From manuscript to the third edition, the Grimms' "Frog King" is bowdlerized and sanitized, cleaned up and toned down. This transformation takes place in two main ways: through the heroine, who goes from thoughtless and sensual young woman to brainless and proper little girl, and through the language of the male characters, which emphasize the unfortunate changes made to the princess.
The heroine of the story undergoes a transformation of emotional form equivalent to that the prince undergoes in physical form; however, while his occurs in every rendition of the story, hers takes place gradually over the course of the Grimm editions. In the original, she is the king's youngest daughter, age unspecified, who plays with a golden ball by the side of a well. When the ball falls into the well, she is "very sad," but does nothing to retrieve it until the frog appears and offers to get it for her in exchange for a trip to the palace. She agrees to take him home with her, and then promptly runs off as soon as the ball is back on land.
That evening, while the princess and her father are at dinner, they hear a strange noise outside, and then a knocking at the door. When the princess opens it up, she sees the frog waiting there. She slams the door and runs back to the table. The king naturally inquires who was at the door, and she explains everything. The frog knocks again, and this time says a little chant (maintained in its entirety through all the editions). The king tells her to open the door, the frog comes in, and the three of them eat together (albeit it takes her father's order to make the princess eat with the frog).
Then the frog demands that they go to bed together. "She didn't want to do that at all, because she was very much afraid of the cold frog. But the king ordered it again," and to bed they go. As they enter her room, the princess "full of anger seized him and threw him with all her strength against the wall" -- the wall above her bed, notably.
For when the frog falls, he is no longer frog, but a young prince; and he is now in the princess' bed, where she lies down with him. The next morning, a coach arrives with the prince's faithful servant. As they drive away (into the sunset, presumably), the iron hoops around the servant's heart break from his joy at his master's return to his human form.
This version from 1810 has its faults -- as in all editions, the princess is constantly referred to as "king's daughter," emphasizing her position as a man's property -- but this problem is minor when compared with those the Grimms precipitated in their constant struggle to create a better, more edifying tale for the youth of Germany.
Apparently being edifying was equated with being sexist. Where the princess of the manuscript merely felt very sad after losing her ball, the princess of the first edition (1812) does a whole lot more than feel. Besides "weep[ing] and lament[ing] pitifully," she offers all her most valuable possesions: "Oh! If I had my ball again, I would give everything for it, my clothes, my jewels, my pearls, and anything in the world," including, apparently, herself. It's onlyafter she has made this proclamation of her availability that the frog appears to suggest a trade. The whole thing has a vague (and unnecessary) air of prostitution about it, and the Grimms thankfully eliminated the passage by the third edition.
Until then, however, the princess and the frog are going to negotiate for the ball. Rather than merely asking to be taken home with her, as he does in the manuscript, this frog has a specific list of demands: "If you will take me as your companion and I shall sit near you and eat from your little golden plate and sleep in your bed and if you will esteem and love me, I will bring you back your ball." He doesn't want the clothes or jewels, but he's picking up on the "everything" -- exactly what the princess doesn't want to give him. Nevertheless, she agrees to the bargain (while secretly planning to break it), and repeats the word she used before: "Well, all right then, just get me back my golden ball and I'll promise you everything."
The next major change occurs after the frog knocks for the first time during dinner that night. The princess goes to the door, sees the frog, slams it and runs back to the table. The king of the manuscript asks who was there; the king of the first edition asks why she is scared, putting her in her place as a silly female. She tells him about the events of the afternoon, and the king says "what you have promised, you must do; go and open the door for the frog." The moralizing lesson trivializes her still further.
She obeys her father. The frog joins them at dinner; whatever he asks, the king orders her to do, adding humiliation to the injury she already feels at having to share her meal with a frog. When the amphibian is done eating, he says " Now I'm tired and want to sleep, take me up to your little bedroom, make your little bed ready, and we will sleep in it." The repetition of "little" emphasizes the princess' childish behavior (and implicitly her misbehavior in being stubborn about obeying her father's will); the Grimms liked this device so well that they adapted it in the next edition for use in the frog's demands.
Quite naturally, the princess objects to sharing her bed with a nasty, slimy frog. And quite typically, her father orders her to "do as she has promised." In what we are given, the king knows no more than that she promised to take the frog as her "companion," which presumably would not include sleeping together (although it was specifically mentioned in the frog's demands, the king doesn't know that). Yet in every case, he has upheld the frog's side, and he does it again here, "on pain of his displeasure."
The princess picks the frog up "with two fingers" and takes him to her room. The Grimms tell us she was "bitterly angry"; but rather than throwing the frog as soon as she entered the room, as reason and the original manuscript dictate, the princess instead gets into bed and then throws him at the wall. Defying the laws of physics, however, the transformed prince still lands in her bed, and they sleep contentedly together. What a night.
Compared to the changes made from manuscript to first edition, the second edition (1819) changes seem relatively minor. They develop along the lines laid out by the first edition, and so nothing is very surprising; yet the second edition contains the absolute lowest point the Grimms reach in portraying their heroine, as well as the first major evidence of their moral cleanup work.
They begin this new trashing of the princess -- excuse me, king's daughter -- by saying that she "was so bored she did not know what to do." She finds entertainment in the form of the now-familiar golden ball, and when she loses it, cries "Oh! My golden ball! if I had it again I would give everything for it: my clothes, my jewels, my pearls, even my golden crown as well." With the crown comes the throne, and with the throne comes the princess herself. The vague hints at prostitution have taken a more definite shape.
The story continues onward, most of it a reprint from the first edition (with the exception of the "little"s in the frog's demands), until they reach dinnertime with the King. The Grimms again emphasize the princess' little-girlishness, and go so far as to refer to her as "child:
The king saw that her heart was pounding strongly and said: "Why, what are you afraid of, is there a giant at the door waiting to get you?" "Oh no," said the child, "it's not a giant but a horrid frog who fetched my golden ball out of the water for me yesterday in the forest; because of that I promised him that he should be my companion, but I didn't ever think that he could leave his water, now he is outside and wants to come in to me." [my emphasis]
Always before, the princess has been referred to as a "girl," which implies a female of any age between, say, one and twenty. Calling her a "child" severely limits her age range, to perhaps between one and fourteen. In light of this, it's bothersome to our modern sensibilities that the princess is married off by the end of the story.
The way that marriage comes about constitutes the single biggest piece of evidence for the Grimm's moral reformation of the tale between first and second editions. The princess throws the frog; the frog hits the wall, falls (no longer into her bed, notably), and turns into a handsome prince. But instead of merely continuing in her room alone, the prince becomes "rightfully and with her father's approval, her dear companion and husband." Now, only after they get married do they "fall asleep contentedly together," as befits a proper pre-Victorian princess.
The third edition's changes establish the princess as "so beautiful that the sun itself... was amazed whenever it looked at her face." She is no longer bored, thankfully, and she no longer offers "everything" in return for the golden ball. Rather, she weeps inconsolably. Whether this is an improvement is up for debate. Another interesting change is in the use of the phrase "whom she did not dare to touch" in place of "she didn't think she could touch him" when they are preparing to go to her room and bed. It sounds as if an interdiction has been placed in her way, and something horrible might happen should she touch the slimy frog.
Taken altogether, the Grimms changed the sensual female who refused to touch the frog but did not mind sleeping with the transformed prince, into a spoiled little girl who first offers "everything" and then takes it back. They also reformed her standards, so she required her father's approval to marry and then lay down with the prince. It's typical of the Grimms and their times, unfortunately; and typical of ours to judge them for it.
Link to the Grimm edition comparison
Link to the Frog's Well
This page produced by Cheryl Klein for Once Upon A Time: The Frog Prince.