Sleeping Beauty - Brothers Grimm

Romanticism was a movement that begun during the 18th century. It started before the napoleonic wars, a time of social and political destruction. Romanticism was something beautiful in a world full of chaos. The Brothers Grimm was one of many examples of how beautiful the Romantic era was. They wrote many great pieces of literature, ones we still recognize today. Although the stories we hear today that originated from the Brothers Grimm are a bit altered, they are amazing all the same. While researching, I found many different versions of the same story that claimed to be written by them. Unfortunately, not knowing which one is the right one, I randomly picked one. Most everyone knows the story of Sleeping Beauty but the one that we have heard of is a bit different from the Brothers Grimm version. In the story of Sleeping Beauty a baby girl was born into the world as a princess, her name was Rosamond. The kingdom had a huge celebration and twelve of the thirteen wise women were invited. As the great feast was ending, the wise women stepped up to bestow gifts to the child. "one bestowed virtue, one beauty, a third riches, and so on, whatever there is in the world to wish for."  But after the eleventh wise woman had given her gift, the uninvited thirteenth showed up unexpectedly and gave a gift of her own. She said that on Rosamond's fifteenth birthday she would prick her finger on a spindle and die. After giving her gift, the thirteenth left. Then stepped up the last one of the wise women. She could not undue what the thirteenth wise woman had done but she made it so instead of Rosamond dying when pricking her finger, she would fall asleep for one hundred years and the only thing that could awake her would be a true loves kiss. Her father then promptly burned all the spindles that existed in the kingdom. Rosamond grew up to be a beautiful modest girl but on her fifteenth birthday, she pricked her finger on a spindle and fell asleep along with the rest of the kingdom including all the animals. Rosamond rested up in a high tower, time was stopped in the kingdom. Throughout the years the hedge around the kingdom grew higher and higher. Many men tried to go and wake her but they would get caught in the thorns of the hedge and die a slow and painful death. But one prince came and all though an old man warned him not to go in because he will end up like the rest, the prince didn't listen and went up to the tower. The hundred years was ending so the instead of the hedges having thorns, they grew flowers and let the prince in. He went up and kissed the princess and everyone woke up.

Another version I heard of this story by the Brothers Grimm was that when she slept a man came up and while she was sleeping had sex with her. Finally, years after she woke up to find that she had a child by her side. This version of the story also is a good example of the Romanticism because it reflected what was happening during the time. Brothers Grimm showed all the social corruption through their stories. 

I think that the second story is the true story that the Brothers Grimm wrote. Disney made it into a fantasy and hides the true troubles that were happening at the time. But nothing is a fairytale, especially during that time.