Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #106: Revising Myth: "The Sleeping Beauty.

Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty in the Disney film

Revising fairy tales is a major movement in writing these days. Some of it comes from feminism. The lilting, passive princesses of the old tales, and their Disney counterparts in the cartoon adaptations of them are now fierce warrior women. Simpering characters like Snow White, who dreams about her Prince showing up someday now leads an army in an attack on her evil stepmother's castle. And some of the revisions of fairy tales come from unanswered questions. How did all the evil queens and stepmothers get to be evil? What were the lives of the Seven Dwarfs before Snow White showed up and after she left? What kind of Queen did Cinderella make once she married the Prince and took up her rule of her kingdom? These sorts of questions brought about the concept for my story, "The Sleeping Beauty."

Snow White leads an attack in Mirror, Mirror

That is a familiar fairy tale and one that was made into a popular cartoon by Disney Enterprises. The point I used for the construction of the tale was that the King decreed that no one in the kingdom could own a spinning wheeling under pain of death. A little harsh, in opinion. I mean, maybe smash the spinning wheel, fine the person or give them ninety days in jail, but don’t kill them. And in my story, they had extended the prohibition. Anyone who brought a needle or any other kind of sharp sewing implement near the Princess died. The main character of my story, Whitney, works as a seamstress in the palace (and also as a whore, a thing that is the usual secondary occupation for commoner women who work there). In a hurry to finish sewing some garments, she sticks a needle in sleeve of her dress, something she does to save time while sewing, and hurries to see Princess Aurora. The Queen sees the needle and sentences her to be hanged. As the guards carry her away, the King intervenes, saying that since she knew the decree and disobeyed, she must be a traitor who meant to harm the Princess. He orders the guards to give her a traitor's death.

Punishment for treason in the ancient kingdoms was to be hanged not to death but to semi-consciousness and then to be disemboweled (if you saw the film Braveheart, this is what is done to Wallace). Whitney is taken to a dungeon cell to await her fate. A man comes in, whispers that he will save her, and tells her he will have to act like he is raping her, which was the only way he could get into her cell. She begs and pleads as he makes loves to her. After he leaves, she is led to the gallows. He is the executioner.

He manages to fake her death through an elaborate ruse. After she is hanged, he puts a bag of cow intestines beside her and appears to pull them out of her. He takes her body to a small village where his wife and many other families live. They treat Whitney for hypothermia and for the damage to her neck and shoulders from the hanging. When she recovers, she learns that the executioner's wife, Tamsin, is the witch Maleficent and has repudiated magic. She also learns that the curse on Princess Aurora is not a curse but a blessing to keep the Princess from becoming as evil and corrupt as her parents. Tamsin enlists Whitney to help the curse that is a blessing take effect.

By Tamsin's magic, she is transported to the castle. She tells the Princess what is going to happen. Aurora is defensive but then admits that she knows of the evil her parents have fallen to and willingly pricks her finger on a spinner wheel Tamsin has magically supplied. Whitney also serves as conduit for eight serving women who were killed by the King and Queen for bringing sewing implements close to the Princess. The women, in the form of superhuman ghouls, kill the King and his guards; the Queen leaps from a window to her death to avoid them. Knowing justice is done, they transform from ghouls to angelic-appearing being and disappear.

An underground insurgency that had been waiting for the proper moment arises gains control of the kingdom. The people support them and they prove just and benevolent rulers. They place Aurora in a sleeping chamber to await the kiss of a prince, which happens six years later. Aurora offers Whitney a place in the palace, but she declines the offer and returns to Tamsin's village, marries, and chooses a quiet life. Aurora and her husband rule their kingdom justly. So, I guess you could say everyone lived happily ever after.

The story appeared in a print journal, Mystic Signals, Issue #24,and is available. Get a copy here.

For more titles, see my Writer's Page.

To read a revised story from the New Testament, get a copy of The Prophetess. A young girl is possessed by a spirit and is a prophetess. How did she become possessed? What was the dynamic of her ability to tell fortunes? And how is she finally freed?

I would love to hear your comments.