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The part that comes after waking
A sleeping princess, a long enchantment and a prince: those details are familiar. Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty continues beyond the awakening. The princess marries the prince and has two children, Morning and Day. Their lives remain in danger because the prince’s mother comes from a family of ogres.
A queen who wants to eat her grandchildren
Once the prince becomes king and leaves for war, his mother sends the young queen and the children to a country house. She orders them killed and cooked for her table. The household steward secretly protects them and substitutes animals for the meals she demands.
The final trap
When the ogress discovers the deception, she prepares a vessel filled with dangerous creatures and intends to throw the family into it. The king returns before the order is carried out. His mother dies in the trap she prepared. The awakening has moved the princess into another household where an older woman holds power over her survival.
Keep the versions separate
Basile’s Sun, Moon, and Talia and the Grimms’ Briar Rose are related but different tellings. Their events should not be attached to Perrault without explanation. The Dark Fairytales season uses Perrault for Sleeping Beauty, rather than presenting a mixture of every disturbing detail found across the tale’s history.
The edition used by Dark Fairytales
The planned E09 reading is based on Charles Perrault’s Old-Time Stories (1921), translated by Alfred Edwin Johnson. It is scheduled for December 25, 2026. The source is linked below for anyone who wants to read the continuation after the princess wakes.
Source edition: Read the tale ↗. Episode credits identify the English version used in the reading.