Sleeping Beauty at a Glance
It feels like a hundred years since I’ve written anything here. So, as a welcome back, I’m choosing to write about one of my favorite fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty.
When I was a little girl, I remember watching Disney’s rendition of Sleeping Beauty, with Tchaikovsky’s waltz on repeat in my head. The beautiful paintings in the background and the hilarity of three good fairies trying to bake cakes and sew dresses without using magic only added to the wonder of the story unfolding before my eyes. And yes, I’m watching it even as I write this.
It wasn’t until I was a bit older and read the Grimm’s version for myself that I realized that it wasn’t the version that I knew and loved. The opening credits of Disney’s film refer to Charles Perrault’s 1697 La Belle au Bois Dormant. However, even Charles Perrault’s fairy tale shares very little with the film, as is typical for Disney.
So, I am taking it upon myself to set the record straight.
Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty in the Woods tells the story of a king and queen who are trying to have a child and are having a difficult time conceiving. They travel around the world, drinking healing waters and going on pilgrimages, to no avail. But by some miracle, eventually they have a daughter. To celebrate, they invite all the fairies in the land to bestow gifts upon their daughter, honoring them all with a special set of dinnerware made just for them. Only an eighth fairy shows up, one that everyone believed to be dead. The fairy is given a place at the table, but there is no dinnerware for her to eat with. The eighth fairy takes offense, believing that she has been purposely been snubbed, and she curses the princess.
Sleeping Beauty, unlike other tales, does not have the same formula for good vs. evil, where the bad fairy is punished for her deeds. Instead, it is the king and queen who are the recipients of revenge for a perceived betrayal. The princess is merely a pawn in the entire scheme.
The curse is familiar. The princess shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. No mention of a birthday or at what age the princess will fall down dead, just the promise that it will happen.
Fortunately for the king and queen, one of the good fairies waited until after the curse was spoken so that she could lessen the impact. Instead of death, the princess would simply sleep… for a hundred years. It’s never really clear why the good fairy doesn’t simply stop the curse from being spoken in the first place. But then, an answer to that question would involve an entire section devoted strictly to the nature of fairies, something that I’m not really prepared to do here. (If you want to learn about fairy lore, might I suggest listening to one of Aaron Menke’s podcasts over at Grim and Mild? Or you could read one of a plethora of novels dealing in the world of fairies. One of my favorites is the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.)
Back to Sleeping Beauty.
The king demands that no spinning wheels be allowed in any homes within his kingdom, but there is one woman that never heard such a decree and fifteen or sixteen years later, the princess wanders into her rooms and pricks her finger.
The good fairy returns to the kingdom after hearing about the accident and puts everyone (except the king and queen, who leave the castle) to sleep for a hundred years. A warning is given not to approach the castle, which is soon hidden behind a very large thorn bush.
Skip ahead one century and the son of the new king of the land (who has no relation to the princess or her parents) finds his way to the castle. The thorn bush splits in two, showing him a pathway and he enters to find the princess. No sooner had he seen her than she wakes up and he marries her in secret.
This is where I will pause for a moment (because there is a part to the fairy tale that is mostly forgotten. Don’t worry. I will come back to it.) and move to the Grimm Brothers’ Dornröschen, or Little Briar Rose.
Funnily enough, Wilhelm and Jacob allowed for more magic and intrigue in their story. Instead of stinky sulfur water and a lot of praying, it was a frog that told the queen that she would have a daughter. It is also in this version that we first see the kiss that woke up the princess. Like Perrault, they open the story with a grand feast to celebrate the birth of their daughter. Only, they have thirteen fairies and only twelves sets of plates. Oops.
The thirteenth fairy, purposely left out of the festivities, curses the princess to prick her finger when she is fifteen years old. The good fairy lessens the curse and the princess, along with everyone in the castle (including the king and queen) fall asleep for a hundred years. The castle is covered with thorns to make sure no one can wake the sleeping princess. When the prince finds the castle, the thorns are already gone and he finds the princess asleep in her bed and kisses her. She wakes up and they get married and live happily ever after.
Side note: It’s an interesting fact that the brothers Grimm changed the number of fairies from seven to thirteen. From a biblical standpoint- which was the only reason why they would broaden the guest list- the number thirteen represents the twelve disciples, plus Paul. Why, you might ask? In the Bible, Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot, the Betrayer (supposedly for thirty pieces of silver). Paul, who joins the disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection, becomes the thirteenth disciple. With this in mind, it makes sense that Wilhelm and Jacob would want the number of fairies to represent the same dynamic. Twelve good fairies and one evil fairy.
Now, we return to Perrault’s extended edition. I have to confess, when I read the end of the tale in college I had no idea this even existed. Wilhelm and Jacob chose to delete it and/or split it up into a separate tale. Or maybe by the time the brothers heard the story, the last half of it had already been excluded. It’s hard to say for sure.
So, the prince hid his marriage, not because he was trying to be sneaky, but because his mother came from a family of ogres and he knew that she would try to kill his wife and children (yes, he had two children named “Dawn” and “Day”. Incidentally, this is probably where Disney got the name Aurora). As it so happened, he had good reason to worry about her. When the children are about four years old, the prince goes off to war and his mother takes his wife and children to her own home. She orders the steward to kill and feed her each one in turn. The steward hides the children and their mother from the ogress and feeds her lamb and beef instead.
When the ogress finds out that all three of her victims are still living, she prepares a large vat to be filled with snakes and frogs and other reptiles and to throw the princess, her children, and the steward into it. In comes Prince Charming to save the day. In classic fairy tale fashion, the evil ogress throws herself into the vat and is eaten. And of course, the princess and her prince live happily ever after with their children.
It does make me wonder, though. How far removed was the prince from his ogre ancestry? Was he only a quarter ogre? Was that far enough removed that he wouldn’t think about eating his own children?
Ok, silly questions, I know.
I hope you enjoyed my very much belated story time. If you want more Sleeping Beauty, might I recommend Maleficent?
Book Gnome 