Sleeping Beauty DID NOT Prick her Finger on a Spinning Wheel! | A Yarn Spinner Explains

Sleeping Beauty did not prick her finger on a spinning wheel! Historically, flax spinning wheels didn't exist at the time the story was first told. So what did Princess Aurora prick her finger on? It's not what you think! Let's finally get a historically accurate answer this question. It's going to take an actual fairy tale princess to help us discover Sleeping Beauty's true story!

📚 The real story of Sleeping Beauty is actually really awful. In the original, Talia pricks her finger "while spinning flax" on a sliver of the flax itself. She finally wakes up when one of her children (whom she gave birth to while she was still asleep because the king is scum) sucks on her finger and draws out the flax sliver, which finally wakes her up.

🔎 Here are links to the sources I used to research this video

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Frans Pourbus the Younger Portrait of the Italian Poet, Giambattista Marino, ca. 1621

Lallemand Portrait of Charles Perrault, ca. 1672

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[arnikakiani]

The original German version goes like this: after years and years of waiting, a king and queen finally had a child. Their joy was so great, they wanted to invite all the 13 fairies of the kingdom to her christening so that they would bestow their gifts unto her. The king only had 12 golden plates, though. Instead of having a 13th plate made post haste, he decided that he would not invite the fairy of diligence, since a princess would not have to work and diligence would be a useless trait for her.
At the feast, all of the fairies give her their gifts - beauty, kindness, etc. Then the 13th fairy turns up, gravely insulted by not being invited and by her gift being dismissed as useless and curses the princess to prick her finger on a spindle when she is 15 years old and die instantly. Everybody is horrifies, the other fairies can change the curse to a one hundred year sleep but nevertheless, the king has all spindles in his kingdom destroyed.
Since spinning and weaving is a huge part of the economy, both of every household as well as the entire kingdom, the kingdom falls into hardship. People move away to neighboring kingdoms, less taxes are collected, the king is unfazed in his tyranny, though.
One day, Briar Rose wanders around the castle and climbs the stairs of an old tower. There she finds an old woman spinning yarn. She asks: "What are you doing, grandmother?" the old woman answers, that she is spinning. The princess then asks: "What is that thing that dances around so merrily?" The woman answers: "That's a spindle, would you like to see it/try for yourself?" Briar Rose picks up the spindle and pricks her finger, her and the entire court falling into a deep sleep.
A hundred years later, a prince is traveling through the area and hears a story about a cursed castle, hidden behind thorny vines that no one can penetrate. He goes to look for it and as it happens, a hundred years are over in just that instant and the vines open up for the prince to let him through.
He finds everybody sleeping and finally gets to the tower and Briar Rose. He kisses her, she wakes up along with the entire castle. Of course, they get married.
The one who really suffers here is the king, though, as intended by the fairy. In the hundred years that have passed, he has been forgotten, his kingdom divided up into the neighboring kingdoms, he is left with nothing.
The moral is: put value into hard work. Sadly, Disney tends to strip all of that away until 'love conquers all' fits the story.
There are several fairy tales with similar messages, like The Salt Princess, or The Water of Life. The Salt Princess is one of my favorite fairy tales but I don't think the English-speaking world will ever know it, since there is a distinct lack of prince and as such, Disney will probably not touch it.
I think Briar Rose really did prick her finger - in other fairy tales, cutting one's fingers on the hard yarn is described very specifically (Mistress Hulda or Gold-Marie and Tar-Marie).

By the way, in most German versions of Rumpelstilzchen, the miller's daughter is called Marie, which is the standard name for non-princess females in German fairy tales. In one film adaptation, she was called Lisa but it was a very recent movie and I think they just picked whatever name they thought fit.

[tsabanski]

I've legit gouged myself to bleeding with a spindle while spinning silk. I was using a Tibetan spindle made for spinning delicate threads. It has an extremely pointy end, and while I love the spindle, I do not use it anymore because of this (lol). The flax itself is a very good theory but from personal experience, I (unfortunately) know that it is absolutely possible!

[kate]

I'm a little late but ive finally found a cartoon that got the spinning wheel right !!! The Princess and the Goblin from 1991 has a scene of the princesses grandmother spinning magical thread and it is spot on for a cartoon. They even have the sound of the wheel correct it actually sounds like my CPW.

[sophiezie-carreras]

What a wonderful video! The Sleeping Beauty is exactly what got me into spinning lol. That scene had the most profound effect on me as a child. How wonderful ! Thanks Evie

[chanapearl]

I've always suggested to nervous visitors to my house that if they're worried about all the wheels and spindles I have, they should just bring a sleeping paula

[erinc]

On a great wheel or walking wheel, there is a spindle. It was metal. Over time and with use, the spindle would wear down causing it to get sharp. They died of tetanus.

[LynnHermione]

In the original story she gets a wooden splinter in her finger, which makes more sense and could come from any part of the thing. In fact in the version she has kids while asleep (...yeah) she wakes up when her kid sucks on her finger and pulls the splinter out

[emrichardson]

Ermegerd😂 I just came into possession of an antique wheel a few weeks back. The very first concern my boyfriend had was "where is the part that pricks your finger?"
Perfect timing for this video!

[RpunktF]

As a little girl I watched a German version of the brothers Grimm fairytale (more fairies and she doesn’t go to live with them but stays in the castle and her father, the king, has all the spinning wheels destroyed) and they apparently gave the whole thing a lot of thought. They had her learn how to spin from some woman and at one point she had to go in and change the bobbin (I don’t remember if it was full or if there was something else going on) and the bobbin or the flyer (I have no idea which of the two. It’s so long ago and I only know my spinning wheel which works with a magnet) was stuck into the wood behind it with a sharp tip and that’s where she pricked her finger. She pulled it of, grabbed the bobbin (or flyer) somewhat clumsily and pricked her finger on the sharp tip in the back.

[TheTitan]

Oh.My. GOODNESS! You should totally do more of these guests for future episodes! This episode was SO MUCH FUN!

[LittlejohnsYarn]

BEST VIDEO EVER! That wig is seamless!

[Typhoonyoon]

Great topic!
I have experienced this very topic with my daughter a few years ago after reading the Sleeping Beauty together. I showed her various spindle wheels and explained to her how a possibly rusty sharp end of a metal could give a person a toxic poisoning before the time of Tetanus Shots.
We also talked about how plant fibers could be quite harmful to person’s hands, such as Stinging Nettle. She totally bought it. 🎃

[TheJiamy]

i remember being a small child and trying to think through it like.. "what part of spinning thread could possibly require a needle or spike???", especially when i looked at the antique spinning wheel my grandparents had on a shelf.

[nimeryaspawnbrd]

Historian and yarn addict reporting for duty! 🙋‍♀😆

I think the concept here is kinda like the one in the Princess on the Pea...
something along the lines of her being so delicate that the mere contact with a "trivial" object is enough to hurt her, if I make sense...
pointing out that royalty came with a lot of special strings attached (especially compared to common people) was a relatively common topic in mythology 😊


also, the gold from straw has an historical reason too: back then the processing of silk gave the undyed fiber a golden blond color (in medieval "Italian" the raw silk top was called blonda di seta).
but silk was crazy expensive, so there were cheaper plant based alternatives. One was made from straws (blonda di paglia), through a process similar to the one for nettle fibers.
Features of those yarns were obviously quite different from silk, but a distracted look, the color and the shine were said to be quite similar.


the fairy tale zoom call was absolutely hilarious 😂❤
I choked on my tea at "oh, the Plague" 🤣🤣🤣

Cheers from Florence

[LoreKore-prpp]

Love the surprise special guest! My theory growing up was that, to kids, spindles and spinning wheels looked like fun toys to play with and telling a story about a girl getting gravely hurt on one was more to scare kids just enough that they weren't constantly messing up all the spinner's hard work or breaking the family's expensive equipment!

[marseilletarot]

“That wheel is a hot mess.” 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Dead!

[rickshaw]

I always figured that a spindle was more plausible. My first attempt on a Russian spindle resulted in a bleeding stab wound.

[freshwaterwi]

I've read that, over time, it is possible for the tip of a spindle on a great wheel to become worn down to a sharp point. Also, before the discovery of germs, spinning in the grease could have carried feces and other dirt matter into the fibers, and then onto the hands. If the spinner's dirty hands were then nicked by the sharp tip of the spindle she could contract anthrax, or tetnus, or some other disease that would be characterized by needing a lot of sleep.

[harbartje]

Never thought about this, love your wonderful video and had to search a bit on my own ^^
Being from Germany in my childhood version she is not spinning herself, but sees an old woman spinning flax (specifically mentioned) with a spindle "happily jumping around". Because her father had banned all spindles it is her first time seeing one. Being really curious she touches it (probably still moving) and pricks her finger.
In an article about this topic a "standing spindle" is mentioned which would be placed on a stone while spinning and would sharpen over time. Have you ever heard about those kinds? I couln't find any more informations about it...

[Zippsterman]

It's a magic evil spinning wheel, it's sharp where other's aren't as a trap for her to stumble upon.

Still silly but that we are talking about a sorceress' shenanigans here