Brier Rose or Sleeping Beauty
Once upon a time there lived a king and .1 queen who had no children, and this was a great sorrow to them. But one day as the queen was walking by the side of the river, a little fish lifted his head out of the water and said, ‘Your wish shall be fulfilled; you shall have a daughter.”
What the little fish had foretold soon came to pass, and the queen had a little girl whom they called Brier Rose. She was so beautiful that the king, in great joy, determined to hold a feast.
He invited not only his relations, friends, and neighbors, but also all the fairies that they might be good to his little daughter.
Now there were thirteen fairies in his kingdom, and he had only twelve golden dishes, so he was obliged to leave one of the fairies without an invitation. The rest came, and after the feast was over, they gave their gifts to the little princess. One gave her virtue, another beauty, another wisdom, and so on till she had all that was excellent in the world.
But just as the eleventh fairy had done blessing her, a great noise was heard at the door, and the thirteenth fairy stormed in, very angry that she had not been invited.
“Here is my gift!” she cried. “The princess shall in her fifteenth year be wounded by a spindle and fall down dead!” Then she rushed out again, not knowing that the twelfth fairy had not yet spoken.
Now the twelfth fairy came forward and soothed the weeping queen.
“I can not promise that the wish of the thirteenth fairy shall not be fulfilled,” she said, “but I can soften it. Your daughter shall not die, but will fall asleep for a hundred years.”
But the queen would not be comforted. “Only say that we may sleep with her!” she begged. And the twelfth fairy said this might be done.
The king called all his soldiers to him. “Search the kingdom,” he ordered. “Buy up and destroy every spindle. Let not a single one be left in all the land.” And he commanded that the princess be guarded day and night, so that never, till she passed her fifteenth birthday, should a spindle come near her.
As the years passed, the fairies’ gifts were all fulfilled. The princess was so beautiful, well-behaved, amiable and wise that everyone loved her.
Now it happened that on the eve of the day Brier Rose was fifteen years old, a birthday feast was prepared for her, with great rejoicing in all the land, for the king and queen felt that the danger was now over. Everyone was busy hanging garlands in the palace or preparing the feast, and for a few minutes in the afternoon no one was with the princess. She roved about, well pleased to be alone, and she came at last to an old tower to which there was a narrow staircase. Upstairs there sat an old woman spinning away busily.
“How now, good mother,” said the princess, “what are you doing there?”
“Spinning,” said the old woman.
“How prettily that little thing turns around!” said the princess. “I wish I might try it.”
“Take it then,” said the old woman.
The princess sat down and took the spindle and began to spin. But scarcely had she touched it when she fell down on the floor as though dead.
However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep.
Immediately the king and queen fell asleep too. And the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in the court, the pigeons on the housetop and flies on the walls. Even the fire on the hearth left off blazing and went to sleep, and the meat that was roasting stood still.
The cook, who was at the moment pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box on the ear for something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell asleep. And so everything stood still, and slept soundly.
A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it became higher and thicker till at last the whole palace was surrounded and hid, so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen. But there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping princess, so that from time to time several king’s sons came and tried to break through the thicket into the palace. This they could never do, for the thorns and bushes laid hold of them as if with hands, and there they stuck fast.
Now on the day that the hundred years were completed, a prince came to the thicket. He saw no thorns, as he had expected; he saw nothing but beautiful roses and flowering shrubs, through which he passed with ease, and they closed after him as firm as ever. He came at last to the palace, and there in the court lay the dogs asleep, and the horses in the stables, and on the roof sat the pigeons fast asleep with their heads under their wings. And when he came inside the palace, the flies slept on the walls, and the cook in the kitchen was still holding up her hand as if she would box the ears of the kitchen-boy, and the maid sat with a black fowl in her hand ready to be plucked.
Then he went on still farther, and all was so still that he could hear every breath he drew; till at last he came to the old tower and opened the door of the room in which the princess lay. There she was, fast asleep. She looked so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her, and he stooped down and gave her a kiss. The moment he kissed her, she opened her eyes and smiled upon him.
Then the king and queen awoke, and all the court. The horses got up and shook themselves, and the dogs jumped about and barked; the pigeons took their heads from under their wings and looked about and flew into the fields; the flies on the walls buzzed away; the fire in the kitchen blazed up and cooked the dinner, and. the roasting meat turned again. The cook gave the boy the box on his ear so that he cried out, and the maid went on plucking the fowl.
And then was the wedding of the prince and the princess celebrated, and they lived happily together all their lives long.
