Sleeping Beauty

Long, long ago there lived a king and a queen. Every day they said to each other, "Oh, if only we had a child!" but they never had one. One day, as the queen was bathing, a frog crawled out of the water onto the land and said to her: "Your wish will be fulfilled. Before a year has passed, you will have a daughter."

What the frog said came true, and the queen gave birth to a daughter so beautiful that the king did not know what to do with joy and ordered a great feast. He invited his relatives, friends and acquaintances. He also invited the wise women of the kingdom, so that they would be kind and loving to the child. There were thirteen wise women in the kingdom. But in the king's palace there were only twelve golden plates for them to eat from. So one of them could not be invited.

The feast was held with great splendour. At the end of it the wise women gave the child their wonderful gifts: one gave virtue, another beauty, another riches, another joy, and so on, everything in the world that one could wish for. Eleven of them had spoken their wishes when suddenly the thirteenth came in. She wanted revenge because she had not been invited. Without greeting anyone or even looking at anyone, she cried out in a loud voice: "When the king's daughter is fifteen, she shall prick her finger on a spindle and fall down dead!" And without another word, she turned and left the hall.

Everyone was horrified. Then the twelfth wise woman, who had not yet spoken her wish, stepped forward. She could not undo the evil curse, but she could soften it. "The king's daughter shall not die. She shall only fall into a deep sleep that will last a hundred years," she said.

The king, wishing to protect his dear child from this misfortune, ordered every spindle in the whole kingdom to be burned. Meanwhile, all the wise women's gifts came true in the girl: she was so beautiful, so good-natured, so kind and so clever that everyone who saw her loved her.

On the very day she turned fifteen, the king and queen were away from home. The girl was left alone in the palace and wandered about as she pleased, looking into rooms and halls. At last she came to an old tower. She climbed the narrow winding staircase and came to a little door. A rusty key was in the lock. When she turned it, the door sprang open, and in a little room sat an old woman with a spindle, busily spinning flax.

"Good day, old granny," said the king's daughter. "What are you doing?" "I'm spinning," said the old woman, nodding her head. "What is that thing that spins round so merrily?" asked the girl, and she took the spindle and wanted to spin too. But she had scarcely touched it when the curse was fulfilled, and she pricked her finger.

The moment she felt the prick, she fell onto the bed that stood there and sank into a deep sleep. And this sleep spread over the whole palace: the king and queen, who had just come home and entered the great hall, fell asleep, and the whole court with them. The horses in the stable, the dogs in the yard, the pigeons on the roof and the flies on the wall all fell asleep. Even the fire flickering in the hearth grew still and slept. The roast stopped sizzling. The cook, who was about to pull the kitchen boy's hair, let go and fell asleep. The wind stopped, and not a single leaf stirred on the trees in front of the palace.

Around the palace a hedge of thorny roses began to grow. Every year it grew higher, until at last it surrounded the whole palace and grew over it, so that nothing could be seen of it, not even the flag on the roof. Throughout the land the story spread of the beautiful sleeping Briar Rose, for that was what the king's daughter came to be called. From time to time princes came and tried to get through the hedge into the palace. But they could not, for the thorns held fast together as if they had hands, and the young men got caught in them and could not get free.

After many, many long years, another prince came to that land. He heard an old man telling about the thorn hedge: behind it, the old man said, stood a palace, and in it a beautiful king's daughter called Briar Rose had been sleeping for a hundred years, and the king and queen and the whole court were sleeping with her. The old man had also heard from his grandfather that many princes had come and tried to get through the thorn hedge, but they had been caught in the thorns.

"I'm not afraid," said the young man. "I will go and see the beautiful Briar Rose." The kind old man tried to talk him out of it, but he would not listen.

Now, on that very day the hundred years were up, and the day had come for Briar Rose to wake. When the prince approached the thorn hedge, the thorns turned into big, beautiful flowers. They opened of their own accord and let him through, and closed again behind him. In the courtyard he saw the horses and the spotted hounds lying asleep. On the roof the pigeons sat with their heads tucked under their wings. When he went into the palace, he saw the flies asleep on the wall, the cook in the kitchen still holding out his hand as if to catch the boy, and the maid sitting in front of the black hen she was about to pluck.

He went on, and in the great hall he saw the whole court asleep, and by the throne lay the king and queen. He went further; everything was so still that he could hear his own breathing. At last he came to the tower and opened the door of the little room where Briar Rose was sleeping. There she lay, so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her. He bent down and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

As soon as his lips touched her, Briar Rose opened her eyes, woke up and looked at him very sweetly. They went downstairs together. The king woke up, the queen woke up, and the whole court woke up and looked at one another with wide eyes. In the yard the horses got up and shook themselves, the hounds jumped up and wagged their tails. The pigeons on the roof drew their heads out from under their wings, looked around and flew off into the fields. The flies on the wall began to crawl again. The fire in the kitchen flared up and cooked the food, and the roast began to sizzle again. The cook gave the kitchen boy such a smack that he yelled. And the maid went on plucking the hen.

The wedding of the prince and Briar Rose was celebrated in all splendour, and they lived happily until the end of their days. This time all the wise women were invited to the wedding. The king had a golden plate made for every one of them, so that no one would be forgotten and no one would feel hurt.