SLEEPING BEAUTY

SLEEPING BEAUTY


BY THE BROTHERS GRIMM
Once upon a time, in a faraway country,there lived a king and a queen.
They didn’t have a child , and more than anything in the world wished to
have a child.
One day the queen was having a bath , and suddenly a frog leapt out of
the water.It looked at the queen and said:‘Your wish will come true and
you will have a daughter soon!’
One year later the queen gave birth to a baby girl . She was so beautiful
that the king ordered his servants to organize a big feast.He invited all his
his friends, relatives and the the fairies that lived in his Kingdom. In fact
there lived thirteen fairies, but there were only twelve plates to serve for
them.Therefore the king invited only twelve of them.
Everyone had a good time at the feast , and towards the end of it, the
guests gave their wonderful gifts to the princess,and the fairies gave their
best wishes to the princess.One of them said:‘I wish all the beauty in the
world!’The other said: ‘I wish you a very happy life!’,the third one said:
‘I wish you a healthy, long life!’, and so on.
After all the eleven fairies had finished, the door swung open. There the
thirteenth , uninvited fairy came in. She was very angry at the king as he
hadn’t invited her to the celebrations . She walked quickly towards the
princess’ cradle and shouted :‘On her fifteenth birthday the princess will
prick herself with a spindle and fall down!’Everyone was terrified at this
terrible wish.Then the twelveth fairy came forward to make the last wish:
‘She will not die , but she will fall asleep for a hundred years!’
The King became scared and ordered his men to find all the spindles in
his kingdom and burn them up immediately.
As the princess grew up she became more and more beautiful each day.
She was also very kind, modest,clever and lovely and sweet, just as the
twelve fairies had wished. She was safe for many years.
She was now already fifteen years old. One day the king and the queen
rode abroad and they left the princess alone in the castle.She wandered
around all the chambers and parlours of the castle. Eventually, she came
to an old tower.There was a key on its door.She turned the key and the
door opened.An old woman was sitting in the room .She was holding a
spindle in her hand.‘Good afternoon madam’,asked the princess with a
smiling face, what are you doing here?’
‘I am spinning’,answered the old woman.‘It is very easy,come and try!’
The princess came forward and when she touched the spindle the, she
pricked it to her finger.At that moment she fell down into a deep sleep.
The sleep fell upon the whole castle: The king and the queen who had
allready returned,all the maids,the soldiers,the horses,the dogs,even the
pigeons on the roof fell asleep. Many years went by and people forgot
about the castle. One day a prince from a foreign country came to the
country and heard from an old man about the enchanted castle and the
beautiful sleeping princess.He decided to find the princess. As he rode
his horse towards the thorns , they turned into beautiful flowers. When
he came near the castle yard, he could not believe his eyes.
All the people and the animals were asleep, even the flies on the walls
and the mice.He went farther and inside the castle he saw the king and
the queen fast asleep on their thrones. Eventually he came to the tower
and quickly ran up the stairs. He opened the door and the moment he
saw the sleeping princess,he fell in love with her.He kissed her and she
woke up immediately. As the princess rose, the king and the queen and
the whole court woke up. Horses in the stalls woke up, the dogs woke
up and wagged their tails, birds woke up and started flying, everybody
in the castle looked at each other in amazement.
The Prince and the Princess married in a splendid wedding ceremony
and lived very happily for a long time.