The Sleeping Beauty

We're all familiar with this tale, are we not? Anyone who has seen the Disney version should be. Have you ever wondered for a moment if, perhaps, Disney got it wrong? Of course, for anyone who knows the "true" story of many a Grimm's Fairytale, that answer is a resounding yes... but suppose that the Brothers Grimm also got it wrong? Consider this, if you will, an account of "what if...?".

Many eons ago, in a kingdom now long forgotten, lived a pious king and a kind, beautiful queen. Their lands were small yet prosperous, and their people wanted for nothing, but they had a problem: the king and queen were childless. After years upon years of trying to conceive an heir with no success, the future of the kingdom suddenly began to look very bleak indeed. As time passed, and the queen approached the end of her childbearing years, desperation to please her husband and craving to have what she seemingly could not drove her to seek conception by any means necessary.

Her search brought her deep into the forest surrounding the kingdom, to an old shack that was once a woodcutter's cottage. Living in the shack were three old women, said to be Faeries learned in the old, dark ways of Magick. The Faeries heard the queen's plea, and agreed to use their Magick to give her what her heart most desired. By the end of the following year, the queen finally bore to the king a daughter. Even as an infant, the newborn princess was said to be most exceedingly fair of face, fairer than many full-grown women of the court at the time. The king was pleased to have such a beautiful heir, and declared a national holiday celebrating the birth of the princess, whom he named Aurora.

As the years passed, Aurora continued to grow in elegance and beauty... but it quickly became apparent that things were not all what they seemed with the little princess. Although she was beautiful, even as a small child she was vain, cruel and quick to temper. Many of the servants began to resent or even fear her, because of how poorly the child treated them. The queen, who had told none but her most trusted advisors of how Aurora came to be born, sought out the Faeries once again for advice on what to do about her daughter. The Faeries, again, were more than happy to help the queen. Their solution was to have the queen bring the princess to them, so that they may teach her the difference between good and evil. Their true purpose, however, was much more sinister.

The Faeries cultivated the darkness within the princess, by teaching her their ways of Black Magick. Aurora was an excellent pupil and a quick study, because she had been born of pure Black Magick herself. Before the age of eight, she could conjure spells darker and more powerful than the strongest of the Faeries. The evil within the child had grown so great, that even the Faeries feared what they had created. Before they could correct their mistake, however, Aurora slew them all in cold blood.

If the palace servants were fearful of the princess before, when she returned from her time with the Faeries, they were terrified. Her cruelty and vanity grew with each passing year, so contradictory of her incredible beauty that the servants - in secret - began referring to her as Briar Rose. At the age of fourteen she usurped the crown from her parents and had them thrown into the deepest, darkest dungeon the palace possessed, never to be seen again.

Briar Rose held the entire kingdom in a state of fear; none dared to so much as look at the princess wrong, else they may find themselves suddenly on the receiving end of a cruel and unusual punishment. Briar Rose delighted in blood sport most of all, holding tournament after tournament within the palace grounds at her whim, whether the participants were willing or not. No one was spared from her malice, neither prince nor peasant, but none were yet brave nor foolhardy enough to even think of standing up against the wicked princess.

One night, a Good Faerie made her way to the dungeons and found where the king and queen had been imprisoned with several other loyal members of their court. She freed them and helped them to escape, then once they were safe within her Hollow she gave them food and tended to their wounds. The king, queen and their courtiers were exceedingly grateful, and asked the Faerie if there was any way to stop the princess. The Faerie was kind, and sympathetic to their cause. "There is no magick, White or Black, strong enough in this world to do what you request," she'd said, "but there may be a way to contain her darkness, for a while at least." That very night, a plan was put into action.

On the eve of Briar Rose's sixteenth birthday, another bloody tournament was to be held. Before the sport could begin, a prince from a neighboring kingdom approached the throne. "Great Princess," he bowed, "your power and beauty are unmatched by all in this land. I wish to create an alliance. Please, accept this humble gift as a show of my peoples' fealty to you, and in celebration of your birthday." Briar Rose, never one to turn down a present, squealed with glee as his servants brought forth a large, bulky object covered in a heavy velvet cloth. She leapt from her throne like a child and was quick to tear the cloth away.

A frown of confusion and anger wrinkled her features when she saw the gift she'd been given: a gilded spinning wheel encrusted with precious gems. "A spinning wheel?!" She shrieked, "What a ridiculous present! What would I need with something as paltry and filthy as this?!" In her anger, she began dismantling the spinning wheel piece by piece with her bare hands. When she grabbed for the spindle, she cried out as the sharp barb on the end pierced her palm. Princess Briar Rose started to fly into a rage, but suddenly her livid expression faltered. Her rage-filled eyes narrowed in confusion, then widened in alarm, moments before she crumpled to the stone floor in a heap.

The Good Faerie appeared then, thanking the prince for his aid and reassuring the frightened citizens of the kingdom that the danger was passed. She informed them that she had placed the princess under a spell, that would keep her asleep for the next one hundred years. Under her direction, the palace guards bound the slumbering princess in chains, and locked her away in the tallest tower of the castle behind a door of solid iron.

The citizens of the kingdom were joyous to be rid of the princess, and to have their original king and queen back, but the blight of Briar Rose was not ended yet. Before a celebration could begin, enormous black thorns began sprouting up all around the castle and kingdom, forcing the people to flee or be sliced to ribbons by them. The prince offered to let the citizens live in his kingdom instead, as the thorns rendered the palace and all its surrounding lands uninhabitable. In a single night, the entire kingdom was abandoned and no one ever returned to that accursed place.

The legend holds that the princess is there still, locked in her tower and frozen in a permanent, ageless sleep. It is said that the spell can yet be broken, by any foolish enough to breach the door and lay a single kiss upon her lips. Then again, that's just a legend... isn't it?