At the heart of each fairy tale lies a kernel of wisdom about man and this wisdom nourishes the children. They are truly hungry for it. -- Dorothy Harrer Educating as an Art: Essays on Waldorf Education
The tale of the sleeping princess is a tale of transformation. The earliest version of the story is French and dates back to the 1300s with Le Roman de Perceforest.
Giambattista Basile wrote the first full collection of fairy tales, Il Pentamerone, in 1634, and included Sun, Moon and Talia, a sleeping beauty tale. The versions we are more familiar with are Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (1697) and the Brothers Grimm Briar Rose, 1812.
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| Briar Rose Illustration by Claudia Marie |
In all varieties of this tale, there are magical women who
attend the celebration of the child's birth, either goddesses or fairies, and
bestow gifts upon the newborn child. One of the fairies is snubbed and puts a
curse on the child.
“How wonderful it is to hold an infant and wonder about the new gifts
that the child has brought to earth," wrote Waldorf Kindergrten teacher Joan Almon. "To be in the presence of the newborn is
like stepping into the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty and watching the twelve
wise women come forward to bestow their special gifts . . . When we think of the child as animal-like or machine-like, we play the
role of this thirteenth wise woman who wished death upon the child without the
possibility of transformation or metamorphosis. Fortunately in the fairy tale,
the twelfth wise woman had not yet made her wish and she now came forward. The
story says she could not take away the evil sentence, but she could soften it,
and she said, ‘There will be no death but a deep sleep of one hundred years.’
We are being asked to be the twelfth wise woman for today’s children, taking
away the sting of materialism, the denial of the spirit, which so threatens the
spirit of childhood.
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| Sleeping Beauty by Warwick Goble |
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| Sleeping Beauty by Margaret Tarrant |
In the earliest tales of Sleeping Beauty, the princess is raped in her sleep and bears a child. The Perrault and Grimm versions clean up the tale to one that is more suitable for young children.
The essential transformation in the tale is
puberty, according to Bruno Bettelheim, "The Uses of Enchantment: The
Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales." Sleeping Beauty pricking her
finger on the spindle is a symbol for menstruation. Teenagers must go through a
long sleep as they mature into adulthood.
However, young children will not understand the
puberty symbolism. They will see it as a tale of transformation, a tale of
triumph over death, a story that portrays the value of patience. There is a time for every season, no need to hurry. A nice long sleep is good for the flowers in the garden and good for the human spirit as well.
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| Sleeping Beauty by fantasy artist Kinuko Y. Craft |
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| Sleeping Beauty by C.M. Burd |
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| Sleeping Beauty Martina Muller |
Read more about Sleeping Beauty: