Publisher's Synopsis
Voted Top 100 Horror Fantasy Classics - The Sleeping Beauty by The Brothers Grimm - At the christening of a king and queen's long-wished-for child, seven fairies are invited to be godmothers to the infant princess. The banquet back at the palace, the fairies seat themselves with a golden casket containing golden jeweled utensils laid before them. However, a fairy who was overlooked, having been within a certain tower for many years was thought to be either dead or enchanted, enters and is offered a seating, but not a golden casket since only seven were made. The fairies then offer their gifts of beauty, wit, grace, dance, song and music. The bad fairy, angry at being overlooked, places the princess under an enchantment as her gift: the princess will prick her hand on a spindle and die. One fairy who hadn't yet given her gift, uses it to reverse the evil fairy's curse, but she can only do so partially: instead of dying, the princess will fall into a deep sleep for 100 years and be awoken by a king's son. The king forbids spinning on spinning-wheels or spindles, or the possession of one, throughout the kingdom, upon pain of death. Fifteen or sixteen years pass, and one day when the king and queen are away, the princess wanders through the palace rooms and comes upon an old woman who is spinning with her distaff in the garret of a tower, as she had not heard of the king's decree against spinning wheels. The princess asks to try the unfamiliar task and the inevitable happens: the curse is fulfilled. The old woman cries for help and attempts are made to revive the princess, but to no avail. The king attributes this to fate and has the princess carried to the finest room in the palace and placed upon a bed of gold-and-silver-embroidered fabric. The good fairy who altered the evil prophecy is summoned by a dwarf wearing seven-league boots and returns in a chariot of fire drawn by dragons. Having great powers of foresight, the good fairy sees that the princess will be distressed to awaken and find herself alone and so puts everyone in the castle to sleep. The king and queen kiss their daughter goodbye and depart, proclaiming the entrance to be forbidden. The good fairy's magic also summons a forest of trees, brambles and thorns that spring up around the castle, shielding it from the outside world and preventing anyone from disturbing the princess.
