"The Frog Prince" by Keane

The story of the frog prince is one that is seen in a lot of stories. Maybe the prince isn't turned into a frog - sometimes he's turned into a beast, a wolf, a bird - any animal. And he has to convince some beautiful maiden or princess to fall in love with him or perform True Love's kiss in order to return him to his original, magnificent form. But what happens after the kiss? We assume they live happily every after, because that's how fairy tales are supposed to end. Sometimes, it's more complicated than that.

Keane's "The Frog Prince" addresses that unhappily ever after. The Frog Prince is now the ruler of a whole kingdom and it's much less than he imagined it would be. He misses the simpler things, like when he was a frog. The softness of the lily pad he used to sit on. The crunch of a particularly delicious fly. And now, he feels himself turning into something...someone he doesn't recognize. The irony is that, before he was cursed to live life as a frog, he enjoyed all the trappings of being king. Isn't that why he was cursed?! Because he was arrogant and extravagant and unkind (that's usually the reason). But that's what the song is about - once an experience changes you, you can't go back to being the person you were before. You can deny it happened, you can try to forget, you can be sad about it, but you can't go back to how things used to be.

All promises broken 

Feed your people or lose your throne 

And forfeit your whole kingdom 

I'd sooner lose it than still live in it alone

There's a Russian version of this where the roles are reversed called "The Frog Princess." A king wants his three sons to find brides so he has them each shoot an arrow and tells them that where the arrows landed, they will find their brides. The two elder brothers' arrows land at the houses of wealthy merchants, but the third brother's arrow is picked up by a frog who turns into a princess at night (this might sound familiar....it's the inspiration for Fiona in "Shrek"). The princess is Vasilisa the Wise, who is beautiful, kind, intelligent, hardworking, and talented at every task she undertakes. She has been punished for disobeying Koschei and must live as a frog during the day for three years. Koschei the Deathless is an interesting cat, he's a kind of lich that likes to steal men's wives. Not surprisingly, he gets mad when fair maidens turn down his advances. Anyway, the three brothers take their prospective brides home. The king, to test that his son's have found good wives, decides to test them. In every test, the Frog Princess outperforms the other two brides at every task. The third prince marries her but he's still disgusted that she turns into a frog. But, at the end of three years, she remains a princess for good. Supposedly, they live happily ever after but I wouldn't be very happy being married to a man who didn't want to be married to me while I was going through a rough time, as Vasilisa undoubtedly was.

The video is below. I was feeling a little uninspired but I'm glad I forced myself to write. Hopefully y'all enjoyed it, too.

"The Frog Prince" Video