speculated that the Adversary's henchman left before checking if the wife was truly dead. Ambrose in frog form stumbled to his dead wife and she gave him one last kiss to return him to normal before using her own limited magic to teleport him away, dying soon after.

The next thing Ambrose remembered, he was a human in his ruined capitol city. The events taking too big a toll on Ambrose, he twisted his memory of them as to believe his family had fled the kingdom in time. He began to wander the Homelands to search for them.

When he heard about the portals to the mundane world, Ambrose travelled there with the belief that he would find his family. He was disappointed, but decided to stay. He has since taken a job as a janitor at the Woodland. Although his memories of his family's death were bottled up, he was known to speak about it when drunk. Ambrose was kept as a janitor in the Woodland to protect him for searching for his family, as he would find out the truth.

## **The Tale of the Queen Who Sought a Drink From a Certain Well-1548 (Scottish)**

A somewhat similar tale.

An ill queen sent each of her daughters to a well for healing water. They each met a *losgann* who asked her to marry him, for a drink. The first two refused him as an ugly creature and were unable to get water. The youngest agreed to marry him for the water. She took the water home and healed her mother.

The *losgann* came to the door and told her to remember her pledge. First she put him behind the door, then under a bucket, then in a little bed by the fireplace, then a bed beside her own bed, but nothing stopped him. Finally, he told her to take down a rusty sword behind the bed and cut off his head. She did, and he became a handsome young prince, who married her.

## **The Well at the World's End (Anglo-Scottish)**

A girl's mother died, and her father remarried. Her stepmother abused her, made her do all the housework, and finally decided to be rid of her. She gave her a sieve and ordered her to not come back without filling it at the Well of the World's End(not the actual World's End, though a pub with that name would be built on that location). The girl set out and questioned everyone about the way. Finally, a little old woman directed her to the well, but she could not fill the sieve. She wept. A frog asked what was wrong and said it could aid her if she promised to do everything he asked for a night. She agreed, and the frog told her to stop the holes up with moss and clay. With that, she carried back the water.

The stepmother was angry at her return, and when the frog arrived, she insisted that the girl keep her promise. The frog made her take it on her knee, give it some supper, and take it to bed with her. In the morning, it made her chop off its head. When she did, it was transformed into a handsome prince. The stepmother was even more angry, but the prince married the girl and took her home.

## **The Frog Princess (Russian, Italian and Greek)**

The king (or an old peasant woman, in one version) wants his three sons to marry. To accomplish this, he creates a test to help them find brides. The king tells each prince to shoot an arrow. According to the King's rules, each prince will find his bride where the arrow lands. The youngest son's arrow is picked up by a frog. The king assigns his three prospective daughters-in-law various tasks, such as spinning cloth and baking bread. In every task, the frog far outperforms the two other lazy brides-to-be. In some versions, the frog uses magic to accomplish the tasks, and though the other brides attempt to emulate the frog, they cannot perform the magic. Still, the young prince is ashamed of his frog bride until she is magically transformed into a human princess.

In Another 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 youngest prince starts his quest. Another variation involves the sons chopping down trees and heading in the direction pointed by them in order to find their brides.

In the Russian versions of the story, Prince Ivan and his two older brothers shoot arrows in different directions to find brides. The other brothers' arrows land in the houses of the daughters of an aristocratic and wealthy merchant. Ivan's arrow lands in the mouth of a frog in a swamp, who turns into a princess at night. The Frog Princess, named Vasilisa the Wise, is a beautiful, intelligent, friendly, skilled girl who was forced to spend 3 years in a frog's skin for disobeying the evil sorcerer Koschei the Deathless. Her final test may be to dance at the king's banquet. The Frog Princess sheds her skin, and the prince then burns it, to her dismay. Had the prince been patient, the Frog Princess would have been freed but instead he loses her. He then sets out to find her again and meets with Baba Yaga, whom he impresses with his spirit, asking why she has not offered him hospitality. She tells him that Koschei is holding his bride captive and explains how to find the magic needle needed to rescue his bride. In another version, the prince's bride flies into Baba Yaga's hut as a bird. The prince catches her, she turns into a lizard, and he cannot hold on. Baba Yaga rebukes him and sends him to her sister, where he fails again. However, when he is sent to the third sister, he catches her and no transformations can break her free again.

In some versions of the story, the Frog Princess' transformation is a reward for her good nature. In one version, she is transformed by witches for their amusement. In yet another version, she is revealed to have been an enchanted princess all along.

## **The Frog Prince - Ribbit / Prince Of Freedly**

At some unknown time, a witch turned the Prince of Freedly into a frog. Why the spell was cast is unknown and the Prince remained missing for a year.

The young Princess Zora encountered an abnormally large frog after dropping her golden ball into the water. The frog was fully-dressed and his name was Ribbit. Zora promised to be Ribbit's friend and take him home to the palace, in exchange for him retrieving her lucky ball from the water. The two sneaked into Zora's chambers. Zora told Ribbit that she did not think she was beautiful or a lady, and Ribbit said he thought she was ravishing and that if she looked in the mirror long enough, she would see what he saw. Then, her uncle, the King knocked on Zora's door and Ribbit had to hide. Zora learned that only her or her mean and jealous older sister, Henrietta would become the True Princess (in that the King would choose his successor between them) Ribbit then helped Zora become more princesslike, teaching her how to dance and act ladylike. He then left because he needed to get back to the water, but promised to meet her by the fountain the next day. Zora gave him her lucky ball as a gift before he left. When Ribbit was back by the water, he admired the gift and sang about his newfound friendship.

When Henrietta spied on Ribbit teaching Zora how to be a princess, she was afraid of losing her spot as the true princess. She convinced friend, Dulcey to help kidnap Ribbit and bring him away from the water. They put him in a hole in the ground where they trapped him and left him without water, but Dulcey marked a map of where he was hidden. The next morning, Zora was happy and dressed nicely. She went to the fountain to meet Ribbit, but he was not there. Zora worried that he didn't want to be her friend anymore . Henrietta told Zora that she took Ribbit to the Woods of the Dark Heart, where he would die without water. Dulcey slipped the map to Zora and told her to hurry if she wanted to save him. Zora ran into her uncle, and convinced him that she must help her friend. He told her to come back before sunset so that the Baron Von Whobble could see her.

When searching the woods, Zora got caught in the wind, and lost the map, but she found Ribbit when her lucky golden ball shined bright from the trap. She poured water on Ribbit through the trap door to save him, and he slowly woke up. Zora lifted him from the hole using a rope. The two hugged. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, which turned Ribbit back into the Prince of Freedly. He said there was no time to explain because they had to return to the palace so Zora could be crowned the true princess. The lucky ball made a horse appear, which the two rode back to the palace.

When the Prince of Freedly and Zora made it back to the castle, the Prince tried to bang on the gate in order to get inside. The Prince wished on the lucky ball that they could enter, and thus, the guard was awoken and opened the gate. Once they make it through, Zora uses the magic ball to clean herself up.

Before Henrietta could be crowned as princess, The Prince of Freedly burst into the ballroom and announced his identity, and everyone was shocked. He explains that he was under a witch's spell - he was turned into a frog - and only a true princess could break the spell. He then announces Princess Zora, and she appears in a new dress. Her uncle, The King let a tear fall as he told Zora how proud he was of her, and that she was the truest beauty, because her beauty comes from inside. Henrietta is outraged and leaves the ballroom.

Baron Von Whobble crowned Zora the True Princess, and her uncle escorted her to dance with the Prince of Freedly. The two together in front of the whole ballroom, and Zora asks: "Are you really the Prince of Freedly?" In response, he says: "Yes, but do you know what my friends call me?" Finally, she says: "Yes I do. Ribbit."

**Prince John of Anwyn-1501**

Prince John of the fictional province of Anwyn prided himself on having rescued countless maidens as a way of eventually bedding them. In order to end three centuries of war with the realm of Lothian, he was made to marry the princess, who was convinced that they would live happily ever after. However, on his wedding day, Prince John committed a romantic indiscretion and was discovered, breaking the heart of the princess. As punishment, he was cursed by being turned into a frog forever, until such time as a maiden kissed him and married him by the next full moon. For good measure, his squire Rodney was similarly "frogged". The spell allowed them to live for as long as it took for John to be kissed human again.

Waiting 500 years until 2001, the Prince and Rodney, in the form of frogs, found themselves in New York's Central Park, where the Prince seeked Kate driving her horse-drawn carriage and was almost kissed by her before she was interrupted and instead was released within Central Park. Later, an aging actress, Margo, impetuously picked up the frog prince and kissed him, breaking the curse until the next full moon, and turning the Prince and Rodney into their human selves (still dressed in medieval clothing, and with no knowledge of how the world has changed over the centuries).

Prince John and Rodney began their search for the woman who kissed John, with the reluctant help of a skeptical Kate. After a series of comic encounters and setbacks, the Prince, in his human form, finally met Margo, who was performing Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". She decided to make her unfaithful lover, Hamish, jealous by initiating a romantic tryst. The Prince, realizing that he must marry Margo in order to permanently break the curse, proposed marriage, even as he was falling in love with Kate, who teached him what true love is. Meanwhile, Rodney found in Serena a fellow "wizard", and they trued to find potions that would ensure that Prince John married Margo.

In the end, the Prince decided to marry Kate, and almost gave up his humanity forever to do so. After Kate kissed him back into a human being, all three couples managed to find themselves with the right person, the curse was forever broken by true love (as was foretold when the spell was first enacted), and all married to live happily ever after in modern New York City.

## **Emeralda, the Frog Princess**

Emeralda, a.k.a. Emma was the princess and heir of Greater Greensward. One of her most distinct traits was her unique laugh, which sounded like a donkey's bray. The only person that appreciated her was her aunt Grassina, the current Green Witch.

When her mother, Queen Chartreuse, said she had to marry the stuck-up Prince Jorge from East Aradia, her worst enemy, she ran off to the swamp where she met Prince Eadric of Upper Montevista. The only problem is that he had been turned into a frog by the witch Mudine. Emma reluctantly kissed him, trying to reverse the spell; instead, she turned into a frog herself. Annoyed and confused by this outcome, Emma and Eadric set off to find the witch that turned him into a frog and ask her to change them back. A dog persistently chased them throughout the journey.

Upon reaching the site where Eadric insulted (and was cursed by) the witch that transformed him, they find an ugly woman searching there. The two assumed she's the witch Mudine, but she turned out to be Vannabe, a vain witch wannabe who had taken Mudine's house, pets, and possessions and plans to use the frogs for a potion she thought would make her eternally beautiful. With the aid of Mudine's former pets, the two frogs escaped and freed all the prisoners.

The animals confirmed that Mudine had disappeared, so Emma suggested they go to Grassina for help. L'il the bat and Fang the snake accompanied them as protection during the journey, though Fang left after reuniting with his lover Clarise. At the castle Grassina confirmed their true identity and explained why they're both stuck as frogs: while Emma kissed Eadric, she had been wearing the curse-reversal bracelet Grassina had given her in case an evil witch had attacked Emma. To transform back Emma and Eadric would have to kiss again while wearing the bracelet. Emma recalled that it was stolen by an otter, so the three headed to the swamp to retrieve it.

Grassina was unable to progress further into the swamp due to a hereditary curse placed on Green Witches involving flowers (which until now she had passed off as an allergy) and Eadric was chased again by the pursuing dog, so Emma had to confront the otter alone. She passed herself off as a powerful fairy and performed some magic to convince the otter to turn over the bracelet, and narrowly managed to kiss Eadric before the dog caught up to them both.

The two transformed back into humans, and the dog transformed as well. It turns out to be Eadric's horse that he had been riding on when he met Mudine, who had also cursed his steed. Returning to Grassina, she found her aunt with the otter, who was actually Grassina's old beau Haywood, cursed by Grassina's witch mother. The two couples made plans to convince their respective parents that they've found their own true loves.

Emma and Eadric would have a descendant in the form of Prince Naveen of Maldonia.

## **Prince Naveen of Maldonia and Princess Tiana-1926**

Prince Naveen of Maldonia arrived in New Orleans to better his financial situation. After being cut off by his parents for being a philanderer and spendthrift, Naveen intended to marry a rich southern belle, and Charlotte was the perfect candidate. Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff, a rich sugar baron and Charlotte's father, was hosting a masquerade ball in Naveen's honor. Charlotte hired Tiana to make beignets for the ball, giving her enough money to buy an old sugar mill to convert into her restaurant. Meanwhile, Naveen and his valet, Lawrence, met a voodoo witch doctor named Doctor Facilier, who invited them into his emporium, Facilier convinced them that he could make their dreams come true, but neither man got what they are expecting; Naveen was transformed into a frog, while Lawrence was given a voodoo talisman that made him disguised as Naveen, which Facilier intended to use to have Lawrence marry Charlotte, after which he would kill La Bouff and claim his fortune.

At the ball, the waitress Tiana met Naveen as a frog, who, believed her to be a princess because of her costume. He asked her to kiss him and break Facilier's spell. In exchange for the money needed to fulfill her dream of opening a restaurant, Tiana accepted, but since she was not an actual princess, when she kissed Naveen, she was turned into a frog herself, which also gave her the ability to talk to other animals. A chase ensued, and Tiana and Naveen escape to a bayou. In the bayou, Tiana and Naveen met a trumpet-playing alligator named Louis, and a Cajun firefly named Ray. Ray believed that the Evening Star was another firefly named "Evangeline", and no one had the heart to tell him otherwise. Louis and Ray offered to lead Tiana and Naveen to a voodoo queen Mama Odie, who they believed could undo the curse. During the journey, Tiana and Naveen developed feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Facilier made a deal with the voodoo spirits (his "friends on the other side"), offering them the souls of the people of New Orleans; in exchange, the spirits granted Facilier the services of a host of shadow demons, whom he ordered to find and capture Naveen.

When the four found Mama Odie after escaping from several of the demons and a trio of bumbling frog hunters, she told them that Naveen must kiss a true princess in order to break the spell, but Tiana misinterpreted Mama Odie's advice for her as needing to work harder. They returned to New Orleans to find Charlotte, who was the princess of the Mardi Gras Parade, but only until midnight when the parade ended. Naveen told Ray he loved Tiana and was willing to give up his dreams for her, but before he could tell Tiana, he was captured by the demons and brought to Facilier. After Ray told Tiana that Naveen loved her, Tiana went to the parade to find the Naveen who was a fake marrying Charlotte; but Ray rescued the real Naveen and stole the charm that disguised Lawrence. Ray found Tiana, gave her the charm and attempted to hold off the demons so she could escape, but was crushed by Facilier. Facilier then offered to make Tiana's restaurant dream come true in exchange for the talisman. Realizing she would rather be with Naveen, and recognizing Facilier's true intentions, Tiana destroyed the talisman. With Facilier's plan foiled, the angered voodoo spirits dragedg him into his grave as payment for his debts to them.

Lawrence was taken away by the police(It was explained that his crime was impersonating a King, and the New Orleans police had some knowledge that Magic was real and likely used). Naveen explained everything to Charlotte; Tiana and Naveen revealed their love to each other. Charlotte agreed to kiss Naveen so he and Tiana could be together as people. The clock striked midnight before she could do so, but the couple decided they were content to live together as frogs. Ray died shortly after Facilier squished him. During his funeral, where his family placed his body on a leaf and sent it floating down the river, a beam of light shined down and a star that represented Ray appears next to Evangeline's.

Tiana and Naveen were wed by Mama Odie, and because of Tiana's new status as a princess, they were restored to human form after their kiss. Later, the couple returned to New Orleans to legally get married and celebrate, and together they opened their new restaurant.

## **King Harold**

Harold was a frog who lived in a pond. One day, he met up with the Fairy Godmother, who allowed him to pursue his dream of marrying and loving Princess Lillian, by making him human. Their first date was in the night and their first kiss made him human. After the death of Lillian's father, he became the king. His true identity was not discovered until his last months on the throne as ruler. Even when his true identity was discovered he was still loved by his people and family, greatly.

At some point his daughter Fiona was born, Everyone was happy until a witch put a spell on Fiona that she would turn into an ogre every time the sun went down. Harold later told The Fairy Godmother, who told her to lock the princess in the tower into to wait till Prince Charming would come to kiss her and be free from that curse. Rumpelstiltskin was close into getting King Harold to sign a Magical Contract in order to supposedly remove Fiona's curse, however, just as the king and queen were about to sign it, he was told that Fiona was rescued.

Fiona had been rescued and later married the ogre Shrek. When Harold and Lillian met Shrek, Harold originally hated Shrek and worked with the Fairy Godmother to have Fiona marry Prince Charming. He even hired Puss in Boots to kill Shrek, only for him to fail and befriend him. He would willingly sabotage fairy Godmother's plan. She attempted to strike down Shrek with a spell that would revert him to his true form(he was magically transformed into a human at the time), but Harold stepped in the way and the spell returned him to his original form as a frog. He would eventually pass away due to his newly restored Frog lifespan. He would declare Shrek to be his successor as King. Shrek would reject this destiny and instead seek out a relative of Lillian's and a reincarnation of King Arthur: Artie Pendragon. Pendragon would then take the throne.