A Dance in Iron Shoes. That's a strange story--basically, what happened after Snow White's happily ever after.
When I was younger, I used to think that there were an awful lot of Prince Charmings in fairy tales; I decided that the Charmings were a huge royal family with more boys than they knew what to do with. Here, it's darker. Snow White's prince--who's already been established as a sadist and a necrophiliac--is conflated with the rapist-king from an older version of the tale of Sleeping Beauty called "Sun, Moon and Talia." Here's the pertinent part:
After a time, it happened by chance that a king was out hunting and passed that way. One of his falcons escaped from his hand and flew into the house by way of one of the windows. It did not come when called, so the king had one of his party knock at the door, believing the palace to be inhabited. Although he knocked for a length of time, nobody answered, so the king had them bring a vintner's ladder, for he himself would climb up and search the house, to discover what was inside. Thus he climbed up and entered, and looked in all the rooms, and nooks, and corners, and was amazed to find no living person there. At last he came to the salon, and when the king beheld Talia, who seemed to be enchanted, he believed that she was asleep, and he called her, but she remained unconscious. Crying aloud, he beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love. Leaving her on the bed, he returned to his own kingdom, where, in the pressing business of his realm, he for a time thought no more about this incident.
Now, in "Sun, Moon and Talia," Talia is alone in her castle, save for her babies, and is attended by fairies that do most of their work unseen. In my version--and this is never mentioned--the curse affects everyone who was in the castle when the beauty falls asleep. So most of her court and servants are cursed along with her. Her parents were outside of the castle when the curse struck; they were on royal progress across their kingdom.
So when the curse ends, the beauty is not only lost in a time she doesn't understand, but the two people that she knew and loved best, her parents, have been dead for almost a hundred years. She's a very young girl--in my mind, she was about fifteen when the curse hit, and naturally she didn't age until she woke up--and she's getting horrible advice from the members of her council who, truth be told, are as bewildered by this world as she is. If you asked her, she'd say that what she wanted was to go home, rule in peace and raise her son and daughter to be infinitely better than their father. She gets all three wishes eventually, but she wouldn't if it weren't for the princess--a.k.a. Snow.
Word on the Prince Charmings thing. They actually ran with that in the comic series, "Fables". In it, Prince Charming was one character, but he was a serious womanizer and married and divorced Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. Cindy points out that he likely hoped to give up his philandering when he married Snow (he ends up having an affair with her sister, Rose Red) and that he probably figured he could sort himself out when he married Beauty, but by the time he got to Wife #3, he almost certainly knew he couldn't break the habit and married her anyway.
Ah yes, Sun, Moon, and Talia. That charming story. I think the only adaptation that wasn't squicky was "A Kiss in Time", and that's because the guy still kissed her instead of raping her (she was given the name Talia, as a nod to that particular version).
I really like your interpretation of Sleeping Beauty. It makes perfect sense for the situation she's been thrown into.
When I was younger, I used to think that there were an awful lot of Prince Charmings in fairy tales; I decided that the Charmings were a huge royal family with more boys than they knew what to do with. Here, it's darker. Snow White's prince--who's already been established as a sadist and a necrophiliac--is conflated with the rapist-king from an older version of the tale of Sleeping Beauty called "Sun, Moon and Talia." Here's the pertinent part:
After a time, it happened by chance that a king was out hunting and passed that way. One of his falcons escaped from his hand and flew into the house by way of one of the windows. It did not come when called, so the king had one of his party knock at the door, believing the palace to be inhabited. Although he knocked for a length of time, nobody answered, so the king had them bring a vintner's ladder, for he himself would climb up and search the house, to discover what was inside. Thus he climbed up and entered, and looked in all the rooms, and nooks, and corners, and was amazed to find no living person there. At last he came to the salon, and when the king beheld Talia, who seemed to be enchanted, he believed that she was asleep, and he called her, but she remained unconscious. Crying aloud, he beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love. Leaving her on the bed, he returned to his own kingdom, where, in the pressing business of his realm, he for a time thought no more about this incident.
Now, in "Sun, Moon and Talia," Talia is alone in her castle, save for her babies, and is attended by fairies that do most of their work unseen. In my version--and this is never mentioned--the curse affects everyone who was in the castle when the beauty falls asleep. So most of her court and servants are cursed along with her. Her parents were outside of the castle when the curse struck; they were on royal progress across their kingdom.
So when the curse ends, the beauty is not only lost in a time she doesn't understand, but the two people that she knew and loved best, her parents, have been dead for almost a hundred years. She's a very young girl--in my mind, she was about fifteen when the curse hit, and naturally she didn't age until she woke up--and she's getting horrible advice from the members of her council who, truth be told, are as bewildered by this world as she is. If you asked her, she'd say that what she wanted was to go home, rule in peace and raise her son and daughter to be infinitely better than their father. She gets all three wishes eventually, but she wouldn't if it weren't for the princess--a.k.a. Snow.
Reply
Ah yes, Sun, Moon, and Talia. That charming story. I think the only adaptation that wasn't squicky was "A Kiss in Time", and that's because the guy still kissed her instead of raping her (she was given the name Talia, as a nod to that particular version).
I really like your interpretation of Sleeping Beauty. It makes perfect sense for the situation she's been thrown into.
Reply
Leave a comment