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| “… and they lived happily ever after.” |
We all know how Snow White gets to be kissed and rescued by her prince; how Cinderella was fitted with the shoe; and how Sleeping Beauty gets to wake up after a long slumber. Different stories, yet with the same endings. Isn't it a little tiring? Princesses sitting around, waiting for the awesome skill of a writer to give a cliche happy ending, and well, everybody's happy. It's common, and sometimes, flat. And that's what's intriguing. I just can't let myself believe to these stories as simple, so I made some research. And one thing that caught my attention is Sleeping Beauty.
I first searched about its mythology and I came across an article entitled, "The Story Behind Sleeping Beauty" from the site Suite101.com, written by John K. Davis.
The article is a quick summary about the Sleeping Beauty story's development from an old version to the latest. Starting from its origins from a 12th century Norse saga entitled "Volsunga" with Odin and Bruhilda; to Giambattista Basile's "Pentamerone" which will be discussed later on; to Charles Perrault's "La Belle au Bois Dormant"; and lastly, to the Brothers Grimm with "Sleeping Beauty".
According to Davis, he said that, "The beloved fairy tale story of a young woman [Sleeping Beauty] who goes into a comatose state after getting a splinter in her finger and then being revived by a handsome prince, has its basic elements in both Nordic mythology and 16th century French literature."
As we know, Norse Mythology is a collection of Scandinavian oral trdaitions based on various deitites, gods, and folklores. And back then, these mythologies are the popular ones. So there's no surprise that Sleeping Beauty is not juts a flat story of just a princess in a deep slumber. Contrary to our belief of a good happy ending that Disney provided, this article had a very different story; much to my surprise. Not only that it’s far to what we have watched as kids, but also it has a darker side of the story. I find this a little disturbing considering that this is a story meant for kids. Or, so I think. The idea of a princess being raped by a king stated a clear figure of incest, which is a little sensitive to be put on screen. Now I kind of know why Disney princesses have such a good image.For the story, it was foretold by the wise men of the King that danger will come to her from a splinter of some flax, so the King ordered for the removal of any of that kind. But when one day Talia saw a woman and grow curious with her spinning, she touched the spindle and splintered herself with the flax fiber; which is used to make linen cloths. Thus, falling into a deep slumber.
The article is a quick summary about the Sleeping Beauty story's development from an old version to the latest. Starting from its origins from a 12th century Norse saga entitled "Volsunga" with Odin and Bruhilda; to Giambattista Basile's "Pentamerone" which will be discussed later on; to Charles Perrault's "La Belle au Bois Dormant"; and lastly, to the Brothers Grimm with "Sleeping Beauty".
According to Davis, he said that, "The beloved fairy tale story of a young woman [Sleeping Beauty] who goes into a comatose state after getting a splinter in her finger and then being revived by a handsome prince, has its basic elements in both Nordic mythology and 16th century French literature."
As we know, Norse Mythology is a collection of Scandinavian oral trdaitions based on various deitites, gods, and folklores. And back then, these mythologies are the popular ones. So there's no surprise that Sleeping Beauty is not juts a flat story of just a princess in a deep slumber. Contrary to our belief of a good happy ending that Disney provided, this article had a very different story; much to my surprise. Not only that it’s far to what we have watched as kids, but also it has a darker side of the story. I find this a little disturbing considering that this is a story meant for kids. Or, so I think. The idea of a princess being raped by a king stated a clear figure of incest, which is a little sensitive to be put on screen. Now I kind of know why Disney princesses have such a good image.For the story, it was foretold by the wise men of the King that danger will come to her from a splinter of some flax, so the King ordered for the removal of any of that kind. But when one day Talia saw a woman and grow curious with her spinning, she touched the spindle and splintered herself with the flax fiber; which is used to make linen cloths. Thus, falling into a deep slumber.
Another article I found, well not really an article but a downloadable PDF entitled "The Archetypal Interpretation of Sleeping Beauty: Awakening the Power of Love" by Grace Hogstad from the site Journals.sfu.ca; she stated that the earliest Sleeping Beauty was dated back in the 1300’s through the title “Troylus and Zellandine”. According to its story, it says that an evil deity places a curse on Princess Zellandine that causes her to go on a deep sleep. A few years later, Prince Troylus came upon the sleeping princess and rapes her in her sleep. It almost has the same element as the previous story though with a different character.
In the file, Grace Hogstad says, "Basile's is the only one that shows a connection between the cause of sleep and the awakening—the flax splinter and the infant sucking it out. Perhaps because all later versions do not feature rape—consequently, no babies are born during the princess' sleep—the iterations that come after do not use flax. Instead, the bringer of magic sleep thereafter, when a disgruntled fairy places a curse on the princess, is a spindle."
By personal observation I agree to what she said. As I went through this research there was nothing that exactly explained the reason in detail to why and how Sleeping Beauty fell asleep and how she woke up. Basile's version is the only one that kind of answered both.
Eventually, as I followed through the rest of the file, I found out that there a lot of versions the Sleeping Beauty story had been made. From Italian, to French, to German, and to English versions, it took almost six centuries of development for this fairy tale until the present child-friendly version came out.
Now going back to the story with the 'flax' thing, I found out that this idea is actually from the Italian version written by Giambatista Basile from his book "Pentamenrone", with the title "Sun, Moon, and Talia". Apparently, ''Talia" was the name given to Sleeping Beauty before, or for this certain version.
Just a quick note: Flax seeds are known for it is a great sleep-regulating substance serotonin in the body due to their high levels of both trytophan and omega-3 fatty acids. In short, it helps improve sleep patterns and enhance immune support.
Although with the lots of searching and reading I have done for this entry, there still a lot more information about the under story and mysteries of this fairy tale that I cannot tell further. If you want to read the file for yourself, you can download the PDF file that was linked above.
All throughout, I was surprised of the things that I found out. Who wouldn't know that a simple Disney Princess story had a much more deeper, (even deeper than I thought) kind of inside. It was quite surprising that a Princess' story could come out in a weird but a classical kind of theme. It shows that every story has their own unique background, no matter how crappy and cliche they come out. We sometimes criticize Disney for the lots of Princess' stuff theme pattern they often produce but I realized, even though we look at it that way, Disney have their own unique kind of genius.
