Sleeping Beauty (fairy tale)

Sleeping Beauty is a popular fairy tale that generally follows the story of a beautiful princess caught in a sleeping enchantment who can only be awakened by a kiss from a handsome prince. With a history that dates back to at least the fourteenth century, Sleeping Beauty is a beloved literary classic that has been written and rewritten by many authors over time. As a result, there are many versions of Sleeping Beauty that feature unique variations on the basic tale. Perhaps the most well-known iteration of Sleeping Beauty is the version penned by French author Charles Perrault in 1697. Most modern retellings of Sleeping Beauty, including Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famed 1890 ballet The Sleeping Beauty and the classic Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty (1959), are based on Perrault’s take on the tale. Thanks to these and other works, Sleeping Beauty remains one of the best-known and most beloved fairy tales of its kind.

Background

While the earliest acknowledged version of Sleeping Beauty did not appear until the fourteenth century, the narrative idea of a child that is cursed at birth and subsequently placed in isolation can be traced back as far as an ancient Egyptian story called The Doomed Prince. In this tale, a king builds a large house in the remote desert in hopes of protecting his son, who he is told will one day be killed by a wild animal. The evolution of Sleeping Beauty is also likely tied to the Saga of the Völsungs, a thirteenth-century Icelandic prose narrative that involves a princess who falls into a seemingly eternal slumber after the Norse god Odin strikes her with a sleeping thorn.

The first written work traditionally held to be a true Sleeping Beauty narrative was L’histoire de Troylus et de la belle Zellandine. Written by an anonymous author, this work appeared in a prose romance called Perceforest that was composed between 1330 and 1344. This version of the story depicts an encounter between the prince Troylus and a princess named Zellandine, who is under a sleeping spell. Closely related to this initial version of Sleeping Beauty is Sole, Luna, e Talia, a work penned by Italian author Giambattista Basile in 1634. In this version of the story, the young Princess Talia falls into a deep sleep after getting a sliver of flax stuck in her finger. The story that unfolds from there is much darker than later versions of Sleeping Beauty, and includes such adult thematic elements as sexual assault and suggested cannibalism. French author Charles Perrault later publish an adapted version of Basile’s story as part of a collection of fairy tales called Histories or Tales from Past Times in 1697. While similar to Basile’s narrative in many respects, Perrault’s take on the story—the first to actually be called Sleeping Beauty—essentially laid the groundwork for the modern version of the tale. Sleeping Beauty as it is known today is generally based on an orally transmitted version of Perrault’s story that German authors Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (known professionally as the Brothers Grimm) collected and published as Little Briar Rose in 1812.

Overview

Perrault’s version of Sleeping Beauty provided the basic story upon which all subsequent retellings of the tale are based. The story begins with king and queen who are seeking to have a child. Despite doing everything they can, including making various sacrifices and going on numerous pilgrimages, they are unable to conceive for some time. Eventually, however, their efforts pay off and the queen gives birth to a daughter. A short time later, a christening is held and seven fairies are invited to present gifts to the newborn child. Along with the seven who were invited, another aged fairy who was forgotten also comes to the christening. As the fairies give their gifts to the child, the aged fairy, upset that she had not been properly invited, prophesies that the child will one day prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. While another fairy quickly alters the curse to say that the child would simply fall into a deep sleep for a hundred years instead of dying, the princess’s fate is sealed. In the years that follow, the king and queen take steps to ensure that their daughter will never come in contact with a spinning wheel. When she is around fifteen or sixteen years old, however, the princess finds an old woman using a spinning wheel while exploring the tower in the castle. Approaching the old woman, the princess pricks her finger on the spindle as was foretold and immediate falls into a deep sleep. Everyone else in the castle falls asleep as well. Before long, the entire place becomes so entangled in trees and bushes that no one can enter. One day many years later, a prince arrives at the castle and learns about the sleeping princess apparently entombed within. Determined to reach her, he finds a way inside and makes his way to the chamber where she lies. Upon his arrival, the princess awakens at last.

In Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty, the narrative continues after the princess awakens much as it does in Basile’s earlier version. This second part of the story involves the prince’s jealous ogress mother and the children he has with the princess. When the Brothers Grimm subsequently adapted Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty for inclusion in Grimms’ Fairy Tales, they published the first half of the story as Little Briar Rose and the second half in fragmentary form as The Evil Mother-in Law. As a result of this choice, Sleeping Beauty as it is known today is directly descended from the Grimms’ Little Briar Rose, and only indirectly from Perrault’s original.

Since the publication of Little Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty has become one of the world’s most well-known fairy tales. Its widespread popularity is due in no small part of the many subsequent adaptations it has seen over the years. Two of these adaptations have arguably been more influential than any others. The first of these was a ballet adaptation staged first by Russia’s Imperial Ballet in 1890 that featured a score composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The second was the Disney animated classic Sleeping Beauty (1959) that later inspired the spin-off films Maleficent (2014) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019).

Bibliography

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Fanning, Jim. “11 Royal Facts You Might Not Know about Sleeping Beauty.” D23, 24 Jan. 2019, d23.com/11-royal-facts-about-sleeping-beauty. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020.

Graves, Terry. “Sleeping Beauty’s Original Story: A Medieval Romance or a Norse Ancient Tale.” Terry Graves, 2020, terry-graves.com/sleeping-beautys-original-story. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020.

Griswold, Jerry. “Perrault’s ‘Sleeping Beauty.’” Medium, 12 Jan. 2017, medium.com/@jerrygriswold/perraults-sleeping-beauty-990bb38a3d6e. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020.

Heiner, Heidi Anne. “History of Sleeping Beauty.” Sur La Lune Fairy Tales, 2020, www.surlalunefairytales.com/sleepingbeauty/history.html. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020.

“Sleeping Beauty.” IMDb, 2020, www.imdb.com/title/tt0053285. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020.

“Sleeping Beauty: A History of the Tale.” Pook Press, 2020, www.pookpress.co.uk/project/sleeping-beauty-history. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020.

“The Story and Score of Sleeping Beauty through the Ages.” Sparknotes, 2020, www.sparknotes.com/film/sleepingbeauty/section1. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020.