Sun, Moon, and Talia

Spin some flax? What could possibly go wrong?

We've covered the story of Sleeping Beauty already on this blog.  Today, I thought we could look at a variant, called Sun, Moon, and Talia. You can find it here. It's just a little different.

Firstly, it is interesting to me that even though the cause of the death-like sleep is now flax instead of a spindle, the vehicle is still the same. I wonder why spinning was such a terrible thing. The difference is very important because Talia didn't need a kiss to wake her; she needed the flax removed. This allowed the king to come into the house and rape her without her waking up. At least she's happy about her twin babies whom she doesn't remember making.

Honestly, the king is a slimeball. Not only does he rape this girl, but then he promises to bring her and their children to his kingdom. Which he never does. It works to his advantage to leave Talia, Sun, and Moon in their secluded castle where no one will know about them, and rule the kingdom with his wife. It doesn't seem like Talia even knows he's married. She also doesn't seem to mind that he slept with her when she wasn't awake to consent. That's either got to be his delivery or her not knowing that's wrong.

We also have the king's current wife, the queen. The story makes us dislike her as soon as she's introduced. At first, she does nothing wrong. She just wants to know if her husband was cheating on her, which turns out to be a valid concern. Her actions after that are less than stellar. Who even thinks about cooking up babies and feeding them to their father? Besides the stepmother in The Juniper Tree, I mean.

At the end, everything works out well for Talia. Or, as well as it can. I have trouble with the moral written as part of this story. Talia did not get good fortune in her sleep. The real moral of this story is that if you're leaving someone alone and they're passed out, you'd better be sure they're safe. Perhaps if she'd had a hedge of briars...

Do you have a folk tale you'd like me to talk about? Leave a comment below!