I have been MIA for a couple of weeks. I have decided to put an end to Crafty Weekends since there was not much participation in the link parties, but keep an eye out for all my fun crafts and craft reviews in the future. A few weeks ago I promised to bring back Fairy Tales in Different Cultures and since today is the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month I thought I would share a Hispanic version of a fairy tale. We decided to focus on Sleeping Beauty so today we are sharing a Sleeping Beauty tale from Chile. I have shared various stories, information and crafts related to Chile previously. Including two fairy tales from the same book which I found today's. It is Folktales of Chile edited by Yolando Pino-Saavedra. I took it out of the library, but it available used on Amazon.
Today's tale is found on page 77 in this book and is called "Sleeping Beauty." As I read this tale out loud to Hazel the other day I questioned whether we would want to feature it, but was happy by the ending, so I am sharing it. In this story a rich man had a daughter whom he loved greatly. Around the age of fifteen she pricks her finger while helping her mother comb some wool and dies soon after. Her father orders that several acres of the forest be cleared and a small cottage be built. There he lays his daughter with provisions for up to a year. A year later the king with a servant are in the forest and get lost and come across the little cottage. It is all locked up but the king looks through the window and sees the beautiful girl laying on the bed like she is asleep. They try to get in and finally kick down the door. He approaches the maiden and sees a large splinter in her finger. When he pulls it out the maiden wakes up. They find the provisions left by her father and cook a meal and celebrate. The king and his servant stay with the girl until the provisions are used up. The story mentions that he king takes the maiden to bed after feasting. This was one of the reasons I was not sure I wanted to share it. In fact they have a baby boy after a year and then a girl later before using all the provisions.
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| Sendero Lagos Andinos by Almavillarrica [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons |
When the provisions are gone the king and his servant return to the castle but the king promises to send food every day to the cottage. He also gives the maiden a dress with bells. He tells her that if she ever needs him to wear this dress and ring the bells three times and he will come right away. Upon the king's long absence the queen has gotten suspicious. She suspected there was another woman. The king shortly leaves for war but orders a servant to bring food to the girl and their children. The queen sees the servant one day and forces him (with fear of death) to tell her where he is taking the food. She insists he tell the girl that the king wants to send the boy to school and to bring the son to the castle. The servant does this and the queen gives the boy to the cook and tells her to put him in the king's dinner that night. The cook looks at the boy and cannot bring herself to kill him so she trades him with a shepherd for a lamb which she cooks in the stew. The next day the queen sends for the daughter and does a similar thing. (Again reasons I questioned sharing this version.) Then the queen has the servant boy send for the girl. The girl grabs her bell dress and heads to the castle. The queen greets her and tells her to prepare to lose her head. The girl asks to be allowed to wear a special dress for this last time and puts on the bell dress. Then she asks to be allowed to walk in the castle for a few minutes. The bells on the dress rings and the king hears them even though he is at war a distance away. He rushes to the castle to save the girl. He finds the queen holding the girl's hair and a knife to her neck and stops her and kills her with his sword. They then figure out where the kids are and find them and get married. They baptize the children and he appoints the cook a special nurse to them and the shepherd who cared for them as his counselor. And of course they live happily ever after.
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| Castillo Wulff Viña del Mar, Chile by Mike Dougherty, U.S. Marine Corps [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
Things I love about this story is that religion comes in to it. The children are baptized. After all Chile is dominantly a Catholic or Christian country. I also love that there are not fairies and magic except the splinter putting her to sleep (or killing her). I don't like that the king has an affair with this maiden or that after celebrating that she is alive and her story he takes her to bed. I also don't like the wording of the queen cutting off the heads of the children (and serving it to the king for dinner). This seems a bit extreme for a children's story. Otherwise it is an enjoyable story. I could see a craft with bells. Perhaps stringing some beads and bells to make a bracelet or anklet to ring the bells. Older kids could sew some bells on a piece of clothing but that might be a bit much. The photos I used are from Chile but do not actually go with the story. I just figured a forest and castle would be interesting and show us a bit of the geography of this county. Be sure to check out our posts about the Chilean Cinderella and Snow White.
