The annotations for the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale are below. Sources have been cited in parenthetical references, but I have not linked them directly to their full citations which appear on the Sleeping Beauty Bibliography page. I have provided links back to the Annotated Sleeping Beauty to facilitate referencing between the notes and the tale.
1. No children: This
is a sympathetic plight for many couples and extremely disturbing
for a royal family in which national peace and the royal lineage
is insured by the birth of progeny.
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2. Christening: Most
versions of the tale do not mention a christening specifically,
but only a celebration in honor of the baby's birth. A christening
is "the religious ceremony of baptizing and naming a child, and
the social festivities which normally follow" (Websters 1990).
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3. Godmothers: The godmothers have been fairies,
witches, and goddesses in the numerous variations of the story. In
some Christian religions, a godmother is a "woman who sponsors a
child at baptism and assumes responsibility for the child's
religious guidance up to confirmation" (Websters 1990). In a more
general sense, a godmother takes responsibility for caring for a
child physically, emotionally and mentally.
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4. Seven: The earliest recorded variation of the story, Perceforest (France, 1528) has three goddesses attending Zellandine's birth celebration. The first, Lucinda, confers health on the child. The second, Themis, curses the child because she has been angered by the absence of a knife by her plate. The curse is that Zellandine will push a distaff into her finger while spinning and will sleep until the object is removed. The third and final, Venus, vows to make the rescue occur. Perrault's version has eight fairies, seven invited with one not. The Grimms have twelve good fairies and one villainous one (Bettelheim 1975).
The changes in number shows that the number is not as important to
the story. However, seven is a significant odd number. It appears
in the Bible in many places in numbering years and other important
events. The Koran speaks of seven heavens. During the Middle Ages,
human life was considered to consist of seven year cycles (Jones
1995).
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5. Gift: Gifts are
significant as a ritual in celebrations, especially those for
births. The gifts in this story are not physical. They are
blessings instead. In much of folklore, fairy gifts that are meant
to be positive or at least appear to be benevolent often end up
becoming curses.
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6. Perfections: Although the exact gifts are
insignificant to the story, they are interesting as a
representation of the culture from which the story comes. The
gifts vary between versions of the tale, but they are always gifts
representing desirable feminine traits. The following gifts are
significant for this reason.
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7. Set with diamonds and rubies: Jewels are important for expressing wealth and femininity.
Diamonds and rubies are two of the most precious stones and of the
highest value.
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8. Most beautiful person in the world: Physical beauty is always important especially in female
characters. The human race has been obsessed with physical beauty
most likely since it began. However, this gift is given first
which implies that it is not as important as the gifts which
follow. Still, we know that this princess will be beautiful and
thus physically desirable.
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9. Wit of an angel: Wit is intelligence and cleverness. This is the second gift and
once again its placement shows that it is an important trait in
making a virtually perfect woman.
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10. Wonderful grace: Grace is charm and elegance. The princess must have grace to be
a pleasant person. Grace will also help her treat her subjects in
way that will make them love her as their leader.
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11. Dance perfectly well: Balls and dancing are important in the royal court, especially
in fairy tales, and so the princess must be able to dance well to
present herself positively in public.
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12. Sing like a nightingale: Singing is another important talent which will increase the
princess's range of talents. Before the age of recorded sound,
entertaining live music required the local presence of a beautiful
voice. Singing was a normal part of an evening's entertainment.
People with beautiful singing voices are usually held in high
esteem.
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13. Play all kinds of music: Like beautiful singing voices, the ability to perform music was
held in even higher esteem before recorded sound.
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14. Spindle: A spindle is "the thin rod in a
spinning wheel serving to twist and wind the thread" (Websters
1990). The spindle can have a shape tip and usually does in
illustrations of the story. In psychological interpretations of
this tale, the spindle is considered to be a phallic symbol.
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15. Die of the wound: It is interesting that the Perceforest version does not have
the young princess sentenced to literal death as much as the
threat of eternal sleep if no one comes to rescue her. The
majority of the later versions include death as the curse. Then
the remaining fairy softens the blow to a long slumber. Perhaps
this is one of the most appealing factors of this story which has
made it last so long.
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16. Profound sleep: Sleeping Beauty will awaken from a long sleep which resembles
death, but she will not truly be dead. The symbolism of
resurrection or reincarnation is strong. This story is essentially
about the triumph over death. Bettelheim states that the long
sleep represents the sleepiness which accompanies adolescence when
the body is maturing into adulthood. The princess will mature and
prepare for adulthood with her sleep (Bettelheim 1975).
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17. Hundred years: A hundred years is long enough for everyone who knew Sleeping
Beauty to have lived full lives and died. The worst part of the
curse is not that the heroine will sleep for a long time as much
as that she will wake up to a strange world in which everyone she
has known and loved will be dead.
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18. King's son: The king's son is always an important role and can be the only suitable mate for a princess such as Sleeping Beauty who is a princess herself.
When fairy tales came into being "princes and princesses were as
rare as they are today, and fairy tales simply abound with them.
Every child at some time wishes that he were a prince or a
princess--and at times, in his unconscious, the child believes he
is one, only temporarily degraded by circumstances. There are so
many kings and queens in fairy tales because their rank signifies
absolute power, such as the parent seems to hold over his child.
So the fairy-tale royalty represent projections of the child's
imagination" (Bettelheim 1975).
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19. Sixteen years: Sixteen is often considered to be the age in which a young
woman begins her final steps towards adulthood and is
marriageable. This tradition continues on today with the emphasis
on "Sweet Sixteen" birthdays.
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20. Good old woman: In some versions, the good old woman is sometimes an innocent
player in the story or the wicked witch in disguise insuring her
curse comes to pass. Disney's movie version of the tale uses the
latter plot device, for example. This version uses the good old
woman and implies that the curse has been inevitable since the day
it was spoken.
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21. Proclamation against spindles: The king and queen do their best to keep the curse from
occurring. They have all of the spindles destroyed and hope to
keep their daughter away from them. However, the curse cannot be
escaped despite all of their mortal endeavors. The story is
reminiscent of the Oedipus myth in which the king does his best to
keep his son from killing him, but all of his attempts ultimately
come to naught. Oedipus kills his father. Sleeping Beauty must
sleep for a hundred years.
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22. In a swoon: A swoon is a faint. In earlier centuries, swooning was a more
common occurence both real and faked by women for attention. Fake
swoons were affected to change the attention or avoid unpleasant
incidents. Real swoons were often caused by corsets being tied too
tight or by illness.
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23. Unlaced her: When swooning occurred, it was often caused by a corset being
tied too tight. One of the first solutions to the problem was to
loosen the corset's ties in order to help the victim catch her
breath and revive more quickly.
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24. Hungary-water: Queen of Hungary Water is thought to be the first alcohol-based perfume dating back to the 1300's. An interesting article on the perfume and its uses is available at:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~jahb/herbs/hungarywater.html
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25. Her cheeks were carnation: In this case, carnation is a shade of pink. Sleeping Beauty's
pink cheeks reassure the reader that she is only sleeping since
her cheeks would turn white if she were dead.
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26. Lips were coral: Coral is a natural healthy color for lips, once again implying
that Sleeping Beauty is only sleeping and in good health.
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27. Manikin: A manikin is a tiny man.
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28. Twelve thousand leagues: A league is roughly three miles. This distance would thus
calculate to roughly 36 thousand miles, or in other words, a great
distance.
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29. Little dwarf: The little dwarf does not appear in most versions of the story
and is not a necessary character.
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30. Boots of seven leagues: Seven league boots are common in fairy tales and are used to
travel great distances in a short amount of time. Seven leagues
equals about 21 miles.
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31. Chariot drawn by dragons: Various mythological figures have driven or ridden in chariots
drawn by dragons, including Jupiter and Medea. Perrault's use of
the image emphasizes the Fairy's magical presence and powers.
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32. Wand: A
wand is "a slender stick or rod, especially one carried by a
fairy, magician, conjurer, etc." (Webster's Dictionary 1990). A
wand often represents the special powers of a magical character.
Sometimes it represents the harnessing of those magical powers.
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33. Spits: A
spit is a "skewer on which meat to be roasted is impaled and
slowly turned over an open fire" (Webster's Dictionary 1990). This
was a common way of cooking meat in previous centuries.
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34. Vast number of trees: A forest grows to protect and hide the castle. Forests are
often used to hide danger or represent adventure in fairy
tales.
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35. Another family: With the absence of Sleeping Beauty's royal family, another
family gained power. This also makes it possible for Sleeping
Beauty to marry the prince without the threat of incest.
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36. Ogre: The ogre is usually not included in the story, but his presence
in this version is yet another insurance that Sleeping Beauty will
not be disturbed before the hundred years are finished. In other
versions, the prince finds Sleeping Beauty before the hundred
years are up. He rapes her and leaves her as she sleeps. She is
impregnated and later wakes up when one of her twin children
begins to suckle at her breast.
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37. Let him pass: Since the hundred years are completed in this version of the
story, the prince is allowed to pass peacefully through the forest
and castle and ultimately find the princess.
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38. Some standing, others sitting: The image of some members of the court standing shows that
everyone was literally frozen in place. Time virtually stopped for
these people and will resume once Sleeping Beauty is awakened
again.
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39. Princess awaked: Note that in this version of the story, the Princess is not
awakened by the Prince's kiss, but by the end of the enchantment
itself. The prince's arrival and the end of the enchantment
coincide, but not with the now popular kiss. The Grimm's
version, Briar Rose,
includes the kiss and ends shortly after this point in the
story.
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40. Talked four hours: Perrault's version of the story is much more innocent and
allows some time for Sleeping Beauty and her prince to become
acquainted and fall in love. The influence of the French salon
fairy tales is clear. The female authors who were contemporary to
Perrault emphasized the pains of convenience marriages. Romantic
love is presented here.
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41. Married them: In an early Italian version of the tale, Sun, Moon, and Talia, the prince is a king and cannot marry Sleeping Beauty/Talia
because he is already married. Perrault presents a more romantic
version of the tale with an ogre mother threatening Sleeping
Beauty in much the same way the Italian wife does.
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42. Very little sleep: An overt example of Perrault's humor slips into the story here.
After sleeping for 100 years, you might not be too sleepy either.
A wedding night might also have the same sleepless effect.
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43. Charcoal-burner: A charcoal-burner is a person who creates charcoal by slow-burning wood.
Read more about it here (Thanks to Robin Carroll-Mann for the links.):
Weald and Downland Open Air Museum: Charcoal Burners Camp
Hainault Forest Website: A Charcoal Burner's Hut
Charcoal Burning in Wyre Forest
44. Morning: In the original French, Perrault chooses "L'Aurore" for the daughter's name which is translated variously as Aurora, Dawn, or Morning. Aurora is sometimes used for Sleeping Beauty's name, not her daugher's, in more modern versions of the tale, especially Walt Disney's film version.
Note that these children are legitimate while, Sun and Moon, in
the Italian version, Sun, Moon, and Talia, are not since Talia and the king are not married.
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45. Day: Perrault names the son "Le Jour" in the original French. Most
English translations choose to translate the name as Day. In the
Italian version, Sun, Moon, and Talia, the children are named Sun and Moon.
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46. Race of the Ogres: While the villianess in Sun, Moon, and Taliais the lawful and reasonably jealous wife of the king, Perrault softens the story by making the character his mother, not his wife, and an Ogre to boot. Perrault doesn't consider that this makes the prince half human and half Ogre and what implications that might bring to him and his new family.
In folklore, ogres are giants given to eating human flesh.
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47. Sauce Robert: One of Perrault's embellishments, Sauce Robert is a variation of traditional French brown sauce that uses mustard as a key ingredient. It is usually used on cooked meats, especially beef and pork. A little information about the sauce and a recipe is available here:
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/recipe_saucerobert.htm
48. Lamb: A lamb is a young sheep and will have tender meat which could
be mistaken for a young child. Thus the queen can be fooled into
believing she ate the child.
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49. Kid: A kid is a young goat and its meat could be mistaken--like lamb
meat--for a child due to its tenderness. Once again the queen can
be fooled into thinking she ate a human child.
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50. Hind: A hind is a female dear, usually at least three years old.
Since this animal is older and will have tougher meat, the queen
can be fooled into thinking she ate Sleeping Beauty.
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51. Filled with toads, vipers, snakes, and all sorts of
serpents: Serpents are scarier than boiling water for many people and the
image is certainly more grotesque and scarier for readers.
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52. Comforted himself: Perrault's humor comes out in this line. Although the king
misses his mother, it is implied that he doesn't miss her much
with a new bride and children to amuse and distract him. This also
serves as a reminder that the king has grown-up, married, and
cleaved unto his wife.
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