The Dragon of the North or Northern Frog () is a legendary frog-like creature in Estonian lore. The story was popularized by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in the collection Eesti rahva ennemuistsed jutud or Old Tales of the Estonian People (1866). It also gained international recognition when included in Andrew Lang and Leonora Blanche Lang's The Yellow Fairy Book (1894) under the title "The Dragon of the North."
The frog is described as a massive, dragon-like monster that wreaks havoc on the land until it is defeated. Modern interpretations, such as those by author Andrus Kivirähk and artist Navitrolla, often reimagine the frog as a protector of the Estonian language and culture.
The frog appeared in "Põhja Konn" (literally "The Northern Frog") by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, which was published in his 1866 collection Eestirahwa Ennemuistesed jutud (Ancient Tales of the Estonian People). In it, Kreutzwald tells the story of a young man who acquires and uses a signet ring to defeat a monstrous beast. The German translation of Kreutzwald's work was used as the basis for the English translation in The Yellow Fairy Book.
Estonian scholar Risto Järv classifies the Northern Frog as a variant of a dragon-slayer (ATU 300) using the AarneâÂÂThompsonâÂÂUther Index, with the frog replacing the dragon and functioning as an oicotype, or a localized version of the archetype.
According to August Annist, in adapting a dragonslayer style of story to the Estonian context, Kreutzwald made the dragon frog-like.
Author and historian Anatol Lieven mentioned the Northern Frog in the opening to his 1993 book The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence. He described the book as being like the Northern Frog, an "awkward sort of beast" with a "bad temper".
In the 2007 novel, The Man Who Spoke Snakish, author Andrus Kivirähk depicts the Northern Frog as a giant, dormant protector of the Estonians against Christian crusaders. In the book, the creature can only be awakened by ten thousand people speaking "snakish," a language that has nearly gone extinct by the novel's start.
In 2025, the artist Navitrolla installed a statue in Võru at Tamula Beach called the Tamula konn that explicitly draws on the legend of the Northern Frog. Navitrolla positions the frog as a protector. It has spikes on its back to defend itself. It also has a soap bubble in its mouth which stands for the "fragility and transience" of the Võro language.