Sleeping Beauty

Once upon a time, a King and Queen welcomed a beautiful baby girl. They were so happy they threw a grand party for the whole kingdom. They invited the seven good Fairies of the land to be the baby’s godmothers.

At the feast, each Fairy gave the Princess a magical gift: Beauty, Wit, Grace, Song, and so on.

But just as the seventh Fairy was about to give her gift, the castle doors banged open. In stormed an old, angry Fairy who had been forgotten and not invited.

“I have a gift too,” she growled. “When the Princess turns sixteen, she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and DIE!”

Everyone gasped. The Queen began to cry.

The seventh Fairy stepped forward. “I cannot undo her wicked curse,” she said softly, “but I can soften it. The Princess shall not die. Instead, she will fall into a deep sleep for one hundred years, until she is imprisoned by true love.”

The King, wanting to save his daughter, ordered every spinning wheel in the kingdom to be burned.

Years passed. The Princess grew up safe and happy. On her sixteenth birthday, she was exploring an old tower in the castle. She found a little room where an old woman sat spinning thread. The King’s order had missed this one hidden room!

“What is this funny thing?” asked the Princess, reaching out.

“It is a spindle,” said the old woman.

The Princess touched it and—OUCH!—she pricked her finger.

Instantly, she fell onto a bed and into a deep sleep. And she wasn’t alone. The spell spread over the whole castle. The King and Queen fell asleep on their thrones. The guards fell asleep at the gates. Even the horses in the stable and the dogs in the yard fell fast asleep. The fire in the kitchen stopped crackling. The wind stopped blowing.

A great hedge of sharp thorns grew up around the castle, hiding it from the world.

A hundred years went by. The story of the “Sleeping Beauty” became a legend.

One day, a brave Prince from a nearby land rode by. He saw the tops of the towers rising above the thorns. “I must see her,” he said.

As he approached the hedge, the hundred years were finally up. The thorns turned into blooming roses and parted to let him through.

He walked through the silent castle. He passed the sleeping guards and the sleeping court. Finally, he climbed the tower and found the room.

There lay the Princess, as beautiful as the day she fell asleep. The Prince was so enchanted that he knelt down and gently kissed her hand.

At that moment, the spell broke.

The Princess opened her eyes and smiled. “Is it you, my Prince?” she asked. “I have waited a long time.”

As she woke, the King and Queen woke up. The horses neighed, the dogs barked, and the fire in the kitchen flared up again. The castle came alive!

The Prince and Princess were married in a magnificent wedding, and they lived happily ever after.

Moral of the Story: Goodness and love can triumph over even the strongest curses.