Sleeping Beauty a fairy tale 700 years in the making

#LITERATURE

Though many of us might think of the tale of Sleeping Beauty (Rosaspina) as the one told by the Grimm Brothers in their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales), the most famous anthology of fairy tales from 1812, and later picked up and made timeless by the Disney franchise in 1959, the story of Sleeping Beauty has been 7 centuries in the making.
The latest interpretation of the story of Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent offered up by Robert Stromberg and Angelina Jolie is only the latest in a string of developments of the story.
The ancient tale

Sleeping Beauty by Victor Vasnetsov

The earliest written version of the fairy tale dates back to 1340s France and it is recorded in Le Roman de Perceforest. The story is much different from that we know today, with elements of rape and necrophilia to boot. It is possible that the story has even more ancient roots, all the way back to Ancient Greece, as the existence of a manuscript is recorded within Le Roman de Perceforest. Anyway, the story goes like this:
At Zellandine’s birth, three goddesses were invited, Lucina, Themis, and Venus. Themis was upset that the knife she was given to eat with was not as fine as the ones provided for the other goddesses, she curses the child so that the first time she touches a piece of flax, it would stab her finger and put her into a sleep from which she would not waken. It is Venus who determines she will use her powers to save Zellanidine’s life.
Later, “it is told how Zephyr, in the form of a bird, offers Troylus [Zellandine’s lover] transport to the tower in which the beautiful Zellandine is in an enchanted sleep…the knight accepts, and by this vehicle that once carried Psyche to the palace of love he arrives without use of a ladder in the beautiful Zellandine’s chamber. He sees at one side a richly adorned bed, grand enough for a queen, the canopy and the curtains were whiter than snow. He hesitates to approach for a long time, like the true friend who is valiant in his thoughts but cowardly in his deeds. He then tries to awaken the young girl, but is finally conquered by the maiden’s charms for she slept like a beautiful goddess, as tender and red as a rose with her white flesh like a lily. He speaks a long discourse begging forgiveness for his grand liberties, and sorrowfully, he decided to follow the tenets of Venus…
…Nine months later, Zellandine, who is still asleep, brings into the world a very fine son. The son sucks the flax out in an attempt to nurse, and Zellandine wakes up.
The Baroque edit

Sleeping Beauty by Zatzka Hans

A similar story is recorded in Giambattista Basile’s epic Pentameron, dating from 1634 called Sun, Moon and Talia. The rape still happens in Basile’s version, while the differences lay in the poorer background of the family and that the deep sleep the maiden falls into is not due to a curse yet of a prophecy.
The Sleeping Forest

La Belle au Bois Dormant by Gustave Doré

There is another version of the story, the one that is closest to the Brother’s Grimm tale we all know and that is Charles Perrault’s La belle au bois dormant (the beauty in the sleeping forest) found in the anthology from 1695 Tales of My Mother Goose. Here, the protagonist is a dame, and no longer a lowly pauper as the Frenchman wanted to give the story more cross rank appeal.
The main plot here is the same as we have come to know, with the Prince waking the sleeping princess with a kiss, but the fable has more details than the story we have come to know and love.

Pre Rafaelite depiction of Sleeping Beauty

There is an epilogue, the fairy tale does not end with a happily ever after quite yet. The princess and the prince who woke her from her slumber have two children Aurora and Jour (day). The prince however keeps his marriage secret from his mother, who is a descendant of child eating ogres. The secret is not kept fro long and when the ogre mother discovers her son’s family she orders them to be exterminated. The cook, who had been ordered to serve her the kids at dinner, saves them by serving a lamb in the place of the son, a kid in the place of the daughter, a deer in place of the princess. She discovers the rouse and decided to kill them by throwing them into a ravine, but the prince saves his wife and children. Having been beaten, she commits suicide throwing herself in the ravine.
The Dawn of Aurora

Disney picked up the a hybrid of the Brothers’ Grimm and Perrault’s maiden and transformed it into a timeless cartoon feature film in 1959 with incredible illustrations by Marc Davis. Disney and the man’s sapient pen gave life to Aurora, the blonde princess, the three colour coded messy fairies, the soave Prince Philip and the most iconic baddy from a Disney film ever Maleficent.

Source: http://www.swide.com/art-culture/the-ancient-story-of-sleeping-beauty-and-maleficent-original-fairy-tale/2014/05/28