The sleeping beauty is a classical fairytale about a princess, a prince, an evil witch and how good always beats evil. The fairytale was first published under the name ‘’La Belle au bois dormant’’. The Grimm brothers published it under the title ‘’ Dornröschen’’.
Summary
Once upon a time a king and a queen lived and they wanted a child but they could never have one. The situation started changing the day the queen met a frog that promised her that in a year she would give birth to a girl.
The royal couple got a daughter and they were so happy that they decided to throw a big party. They invited the fairies that lived in their kingdom to the christening. The custom was that each fairy wishes something beautiful for the child.
Except for the mentioned fairies, everybody had forgotten an old one. Full of anger and hatred she went to the castle. The servants set up a table but they’ve only put 12 plates and there was 13 fairies. The good fairies said their wishes and then the old one showed up.
She said a horrible curse and threatened that the girl will stab herself at the age of 15 on a spindle and die.
Everyone was left speechless. Then a good fairy said her spell. She could not undo the curse but she could ease it. She wished that the girl instead of dying fells asleep and that after a 100 years of sleep a prince will come and wake her up from the eternal sleep. The fairy admitted that the girl can only be rescued by a true loves kiss.
Despite the fact that The sleeping beauty was not supposed to die the king got so scared that he order the kingdom to burn all of the spindles. When the princess turned 15 she was left alone for a while and started to investigate the castle.
Wandering through the castle she ran into an old women who was working with a spindle. She was curious and wanted to try it herself and that’s how the curse came to life. The sleeping beauty fell asleep for a 100 years.
The whole kingdom fell asleep with the princess. Everything stopped and even the flies were frozen in time. The castle got surrounded by weeds and the story of the sleeping princess began to spread around.
Brave princes came to wake her up but they did not succeed in it because of the thick vegetation around the castle that took a few lives. After 100 years a brave young man came to the city and wanted to visit the castle everyone were talking about. His presence had a different effect on the vegetation that started moving and blossoming.
When he entered the castle he saw servant sleeping and walking through the castle he finally found the princess. One look was enough for him to fall in love and his kiss woke her up. With the princess, the whole kingdom woke up and the life started from where it stopped. The prince and princess lived happily ever after.
Genre: fairytale
Time and place: once upon a time, castle
Characters: The sleeping beauty, king and queen, prince, fairies
Auhor: Grimm brothers biography