Sun, Moon, and Talia (An Italian Tale)

Basile, Giambattista. The Pentamerone. Benedetto Croce, translator. New York: Dutton, 1932., Day 5, Tale 5.

Click here to read the complete tale.

This is the second known version of the Sleeping Beauty tale, after Perceforst, which is thought to be the earliest. In Sun, Moon, and Talia, a king is told by fortune tellers that his daughter will suffer greatly as the result of flax. Upon hearing this, the king announces that no flax is to be brought into his castle, hoping that by doing so Talia will be safe. However, this does not solve the problem, as years later Talia sees a woman spinning and becomes intrigued; she must know how to do this thing! As predicted, some flax gets under the girl’s finger nail and she falls to the ground. The king has her placed in a castle in the country and never goes to see her again.

Some time later, a king happens by this castle, discovers Talia inside, and sees she will not wake up. The tale goes, “So, after admiring her beauty awhile, the king returned home to his kingdom, where for a long time he forgot all that had happened.” Evidentially, he raped Talia, as the next sentence reads, “Meanwhile Talia gave birth to two little twins…” As they are hungry for food, they accidentally suck on her finger, thus removing the splinter and waking Talia. Eventually the king remembers what happened and is thrilled to find Talia awake and to meet his children. Talia is happy to meet him and apparently has no problem with the fact that she was raped in her sleep: “…they formed a great league and friendship, and he remained there for several days, promising as he took leave to return and fetch her.”

Back at home, the king’s wife has grown suspicious and demands the king’s secretary tell her what is going on. He tells the queen of Talia, she sends for the children, and orders the cook to kill and prepare them for her husband to eat. The cook instead kills and cooks two young goats and puts the children in hiding. Later, the queen sends for Talia and upon her arrival orders her to be burned to death. Buying time, Talia begs that she at least be able to remove her clothing before going into the flames, which she does one article at a time, and the king arrives just as she is being dragged away. When the king sees this and realizes it is his wife who is behind it, he orders her to be burned in the flames instead, along with his secretary. The cook’s life is spared when he reveals that he had in fact saved and hidden the children, who at this point are brought out of hiding by the cook’s wife. The cook is rewarded for his good deed, the king marries Talia, and they live happily with their children Sun and Moon for a long time. The tale ends: "He who has luck may go to bed, and bliss will rain upon his head.”

Obviously, I find the rape aspect troubling. It is understandable that the king's wife would be jealous and very angry, but I don't understand why the children would have to be eaten. Also, doesn't Talia mind that the father of her children is already married? And I am really at a loss for this "moral" at the end. What does that mean?

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Little Briar Rose (A German Tale)

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Jack Zipes, translator. New York: Bantam, 1987.

Click here to read the complete tale.

The Grimms version introduces the Wise Women to the tale, much like the fairies of other versions, who each endow the baby girl with an important quality at her birth feast. One Wise Woman feels slighted for not having been invited to the event, and thus curses the princess to prick her finger with a spindle and die on her fifteenth birthday. Fortunately, there remains one Wise Woman who has not yet given a gift, and she softens the evil curse by changing it to a 100-year-long sleep instead. As the king prohibited flax in Sun, Moon, and Talia, this king orders all spindles in his kingdom to be burnt in an effort to better his daughter’s fate. But on her fifteenth birthday, she discovers an old woman spinning flax in a tower of the castle, pricks her finger, and falls into the long sleep along with everyone else in the castle. Thorns grow around the castle so that it cannot be seen, but the story of Briar Rose spreads far, enticing princes to come and try to break the spell. Many die a miserable death caught in the castle’s thorns, until the hundred years are up and a young prince successfully makes his way into the castle. The spell breaks just as the prince kisses Briar Rose, and things return exactly as they were one hundred years before. Briar Rose and the prince are married and “they live contented to the end of their days.”

This tale is much tamer in that it eliminates the rape aspect as well as the evil wife. Unlike later versions, the kiss does not appear to break the spell but instead coincidentally occurs just as the spell was about to break anyway. The only force of evil is the angered Wise Woman. It is never mentioned, but I suppose it could be implied that the old woman in the castle spinning flax was the evil Wise Woman; how else coud a spindle have made its way into the castle when they had been banned? There are no children and we do not see any activity past the wedding. The Grimms do not attempt a moral, and I struggle to find one. I suppose it could be that no one can change their destiny.

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Sleeping Beauty

Lang, Andrew, ed. "Sleeping Beauty." The Blue Fairy Book. New York: Dover, 1965. (Originally published 1889.)

Click here to read an annotated version of this tale.

This is Charles Perrault’s version of the tale, who according to Heidi Anne Heiner was the first to use “Sleeping Beauty” as the title. He uses seven (unlike the Grimms twelve) good fairies, the eighth being the uninvited and wicked one. As in other versions, the King bans the use of spindles. Perrault states plainly that the woman who was spinning on the ill-fated day was in fact a good woman who simply had not known about the ban (whereas in some versions it seems that perhaps the old woman was the wicked fairy in disguise). The prince arrives to waken Beauty just as the spell is up, and they are married. This version spends a great deal of time explaining what happened after the marriage. The prince finds it necessary to conceal his marriage from his parents, particularly his mother, who is part Ogress and known to eat children (the prince and Beauty now have two children, named Morning and Day). Years later he makes his marriage known, and the Queen-mother sends Beauty away to a country house so that she may “gratify her horrible longing.” When the Queen-mother sends her clerk of the kitchen to kill and cook Morning, he instead kills a lamb and hides Morning with his wife (same as in “Sun, Moon, and Talia”). About a week later, she wishes to eat Day, and this time the clerk kills and cooks a young goat instead. When the wicked queen desires to eat Beauty, the clerk kills and cooks a deer. She decides she will tell her son that wolves have eaten his wife and children, until one evening she discovers the three still alive in the kitchen clerk’s home! She thus orders Beauty, Morning, Day, the kitchen clerk, and his wife to be thrown into a large tub “filled with toads, vipers, snakes, and all sorts of serpents.” Fortunately, the prince (now king) arrives just in time and the Ogress dives into the horrible tub, rather than explain herself to her son (this part is a little vague). The tale ends with all happy and content.

I highly recommend reading the annotated version of this tale, which I have provided a link to above. The annotations provided are quite insightful and interesting!