---
title: "Sleeping Beauty"
story_id: "d2ac823e-f915-4259-bb00-f8f835fc26ae"
text_id: "9531e03a-9a63-4857-abad-10975e9d2eaf"
language: "en"
version: "modern"
part: 1
part_count: 1
url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/sleeping-beauty"
recommended_version: "modern"
recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/sleeping-beauty"
web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics"
---

# Sleeping Beauty

> OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits.
> [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/sleeping-beauty)

Version: Modernized

A king and queen choose seven fairies as godmothers for their baby daughter. They do not invite an old fairy because they believe she is dead or enchanted. When she arrives at the feast, she feels insulted and declares that the princess will die if her hand is pricked by a spindle, a pointed tool for making thread. A younger fairy changes the spell: the princess will sleep for a hundred years instead. Who will wake her, and what awaits her afterwards in French writer Charles Perrault’s tale?

**Content warning:** This tale contains threats to eat a mother and her children, animal killings, a threat of whipping and a suicide.

![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/948a5fe5-1b2d-4298-a3df-3167d8c8cf55)



Once upon a time there were a King and a Queen, who were so sorry that they had no children, so sorry that it cannot be expressed. They visited every healing spring in the world. They made vows, went on pilgrimages, tried everything, all to no purpose. At last, however, the Queen became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. There was a very fine christening. The Princess had as godmothers all the Fairies they could find in the whole kingdom (they found seven), so each could give her a gift, as Fairies used to do in those days. In this way, the Princess would have every imaginable perfection.

After the ceremonies of the christening were over, all the company returned to the King's palace, where a great feast had been prepared for the Fairies. Each had a magnificent place setting and a solid gold case containing a spoon, knife, and fork, all of pure gold set with diamonds and rubies. But as they were all sitting down at table, they saw a very old Fairy enter the hall. She had not been invited because she had not left a certain tower for over fifty years and was believed to be either dead or enchanted. The King ordered a place setting for her, but could not give her a gold case like the others, because they had made only seven, for the seven Fairies. The old Fairy thought she had been insulted, and muttered a threat under her breath. One of the young Fairies, who sat by her, heard her grumbling. Fearing that she might give the little Princess some unlucky gift, she slipped away as soon as they rose from the table and hid herself behind the wall curtains, so that she could speak last, and undo as much as she could of any harm the old Fairy might plan.

Meanwhile, all the Fairies began to give their gifts to the Princess. The youngest gave her the gift that she should be the most beautiful person in the world; the next, that she should have the intelligence of an angel; the third, that she should have a wonderful grace in everything she did; the fourth, that she should dance perfectly well; the fifth, that she should sing like a nightingale; and the sixth, that she should play every kind of musical instrument perfectly.

The old Fairy’s turn came next. Her head shaking more with spite than age, she said that the Princess would have her hand pierced with a spindle, a pointed rod used to twist and wind thread, and die of the wound. This terrible gift made the whole company tremble, and everyone burst into tears.



![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/a3839239-95b5-48d3-b483-edfa714768ae)



At this very instant the young Fairy came out from behind the wall curtains, and spoke these words aloud:

"Be reassured, O King and Queen. Your daughter shall not die of this disaster. It is true, I have no power to completely undo what the older Fairy has done. The Princess shall indeed pierce her hand with a spindle. But instead of dying, she shall only fall into a deep sleep, which shall last a hundred years. When it ends, a king’s son will come and wake her."

The King, to avoid the misfortune foretold by the old Fairy, immediately announced that no one was allowed to spin with a distaff for holding fibres and a spindle, or even keep a spindle in the house. Anyone who did would be put to death.

About fifteen or sixteen years later, the King and Queen went to one of their country retreats. One day the young Princess amused herself by running up and down the palace. Moving from one room to another, she came to a little room at the top of a tower. There, a good old woman sat alone, spinning with her spindle. This good woman had never heard of the King's proclamation against spindles.

"What are you doing there, good woman?" said the Princess.

"I am spinning, my pretty child," said the old woman, who did not know who she was.

"Ha!" said the Princess, "This is very pretty! How do you do it? Give it to me, so I can see if I can do it." As soon as she took the spindle, it pierced her hand and she fainted. Perhaps she was too hasty, perhaps she was clumsy, or perhaps the Fairy’s spell had destined it to happen.

The good old woman, not knowing very well what to do, cried out for help. People came in great numbers from every direction. They threw water upon the Princess's face, loosened the laces of her clothes, struck her on the palms of her hands, and rubbed her temples with perfumed Hungary water. But nothing would bring her round.

The King came up at the noise and remembered the Fairies’ prediction. He was sure it had been bound to happen, since the Fairies had foretold it. He ordered the Princess to be carried into the finest room in his palace and laid on a bed embroidered with gold and silver. She was so very beautiful that one would have taken her for an angel. Fainting had not taken any colour from her face: her cheeks were pink as carnations, and her lips like coral. Her eyes were indeed shut, but she could be heard breathing softly, which reassured those around her that she was not dead. The King commanded that they should not disturb her, but let her sleep quietly until the time came for her to wake.

The good Fairy, who had saved her life by condemning her to sleep a hundred years, was in the kingdom of Matakin when this accident befell the Princess. It was tens of thousands of miles away. But she was instantly informed by a little dwarf who had boots of seven leagues, which let him cross roughly twenty miles in a single stride. The Fairy came away immediately, and she arrived, about an hour after, in a fiery chariot, drawn by dragons. The King helped her out of the chariot, and she approved everything he had done. But, as she had great foresight, she thought the Princess might not know what to do when she woke up all alone in the old palace. So this was what she did: She touched everything in the palace with her wand (except the King and the Queen): governesses, maids of honour, ladies of the bedchamber, gentlemen, officers, stewards, cooks, under-cooks, kitchen helpers, guards, with their royal bodyguards, pages and footmen. She likewise touched all the horses which were in the stables, as well as their grooms, the great dogs in the outer courtyard, and pretty little Mopsey too, the Princess’s little female spaniel, which lay by her on the bed.

As soon as she touched them, they all fell asleep, so that they would not wake before their mistress and would be ready to serve her when she wanted them. Even the roasting spits, the rods holding meat over the fire, fell asleep, as full as they could hold of partridges and pheasants. The fire fell asleep too. All this was done in a moment. Fairies are not long in doing their business.

And now the King and the Queen, having kissed their dear child without waking her, left the palace and issued an order that nobody should dare to come near it. This was not necessary, however. Within a quarter of an hour, trees large and small, bushes and brambles grew all around the park, twisting together so thickly that neither person nor animal could get through. Only the very tops of the palace towers could be seen, and even those only from far away. No one doubted that this was the Fairy’s magic at work, so that the Princess would have nothing to fear from curious people while she slept.



![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/2cf1dc9a-3707-40d9-8fa2-f73690ebdd49)



A hundred years passed. The son of the king then reigning, who belonged to a different family from the sleeping Princess, went hunting in that part of the country. He asked what those towers were that he could see in the middle of a great, thick wood. Everyone repeated what they had heard. Some said it was a ruined old castle haunted by spirits; others said that all the sorcerers and witches of the country held their sabbath, or nighttime gathering, there. Most people believed that an Ogre, a fearsome giant, lived there. They said he carried off all the little children he could catch to eat them at his leisure, without anybody being able to follow him, since he alone could pass through the wood.

The Prince hesitated, not knowing what to believe, when a very old countryman spoke to him like this: "May it please your Royal Highness, it is now more than fifty years since I heard my father repeat what he had heard from my grandfather. He said that a Princess, the most beautiful ever seen, was then in this castle. She had to sleep there for a hundred years and would be woken by a king’s son, for whom she was destined." The young Prince burned with excitement at these words, believing, without a moment’s doubt, that he could bring this extraordinary adventure to an end. Driven by love and honour, he decided that very moment to find out more.

He had scarcely advanced towards the wood when all the great trees, bushes and brambles gave way of themselves to let him pass through. He entered a large avenue and walked towards the castle he saw at its end. What surprised him a little was that none of his people could follow him: the trees closed again as soon as he had passed through them. However, he kept going; a young Prince in love is always valiant. He came into a large outer courtyard, where everything he saw might have frozen even the most fearless person with horror. A dreadful silence hung over everything. Everywhere was the image of death: nothing could be seen but the bodies of men and animals stretched out, all seeming to be dead. He, however, knew very well from the royal bodyguards’ ruby faces and pimpled noses that they were only asleep. Their goblets, which still held a few drops of wine, showed plainly that they had fallen asleep drunk.

He then crossed a court paved with marble, went up the stairs, and came into the guard-chamber, where the guards were standing in their ranks, with their muskets upon their shoulders, and snoring as loud as they could. After that he went through several rooms full of gentlemen and ladies, all asleep, some standing, others sitting. At last he came into a chamber all gilded with gold. On a bed with its curtains wide open, he saw the finest sight ever seen: a Princess, who appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen years of age, and whose radiant beauty seemed almost divine. He approached with trembling and admiration, and fell on his knees before her.



![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/1498b2bb-da97-4817-882a-273c297ca841)



Now the enchantment had ended, and the Princess woke. She looked at him more tenderly than one might expect at a first meeting. "Is it you, my Prince?" she said to him. "You have been a long time coming."

The Prince, charmed with these words, and much more with the manner in which they were spoken, did not know how to show his joy and gratitude. He assured her that he loved her more than he loved himself. His words did not flow very smoothly, but it pleased her all the more: little eloquence, a great deal of love. He was more at a loss than she, and we need not wonder at it. She had had time to think about what to say to him. It is very probable (though history mentions nothing of it) that the good Fairy had entertained her with pleasant dreams during that long sleep. In short, after talking for four hours, they had not said half of what they had to say.

Meanwhile, everyone in the palace woke up and thought about their own work. Since they were not all in love, they were dying of hunger. The chief lady of honour, being as hungry as everyone else, grew very impatient, and told the Princess aloud that supper was served. The Prince helped the Princess get up. She was fully and magnificently dressed, but his Royal Highness took care not to tell her that she was dressed like his great-grandmother, and had a lace band peeping over a high collar. She looked not a bit the less beautiful and charming for all that.

They went into the great hall of mirrors, where they ate supper, served by the Princess’s officers. The violins and oboes played old but excellent tunes, though it was now over a hundred years since they had been played. After supper, without losing any time, the royal chaplain married them in the chapel of the castle, and the chief lady of honour drew the curtains. They had very little sleep: the Princess had no need of it. The Prince left her next morning to return to the city, where his father must have been worried about him. The Prince told him that he lost his way in the forest, as he was hunting, and that he had slept at a charcoal burner’s cottage. He said the man had given him cheese and brown bread.

The King his father, who was easygoing, believed him. But his mother could not be persuaded this was true. She saw that he went hunting almost every day and always had some excuse ready when he had stayed away three or four nights in a row. She no longer doubted that he had a secret love affair. He lived with the Princess for more than two whole years, and they had two children. The eldest, a daughter, was named Aurora. The youngest, a son, they called Day, because he was even handsomer and more beautiful than his sister.

The Queen said more than once to her son that a young man must be allowed his pleasures, hoping he would speak freely to her. But he never dared to trust her with his secret. He feared her, though he loved her, for she came from a family of Ogres. The King would never have married her had it not been for her vast riches. It was even whispered about the court that she had Ogreish inclinations, and that whenever she saw little children passing by, she could barely stop herself from attacking them. And so the Prince would never tell her one word.

But about two years later the King died and the Prince became ruler. He openly declared his marriage and went in great ceremony to fetch his Queen from the castle. They made a magnificent entry into the capital city, she riding between her two children.

Some time after, the King went to make war with the Emperor Cantalabutte, his neighbour. He left the government of the kingdom to the Queen his mother, and earnestly asked her to take care of his wife and children. He was likely to be away at war all summer. As soon as he departed, the Queen-mother sent her daughter-in-law and her children to a country-house among the woods, so she could more easily satisfy her horrible craving.

Some few days afterwards she went there herself, and said to her head cook:

"I feel like eating little Aurora for my dinner tomorrow."

"Ah! Madam," cried the head cook.

"I will have it so," replied the Queen (and this she spoke in the tone of an Ogress, who had a strong desire to eat fresh meat), "and will eat her with a Sauce Robert, a sauce made with onions and mustard."

The poor man, knowing very well that he must not play tricks with Ogresses, took his great knife and went up into little Aurora's chamber. She was then four years old. She came up to him jumping and laughing, to throw her arms around his neck and ask him for some sugar-candy. At this, he began to weep and the great knife fell from his hand. He went into the backyard and killed a little lamb, and prepared it with such good sauce, that his mistress assured him she had never eaten anything so good in her life. At the same time, he had picked up little Aurora and carried her to his wife, so that she could hide her in his lodging at the end of the courtyard.

About eight days afterwards, the wicked Queen said to the head cook:

"I will have little Day for supper."

He answered not a word, being resolved to cheat her, as he had done before. He went to find little Day and saw him with a little fencing sword in his hand: he was fencing with a great monkey. The child was then only three years old. He took him up in his arms and carried him to his wife, so that she could hide him in her room with his sister. Instead of little Day, he cooked a very tender young goat, which the Ogress found to be wonderfully good.

So far, all had gone very well. But one evening this wicked Queen said to her head cook:

"I will eat the Queen with the same sauce I had with her children."

It was now that the poor head cook despaired of being able to deceive her. The young Queen was over twenty, not counting the hundred years she had been asleep. Her skin was somewhat tough, though very fair and white, and he could not think of an animal in the yard with flesh as firm as hers. He then decided to kill the Queen to save his own life. He went up to her chamber, intending to do it at once. He worked himself into as great a fury as he could and entered the young Queen’s room with his dagger in his hand. He would not, however, take her by surprise. With a great deal of respect, he told her the orders he had received from the Queen-mother.

"Do it, do it," she said, stretching out her neck. "Carry out your orders, and then I shall go and see my children, my poor children, whom I so much and so tenderly loved." For she had thought them dead ever since they had been taken away without her knowledge.

"No, no, Madam," cried the poor head cook, all in tears, "You shall not die, and yet you shall see your children again. But it must be in my lodgings, where I have hidden them. I shall deceive the Queen once more by giving her a young hind, a female deer, instead of you."

He immediately led her to his room, where he left her to embrace her children and cry with them. He went and prepared a hind, which the Queen had for her supper. She devoured it with the same appetite as if it had been the young Queen. She was enormously pleased with her cruelty. She had invented a story to tell the King on his return: ravenous wolves had eaten up his wife, the Queen, and her two children.

One evening, she was wandering around the palace courts and yards, as she usually did, to see if she could smell any fresh meat. She heard little Day crying in a downstairs room: his mamma was going to whip him because he had been naughty. At the same time, she heard little Aurora begging pardon for her brother.

The Ogress immediately recognized the voices of the Queen and her children. Furious at having been deceived, she gave an order at daybreak the next morning, in a horrible voice that made everyone tremble. A large tub was to be brought into the middle of the great courtyard and filled with toads, vipers, snakes, and every sort of serpent. The Queen and her children, the head cook, his wife, and their maid were to be brought there with their hands tied behind their backs and thrown into it.

They were brought out accordingly. The executioners were just about to throw them into the tub when the King (who was not expected so soon) entered the courtyard on horseback. He had travelled quickly, changing horses on the way. In utter astonishment, he asked what that horrible spectacle meant. No one dared to tell him. Then the Ogress, enraged at what had happened, took her own life in the trap she had prepared for the others. The King could not help being very sorry, for she was his mother. But he soon found comfort in his beautiful wife and pretty children.



![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/18f4df66-cb64-45f5-9092-6170515d148d)



## *The Moral*

To wait for years for one you hope to wed,  
Rich, cheerful, sweet of temper, can be said  
To be quite natural, it’s true;  
To wait for him a hundred years,  
And all that while asleep, appears  
A thing entirely new.  
Now in our present day,  
Not one of all the women we see  
Sleeps with such deep tranquillity:  
But still this Fable seems to let us know  
That very often marriage’s pleasures so sweet,  
Though tiresome obstacles they sometimes meet,  
Bring no less happiness though coming slow.  
It's nature's way that ladies fair  
Should long for wedded joys to share;  
And so I've not the heart to preach  
A moral that's beyond their reach.

## Modernization notes

- He took then a resolution, that he might save his own life, to cut the Queen's throat; → He then decided to kill the Queen to save his own life.: The cook still decides to kill the Queen to save himself, but does not carry out the plan. The precise physical method is omitted for children in the modernized version.
- point-band → lace band: A point-band is a lace band worn at the neck. The Princess’s old-fashioned clothes are part of the joke about a hundred years having passed.
- ; when the Ogress, all inraged to see what had happened, threw herself head-foremost into the tub, and was instantly devoured by the ugly creatures she had ordered to be thrown into it for others. → . Then the Ogress, enraged at what had happened, took her own life in the trap she had prepared for the others.: The Ogress still takes her own life in the trap she prepared for the others. The precise gesture and the description of her death by the creatures are omitted for children in the modernized version. The King’s grief remains.
- lord almoner → royal chaplain: The lord almoner is a church official in the royal household. Here he conducts the marriage in the castle chapel.
- Hungary-water; but nothing → perfumed Hungary water. But nothing: Hungary-water is a scented liquid, traditionally perfumed with rosemary. The people use it in their attempt to revive the Princess; the tale says their efforts do not wake her.

## Presented text (with modernization)

© OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved.

## Original text

The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, 1922, George G. Harrap & Co., London

- author: Charles Perrault
- editor: J. E. Mansion
- translator: Robert Samber

## Illustration

[Edmund Dulac](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/948a5fe5-1b2d-4298-a3df-3167d8c8cf55) — The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales from the Old French, 1910, Hodder & Stoughton, New York  
[Edmund Dulac](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/a3839239-95b5-48d3-b483-edfa714768ae) — The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales from the Old French, 1910, Hodder & Stoughton, New York  
[Edmund Dulac](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/2cf1dc9a-3707-40d9-8fa2-f73690ebdd49) — The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales from the Old French, 1910, Hodder & Stoughton, New York  
[Edmund Dulac](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/1498b2bb-da97-4817-882a-273c297ca841) — The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales from the Old French, 1910, Hodder & Stoughton, New York  
[Edmund Dulac](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/18f4df66-cb64-45f5-9092-6170515d148d) — The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales from the Old French, 1910, Hodder & Stoughton, New York

## Reading music

Mother Goose — Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty  
Maurice Ravel  
Luis Kolodin / Felipe Sarro (piano)  
Jacques Charlot (arranger)  
[CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

## Quiz

### What is a spindle really used for?

- Mending clothes
- Making thread (Correct answer)
- Drilling wood

A spindle was used to make thread. This small wooden tool twisted and wound fibres, such as wool, into a continuous strand.

[Dictionnaire de l’Académie française — Fuseau](https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9F1913)

### Which idea lies behind the French word fée?

- The forest
- Light
- Fate (Correct answer)

The French word fée has Roman roots. It comes from the Latin Fata, the goddesses of destiny, linking the word to the idea of fate.

[Dictionnaire de l’Académie française — Fée](https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9F0401)

### Where could readers find Perrault's tale before his famous collection?

- In a magazine (Correct answer)
- In a theatre programme
- In a schoolbook

Readers could find Perrault's tale in a magazine in 1696. It appeared in the February issue of the Mercure galant, a year before his famous collection.

[Fabula — Le Bel au Bois dormant, ou : Des implications de fins intermédiaires](https://www.fabula.org/colloques/document5933.php)

### Several melodies in Disney's 1959 animated film already existed. Where did they come from?

- An opera
- A ballet (Correct answer)
- Christmas carols

Disney's music was already almost seventy years old. The 1959 film borrowed melodies from Tchaikovsky's ballet, first performed in Saint Petersburg in 1890.

[D23 — Fantasia at 80: Exploring Tchaikovsky](https://d23.com/fantasia-at-80-exploring-tchaikovsky/)

### Which came first?

- Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in California (Correct answer)
- Disney's animated film Sleeping Beauty
- Both appeared in the same year

Disneyland's castle came before the animated film. Sleeping Beauty Castle stood in the California park when it opened in 1955; the film followed in 1959.

[The Walt Disney Family Museum — The History of Sleeping Beauty Castle](https://www.waltdisney.org/sleeping-beauty-castle)

## Other languages

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- [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/sleeping-beauty?format=markdown)

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