OMG, Read the Real Fairy Tales


"Sleeping Princess" by Viktor Vasnetsov

Sleeping Beauty gets a whole lot of shade. Most of us know the Disney version, which is just a damn mess. BUT the original is amazing, and I think is really directed not at kids but *parents*. Why does Sleeping Beauty fall asleep? Because her parents are trying to save her from the prophecy about the spinning wheel. They don't warn her about spinning wheels. They try to protect her from them by never letting her see even one. Which is impossible. This is the original helicopter parenting! Of course, it doesn't work, so the whole kingdom falls asleep when she pricks her finger. Notice that. It's not just the princess. It's everyone. By over-protecting their daughter, the king and queen actually stop the entire community from continuing and developing.

So the prince comes along, sees her great beauty, and wakens her with a kiss. Which I think, in context, is symbolic of sexual awakening. This bit is often considered problematic, but notice that the man wants her as an awake, alive woman, not an overprotected girl (also, it's fiction). They get married, and the princess gives birth to twins.

And then it gets interesting. The prince and princess go to live in the prince’s kingdom, but he has to leave and go to the wars. So the princess is left with her mother in law who is horribly jealous of her son’s wife and children. Now we have the trope of the mother who cannot let go of her son and allow him to grow up and leave her. Instead, she wants to consume, literally, her daughter in law and grandchildren. The huntsman she sends to do this can’t go through with the murders, so he hides the princess and the children and gives the queen the hearts of animals to eat instead. Eventually the prince returns and exiles or kills his mother (depends on the version).

So much of this story revolves around the ways that parents create problems for their kids by not letting them acquire knowledge and grow up and leave their parents and form their own lives.

Disney has absolutely gutted every fairy tale they ever touched. The real versions are amazing. I also LOVE Andrew Lang, who collected a huge variety of tales throughout eastern and western Europe, India, and Asia. Some are really weird and trippy. And there are many that have a *heroine* rather than a hero who has to go through a difficult journey to save their love and come into their kingdom.

Comments

heather west said…
wait until you get to chapter 14, the handless maiden. WHOA! so good. . .and yeah, Disney. it's hard not to get irritated at every. single. thing. but, i still love Disneyland and can enjoy it for what it is i guess. but i am in love with reading these old, original tales.
July 27, 2020 at 2:38 PM
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