Belcoeur liked spinning, so she uses that for the curse, and Aurora ultimately pricks her finger on Belcoeur’s own spinning wheel. Malfleur supposedly saved everyone from her sister, Belcoeur, and she feels they have been ungrateful to her and wants the curse to act as a reminder. Hillyer creates a backstory for the reason behind the spindle. The curse states that the girl will prick herself on a spindle and die, and this is the same curse Malfleur casts on Aurora. While Isbe never regains her sight in the book, Aurora is able to speak and feel once she is in Sommeil.īoth Perrault’s and the Grimms’ tales involve a fairy setting the curse on the princess. Isbe grows up blind while Aurora grows up mute and unable to feel anything. The queen balks at this and through some tricky wording presents Isbe in Aurora’s place for this tithe. The third faerie’s amendment to Malfleur’s curse comes at a price as well she requests Aurora’s sight. They thus barter away her voice for beauty and a good temper and her sense of touch for grace. The faerie offers the exchange and Princess Aurora’s parents accept or deny it. Whereas the gifts in the fairy tale are given freely, the ones in the book come at a price.
In Perrault’s there are seven faeries and in the Grimms’ there are twelve, but Hillyer uses three (as does Disney’s Sleeping Beauty). These gifts include beauty, grace, wit, virtue, and musical abilities.
In both the Grimms’ and Perrault’s versions, the princess is given gifts by faeries or wise women at her christening. This book has the most unique take on the faerie gifts I’ve seen in a “Sleeping Beauty” retelling. While there are multiple romantic relationships, the relationships between these sets of sisters are the source of the major plot points. We also see the sibling relationship between the main antagonist, Malfleur, and her sister, Belcoeur. Instead of focusing on a single princess, we have two sisters as our protagonists: Aurora, who is our Sleeping Beauty, and her half-sister Isabelle, called Isbe. However, Hillyer does include many embellishments and deviations right from the start. Hillyer chooses not to utilize this plot point and focuses her novel on the familiar and famous part of the story. Earlier versions of the tale, such as Giambattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” and Charles Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Woods,” include a frankly more interesting second half involving the prince’s first wife or mother attempting to murder and eat Talia/Sleeping Beauty and her children. Hillyer draws from the more well-known Grimm version of the tale called “Little Briar-Rose,” which ends with the prince waking Sleeping Beauty. So let’s jump right in! My Rating: 2 stars Warning: Contains spoilers As a Retelling: Welcome back to Fairy Tale Friday! Today we’re looking at the first “Sleeping Beauty” retelling of this feature.
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