In previous versions, our Sleeping Beloved was held three consistent identities: princess, wife, and mother. Despite the magical forces, Sleeping Beauty always emerges as a “typical” woman (that is, wife and mother). She embodies the transition between girlhood and adulthood, helping women through her example. The lesson she teaches is that awakening one’s heart to love is always, always worth it.
Beginning in 1812, however, Sleeping Beauty’s story is cut short. Rather than the central crisis coming after her awakening, her chief trial is her slumbering state. This is crucial. In essence, it makes Sleeping Beauty a blank slate. She has no identity other than a sleeping princess.
And so, Sleeping Beauty becomes just a girl. She speaks for the yearning in our hearts – the yearning to be treasured, to be awakened, and to then go off and define who we are.
More than ever before, Sleeping Beauty’s story has to do with identity. This should not surprise us, as the next two versions we’ll be looking at were forged in an era when national identity was hotly discussed, and passionately pursued. Of course our stories reflect our reality.
In the early 1800s, nationalism was on the rise – mostly because Napoleon was conquering Europe. People began to realize they wanted their own rulers, not some ruler set up by a French emperor. As it “happened”, in 1808, Napoleon conquered the Germanies and made his brother Jerome the king of Westphalia – where Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived.[1]
In 1812 – just before the end of Jerome’s rule in 1813 – the brothers published their first volume of Children’s and Household Tales, hoping to evoke a sense of nationalism, or “German-ness”, in their countrymen. Whether the tales were truly “Volksdichtung” (the people’s literature), or brought along by the French doesn’t really matter.[2] The fact is, the Brothers Grimm were inspired to compile their fairy tales.
For their fairy tales traveled quickly across the lands, and soon every nation knew the stories within their pages. And tucked away in the first volume of the Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales, we find our story of the Sleeping Beloved: the tale of the “Briar Rose”…
Sources
[1] Ruth Bottingheimer, Fairy Tales: A New History, p. 44
[2] Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales: A New History, p. 38
