Sleeping Beauty: A Tale by the Grimm Brothers

Once upon a time there was a King and a Queen, who every day dreamed and desired to have even a son. But they did not conceive. However, one day while the queen was taking a bath, a frog jumped from the water to the ground. And he said to the queen "Your wish will be fulfilled and within a year you will have a daughter". What the frog said came true, and the queen had such a beautiful girl.

The king and his queen were very happy, and the king could not hide the happiness he felt. And decided to organize a party. At the party he not only invited his family, friends and acquaintances, but also a group of fairies, so that they would be kind and generous to the girl. There were thirteen these fairies in his kingdom, but he only had twelve gold plates to serve at dinner, so he had to do without one of them.

The party was held with the utmost splendor, and when it came to an end, each of the fairies were giving a gift to the girl with the best and most wonderful gifts they could give her: one gave her Virtue, the other Beauty , the next Wealth, and so all the rest, with everything anyone could want in the world. When the eleventh fairy had given her gifts, the thirteenth fairy suddenly entered (the one who had not been invited, but ignored for lack of a gold plate). She wanted revenge for not having been invited, and without warning, and without looking at anyone, she cried out in a very loud voice: "The king's daughter, when she turns fifteen, will be punctured with a spindle, and will fall dead immediately!" And without further ado, he turned and left the room.

All were stunned, and the kings scared by what was predicted to the girl. But the twelfth fairy, who had not yet announced her gift, stepped forward, and while she could not avoid the evil sentence, she could lessen it, and said, "She will not die, but she will go into a deep sleep for a hundred years!".

The king tried by all means to avoid that misfortune for his daughter. So he gave orders that every spinning machine or spindle in the kingdom be destroyed. Meanwhile, the gifts of the other twelve fairies were fully fulfilled in that young woman. Thus she was beautiful, modest, of good nature and wise, and as many people knew her, she came to love her deeply.

Years passed, and on the same day that the princess was fifteen, the king and queen were not at home, because they went out to buy a birthday gift for the young princess; and the maiden was alone in the palace. So she went around every place she could, looked at the rooms and bedrooms as she wanted, and in the end came to an old tower. She walked up the narrow spiral stairs that led to a small door that had an old key in the lock, and when she turned it, the door suddenly opened. Inside that room that was now open was an old woman sitting in front of a spindle, very busy spinning her linen.

Feeling curious about the machine that the old woman had, the princess wanted to learn how to use it and from one moment to the next she accidentally pricked her finger with the spindle.

As soon as he felt the prick, the decree announced years ago by the evil fairy was fulfilled; the princess fell on a bed that was there, and fell into a deep sleep. And that dream was extended to the entire territory of the palace. The king and queen who were just coming home, and had entered the great hall, fell asleep, and the whole court with them. Horses also fell asleep in the stable, dogs on the lawn, pigeons on the eaves of the roof, flies on the walls, even the hearth fire that was well blazing, ran out of heat, the meat being roasted stopped. roast himself, and the cook who at that moment was going to pull the young assistant's hair because he had forgotten something, left him and fell asleep. The wind stopped, and in the trees near the castle, not a leaf moved.

But around the castle a network of thorns began to grow, which grew bigger and bigger each year, so much so that they surrounded and covered it completely, so that none of it was visible, not even a flag that was on the roof. But the story of the sleeping beauty "Precious Rose", as they had called her, spread throughout the region, so that from time to time children of kings came and tried to cross the wall of thorns wanting to reach the castle.

But it was impossible, because the thorns joined as tightly as if they had hands, and the young were caught by them, and without being able to free themselves, they obtained a miserable death.

And after a hundred years, another prince also arrived at the place, and heard an old man talking about the curtain of thorns, and that it was said that behind the thorns a beautiful princess, Precious Rose, was hiding, who has been asleep for a hundred years , and that the king, queen and the whole court fell asleep equally.

And he had also heard from his grandfather that many sons of kings had come and tried to cross the wall of thorns, but they were stuck in them and had a merciless death. The young prince intrigued to see the beautiful young woman was not afraid and decided to go through the thorns.

On that date the hundred years had already passed, and the day in which Precious Rose was to awaken had arrived. When the prince approached where the wall of thorns stood, there was nothing but beautiful flowers, which parted from each other by mutual agreement, and let the prince pass without hurting him, and then gathered together behind him like forming a fence.

He continued to advance, and in the great hall he saw the whole court lying asleep, and by the throne were the king and queen.

Then he moved further, and everything was so quiet that a breath could be heard, and finally he reached the tower and opened the door of the small room where Precious Rose was asleep. There she lay, so beautiful that he couldn't look the other way, so he stopped and kissed her. But as soon as he kissed her, Precious Rose opened her eyes and woke up, and looked at him very sweetly.

Then they both went down together, and the king and queen woke up, and the whole court, and looked at each other in great amazement. And the horses in the stable got up and shook. The hunting dogs jumped and wagged their tails, the pigeons on the eaves of the roof stuck their heads out from under their wings, looked around and flew into the open sky. The flies on the wall fluttered again. The hearth fire raised its flames and cooked the meat, and the cook pulled the assistant's hair out in such a way that he even screamed, and the maid collapsed the chicken leaving her ready for cooking.

Days later, the wedding of the prince and Precious Rose was celebrated in all splendor, and they lived very happily until the end of their lives.

That's the version written by the Grimm brothers these days. I will share Perrault's version, which is disturbing.

The truth is that, as you may have noticed, there are many similarities between the version of the Grimm and the history of Disney. Differences equal, the main the number of fairies; and good the number of years that remains asleep.

The Brothers Grimm version and the Disney version seem like good stories to me; that everyone can see or hear, regardless of age.

I hope you liked it!

If you are interested in the stories of the Grimm brothers, here are the links to other of my publications of stories by these authors: Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella

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