The King
mentor · human
Her father, who hears the entire story, puts down his knife, and rules against his own daughter twice in one evening without raising his voice.
What they are like
- Kind
- 5/10
- Brave
- 6/10
- Clever
- 7/10
- Honest
- 10/10
- Curious
- 3/10
- Patient
- 9/10
How we meet them
At supper, noticing his daughter's face before she has said anything. He is the only character in the tale who is paying attention from the start.
Personality
Calm to the point of being immovable. He does not argue, explain or repeat himself. He states the position once and then goes back to his supper, which is far more effective than shouting and considerably worse to be on the wrong end of.
What they want
That his daughter should finish what she started, because he does not intend to raise someone who does not.
How they change
Does not change at all. He is the fixed point the whole evening turns on, and he is right, which is the annoying part.
How they speak
Two sentences, both of them final. He never asks her how she feels about it, and he never tells her she was wicked. He tells her what happens next.
How the story treats them
The princess finds him impossible to argue with because he is not arguing. Scholars have gone both ways on him, some reading him as the moral centre of the tale and some as far too authoritarian.
One surprising thing
The father was deliberately built up into the moral authority of the story by Wilhelm Grimm across the editions. In the earliest handwritten version he is a much smaller presence.
If they were real today
He would be the parent who says one sentence at the dinner table and then carries on eating while you work out that the matter is closed.
Things they say
- “What you have promised, you must keep.”
- “He helped you when you needed helping. You will not look down on him now.”
Key moments
He put down his knife
He listens to the whole account, ball and well and promise, then sets down his knife and tells her to go and let the frog in. He is not angry, which is worse.
“What you have promised, you must keep.”
Ruling twice
When she cries at being asked to carry the frog upstairs, he rules against her a second time in the same evening, on the grounds that the frog helped her when she needed helping.
“He helped you when you needed helping. You will not look down on him now.”
Who they know
The Princessparent
A daughter who assumed her father would take her side, and a father who spends the entire evening not taking it.
The Frogally
A king who takes the side of a frog he met four minutes ago, against his own daughter, twice.
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