Sleeping Beloved
The King’s Son: Sent to Awaken
Just as a king’s son must awake our Sleeping Beauty from her sleeping-death, so too the King’s Son was sent to awaken us, His Sleeping Beloved, from our living deaths…
Sleeping Beloved
The Nameless Beauty
Our next Sleeping Beloved shows up in France only 50 years after Basile’s story. Although some scholars point to Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” as the inspiration (which is certainly possible),[1] it’s also possible that it came from a variant called “Sun, Pearl, and Anna,” which cleans up the story a great deal (i.e. the prince takes the spindle out of Anna’s hand, she awakes, then they have children who are almost killed by Anna’s mother-in-law, the evil queen).[2]
Anyway, part of a compilation of eight short stories, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood was written by Charles Perrault in 1697 for King Louis XIV’s niece.[3] It is one of my favorite versions. Hands down, I will read it to my children. It has beautiful imagery (the good fairy has a chariot pulled by dragons!), and has all the delightful qualities of a “fairy tale”…
Sleeping Beloved
Following the Spindle’s Thread
It’s time to meet our “Sleeping Beauties”! The following versions are the ones most clearly showing a turn in the thread of the story. There are, of course, hundreds of stories tracing their lineage back to the ones listed here.
The tale we know today as “Sleeping Beauty” has its roots in the Norse and Germanic myths of Brunhild and Sigurd…
Sleeping Beloved
The First ‘Sleeping Beauty’
You have just read the original Sleeping Beauty tale. Yes, that’s right. The first Sleeping Beloved is the first human ever created: the man, Adam. This story is special, as it occurs before the Fall of mankind. It shows the ideal Sleeping Beloved, where there are no curses, only blessings. What is taken is done in love, without pain, and is immediately returned seven-fold…