Sun Moon And Talia Similarities And Differences

“Sleeping Beauty” is a well-known fairy-tale, due to Disney’s animated film released in 1959. This isn’t the first rendition of the story, though, as there have been multiple versions over different cultures, each having their own different aspects to the story. The earliest version is the Italian story of “Sun, Moon, and Talia,” written in 1634, with the German version “Little Briar Rose” written in 1812. The differences between these versions of the story reveal deeper cultural values and history of the time that they were written, which deepens the understanding of why the stories were written the way that they were. The Italian story of “Sun, Moon, and Talia” can be seen as the first version of the story of “Sleeping Beauty,” as even Yoshi

The reason that this story was named “Little Briar Rose” is because in the story, the princess, who was called “beauty,” falls asleep in the castle and thorns grow all around the castle to protect all the inhabitants, mostly beauty. The briar rose does the same thing, with lots of thorns protecting the beautiful flower. The reason that the German version takes on a more of a natural allegorical lens can be explained by what was happening in German literature at the time. German Romanticism was on the rise during this time, which focused a lot on nature and explaining forces in nature (Frederike and Renner 2022). Looking at “Little Briar Rose,” certain people can be seen as representing certain aspects of nature. The wicked fairy who puts the curse on the princess can be seen as winter, which puts all of nature to sleep, just as the inhabitants are put to sleep. The prince, who comes and breaks through the thorns, can be seen as spring, and his sword can be seen as the “sunbeam” that melts winter away. Spring is the season that wakes nature up from the harsh winter before, which is why the prince can be seen as spring, which also correlates with the prince being the hero of the story. Most likely the reason that rape was excluded from this version of the story is that this story is a little more modern than “Sun, Moon, and Talia,” but it also didn’t have the cultural influence of Poussin’s Rape of the Sabines, which further shows how different culture influences lead to different versions of the same