Little Briar Rose (The Sleeping Beauty Published in 1812) German version

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Briar Rose (1812)

Long, long ago there lived a king and a queen, who said day after day: "Ah, if only we had a child!" but none ever came. Then one day when the Queen was sitting in her bath a frog crawled out of the water and said to her: "You will get your wish; before a year goes by, you will bring a daughter into the world."

The frog's prediction came true

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The frog's prediction came true. The queen gave birth to a baby girl who was so beautiful that the king couldn't get over his joy and decided to give a great feast. Hd invited not only his relatives, friends, and acquaintances, but also the Wise Women, for he wanted them to feel friendly towards his child. There were thirteen Wise Women in his kingdom, but he only had twelve gold plates for them to eat from, so one of them had to stay home. The feast was celebrated with great splendor, and when it was over the Wise Woman gave the child their magic gifts: one gave virtue, the second beauty, the third wealth, and so on, until they had given everything a person could wish for in this world. When eleven had spoken, the thirteenth suddenly stepped in. She had come to avenge herself for not having been invited, and without a word of greeting, without so much as looking at anyone, she cried out in a loud voice: "When she is fifteen, the princess will prick her finger on a spindle and fall down dead." Then without another word she turned around and left the hall. Everyone was horror-stricken. But the twelfth Wise Woman, who still had her wish to make,  stepped forward, and since she couldn't undo the evil spell but only soften it, she said: "The princess will not die, but only fall into a deep hundred-year sleep."
  The king, who wanted to guard his beloved child against such a calamity, sent an order that every spindle in the whole kingdom should be destroyed. All the Wise Women's wishes for the child came true: she grew to be so beautiful, so modest, so sweet-tempered and wise that mo one who saw her could help loving her. The day she turned fifteen the king and queen happened to be away from home and she was left alone. She went all over the castle, examining room after room, finally she came to an old tower. She climbed the narrowing winding staircase, which led to a little door with a rusty key in the lock. She turned the key, the door sprang open? and there in a small room sat an old woman with a spindle, busily spinning her flax.
"Good day, old woman," said the princess. "What are you doing?"
"I'm spinning," said the old woman nodding her head. "And what's that thing that twirls around so gaily?" the princess asked.
With that she took hold of the spindle and tried to spin, but no sooner had she touched it than the magic spell took effect and she pricked her finger.
  The moment she felt the prick she fell down on the bed that was in the room and a deep sleep came over her. And her sleep spread to the entire palace. The king and queen had just come home, and when they entered the great hall they fell asleep and the whole court with them, The horses fell asleep in the stables, the dogs in the courtyard, the pigeons on the roof, and the flies on the wall. Even the fire on the hearth stopped flaming and fell asleep, and the roast stopped crackling, and the cook, who was about to pull the kitchen boy's hair because he had done something wrong, let go and fell asleep. And the wind died down, and not a leaf stirred on the trees outside the castle.
  All around the castle a briar hedge began to grow. Each year it grew higher until in the end it surrounded and covered the whole castle and there was no trace of a castle to been seen, not even the flag on the roof. The story of Briar Rose, as people called the beautiful sleeping princess, came to be told far and wide, and from time to time a prince tried to pass through the hedge into the castle. But none succeeded, for the briar bushes clung together as though they had hands, so the young men were caught and couldn't break loose and died a pitiful death. After many years another prince came to the country and heard an old man telling that the briar hedge was said to conceal a castle, where a beautiful princess named Briar Rose had been sleeping for a hundred years, along with the king and the queen and their whole court. The old man had also heard from his grandfather that a number of princes had tried to pass through the briar hedge but had got caught in it and died a pitiful death. Then the young man said: "I'm not afraid. I will go and see the beautiful Briar Rose." The good old man did his best to dissuade him, but the prince wouldn't listen.
  It so happened that the hundred years had passed and the day had come for Briar Rose to wake up. As the king's so  approached the briar hedge, the briar turned into big beautiful flowers which opened of their own accord and let him through, then closed behind him to form a hedge again. In the courtyard he saw the horses and mottled hounds lying asleep, and on the roof pigeons were roosting with their heads tucked under their wings. When he went into the castle, the flies were asleep on the wall, the cook in the kitchen was still holding out his hand as though to grab the kitchen boy, and the maid was sitting at the table with a black hen in front of her that needed pluckinb. Going farther, he saw the whole court asleep in the great hall, and on the dais beside the throne lay the king and the  queen. On he went, and everything was so still that he could hear himself breathe. At last he came to the tower and opened the door to the little room where Briar Rose was sleeping. There she lay, so beautiful that he couldn't stop looking at her, and he bent down and kissed her. No sooner had his lips touched hers then Briar Rose opened her eyes, woke up and smiled sweetly.  They went downstairs together, and the king and the queen and the whole court woke up, and they all looked at each other in amazement. The horses in the courtyard stood up and shook themselves, the hounds jumped to their feet and wagged their tails; the pigeons on the roof took their heads from under their wings, looked around and flew off into the fields; the flies on the wall started crawling, the fire in the kitchen flamed up and cooked the meal; the roast began to crackle again, the cook boxed the kitchen's boy's ear so hard that he howled, and the maid plucked the chicken. The prince and Briar Rose were married in splendor, and they lived happily to the end of their lives.

All the Princess Stories included in this books.
1. The Frog King.
2. Rapunzel the exact same version of Rapunzel can be found in the Random House Book of Fairytales without a single spot of mistranslation.
3. Ashenputtle (this is how Germans pronounced and spell it I never saw my Professional German teacher spell it the way it is spelt in the book) This is the Cinderella Story from the Brothers' Grimm and all characters except Ashenputtle are terrible nitwits, honestly.

4

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4.. Little Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)
5. Snow White

 Snow White

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