“The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.” The Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889, pp. 54-63.
Tale Summary
A king and queen have a daughter and invite all the fairies to come and bestow a gift on the princess. There is one old fairy who has not been invited and shows up to the gathering unannounced saying that the princess will die when she pricks her finger on a spindle. One good fairy hid so that she may give her gift last and gifts the princess a rest for one hundred years which will also affect some of the workers in the castle. A prince, from a different family, comes upon the castle and wakes her from her sleep; they marry that evening. The prince does not tell his parents, the King, and the queen, of his marriage or children because the queen is an Ogress and has trouble suppressing the Ogreish tendency to eat people. After the King (his father) dies, the prince becomes king and engages in a battle that takes him away from home. While away his mother asks her cook to prepare each child and the princess so that she may eat them, but the cook instead serves her goats and a hind. When the Queen finds out she has been tricked, she arranges a tub full of various snakes and toads to be brought before her and decides to throw the princess, her grandchildren, the cook, and his family into the tub to be devoured. At the last minute, the King returns, and his mother throws herself into the tube of snakes and dies. The King is sad but feels comforted by his wife and children.
Fairy Tale Title
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Fairy Tale Author(s)/Editor(s)
Andrew Lang
Fairy Tale Illustrator(s)
George Percy Jacomb Hood
Henry Justice Ford
Common Tale Type
Sleeping Beauty
Tale Classification
ATU 410
Page Range of Tale
pp. 54-63
Full Citation of Tale
“The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.” The Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889, pp. 54-63.
Original Source of the Tale
Charles Perrault
Tale Notes
In this Sleeping Beauty tale, based on Charles Perrault’s version, the princess is awakened by just the presence of the prince. Also, in this tale the prince's mother, the queen, is "of the race of Ogres", which like to eat little children. The prince hides his marriage and children from his mother because he is scared she will eat them. The queen tries to eat the children and the princess but the cook feeds her goats instead. In the end, the queen ends up taking her own life by jumping into a pit of toads, vipers and snakes of all sorts that devour her. There are three black and white illustrations depicting: the newborn princess in her cradle as the old woman curses her; the prince making his way though the hedge; and Little Day, Sleeping Beauty’s son, fencing with a monkey.
Research and Curation
Anonymous ITAL 4600 student, 2020
Book Title
The Blue Fairy Book
Book Author/Editor(s)
Andrew Lang
Illustrator(s)
George Percy Jacomb Hood
Henry Justice Ford
Publisher
Longmans, Green, and Co.
Date Published
1889
Decade Published
1880-1889
Publisher City
London
Publisher Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Rights
Public Domain
Digital Copy
Book Notes
None