We’re still in the Yellow Fairy Book, and this is an Estonian story, collected by a Dr. Friedrich Kreutzwald, whose work was then translated to German by F. Löwe; Lang cites the German version as his source, with the German title and the name of the Estonian collector, which would at a glance give the impression that this was a German story. So consider this your periodic reminder not to take Lang citations at face value.
There was once a dragon who laid waste to large tracts of country. Described as having a body like an ox, legs like a frog, and a tail like a serpent, ten fathoms long. Every hop it takes covers half a mile. Worth noting at this point that the translation of the original Estonian title is “The Frog of the North.” It has eyes like lamps, which bewitch anyone who looks in them, compelling them to run into his mouth.
The frog dragon likes to settle in one place for several years at a time, eat absolutely everything, and then move on. Anyone who tries to fight him ends up walking into his mouth to be eaten.
Wise men say the dragon can be defeated by whoever possesses Solomon’s ring, because there are instructions on an inscription engraved on it. However, no one knows where the ring is, or how to read the language the inscription is written in.
A young man sets out in search of the ring, and after some years meets a famous eastern magician, who advises him to consult with the birds. He gives him a magic potion which makes him able to understand birds, and tells him to come back when he gets the ring, because he happens to be the only person in the world who can read the inscription.
The young man resumes his search, and eventually overhears some birds discussing a witch maiden who either has or knows of the ring, and will be coming to a nearby stream in three nights, for her monthly face-washing, to prevent aging.
He goes to the stream, where the witch maiden catches him spying on her, and invites him over. He goes back to her place, and the birds advise him not to give her any blood, or it’ll cost him his soul.
The witch maiden lives in a beautiful enchanted palace, and she invites him to stay forever, and asks him to marry her.
He asks for some time to think over the marriage, and hangs out with her at the palace in the meantime. One day she shows him the golden ring that powers most of her magic, and says she’ll give it to him as a wedding gift. But in order for their love to last forever, he must give her three drops of blood from the little finger of his left hand.
He asks her about the ring. She tells him she can only half read the engraving on it, but can still perform incredible magic with it. She shows him how she can use it to fly, to turn invisible, to turn invulnerable, to create anything she desires, and to have superstrength. She also confirms his suspicion that it is, indeed, King Solomon’s ring.
He asks for a demonstration. Then he asks to try it himself. And she agrees.
At this point, he’s been here for at least several days, possibly several weeks. It seems like this woman has genuine feelings for him, though the whole blood-soul situation does raise some red flags.
He takes the ring, plays around with its different powers for a while, and then turns himself invisible and leaves. Once he’s far enough away, he flies back to the magician, who takes seven weeks to fully translate the engraving before sending him back to the frog dragon with very specific instructions.
He finds the dragon, who’s moved on since he was last home, and the king of the land it’s currently occupying is offering his daughter’s hand and a large part of the kingdom to anyone who can defeat it.
Our guy rides an iron horse on wheels toward the dragon, using his superstrength to propel it. He gets into the dragon’s open mouth, and drives an iron spear two fathoms long into its jaw, as thick as a large tree and pointed on both sides, positioned so the dragon can’t close its mouth. He chains the spear to iron pegs driven into the ground so the dragon has no chance of dislodging this thing.
The dragon struggles for three days before it’s too weak to lash out with its tail, and then our guy approaches again and clubs it over the head with a large stone, killing it. It’s unclear why he couldn’t have done that bit three days ago, when he was already right there by the dragon’s head.
He marries the princess, and everything is going great until the dragon’s rotting body poisons the air and starts killing people. He goes to consult with the magician, but the witch maiden catches him on the way over, takes back the ring, and chains him to a rock in a cave. She promises to bring him food every few days, so that he can live out his natural life chained up, instead of dying quickly of hunger.
The princess and the king are frantically searching for him, consulting all sorts of magicians, and eventually a guy from Finland works out that he’s somewhere in the east. The king sends messengers who encounter our first magician, who rescues him.
Seven years have passed since he was first captured.
He gets home just in time to become king, as his father-in-law died that very morning, and he and his wife live happily ever, though he never gets the ring back.
The whole poisoned air situation is never followed up on. No resolution there.
The story ends with a question: “Now, if you had been the Prince, would you not rather have stayed with the pretty witch-maiden?”
Um, no? His goal was to save his entire region from death by frog-dragon; if he’d stayed, hundreds would have died. She proved herself to be fairly vindictive, which, okay, I do see where she was coming from. But there was the whole thing with his soul being at risk. Like, that’s a major concern. Even if he could talk her out of the originally proposed blood-letting, in an entire lifetime together, surely he’s going to shed some blood. Kitchen accidents. Shaving accidents. Things happen, you know?
But I do think he could have handled the whole situation better. Maybe he could have said, “hey, I made a commitment to slay this dragon, and I bet this ring would be really helpful for that; would you maybe like to go on a dragon-slaying adventure with me?” Maybe he could have said, “hey, I feel a little weird about this bleeding thing. I’ve heard some rumors. Can we maybe talk about that?”
I mean, he did very much screw over this girl who opened up her heart and her home to him. And okay, her asking for his blood was a little weird, but we only have the word of some random birds that this was a soul-costing situation. She was nothing but nice to him until after he stole her most important possession.
Like, at the very least, maybe he could have returned it after slaying the dragon?
Again, we have nothing but hearsay from birds to indicate that this woman is evil. The chaining him in a cave thing was…not great, but he did betray her in a big way.
I would not rather have stayed with the witch maiden. But I would have rather he tried being a little nicer to her.
VISIT PATREON.COM/KONGLINDORM FOR EARLY ACCESS TO POSTS.
