Dark Disney

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty and The King

Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is a classic tale of a princess in distress and the prince who comes gallantly to her rescue.

The original 17th-century Italian tale has similar beginnings: the princess, named Talia, pricked her finger on a spindle and was sent into a deep sleep, fulfilling an earlier prophecy. The rest of Talia's story is too gruesome to be a children’s tale.

The man who came to Talia’s “rescue” is a king, not a prince. The king’s kiss did not awake Talia. He instead “gathers the fruits of her love,” which is a nicer way of saying he raped her while she slept.

Nine months later, she gave birth to twins, and one of them sucked the splinter from her finger, waking her up. Talia and the king fall in love, but the king is still married. His queen orders the twins to be kidnapped, cooked, and fed to the unknowing king.

Luckily, she fails. The moral of this story was: “Lucky people, so ‘tis said, Are blessed by Fortune whilst in bed.”