Briar Rose, An Intriguing Fairytale Of All Times

Far away in fairyland, lived a king and a queen, who were blessed with great wealth and riches but sad to say were not blessed with a child. They had practically everything that money could buy, with plenty of fine clothes, good food to eat and drink and an awesome mansion to live in together with fine coaches to transport them wherever they would go. They had been married for many years now and were longing for a child of their own and were very much grieved with this thought. One day as the queen was strolling by the side of the river at the further end of her garden, she came across a fish lying by the wayside gasping and almost dying near the bank of the river.

The queen took compassion on the little fish and gently placed it back in the river to save its life. The little fish was very thankful to the queen and before swimming away, lifted it tiny head out of the waters and informed the queen that her wish would be fulfilled and in due course she would soon have a daughter in return for the kindness shown and swam away. What the little fish had foretold the queen came to pass and she was soon blessed with a daughter who was exceeding beautiful so much so that the king could not cease looking at her with joy and decided to hold a great feast to make merry and show his beautiful daughter to all. And so he held a grand feast for his daughter by calling all his noblemen, kinsmen, friends and neighbors while the queen decided to call the fairies too, so that they could bless their child with kindness and goodness.

There were thirteen fairies in that land and the king and the queen had only twelve golden dishes from which the fairies could eat from and hence the queen was forced to leave one fairy out from her list of invitees. So the great day of celebration dawned and all those invited came for the grand celebration. The twelve fairies came along each wearing a high read cap on her head with high heeled red shoes on their feet, carrying a long white wand in the right hand. The palace was filled with fun and music, food, laughter and merriment. As the feast was drawing to an end, all the fairies gathered around the child to give their best wishes to the little princess. Each fairy came forward bestowing their good wishes to the little infant while one blessed her with goodness, the other with beauty and another with riches, with each of them blessing her with all the goodness of life.

While the eleventh fairy was almost done with her shower of blessings to the child, a little chaos rook place in the palace courtyard and the word spread that the thirteen fairy who was not invited had come along fuming with rage. She made her entry donned with a black cap on her head with black shoes on her feet and a broomstick in her hand. Since she was not invited she was filled with rage and set out to take revenge for this act. She cursed the princess saying that in her fifteenth year, the princess would be wounded by a spindle and fall down dead. The royal parents were very much upset over this curse but the twelfth fairy who had not yet granted her blessing to the princess intervened and lightened the curse saying that the princess would be wounded but would not die. Instead she would only be drawn in a deep sleep for a hundred years. The king, deep down in his heart hoped to save his little princess from the curse and so he ordered all the spindles of the land to be brought up, burnt and destroyed thus ensuring that there were no spindles in his kingdom.

The little child grew up to be a beautiful princess with the blessing of the fairies and turned out to be very beautiful, well behaved and loved by all the people of that land. On the day the princess turned fifteen years of age, it so happened that she was left alone at the palace and the king and the queen were not around and the little princess wandered around the palace curiously looking into all the chambers of the palace till she finally came to an old tower with a narrow staircase at the end of which was a little door. Still curious to know what lay beyond the door, she advanced in the direction of the door and found a golden key on the door. When she turned the key, the door opened and she saw an old lady spinning busily at the spindle. The princess ventured further into the room and got interested in the spindle asking the old woman what she was doing. Spinning was the reply combined with humming and the buzz of the wheel.

The princess was fascinated and asked the old woman to teach her the spindle who obliged her to teach her. Scarcely had the princess touched the spindle, the prophecy of the fairy took place and the spindle wounded her and she fell down lifeless on the ground. As foretold by the twelfth fairy, the princess had fallen into a deep slumber. The king and the queen who had just returned also fell into a deep sleep along with all the courts men and the horses and all the people of that kingdom. It was like time stood still and each one at that point of time remained rooted in the act they were indulged in. when the princess got wounded and fell into a deep sleep. While the princess and all the inhabitants of the kingdom slept, a large hedge of thorns gradually grew around the palace and with each passing year grew higher and higher till the palace was hidden completely and could not be seen.

There was a report about the beautiful sleeping, Briar Rose, as she was named by the king and several kings and princes made attempts to break through the thicket to get into the palace. As years passed by, and the hundred years drew near, a young prince got to know about the Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose and made way to reach the palace. On completion of the hundred years the spell was broken and the prince could pass through beautiful flowers right through the palace to the place where Briar Rose laid. He was spellbound and mesmerized by her beauty that he kissed her and the spell was completely broken and the princess awoke along with all the people in the kingdom that had fallen asleep. The prince and the princess had a new beginning with the blessing of the king and queen together with all the people of that land and they lived happily thereafter.