Unveiling The Mystery: Who Awakens Sleeping Beauty?

In the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, also known as La Belle au bois dormant in French and Dornröschen in German, the beautiful Princess Aurora is cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years. The tale, which has been adapted into ballets, novels, poems, video games, and films, sees the princess awakened by a kiss from her true love, a handsome prince.

The Perrault version

In Charles Perrault's version of "Sleeping Beauty", the princess has no name, but her daughter is called "Aurore". The story begins with the princess's birth. Seven fairies are invited to be her godmothers, and they attend a banquet held in celebration. An old fairy who was not invited arrives at the feast and, feeling slighted, curses the child. Six of the fairies give the child various gifts: beauty, grace, dance, song, wit, and goodness. The old fairy declares that the child will one day prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Another fairy who has not yet bestowed her blessing on the child changes the curse so that the princess will only fall asleep for one hundred years, at the end of which, she will be awakened by a king's son.

Despite the king's attempts to protect his daughter by banning spinning wheels, the princess pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep when she is fifteen or sixteen years old. A good fairy, who had saved the princess's life by condemning her to sleep, puts the entire castle and forest into a deep sleep as well. One hundred years pass, and the castle is forgotten. One day, a prince from another royal family is riding in the woods and comes upon the castle. He is told various stories about the castle, including that it is haunted, that it is where all the witches of the neighbourhood held their revels, and that it is home to an ogre. An old man then recounts the story that his father had told him: that in the castle lies a beautiful princess, asleep for one hundred years, waiting for a king's son to wake her.

The prince braves the dense greenery and enters the castle, where he finds everyone asleep. He comes across the chamber where the princess lies asleep and is struck by her beauty. The princess awakens, and the spell is broken. The prince and princess converse for a long time and immediately fall in love. They are married in the castle chapel, and the princess gives birth to two children, Aurora and Apollo. The prince does not tell his parents about his new family until two years later, when the king dies.

Perrault's version differs from the versions popular today, particularly in the second half of the tale, which focuses on the prince's mother, who is an ogress and wishes to eat the princess and her children. A kind cook saves the family by serving up various animals instead. The ogress queen eventually commits suicide by diving into a vat of poisonous snakes.

The Grimm version

The Brothers Grimm version of the classic fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" is also known as "Little Brier-Rose" or "Little Briar Rose". The story begins with a king and queen who long for a child. One day, a frog emerges from the queen's bathwater and tells her that she will have a daughter. As the frog foretells, the queen gives birth to a beautiful daughter, and the king ordains a feast. The king invites his relations, friends, and acquaintances, as well as twelve wise women to bestow gifts upon the child. However, there are thirteen wise women in the kingdom, and the thirteenth, feeling insulted for not being invited, arrives unannounced. She does not greet anyone and, without saying another word, declares that in her fifteenth year, the princess will prick herself with a spindle and die. The twelfth wise woman, who has not yet given her gift, tries to soften the prophecy by saying that the princess will not die but will fall into a deep sleep for a hundred years.

Wanting to protect his daughter, the king issues an order to burn all the spindles in the kingdom. However, as fate would have it, the prophecy comes true, and the princess pricks her finger on a spindle on her fifteenth birthday. The entire castle falls into a deep sleep, and a thorn hedge begins to grow around it, eventually covering the castle completely. A legend spreads throughout the land about the beautiful sleeping princess, and many princes try to penetrate the thorn hedge but meet with tragic fates.

Finally, a hundred years pass, and another prince arrives in the country. He hears about the thorn hedge and the sleeping princess from an old man, who warns him of the previous princes' tragic fates. Undeterred, the prince approaches the thorn hedge, which has now transformed into large, beautiful flowers that part to let him pass. He finds the sleeping princess in a tower and is so enraptured by her beauty that he bends over and kisses her. Upon being touched by the kiss, the princess awakens, and the entire court wakes up as well. The prince and the princess get married and live happily ever after.

It is important to note that the Brothers Grimm version of "Sleeping Beauty" is based on an earlier literary tale by Charles Perrault, titled "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," which was published more than a century earlier. The Perrault version, in turn, was adapted from "Sun, Moon, and Talia" by Italian poet Giambattista Basile. The earliest known version of the tale is found in the French narrative "Perceforest," written between 1330 and 1344.

The Tchaikovsky ballet

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, is based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault, La Belle au bois dormant (The beauty sleeping in the woods). The ballet's story is centred around the christening of Princess Aurora, the newborn daughter of King Florestan and his Queen. Six fairies are invited to the ceremony to bestow gifts on the child. Each fairy brings a gift of a virtue or positive trait, such as beauty, courage, sweetness, musical talent, and mischief. However, before the Lilac Fairy can give her gift, Carabosse curses Aurora to die on her 16th birthday. The Lilac Fairy then uses her power to alter the curse so that Aurora will fall asleep for 100 years and be awakened by a kiss from a prince.

The ballet begins with a party celebrating Aurora's 16th birthday. The guests are entertained with a waltz by the townsfolk. The prince arrives, discovers the castle, and kisses the sleeping princess, awakening her and the rest of the court. The prince asks for Princess Aurora's hand in marriage, and the final act of the ballet is given over to a royal wedding celebration, featuring a cast of fairy tale characters.

The Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, conducted by Riccardo Drigo and choreographed by Marius Petipa. It is Tchaikovsky's longest ballet, with a full-length performance lasting nearly four hours, including intermissions. The complete score runs for nearly three hours and is typically cut for most productions. The ballet received favourable reviews from the press, and Tchaikovsky considered it one of his finest compositions.

The original production of The Sleeping Beauty featured set designs by Henrich Levogt, Ivan Andreyev, Mikhail Bocharov, and Matvey Shishkov. The principal roles were performed by Feliks Krzesiński as King Florestan, Giuseppina Cecchetti as the Queen, Carlotta Brianza as Princess Aurora, Marie Petipa as the Lilac Fairy, Enrico Cecchetti as Carabosse, and Pavel Gerdt as the Prince.

The Disney film

In the 1959 Disney film Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora is cursed by the evil fairy Maleficent to die from pricking her finger on a spinning wheel spindle on her 16th birthday. To protect her, Aurora's parents raise her in a wooded cabin, away from any spinning wheels, and under the care of three good fairies. However, on her 16th birthday, Aurora meets Maleficent, who has placed a spinning wheel in the castle, and the curse comes true. The fairies put the entire town to sleep and Maleficent captures the prince. The prince must then save Aurora with the Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue. The film ends with a climactic kiss that breaks the curse, awakening Aurora from her deep sleep.

The film is based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault, which was first published in 1697. The story was also influenced by the earlier tale Sun, Moon and the Talia by Giambattista Basile, published in 1634. In Basile's version, Talia falls into a coma and becomes pregnant, giving birth to twins before she wakes up. This ending has been interpreted as a metaphor for motherhood, suggesting that a woman is not truly "awake" until she becomes a mother.

Sleeping Beauty was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. It was the 16th animated feature in the Disney Animated Canon and the last hand-inked cel-animated film by Disney before they switched to using the xerography process. The film took nearly a decade to produce and was Disney's most expensive animated feature at the time, costing $6 million (equivalent to $64,719,178 in 2024). Despite this, the film was a box-office bomb, grossing only $5.3 million (equivalent to $57,168,607 in 2024) during its initial release.

Sleeping Beauty is known for its beautiful animation, music, and voice talents. It features the voices of Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen, Taylor Holmes, and Bill Thompson. The musical score was provided by the Graunke Symphony Orchestra (now the Munich Symphony Orchestra), under the direction of George Bruns. The film's songs, including "I Wonder" and "Once Upon a Dream," are considered classics in the Disney repertoire.

The Maleficent films

In Maleficent, we see the story unfold from the perspective of the eponymous character, starting with her early life as a young fairy in the Moors, a magical realm bordering a human kingdom. She befriends a human boy named Stefan, and their bond eventually blossoms into love. However, Stefan's betrayal leads to Maleficent's descent into villainy, as she seeks revenge for her broken heart. She crashes the christening of Princess Aurora, the daughter of King Stefan and Queen Leah, and curses the newborn princess. In a twist on the traditional tale, Maleficent's curse is not death but a deep slumber that can only be broken by true love's kiss.

The film showcases Maleficent's complex character, depicting her as a powerful, witty, and vibrant individual with a dark sense of humour. Her elegant design, complete with a horned headdress and a bat-like robe, hints at her formidable power and shapeshifting abilities, including her ability to transform into a dragon. Maleficent's pet raven, Diablo, is a constant companion, adding to her ominous presence.

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