Surely any of you are able to explain in a few minutes the story of "Sleeping Beauty" (or at least the most essential): the queen's daughter receives a curse for which at age 16 she will be pricked with a needle and will die Upon reaching that age it happens and the princess, more than die, sleeps forever, or until a handsome prince wakes her with a kiss. And this is exactly what happens, a kiss wakes her up and prince and princess end up dancing together.
But nevertheless, the first version of this story is quite different, so much so that it could not be explained to children, because some would not understand it, others would cry (I imagine) and others would have the odd nightmare for a few days.
This first version dates from 1636 and was written in Italy by Giambattista Basile, under the title "Sun, Moon and Talia", which was part of a collection of short stories entitled "Pentamerone".
It explains the story of Talía, the daughter of a great king, who runs the risk of pricking herself with a poison splinter hidden among linen, as wise and astrologers warn. The king decides to prohibit the entry of linen into the palace and this prevents the princess from suffering any mishap until, as a teenager, she finds a spinning wheel for spinning linen and sticks a splinter under the nail, falling dead.
The king, afflicted by the loss and unable to bury her, deposits his daughter's body on a velvet cloth, closes the palace and leaves it. So far it seems that the story is more or less the same. However, it is from now on when it seems that what we know does not just agree with the original.
The sleeping beauty, raped
A nobleman who usually hunts in the forest follows his hawk, which takes him to the abandoned palace, where he finds the princess. She is immediately captivated by her beauty and, not happy to kiss her, After trying to wake her up, she has sex with her (if it can be called relationship ...).
Nine months later Princess Talía, still sleeping, gives birth to two twins, a boy and a girl whose name are Son and Luna. Children are cared for by fairies, who accompany the princess while she sleeps. One day the child tries unsuccessfully to take his mother's chest, finally finding his finger. He begins to suck it and manages, casually, to extract from his skin the poisoned splinter. At that precise moment Talía regains consciousness (about a hundred years after having fallen "dead"). As you see The one who wakes Sleeping Beauty is not a blue prince, but a baby, son of the same princess and a noble rapist.
Time passes and the nobleman, remembering the "good times" lived with the sleeping girl decides to go back to the palace (the intentions you can already imagine). To her surprise, the princess is awake and also not alone, but accompanied by her two creatures. The nobleman realizes that they are his children and that is how he explains it to Talía, who, far from being angry, decides to start a relationship (now yes, spoiled) with him.
The couple spends a week of fairy tale and then the nobleman leaves, not to mention that the reason for this is the forced return with his wife.
The nobleman's wife finds out
Then what happened had to happen (so that the story is increasingly incredible): the noble mentions in dreams the names of Talía, Sol y Luna and with it the wife of the noble finds out everything, thus knowing the existence of the palace , of the princess who lives in him and the bastard children of her husband. Angry until she can no longer, she kidnaps Sol y Luna, who ends up delivering the cook, giving the order to slaughter them and make a tasty dish with their meat.
The wife, not happy with it, decides to burn Talía alive at the stake, also captured. At the time of arriving at the stake, Talía asks to be able to first remove her most delicate clothes, which the woman agrees to. With each garment that is removed emits a cry of pain. Sounds that the noble end up hearing.
The wife explains to her husband that Talía has been burned at the stake and that, during the meal, “you have eaten what is yours!”, That is, to her children. At that moment the nobleman orders that his wife, the secretary and the cook be burned also at the stake.
However, Talía does not get burned and the cook explains that has not been able to harm children and that has replaced them with goat meat.
The nobleman and Princess Talía marry and the cook receives the title of royal treasurer.
And Perrault sweetened the story
In 1697 the French Charles Perrault he rewrote Talia's story by eliminating the noble rapist and putting in his place a handsome prince who would wake the princess with a kiss. After this they would marry and have two daughters, the three women (mother and daughters) being badly accepted by the queen (mother of the prince).
Perrault's story was titled "The Sleeping Beauty of the Forest" and still suffered some more variations since, among others, it passed through the hands of acquaintances Grimm brothers, even the story we all know, much sweeter and more childish.
