THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
Once upon a time there was a king and queen who longed for a child of their very own.
One day the queen gave birth to a little baby girl, and they were so pleased that they decided
to hold a party to celebrate. “Let's invite the fairies to the party”, said the king.
However, they left out the bad fairy, and she was so angry that she cast a wicked spell.
“This little girl will die when she is 16 years old” she shouted, “by pricking her
finger on a spinning wheel”. All the othe
r fairies at the party had already
given their gifts to the little baby. One had cast a spell so that the little girl would
always be happy. Another had wished that she would grow up to be both kind and clever.
Only one kind fairy at the party was yet to give her present to the little girl. But she
could not completely stop the bad fairy’s spell. However, she tried her best, waved
her wand and said that the princess would not die, but only fall into a deep sleep,
which would last for a hundred y
ears, and at the end of that time she would be woken
up by a prince. When the princess was sixteen years old she
saw a little room at the top of the castle. In it was an old woman spinning. The princess
went to take a closer look at what the old woman was doing, and as she did so pricked
her finger on the spinning wheel and fell into a deep sleep, and so did everyone else
in the palace. They lay sleeping, year after year, and with nobody to care for it, the
hedge around the palace garden grew so
tall and thick with thorns that the castle could
hardly be seen at all. A hundred years passed and one day, a prince
heard of the castle and the enchanted princess who lay asleep there. He was determined to
rescue her.. So he cut his way through the thick prickly hedge and went into the castle
where he saw everyone asleep. When he saw how lovely the princess was he fell in love
with her and bent down to kiss her on the cheek.
At once the spell was broken and the princess woke up, as did the kin
g and queen and all
the palace servants, who had fallen asleep at the same time.
The princess fell in love with the charming prince who had broken the spell and so they
decided to be married. The wedding was held the same day and everyone in the palace celebrated
with a big party.
Comments