Many people enjoy reading folktales due to their imaginative, pure, and thought-provoking nature. One of the most eminent of those is Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty is a remixed piece of work of Sole, Luna e Talia, an Italian folktale that was published by Giambattista Basile in 1634. Although Sleeping Beauty was derived from Sole, Luna e Talia, there are major features that distinguish the remixed version from the original one. They are the props that led to a conflict in the story and the ending highlights the singularity of both stories although the two are of connection.
One crucial part of Sole, Luna e Talia folktale discerns its originality from the latest version. In Sole, Luna e Talia, the main character, Talia, had a piece of Amazonite stone stuck under her nail and was enchanted to fall asleep eternally. Her body was kept inside a mansion by her mother soon after. Later, a king found the mansion and approached Talia. He eventually fell into the temptation of her beauty and raped her while she was asleep. Nine months later, Talia gave birth to a daughter and a son. Surprisingly, the infants sucked the Amazonite stone under her nail, induced by their infantile rooting reflex, by chance. She was then disenchanted from sleep and thereafter named her daughter the sun, Sole, and her son the moon, Luna.
In the latest ‘Sleeping Beauty’ folktale, a thorn of a spinning wheel got stuck below the nails of the main character, Rose. This induced her to fall asleep forever in a cottage. Long story short, a kiss from her true love eventually awoke her from sleep.
The strikingly contrasting plot of the latest and the original version provokes people to read both pieces of folktale. Although one came from another, the massive difference in its components and plot also reflects the willingness of people across generations to challenge the conventional style of the story.
By. Minjung Kwon
