Fairies (Sleeping Beauty)

In the classic fairy-tale Sleeping Beauty, a group of fairies are invited to a king's castle to attend the christening of the newly-born princess. These seven fairies (who are unnamed in Charles Perrault's original version) are appointed as the young princess' godmothers and each bless the child with a gift. These gifts include beauty, wit, grace, dance, song and kindness. The seven fairies take a seat at the royal table and are presented with golden plates adorned with jewels.

An elderly eighth fairy also attends the christening without invitation, and while she is offered a seat at the table, she is presented with only china and a crystal glass rather than the more elaborate tableware of the other fairies. Bitter over being snubbed, the elder fairy places a curse on the young princess so that she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. However, the seventh good fairy, who has yet to give her gift, attempts to reverse the evil fairy's curse. However, she can only do so partially. Instead of dying, the princess will fall into a deep sleep for 100 years and be awakened by a kiss from a prince. This is her gift of protection.

Despite the king and queen's attempt to prevent the curse from ever coming to pass by having all spinning wheels in the kingdom destroyed, the prophecy is still fulfilled. One day, sixteen years later, the king and queen are away from the castle and the princess is left to her own devices. She meets an old woman in a sewing room who is spinning thread and asks to be shown how to do it. Inevitably, the princess pricks her finger on the spindle and she falls into a deep slumber.

The seventh fairy who had placed a spell of protection on the princess is summoned. She foresees that the princess will awake to find herself alone as everyone in the kingdom will die over time, and so she casts a spell over the entire castle that places its occupants in the same state of slumber as the princess. Only when the curse has been lifted from the princess will everyone else awake. The fairy also summons a forest of trees, brambles and thorns that spring up around the castle, shielding it from the outside world and preventing anyone from disturbing the princess.

100 years pass and the kingdom is visited by a prince from a far-off land. Having discovered the hidden castle while on a hunting expedition, he listens to the various stories told by the peasant folk living outside the forest of thorns regarding the curse upon the princess. Choosing to venture through the thorns and find the sleeping princess, the prince enters the castle and is awestruck by the princess' radiant beauty. He plants a kiss upon the princess' lips which results in the curse being lifted and everyone in the castle being awoken. After this, the prince and princess marry in the castle chapel.

Alternate versions

 * The most well-known versions of the fairy characters from Sleeping Beauty come from the 1959 Disney animated film. In this film, the fairies each have established personalities and names. The good fairies, of which there are only three rather than seven, are known as Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. The evil fairy is known as Maleficent who, as well as being the main antagonist of the film, has gone on to appear in various other forms of Disney media such as the Kingdom Hearts video games.