Frog-like folktale - Frog-like folktale

...A general term for a group of folk tales belonging to the category of interspecies marriage tales, which have the content that a snake turns into a man and proposes marriage to a human girl. Snake bride tales are broadly divided into the "Odamaki type," "Mizukoi type," and "Frog repaying his gratitude" types, based on their content. In the "Odamaki type," a parent becomes suspicious of a young man they don't know visiting their daughter's house in the middle of the night, so they have him stick a needle threaded with a thread into the man's kimono, and after the man leaves, they follow the thread to a snake's den, where they overhear a conversation between the snake and its child and learn how to abort the snake's child that has been conceived in their daughter....

*Some of the terminology used in the "Frog Repaying the Gratitude" folktale is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…蛇が男になって人間の娘に求婚するという内容をもつ，異類婚姻譚に属する昔話群の総称。蛇婿入譚は内容から〈苧環（おだまき）型〉〈水乞（みずこい）型〉〈蛙報恩型〉に大別される。〈苧環型〉は，夜中に娘のところに見知らぬ若い男が通ってくるのを怪しんだ親が，男の着物に糸を通した針を刺させ，男が帰ったあとその糸をたどっていったところ蛇のすみかに至り，そこで蛇の親子の会話を立ち聞きして娘に宿った蛇の子を堕（おろ）す方法を知る，というものである。…

※「蛙報恩型昔話」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報