Princess Frog: Russian Fairy Tales

Frog-tsarevna or Princess Frog is a fairy tale that has multiple versions with various origins. Russian variants include the Frog Princess or Tsarevna Frog and also Vasilisa the Wise Alexander Afanasyev collected variants in his Narodnye russkie skazki.

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 Koschei…

The Russian skazki (skazatz = to tell) are the mass of folk-tales distributed widely throughout all the Russias. Handed down, by constant repetition, from generation to generation, a possession common to peasant's hut and Prince's palace from a time when history did not exist, they are to-day, from Archangel to the Black Sea, and from Siberia to the Baltic, almost as much a part of the life of the people as the language itself.

Other famous Russian fairy tales are: Vasilisa The Beautiful, Marya Morevna, Morozko, Finist Clear Falcon 's feather, Sister Alenushka and brother Ivanushka, The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf, Princess Frog and many more.