Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part B
The BullFrog Lover
There are three different versions mentioned in this story. I like the one about the young girl who would go to sing at the river everyday. She would hear a song about a bullfrog would marry her so when one appeared and transformed into a man she consented when he asked to marry her. But there is a second part that is quite humorous in my opinion.
He was really a tadpole who could take the shape of a human man, but he kept his tadpole mouth. So he refused to eat and hide his face so they wouldn't see. At last, his wife turned him around and the family saw his tadpole mouth. The story says they ridiculed him so much that he left the house forever.
I'm kind've curious as to how this tadpole was able to become human, and why couldn't he transform all the way? It would be interesting to explore this, telling his origins and reasons why he chose this particular girl. I'm not sure how much importance bullfrogs or frogs, in general, have in this particular tribe so that would be something to research and understand better. I think adapting this to explain more of the mystery and unanswered questions behind it would be entertaining.
I couldn't find a picture of any Cherokee descriptions of the story, so here is a painting by Walter Crane.
Source: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).
There are three different versions mentioned in this story. I like the one about the young girl who would go to sing at the river everyday. She would hear a song about a bullfrog would marry her so when one appeared and transformed into a man she consented when he asked to marry her. But there is a second part that is quite humorous in my opinion.
He was really a tadpole who could take the shape of a human man, but he kept his tadpole mouth. So he refused to eat and hide his face so they wouldn't see. At last, his wife turned him around and the family saw his tadpole mouth. The story says they ridiculed him so much that he left the house forever.
I'm kind've curious as to how this tadpole was able to become human, and why couldn't he transform all the way? It would be interesting to explore this, telling his origins and reasons why he chose this particular girl. I'm not sure how much importance bullfrogs or frogs, in general, have in this particular tribe so that would be something to research and understand better. I think adapting this to explain more of the mystery and unanswered questions behind it would be entertaining.
I couldn't find a picture of any Cherokee descriptions of the story, so here is a painting by Walter Crane.
Image from Tales of Faerie
Source: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).
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