Bedtime Tale: Sleeping Beauty

Jessica reads another timeless classic by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in this track designed to guide kids and adults alike into restful sleep. The story of Sleeping Beauty has been enjoyed by children for generations, and here, a relaxing piano backdrop is added to Jessica's soothing voice to further the ambient vibe.

Transcript

Hello dear one,

My name is Jessica Amos,

But you can call me Jessa.

Tonight I will be reading you the story of Sleeping Beauty.

But first,

Let's settle down,

Make yourself comfortable,

And take a deep breath in through your nose,

And out through your mouth.

Relax your whole body and close your eyes,

And let your mind paint pictures of this story as I read you these words.

Sleeping Beauty Many years ago,

There was a king and queen who,

More than anything,

Wanted to have a child.

Years went by and still there was no baby for the royal couple.

Then one morning,

While the queen bathed in the pool in her private garden,

An old frog poked his head out of the water.

He told her that soon she would indeed give birth to the long-awaited heir.

Within months,

A lovely little girl was born,

And because she was so delicate and beautiful,

They named the princess Briar Rose.

Overjoyed by this wonderful event,

The king and queen wanted to share their happiness and declared that a feast in honor of their new daughter would be given.

Among the many invited guests were twelve fairies that lived in the kingdom.

There was a thirteenth fairy,

But no one had seen her outside of her tower for over fifty years and everyone assumed that she was either dead or bewitched.

So the king,

Hoping to ensure the favor of the other twelve fairies,

Ordered the royal goldsmith to create twelve golden place settings.

These included beautifully made plates,

Goblets,

Knives,

Forks,

And spoons all encrusted with precious gems and laid especially at the places where each fairy was to sit.

Finally,

The feast day came and all the guests,

Including the twelve fairies,

Had been seated When,

Much to the embarrassment of the royal hosts,

An uninvited guest arrived.

It was the thirteenth fairy and she was angry that she had not received an invitation.

Hurriedly,

A chair was found and a place was set,

But this did little to sweeten the fairy's sour mood.

Then,

When she saw that her place setting was the same china,

Crystal,

And silverware as the other guests and not made of gold and jewels like those of the other,

Younger fairies,

She became enraged and muttered curses and vile oaths under her breath.

She barely touched the sumptuous meal that was set before her.

Fortunately,

The youngest fairy who was seated nearby saw all of this,

And while the third course was being served,

She slipped unnoticed from the table and hid behind a heavy curtain that hung in the dining hall.

As was the custom in that land,

After the feast had been served,

The guests stepped forward to bring presents to the new princess.

But the fairies brought more than material gifts.

They brought gifts no one could hold in their hands.

The first fairy gave the child the gift of inner beauty.

The second,

Intelligence.

The third,

The patience of a saint.

The fourth,

Gracefulness,

And so on.

When the eleventh fairy had finished granting Briar Rose the gift of an angelic singing voice,

The old fairy rose from her chair.

Trembling with rage and shaking her fist at the innocent child,

She hissed,

Before the dawn of her fifteenth birthday,

This princess shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die!

And with that,

She stormed out of the hall,

Leaving the royal parents and all of the guests gasping at the cruelty of the curse.

But before the king and queen could shed a single tear,

The youngest fairy who had feared something like this might happen stepped out from behind the curtain where she had been hiding.

Don't be afraid,

Her young voice rose strong and clear above the cries and murmurs.

There is still one gift yet to be given,

And even though I cannot undo what has been done,

I do believe I can soften it.

Turning to the cradle,

She spoke gently,

Princess,

You shall prick your finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel,

But instead of dying,

You will fall into a deep sleep that will last for more than one hundred years,

After which you will be awakened by a brave and noble prince.

The king,

In an attempt to avoid the prophecy,

Made a royal proclamation that all the spinning wheels and spindles within the castle and kingdom were to be destroyed.

Anyone disobeying this law would be executed.

For almost fifteen years,

The king's law seemed to work.

Briar Rose grew from an adorable baby into a poised and beautiful princess,

And in time,

Everyone forgot about the curse.

Then,

Within a week of her fifteenth birthday,

The king and queen were called away on business to one of their distant palaces.

Left alone in the castle,

The princess felt the urge to explore.

It was funny,

She thought,

That even though she had spent her whole life in this castle,

There were still rooms and passages that she had yet to discover.

Days were spent running upstairs and down corridors,

And there were storerooms,

Empty chambers and musty attics that were all new to her.

At last she entered an old tower,

And at the top of a winding stone stairway she found a door with a rusty key in its ancient lock.

As she turned it,

The door swung open into a little room in which a very old woman was hunched over a strange device.

The thing hummed and whirred while the woman sang softly to herself.

Briar Rose was intrigued.

She had never seen anything like it before.

What are you doing?

The girl asked innocently.

Spinning,

My beauty,

Spinning,

The old woman replied.

May I try?

The princess asked.

Certainly.

The old creature couldn't help but smile at the girl's eagerness and motioned her to come closer.

Just put your hand here.

No sooner had Briar Rose touched the spinning wheel than her finger was pricked on the sharp spindle.

Before she could draw another breath,

The princess fell to the floor in a swoon.

If it hadn't been for the sound of an old woman's cackle,

The palace guard might never have noticed that the old tower door had been left open.

There,

In a room at the top of the stairs,

Lying alone on the floor as if dead,

He found the princess.

Chambermaids,

Butlers,

And royal ministers all ran to see if they could help the girl.

The court doctors were summoned and they tried every known remedy,

But nothing could revive her.

They would have feared that she was dead except for the soft blush of her cheeks.

The lovely red lips and the gentle rise and fall of her breast that told them that Briar Rose was merely asleep.

A court messenger was sent to bring the terrible news to the king and queen and they raced homeward in a speeding carriage drawn by the fastest horses in the realm.

The court doctors had the princess move to her own bed and her maids dressed her in the loveliest of gowns,

And when at last the girl's parents arrived home and rushed immediately to her chamber,

That is how they found her.

The news spread quickly through the fairy realm until it reached the young fairy herself.

Within moments,

She too arrived at the castle.

She approved of all that had been done for the princess,

But soon realized a troubling fact.

When in a hundred years Briar Rose did awaken,

None of her family,

Friends or courtiers would still be alive to greet her and she would be surrounded by strangers.

It was then that the fairy decided that everyone in the castle should sleep for as long as their princess slept.

Tapping each person with her magic wand,

She sent them into a deep sleep.

Everyone,

No matter who or where,

Fell under the silent enchantment.

Ministers arguing over matters of state drifted off in mid-sentence.

Ladies-in-waiting waited in slumber,

While the knife in the hand of a scullery maid quietly ceased to peel.

Down in the royal kennel,

The stable boy napped with the hounds,

While high on the battlements the guards drifted into a peaceful sleep.

Even a castle gargoyle struggled to stifle a stony yawn.

Once everyone in the castle was fast asleep,

The fairy told the king and queen her plan.

After kissing Briar Rose goodnight,

The royal couple seated themselves on their thrones and then they too were tapped by the magic wand and fell into a deep,

Deep sleep.

In order to protect and shield them from the prying eyes of the outside world,

The fairy immediately caused great thorn bushes to grow up and surround the castle.

Thick branches studded with razor-sharp barbs wrapped themselves around the walls and grew up over the battlements until only the tallest weather vane on top of the highest tower remained uncovered.

In time,

This too would become enveloped in the ever-thickening growth.

So in stillness,

The quiet castle waited for the next hundred years.

Cloaked in a shroud of dense green briar,

It silently cradled the sleeping princess,

Whose beauty rivaled that of a freshly blooming rose.

It came to pass that in the hundredth year of the enchantment,

The son of a nearby king was hunting in the forest surrounding the bewitched castle.

From afar,

The prince could make out what happened to be the outline of roofs and towers beneath the dense foliage and thorns.

He asked the other members of his hunting party if they knew the story behind the mysterious place,

But no one could help him.

Finally,

An old peasant who lived in those parts came forward,

Removed his hat,

Bowed and said,

Your Highness,

Over sixty years ago when I was just a boy,

My father told me that within those walls lies a beautiful princess,

The most lovely princess anyone has ever seen.

It was her curse that she was to sleep there for a hundred years until awakened by the son of a king,

Whose arrival she awaits.

Without a single doubt,

The prince believed that he must truly be that predestined son of a king that the old man spoke of.

Drawing his sword,

The prince advanced upon the thorny thicket.

He intended to chop his way through every inch of the dense undergrowth if need be.

But to his amazement,

The thick branches grew back,

Revealing an easily traveled corridor before him.

As he stepped a few paces down the path,

The thorns he passed transformed themselves into blooming roses.

But when he turned to call back to his friends,

The thorn bushes grew up behind him again,

Thicker than before,

Allowing none of the others to come after him.

But being a brave young fellow,

He decided to continue on alone.

That bravery,

However,

Was soon tested.

For entangled in the thorny thicket on either side,

He could see the skeletons of men dressed in ancient armor and clutching rusty swords in their bony hands.

These were men who had come before,

Others who had heard the story and thought that they too were destined for the sleeping princess.

But still,

The prince pressed on and still the thorns yielded before him.

Eventually,

A wide avenue of trees opened up,

At the end of which could easily be seen the castle gates.

As he drew nearer,

His heart stopped when he saw what appeared to be more fallen suitors lying in the courtyard ahead.

But when he reached them,

He found that they were the palace guards fast asleep,

For their cheeks were rosy and some of them even snored.

Others must have been drinking when sleep came upon them,

For in their hands they still held cups half filled with wine.

He stepped over sleeping guards and entered the castle.

He continued past a scrub woman,

Who,

In mid-scrub,

Now slept on the soapy stairs.

Every hallway and apartment seemed to hold someone who had fallen asleep while performing their duties.

Servants with trays were sprawled on carpets,

Wise counselors debating,

And elegant ladies in waiting were slumped in silent slumber.

As he went past the throne room,

He saw courtiers dozing and the king and queen sleeping in their royal chairs.

Even the fires in the palace fireplaces seemed to snooze in flameless repose.

Finally,

Up past the grand staircase,

Through a maze of chambers and antechambers and down a long corridor,

The prince at last came to an elegant door.

Delicately carved on the door was the name,

Briar Rose.

His heart pounded as he lifted the latch and went in.

Sunlight filtering through the vine-covered windows dappled across the royal bed,

And his heart stopped as he drew back the heavy curtains.

He forgot to breathe.

She truly was the most beautiful princess he had ever seen.

Whether he kissed her then or not,

We shall never know,

For no one was there to see,

And the princess would never tell.

But whatever happened,

One thing was sure,

The final hour of the final year of the long enchantment had at that moment come to an end,

And as destiny would have it,

Her eyelids fluttered and she awoke.

Then she looked at him,

Not in surprise or embarrassment,

But with tenderness.

Is that you,

My prince?

She asked.

I have waited for you for such a long time.

He fell in love with her at that very instant,

And as he sat down on the bed beside her,

The two began talking together like people who had known each other all their lives.

The air about them was alive with happiness and excitement,

And they could have talked like that for hours.

The only note of discontent was struck by Chloe,

The princess's pet kitten,

Who was jealous to awaken and find the prince getting more attention than she.

By this time,

The enchantment had lifted from the rest of the castle,

And everyone stretched and yawned,

Then continued on with whatever they had been doing one hundred years ago.

A scullery maid proceeded to pluck the feathers from the fowl due to be roasted,

While the cook scolded a page for spilling the queen's tea tray.

Of all those awakening in the castle that day,

Only the king and queen knew that they too had been enchanted.

Once awake,

They hurried to see their daughter.

The last time they had seen the princess,

She was deep in a death-like sleep.

Now when they reached her chamber door,

They heard two excited voices and laughter coming from within.

Upon opening the door,

They were delighted to find their daughter dancing around the room with a handsome prince as she announced that the two of them were engaged to be married.

Overjoyed,

The king and queen proclaimed that the wedding feast would happen that very day.

The whole castle rejoiced,

Not only for the happy couple,

But for the feast as well.

After all,

It had been a hundred years since any of them had eaten,

And they had all grown quite hungry.

Already dressed in her most stunning gown,

The princess made a lovely bride.

After the vows were exchanged,

The party began.

The bride was indeed breathtaking,

And the groom obviously adored her,

And everyone agreed that they had never seen a happier couple.

As the feast continued,

Late into the night,

The prince did at times feel like he was stepping back in time.

The hundred-year-old music played by the court musicians sounded ancient,

And the conversations of many of the dinner guests were absolutely historic.

But none of that really mattered to the young couple.

To them,

Their love was the love of the century,

And the truly magical thing was,

They felt that way for the rest of their lives.

The End Okay,

My darling,

It's time for you to go to sleep.

You are so very loved,

And your heart is good.

I am glad to be here with you.

Sleep tight,

May your dreams be full of love and light.