Thorn Rose
First published in Great Britain by Faber & Faber, 1975
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| "The fairies came to the feast and at the end they gave gifts to the child" |
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| "even the fire burning in the hearth fell asleep" |
Errol Le Cain
Errol Le Cain was born March 5, 1941 in Singapore and brought up there, son of the first non-British Commissioner of Police. He had no formal art education, but his artistic talent was nurtured from the time he was a toddler. During the war years his family lived in Agra, India. He made his first 8 mm animated film, The Enchanted Mouse, at the age of 11. In 1958, at the age of only seventeen, he moved to London to pursue a career in animation. Working in Richard Williams’ studio, Errol was an important part of several films that had animation sequences including Casino Royale. (Richard Williams won an Oscar for Who Killed Roger Rabbit) Mr. Le Cain then took a year off to complete his first illustrated children’s book King Arthur's Sword. His body of work is remarkable, and includes designs in one of the best animated movies ever, The Thief and the Cobbler.
In 1984, for his illustrations in Hiawatha's Childhood, he was awarded the Kate Greenaway medal (which is the highest award in England for illustration in a children's book). He passed away in January of 1989.
(Based on the biography at errollecainlegacy.com)
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Here is a version of the tale of the sleeping beauty that stays close to the original German and is similar to the version used in the picture book Thorn Rose
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| The wise women journey to the celebration |
Little Brier-Rose
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
In past times there were a king and a queen, who said every day,
"Oh, if only we had a child!" but they never received one.
Then it happened one day while the queen was sitting in her bath,
that a frog crept out of the water onto the ground and said to her, "Your
wish shall be fulfilled, and before a year passes you will bring a daughter
into the world."
What the frog said did happen, and the queen gave birth to a girl
who was so beautiful that the king could not contain himself for joy, and he
ordered a great celebration. He invited not only his relatives, friends, and
acquaintances, but also the wise women so that they would be kindly disposed
toward the child. There were thirteen of them in his kingdom, but because he
had only twelve golden plates from which they were to eat, one of them had to
remain at home.
The feast was celebrated with great splendor, and at its
conclusion the wise women presented the child with their magic gifts. The one
gave her virtue, the second one beauty, the third one wealth, and so on with
everything that one could wish for on earth.
The eleventh one had just pronounced her blessing when the
thirteenth one suddenly walked in. She wanted to avenge herself for not having
been invited, and without greeting anyone or even looking at them she cried out
with a loud voice, "In the princess's fifteenth year she shall prick
herself with a spindle and fall over dead." And without saying another
word she turned around and left the hall.
Everyone was horrified, and the twelfth wise woman, who had not
yet offered her wish, stepped foreward. Because she was unable to undo the
wicked wish, but only to soften it, she said, "It shall not be her death.
The princess will only fall into a hundred-year deep sleep."
The king, wanting to rescue his dear child, issued an order that
all spindles in the entire kingdom should be burned. The wise women's gifts
were all fulfilled on the girl, for she was so beautiful, well behaved,
friendly, and intelligent that everyone who saw her had to love her.
Now it happened that on the day when she turned fifteen years of
age the king and the queen were not at home, and the girl was all alone in the
castle. She walked around from one place to the next, looking into rooms and
chambers as her heart desired. Finally she came to an old tower. She climbed up
the narrow, winding stairs and arrived at a small door. In the lock there was a
rusty key, and when she turned it the door sprang open. 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 there?"
"I am spinning," said the old woman, nodding her head.
"What is that thing that is so merrily bouncing about?"
asked the girl, taking hold of the spindle, for she too wanted to spin.
She had no sooner touched the spindle when the magic curse was
fulfilled, and she pricked herself in the finger. The instant that she felt the
prick she fell onto a bed that was standing there, and she lay there in a deep sleep.
And this sleep spread throughout the entire castle. The king and queen, who had
just returned home, walked into the hall and began falling asleep, and all of
their attendants as well. The horses fell asleep in their stalls, the dogs in
the courtyard, the pigeons on the roof, the flies on the walls, and even the
fire on the hearth flickered, stopped moving, and fell asleep. The roast
stopped sizzling. The cook, who was about to pull kitchen boy's hair for having
done something wrong, let him loose and fell asleep. The wind stopped blowing,
and outside the castle not a leaf was stirring in the trees.
Round about the castle a thorn hedge began to grow, and every year
it became higher, until it finally surrounded and covered the entire castle.
Finally nothing at all could be seen of it, not even the flag on the roof.
A legend circulated throughout the land about the beautiful
sleeping Little Brier-Rose, for so the princess was called. Legends also told
that from time to time princes came, wanting to force their way through the
hedge into the castle. However, they did not succeed, for the thorns held
firmly together, as though they had hands, and the young men became stuck in
them, could not free themselves, and died miserably.
Many long, long years later, once again a prince came to the
country. He heard an old man telling about the thorn hedge. It was said that
there was a castle behind it, in which a beautiful princess named Little
Brier-Rose had been asleep for a hundred years, and with her the king and the
queen and all the royal attendants were sleeping. He also knew from his
grandfather that many princes had come and tried to penetrate the thorn hedge,
but they had become stuck in it and died a sorrowful death.
Then the young man said, "I am not afraid. I will go there
and see the beautiful Little Brier-Rose."
However much the good old man tried to dissuade him, the prince
would not listen to his words.
The hundred years had just passed, and the day had come when
Little Brier-Rose was to awaken. When the prince approached the thorn hedge, it
was nothing but large, beautiful flowers that separated by themselves, allowing
him to pass through without harm, but then behind him closed back into a hedge.
In the courtyard he saw the horses and spotted hunting dogs lying
there asleep, and on the roof the pigeons, perched with their little heads
tucked under they wings. When he walked inside the flies were asleep on the
wall, the cook in the kitchen was still holding up his hand as if he wanted to
grab the boy, and the maid was sitting in front of the black chicken that was
supposed to be plucked. He walked further and saw all the attendants lying
asleep in the hall, and above them near the throne the king and the queen were
lying. He walked on still further, and it was so quiet that he could hear his
own breath. Finally he came to the tower and opened the door to the little room
where Little Brier-Rose was sleeping.
There she lay and was so beautiful that he could not take his eyes
off her. He bent over and gave her a kiss. When he touched her with the kiss
Little Brier-Rose opened her eyes, awoke, and looked at him kindly.
They went downstairs together, and the king awoke, and the queen,
and all the royal attendants, and they looked at one another in amazement. The horses
in the courtyard stood up and shook themselves. The hunting dogs jumped and
wagged their tails. The pigeons on the roof pulled their little heads out from
beneath their wings, looked around, and flew into the field. The flies on the
walls crept about again. The fire in the kitchen rose up, broke into flames,
and cooked the food. The roast began to sizzle once again. The cook boxed the
boy's ears, causing him to cry, and the maid finished plucking the chicken.
And then the prince's marriage to Little Brier-Rose was celebrated
with great splendor,
and they
lived happily
to the end of their days.
The End.
- Source: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Dornröschen, Kinder- und Hausmärchen, (Children's and Household Tales), no. 50.
- The Grimms' source: Marie
Hassenpflug (1788-1856).
- Translated by D.
L. Ashliman. © 2002-2005. Found at www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts
- The Grimms included this tale in
the first edition of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812).
Illustrations by Errol Le Cain, "The wise women journey to the celebration" is a detail from the cover art for Thorn Rose. The picture of the princess on the staircase is used as a frontispiece in the paperback edition that I own of Thorn Rose, published by Penguin Books in a Picture Puffin, 1977.
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more picture books by Errol Le Cain
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