Welcome to easy stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from ok to good and from good to great.
I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show.
Today's story is for intermediate learners.
The name of the story is heart of Iron.
You can find a transcript of the episode@easystoriesinenglish.com that's easystoriesinenglish.com.
iron Iron.
This contains the full story as well as my conversation before it.
So today's story is an adaptation of the princess and the frog.
The princess and the frog is a famous Grimm brothers fairy tale about a prince who turns into a frog and is then turned back into a human by a princess who kisses him.
At least that's the modern version of the tale.
So when I went to read the original version to make this episode, I was quite surprised to find it very different from what I remembered.
In the original fairy tale, the princess does not keep kiss the frog.
Actually, she's quite violent towards it.
She throws it against the wall in a fit of rage, and because of this, somehow the frog turns back into a human.
Although I guess that's probably a nicer ending than the frog exploding into slime and guts.
Sorry, I have a bit of a weird sense of humour.
There is also a part in the original story that is often left out of adaptations about Iron Henry.
So Iron Henry is one of the servants of the prince, and he is so sad when the prince is turned into a frog that he has three bands of iron wrapped around his heart to stop him from feeling things.
However, when the prince comes back as a human and they are riding to the prince and the princess's wedding, the three bands around the servant's heart gradually break, and the prince thinks that the sound of the iron breaking is the carriage breaking.
But actually it is Iron Henry's heart because he is so happy to see his prince come back to life and get married.