Once upon a time there was a king and a queen, and a little daughter was born to them. Because she was as beautiful as a rose, they named her Rose. At night, three fairies appeared in her room. The first said:
“You will be as sweet as nature as you have a lovely face.”
The second fairy was bad and said, “When you are eighteen, you will prick your finger and die!”
“No,” shouted the third fairy. “You will not die. You’ll just fall asleep for a hundred years. But a kiss from true love can save you.”
The fairies disappeared.
The king heard it all because he was listening outside the door. The very next day, he had it decreed in his country that anything sharp, anything that might prick Rose, must leave his kingdom. And so the people had to throw away all the spinning-wheels and spindles, all the needles, cut down the plants with their thorns, and carry away all the hedgehogs to the neighbouring country. At every step the King had the little Rose watched, what if she could accidentally prick herself if something was overlooked.
And so Rose grew into a beautiful young woman. It was just the day of her eighteenth birthday. Everybody thought that the evil spell would not come true. Perhaps that’s why they relaxed their babysitting and left Rose alone to play in the garden.
That day, Rosie walked to the very corner of the garden where an old, overgrown tower stood. Rose was curious, so she climbed up the stairs to the tower. In a small room there was an old woman sitting at a spinning wheel, spinning. Rosie had never seen a spinning-wheel before. She wanted to see it. She reached out and touched the spindle and pricked her finger. At that moment she fell asleep. And the whole kingdom fell asleep with her. The whole castle was covered in pink thorns.
Fairy tales and legends went around the world about a beautiful princess sleeping and waiting to be rescued, but no one was brave enough to go and see. Until Prince John heard. He immediately fell in love with the princess from the fairy tales. He thought he’d save her. He got on his horse and rode off. He crossed nine hills, nine rivers, nine forests, swam across nine lakes. And finally reached the kingdom where everything was asleep.
He reached the castle, which was all overgrown with pink thorns. He drew his sword and began to bravely cut his way through. He reached the tower and there he saw the beautiful Princess Rose sleeping. But how should he wake her?
“Rose, wake up!” shouted the prince, but nothing happened. He tried to shake Rosie, tried to sing and dance with her, and only then did he finally think that he hadn’t kissed her yet. As soon as he kissed her, Rose woke up and was very glad he had saved her. The whole kingdom also woke up and everyone rejoiced that the evil curse had been broken.
Finally, a great wedding took place, Prince John married Beauty and they lived happily ever after.
Why is the princess happy about a stranger kissing her in her sleep? Why are we teaching our kids this? Some versions have the prince rape the princess! In counclusn, we should stop telling kids this story as a good story.