Sleeping Beauty facts for kids
"Sleeping Beauty" is a famous fairy tale about a princess. An evil fairy curses her to fall into a deep sleep for one hundred years. A brave prince eventually wakes her up. To make sure the princess isn't scared when she wakes up alone, a good fairy uses her wand. She puts everyone in the palace and forest to sleep too. They all wake up at the same time as the princess.
The oldest known version of this story is found in a tale called Perceforest. It was written a very long time ago, between 1330 and 1344. Another early version was a poem in the Catalan language called Frayre de Joy e Sor de Paser.
Later, Giambattista Basile wrote a story called "Sun, Moon, and Talia". This was part of his collection Pentamerone, published in 1634-36. Then, Charles Perrault adapted Basile's story. He included his version in his famous book Histoires ou contes du temps passé in 1697.
Perrault's version first appeared in 1695. It was in a special handwritten book called Tales of Mother Goose. This book also had other well-known stories like "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Puss in Boots". The story was later printed in a newspaper in 1696. Finally, it was published in Paris in 1697. It was part of Perrault's collection of eight fairy tales. The "Sleeping Beauty" story has been made into many different things. These include a ballet and a popular Disney animated movie.
The Brothers Grimm also published their own version of the tale. It was in their book Children's and Household Tales in 1812.
Different Versions of the Story
The princess in the story has had different names over time. In Basile's "Sun, Moon, and Talia," she is called Talia. She doesn't have a name in Perrault's story. However, her daughter is named "Aurore." The Brothers Grimm first called the princess "Briar Rose." Some translations of their story also call her "Rosamond."
In Tchaikovsky's ballet and Disney's movie, the princess is named Princess Aurora. But in the Disney movie, she is also called "Briar Rose" when she is a child. This is when she is being raised secretly by the good fairies.
Italo Calvino included a different version in his book Italian Folktales. In his story, the princess falls asleep because her mother made a wish.
There are small differences between the Grimms' and Perrault's versions. In the Grimms' story, Briar Rose wakes up with a kiss from the prince. In Perrault's story, the princess simply wakes up when the prince kneels beside her.
The Story of Sleeping Beauty
Once upon a time, a king and queen really wanted to have a child. One day, a frog in the queen's bath told her that she would soon have a baby. The queen gave birth to a beautiful daughter. The king and queen decided to have a big celebration for her. In Perrault's version, they invited seven good fairies. In the Grimms' version, they invited twelve "wise women."
But then, another evil woman or fairy appeared. She was not invited and was very angry. She put a terrible curse on the baby princess. She said that one day, the princess would prick her finger on a spindle and die. Luckily, one of the good women was able to soften the curse. Instead of dying, the princess would only fall into a deep sleep for one hundred years.
To protect his daughter, the king ordered all the spindles in the kingdom to be burned. But when the princess was about fifteen or sixteen years old, she found an old woman spinning in a tower room. The princess was curious and handled the spindle. She pricked her finger, just as the curse had said. She immediately fell into a deep sleep. The good fairy, who had softened the curse, then put everyone else in the castle to sleep too. A thick forest of thorns or roses grew up around the castle. It protected the sleeping princess and the castle from the outside world.
One hundred years passed. A prince heard amazing stories about the hidden castle and the sleeping princess. He decided to find her. He arrived at the castle and found the sleeping princess in the tower room. In the Grimms' version, he woke her with a kiss. In Perrault's version, she simply woke up when he knelt beside her. The prince and the princess then got married.
Perrault's story continues even further. The prince and princess had two children. Later, the prince went off to war. His wife and children stayed with his mother. But his mother was an ogress, a kind of monster. She wanted to eat her guests! A kind servant secretly saved the princess and her children. When the ogress found out, she was furious. She planned to throw the princess and her children into a cauldron filled with toads and snakes. But just in time, the prince arrived. His wife and children were saved. The ogress, in her rage, jumped headfirst into the cauldron and died.
Images for kids
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An older image of the sleeping princess: Brünnhilde, surrounded by magical fire rather than roses (illustration by Arthur Rackham to Richard Wagner's Die Walküre)
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Sleeping Beauty, by Henry Meynell Rheam, 1899
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Sleeping Beauty is shown a spindle by the old woman. Sleeping Beauty, by Alexander Zick (1845–1907)
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Sleeping Beauty and the palace dwellers under a century-long sleep enchantment (The Sleeping Beauty by Sir Edward Burne-Jones).
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Illustration to Tennyson's 1830 poem, Sleeping Beauty
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The Sleeping Beauty, ballet Emily Smith
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Sleeping Beauty (+) by Lodie Kardouss ©Fabrice Kada
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Sleeping Beauty by Jenny Harbour
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Book cover for a Dutch interpretation of the story by Johann Georg van Caspel
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Briar Rose
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Sleeping Beauty by Edward Frederick Brewtnall
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Louis Sußmann-Hellborn (1828- 1908) Sleeping Beauty,
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Sleeping Princess by Viktor Vasnetsov
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Sleeping Beauty, statue in Wuppertal – Germany
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See also
In Spanish: La bella durmiente para niños
