Sleeping Beauty: The Original Fairy Tale

You know that Disney animated classic Sleeping Beauty we all love and cherish? It bears only the slightest resemblance to the original fairy tale.

I like to write sarcastic summaries of my favorite fairy tales, and Sleeping Beauty has a LOT for me to poke fun of so this is going to be fun! This summary and my side note is based on the research I did when preparing to write my own retelling of this story: Sleeping Beauty

Important Disclaimer:

Some versions of Sleeping Beauty are very dark and very "ick" but I didn't include those in this summary. Read all the way to the end if you want more info on this.

In this previous blog post I discussed how there’s a ton of Sleeping Beauty stories out there, however, my adaptation is based mostly on the Brothers’ Grimm Little Briar Rose and Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty. Since Little Briar Rose draws its origins from Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty, for this summary I’m going to focus on Perrault’s story but add in the bits and pieces that make Little Briar Rose different. So strap in, Champions, and prepared to be seriously weirded out!

Here’s how the original goes down.

A king and a queen who have wanted children forever finally have a child–a little girl. They invite seven fairies to her christening with the idea that they would all become her godmothers. The royal couple gives the fairies gold plates and jeweled goblets. An eighth fairy shows up  and is given only a fine china plate and a crystal cup. She hadn’t been invited because she was super old and spent most of her time up in a tower, so everyone thought she was dead. The china plate/crystal cup really tick off the old fairy, so she waits until six of the seven fairies give their gifts to the princess (Voice of a nightingale, good at dancing, beautiful, etc) and then proclaims that the princess will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. The final fairy attempts to reverse the curse , but she is too young and is only able to change it so instead of dying the princess will fall into a deep sleep for 100 years, and then be woken by a prince. (A difference in Little Briar Rose is that the old fairy shows up and curses the princess because she wasn’t’ invited, not because her plate and cup weren’t as nice.)

So the king proclaims that all spinning wheels must be destroyed, and no one can use or own one, or they will be killed. (This is a really stupid idea because it means that everyone in this  kingdom has no way to make fabrics and thread, so either textile imports are going to go through the roof, or everyone is going to be walking around in their birthday suit. Either way, it will bring financial and emotional woes to the people.)

The princess grows up and when she is 15 or 16, and has been left alone in the palace, she finds an old woman spinning. Curious, because she had never seen a spinning wheel, she picks up the spindle, pricks herself, and falls asleep.

The fairy who countered the curse hears about it and pops by the palace where she’s filled in by the king and queen. She realizes that the princess will be very upset to wake up and learn that everyone she knew is dead/gone, so she casts a spell on the palace and everyone falls asleep. (In Little Briar Rose, the entire palace is instantly spelled with her and the good fairy never returns.)

A huge hedge grows around the palace, protecting everyone inside, and though many men try to fight their way past the hedge none succeed. Eventually 100 years pass. The sleeping princess is now just a legend, but a prince from a neighboring kingdom decides to check it out.

Sleeping Beauty by Paul Meyerheim. Totes not creepy, am I right?

In a case of good luck, the prince happens to arrive just as the requisite 100 years is up, so he strolls up to the hedge that retreats before him. (While I applaud the prince’s sense of adventure, he really doesn’t do anything to prove he’s worthy of the princess.)

He makes his way all the way up to where the princess is sleeping. In Perrault’s story he waltzes in just as she is waking up and the two fall in love at first sight (Because it’s always a good idea to fall in love with some stranger who randomly shows up in your bedroom?) and in the story of Briar Rose he kisses her and then she awakens.

The couple eventually go downstairs where the king and queen give them permission to marry and they live happily ever after…or so it goes for the Brothers Grimm princess!

Perrault’s story continues where the good-for-nothing-prince fails to tell his parents he’s married! He splits his time between the princess’s kingdom and his own, has two kids with her, and still doesn’t tell his parents! (He withholds  the info because apparently his mom is part ogre and might do something bad.) He waits until his dad dies (His dad being the NICE GUY, not his ogre mother who was the whole reason he didn’t want to reveal his marriage) and he’s made the king before he finally reveals that he’s got a wife and kids. And after he finally brings them to his kingdom, he rides off to war, leaving his family with the mother that he previously worked against so she wouldn’t learn they existed.

The ogre mother has it out for the princess, and she tries to eat the two kids, but the prince’s servants are apparently better people than the prince himself, because they protect the royal family. The prince returns and the ogre mom kills herself. (Well. That escalated quickly!)

It’s worth noting that the Brother’s Grimm divided out this second half of sleeping beauty, and made it into a different fairy tale. Additionally, it’s also worth noting that Perrault cleans up this story quite a bit, as in the story he based it on—Sun, Moon, and Talia—the prince is actually already married and is, bar none, the worst prince I have ever read of in a fairy tale. (I don’t want to get into it, but if you want to read a summary of the story click here!)

And if you're interested in reading a sweet fantasy romance version of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale you can get my standalone story in Kindle Unlimited, or ebook / paperback!

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Sleeping Beauty: Original Authors

The fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty is one of the most well known fairy tales, but it actually has a lot of versions and different authors as part of it's history!

I spent a lot of time researching the history of Sleeping Beauty when writing my fantasy retelling: Sleeping Beauty. Normally I only spend one blog post that looks at both the original fairy tale and the authors, but Sleeping Beauty is getting this bonus post where I look at the many authors and origins of the stories because they are so fascinating. But worry not–I’m still going to rip the original fairy tale to shreds in a sarcastic summary in this other blog post!

Now, onto the research!

My rendition of Sleeping Beauty is a little different from all my other stories, because it is a combination of two fairy tales: Sleeping Beauty, and Little Briar Rose.

If I’m being picky, my Sleeping Beauty was based on more than two fairy tales, because the Brothers Grimm actually collected quite a few stories that all share elements of sleeping beauty, but the classic one that inspired Disney’s sleeping beauty, and the story I drew the most from, is Little Briar Rose. The Brothers Grimm published their first collection of fairy tales in 1812, and became the creators of folklore studies. Little Briar Rose was one of the many orally told stories they collected, and they were able to trace its origins to Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty–which we will jump into below. The Brothers Grimm story shares the same basic plot as Perrault’s story, however, it is essentially chopped in half, and also cleaned up a bit.

Moving on! Sleeping Beauty was published in French by Charles Perrault in 1697. (Perrault’s name might sound familiar, as he also published versions of Puss in Boots and Cinderella.) Though Perrault crafted the most recognizable elements of sleeping beauty as we know it today, he actually based his story on the a fairy tale written by an Italian poet, Giambattista Basile. The story–which was published in 1634, after Basile died–was called Sun, Moon, and Talia.

Sun, Moon, and Tailia, in turn, was based off several folk stories–including a chapter/episode of a lyrical poetry series titled Perceforest that was collected in the early 1300s. The specific sleeping beauty chapter is titled Histoire de Troïlus et de Zellandine, and is considered the first of its kind–AKA the first of the sleeping princess stories as there are quite a few.

Overall, the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty is a lot like Wild Swans in that there are a lot of variations out there that are considered separate stories, but they all fall under one type.

In my sarcastic summary blog post we’ll actually dive into the original story, but it is worth mentioning that Perrault–and as a result the Brothers Grimm–removed some of the ickier elements that are included in Sun, Moon, and Talia, and Perceforest. (The biggest issue being the sleezebag of a prince who finds the sleeping princess.)

If you're interested in reading a sweet romantasy Sleeping Beauty retelling you can try my standalone book in Kindle Unlimited or ebook and paperback!

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Swan Lake: Character Changes

First, I’m going to assume you read my previous post that took a look at the original Swan Lake ballet. This is important because I’m going to look at the differences my version of the characters make in my retelling.

One of the biggest things I changed was that I made the crown prince’s little brother Odette’s romantic love interest. (Also, I ditched the name Siegfried and made the crown Prince be called Yakov. This is mostly because I really like the name Siegfried and I suspect I will want to use it in the future.)

I did this because, as some of you might have noticed, I modeled Alexsei after the winning entry for my previous “Most wanted Hero” reader poll—the overlooked good guy. The easiest way to make him overlooked was to make him the second son of the Emperor and Empress, and depict his older brother as larger-than-life. I had some problems with this because if I made Yakov likeable, then you guys would be rooting for him, not Alexsei! So Yakov got a bit of a bossy makeover to help me with that.

Another big change I made was in organizing Odette’s people and making them smugglers. I looked at the original ballet and I saw how the Swan maidens followed Odette, and I realized she would’ve had to have some pretty incredible organization skills to keep all those ladies alive considering they had been cursed for a while. I took that into account when I crafted my Odette, so I made a girl who’s much more cunning and street-smart than the typical dewy-eyed Odette you see in the ballet.

Also, after quite a bit of deliberation, I turned Benno, Siegfried’s best friend, into a girl. Part of that was for balance–though Alexsei is smart he is overly courageous, if it weren’t for Benno’s practicality, Yakov and Alexsei would’ve gotten themselves killed or seriously injured when they were kids.

Also, because I was very tired of creating parent characters who are either dead (Like Cinderella’s parents) or not the most supportive people in the world (Like Gemma’s parents) I made up my mind to make Empress Sonya the most rocking, epic empress in the Timeless Fairy Tale world. She was so fun, and I was both disappointed and relieved I could only work her into a few scenes. (Relieved, because whenever Empress Sonya shows up, she’s a total scene stealer!)

I actually kept fairly close to the original plot line, and included the ball scene in which Rothbart attempts to disguise Odile as Odette and the end in which someone falls into the lake and Rothbart’s spells are broken. However, those scenes are vastly different from the original source material due to the characters and their personalities. Alexsei doesn’t fall for Odile’s disguise because:

1. He’s known Odette for more than a day and

2. He is very perceptive, and very much in love.

Also, Odette doesn’t get her tail feathers in a bundle about the disguise because she’s a lot more mature and logical.

To me, this is a perfect example that shows how slightly tempering character reactions but keeping all the events the same will give you an extremely different end result. It’s the same in real life. If you and I play a chess game, and then you play a chess game with someone who has never played, you will get two very different games—and that’s not just because I always have a massive crush on my knights and tend to humanize my pieces.

What I’m getting at here is that personality makes a big difference. Benno the best friend went from being the idiot–or at least the idiot when compared to the brilliance of the original ballet’s Prince Siegfried–to self composed and respectable. Empress Sonya is fun and sassy instead of being moderately nagging about her son getting married–even though Sonya voices those same complaints. Rothbart is also an excellent example. I made a few strategic changes to his character, and as a result it really changed the end of the story, and I wrote this separate post to talk about Rothbart!

Well, there you have it, Champions! Those are some of the biggest changes I made to my version of Swan Lake, and explanations of why I made them. I hope you found it interesting, and maybe a wee bit entertaining.

And here are the links again to my book if you are interested in reading a fantasy style adaptation of the Swan Lake ballet:

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