In stories, mice are to rats as frogs are to toads. Unlike hares and rabbits, toads and frogs are actually the same category of animal, but one has garnered a better reputation. I’ve heard ‘toad’ used as an insult, but I’ve only ever heard ‘froggy’ to describe the shape of someone’s mouth. Neither is especially complimentary, but frogs seem cuter.
The Real Difference Between Frogs And Toads
Wheras the categories of ‘mice’ and ‘rats’ encompass many different small mammals who may or may not be closely related to each other, toads are a subcategory of frog.
Generally speaking, whether we call an amphibian a frog or a toad will depend on a few visible markers:
MORE FROGGY
MORE TOADLY
SKIN
moist and slimy
dry and bumpy
BODY
long and lean
short and squat
EGGS
in a mass
in a chain
HABITAT
wetter
drier
MOVEMENT
leapy
crawly
So how is this distinction useful for storytellers making use of anthropomorphised amphibians?
European Fire-Bellied Toad and Yellow-Bellied Toad from Brehms Tierleben Vol 1, illustrator Joseph Fleischmann, Leipzig, Vienna Bibliographisches Institut 1920The Happy Place written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans cover detailShadowland magazine frog illustration by A. M. Hopfmüller 1921ゆかいなかえる Happy Frogs 2002Poor Cecco by Marjery William Bianco illustrated by Arthur Rackham Murrum and Toad the Night-watchman
I’m thinking slime. I think flies, quick movements combined with general sloth. I think of The Frog Princess, literally and metaphorically ‘slimy’, imposing himself on a young woman knowing full well she doesn’t want him anywhere near her.
Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (1888-1960) Australian illustratorOlga Kondakova – KorolevichVirginia Frances Sterrett (1900-1931 USA)New German fairytale treasure 7. Special issue of the WEEK Storybook Publisher- August Scherl G.m.b.H. (Berlin Germany; 1905)William the Curious by Charles SantoreThe Juniper Tree and Other Tales From Grimm illustrated by Maurice SendakGourmet The Magazine of Good Living April 1943 – Lily Pad RomeoA Maxfield Parrish cover for William Randolph Hearst’s magazine for July 1912The Princess Frog. 1956. Artist Nika Goltz. The frog in this fairy tale is a bit of a trickster. But then, he’s not really a frog but a prince. These stories must exist to coax daughters into marrying whoever is chosen for them, regardless of physical attraction. I suspect a lot of these men chosen for girls were much older, to boot.Edward Frederick Brewtnall – The Princess and the Frog Prince
The Quack Frog
By Arthur Rackham “The Quack Frog”, Aesop’s Fables VS Vernon Jones 1912
Toads As Mark Of Healthy Boyhood
Especially in nineteenth and twentieth century children’s books, boys and frogs are linked. The painting by Dirk Sargeant below is an excellent visual depiction of what I’m talking about:
Dirk SargentRAGGEDY ANN & ANDY ON THE FARM ~Children’s Tell-A-Tale Book endpaper
The boy takes a natural and mischievous delight in these disgusting creatures, usually while a disapproving girl or woman looks on. In Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White wrote a brother (Avery) who is the stereotypically perfect representation of rural boyhood — part of that requires a fascination with frogs.
Though the famous nursery rhyme below doesn’t mention frogs and toads exactly, they fit into the same category as snails:
What are little boys made of? What are little boys made of? Snips and snails And puppy-dogs’ tails That’s what little boys are made of
What are little girls made of? What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice And everything nice [or “all things nice”] That’s what little girls are made of
Toads are basically gross-out material, related to Bakhtin’s ideas about bodily discomfort.
George William Willis – Leap FrogFrank Beard (American, 1842-1905) Illustrator and cartoonist. “What may happen when little boys play leap-frog too much.”
The Posh Dandy Toad
I believe the underlying idea in this archetype is that the ugly middle-aged man tries to improve himself by dressing in a way his gentlemanly salary allows. The juxtaposition is the joke, and another take on ‘making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear’ or ‘lipstick on a pig’. The best-known example of this kind of toad is probably Toad from The Wind In The Willows, published 1908. The illustration below is also from around that time.
A well dressed toad. Drawing by G. Hope Tait, c1900Jim Smith from Frog Band Fanfare published in 1977. “He was too old to go off across the sea on a treasure hunt, and besides, his foot hurt. So, he realised he would have to enlist the help of that eminent detective, Alphonse le Flic.”David Hall’s conceptual art for Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, 1939A Frog he would a Wooing Go, by American illustrator Henry Louis Stephens 1824 -1882Harrison Cady (1877-1970, American) rabbit frog
Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Jeremy Fisher was published in 1893, and it may have been Potter who ushered in the age of the well-dressed toad in children’s stories. Her publishers weren’t confident a slimy amphibian could be empathetic, so Potter was required to compensate for Jeremy’s ugliness by painting unusually beautiful backgrounds. It was Potter’s book which proved even a toady type thing can be sympathetic.
The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat published 1914 then 1942L. Leslie Brooke (1862–1940) illustration from A Roundabout Turn by Robert H. Charles, Frederick Warne & Company, Ltd., 1930
FROGS AS MULTITUDES
Like cats and rats, frogs are sometimes depicted in great numbers. When frogs and toads have a bumper breeding season, they really have a bumper breeding season.
The Concert of Frogs from the poem Liliana 1907 written and illustrated by Apel Les Mestres, Catalan poet and illustrator
WHAT DID AESOP HAVE TO SAY ABOUT FROGS AND TOADS?
Aesop’s Fables London Adam & Charles Black 1912 Artist – Charles Folkard – The Proud Frog
Cute Frogs
Make any slimy thing cuter by giving them clothes. Extend cuteness further by depicting them in mid-action, putting on those clothes, behaving like humans. The cutest thing you can do with a frog is to make it behave like a child human.
Fritz Baumgarten (1883 – 1966) German illustratorRacey Help (1913-1970) for a book by Angus CliffordFrog by a Dandelion with Flies (1877–1938) by Jan van OortThe Frog In The Well written by Alvin Tresselt Illustrated by Roger Duvoisin 1958The story of the little turtle and the gold finches by Alex Wedding, illustrated by Eberhard Binder, 1963 frogsThe Wasp Sting by Heinrich Schlitt
Frog’s Outing — a Japanese picture book depicting a quirky, likeable frog character. Likeable frogs tend to have human eyeballs. Amphibian eyes are inherently off-putting to humans, as they look like the eyes of snakes.Leo Visler 1917Richard Scarry (1919-1994) Illustration for “The rooster struts” 1963 Childcraft The How and Why Library (Volume 1) – Poems and Rhymes 1979 Illustration by Charley HarperL. Leslie Brooke, an English artist who worked primarily as a children’s book illustratorThe Princess and the Frog, Arthur Rackham, 1909 (illustration for The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm)Anne Bachelier frog climbing ladderI’m A Frog by Mo Willems“Les enfants et les bêtes” (1936) livre de lecture illustré par Armand RapenoThe Adventures of Mr ToadConcept art by John HenchChristmas Party with a wealthy Family of Toads 1886 Pepe A Christmas Story by Theodor KittelsenAbe Birnbaum New Yorker coveran old Larkin Advertising Card for ‘Handkerchief Soap’ 1882The Duck Tale by Virginia Bennett. Illustrated by E. Stewart. London – Ernest Nister New York – E. P. Dutton & Co. c.1908.Paul Lothar Müller (1869-1956), ‘ Frog Concert ‘ (Frog Concert), ‘ The Watchbox ‘, 1909Aunt Friendly’s Picture Book – 1870’s THE FROG WHO WOULD A WOOING GO Illustrator- Joseph KronheimAunt Friendly’s Picture Book – 1870’s THE FROG WHO WOULD A WOOING GO Illustrator- Joseph KronheimAunt Friendly’s Picture Book – 1870’s THE FROG WHO WOULD A WOOING GO Illustrator- Joseph KronheimArt by Lou Mayer for a cover of Puck Magazine. The caption reads ‘Treasure Island’.Jerome, 1967, Jerome SnyderJerome, 1967, Jerome SnyderJanusz Stanny – The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen DIE GESCHICHTE VON DER KLEINEN SCHILDKRÖTE UND DEN GOLDFINKEN (1963) Eberhard Binder
FROGS AS AGILE ACROBATIC CARNIVALESQUE CHARACTERS
Racey Helps (1913-1970), postcard The Astonished AnglerMy Head-to-Toe Book by Jean Tymns, illustrated by Tibor Gergely (1974)
According to a Menominee Native American story, the reason frogs are more vocal in the spring is because they are mourning those among them that did not survive the winter.#SuperstitionSatpic.twitter.com/h9ggrEke5M
