The Brothers Grimm's tale went through a transformation akin to the frog's. A quick glance at the comparison chart created by students at George Washington University reveals how the text was expanded and changed through the editions. The introduction of the princess changed from a simple statement in the 1st Ed. , "A King's daughter, to the hyperbole of the 3d Ed., a King whose daughters were all handsome, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun himself, who had seen so much, wondered each time..." Surely such a transition is not by accident but by device. Originally, the stories may have been gathered like straggling wildflowers from an overgrown meadow, but surely the brothers snipped away at the dead leaves, pruning them to bring forth blossoms and sweet fruit. As Gary V. Hartman points out, the brothers were philologists, professors of German Literature, having sound knowledge of Classical Literature, who had profound influence over the usage of German language usage and literature studies that spread outwards to England and America. The stories, like Ovid's Metamorphoses, are frequently used for psychological analysis by Freud, Jung, Bettelheim and others to explain human nature and the world we live in. In overlooking the craftmanship of the writing, the reader ignores the depth of the language with its literary devices and symbolism. The stories have effectively been used for political propaganda, frequently appearing on the Banned Books List . Variations spread across the world.
The brothers gathered the tales as a way to establish national identity of the German people who suffered French rule. Although this seems rather simplistic form of nationalism, the Irish followed their lead with Celtic consciousness and revivalism of Celtic culture. As myths and fairytales frequently embed historical events in symbols, Did the Frog King reflect the Grimm's nationalism? In searching for the Frog King, I crossed a website of amphibious trivia and was reminded of the French-- well-known for eating froglegs by the epithet, Frog. According to the site, Clovis I, was the first to use the Fleur de Lis as the emblem of France, before then, apparently the Franks were identified by a frog.
