Wicked fairy godmother

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Carabosse as envisaged by Leon Bakst

The wicked fairy godmother, a figure rare in fairy tales, is nevertheless among best-known figures from such tales, because of her appearance in one of the most widely known tales, Sleeping Beauty, and in the ballet derived from it. Anonymous in her first appearance, she was later named, in some variants, Carabosse, and in others Maleficent.

[edit] Origins

The oldest version of Sleeping Beauty that has been preserved is Sun, Moon, and Talia from Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone^[1]. This version does not feature any fairy godmothers; Talia's fate is prophesied, but is not caused by evil magic.

Charles Perrault added the wicked fairy to his variant the story of Sleeping Beauty, "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" ("La Belle au bois dormant"), dating from 1697,^[2]; he did not give her a name. The Brothers Grimm included a version, "Briar Rose"^[3], in their collected tales; their version included the wicked fairy godmother and her namelessness; the only difference relating to the wicked fairy is that in Perrault's version, seven fairies were invited, and she is the eighth, and in the Grimms', twelve were invited and so she is the thirteenth.

The figure of the wicked fairy godmother appeared before Perrault's tale. The first known appearance was in the chanson de geste Les Prouesses et faitz du noble Huon de Bordeaux: the elf-king Oberon appears only dwarfish in height, and explains to Huon that an angry fairy cursed him to that size at his christening. ^[4] Madame d'Aulnoy had them appear in her fairy tales The Hind in the Wood^[5] and The Princess Mayblossom ^[6]; although their roles in her tales had significant differences from Sleeping Beauty, in The Princess Mayblossom, she receives the name of "Carabosse". At some point, this name was attached to the wicked fairy godmother in Sleeping Beauty; she appears as such in Tchaikovsky's ballet of Sleeping Beauty.

[edit] Role in the tale

Illustration to Sleeping Beauty, by Gustave Doré: the princess about to prick her finger and fulfill the wicked fairy godmother's curse.

In Sleeping Beauty, the wicked fairy comes uninvited to the princess and declares that "because you did not invite me, I tell you that in her fifteenth year, your daughter will prick herself with a spindle and fall over dead."^[7] A good fairy mitigates the curse it so that the princess will only fall into a deep sleep, and the king attempts to protect her by removing all spindles.

On the princess's fifteenth birthday, the princess meets a spinning woman, pricks her finger on the bodkin and falls into a deep sleep. In the oldest variants, the old woman is merely ignorant and means no harm, but in some variants, such as Tchaikovsky's, the spinning woman is Carabosse herself, ensuring her curse.^[8]

[edit] In modern media

[edit] Ballet

In Tchaikovsky's ballet of Sleeping Beauty, Carabosse was portrayed as a frightening figure, entering each time to forbidding and dramatic music. Carabosse's role in the story enjoyed a spectacular rendition with the ballet "The Sleeping Princess" in 1921, produced by Sergei Diaghilev, employing the original choreography by Marius Petipa as it was painstakingly recalled by several of its dancers, all now emigrés. Carabosse's costumes were designed by Leon Bakst; her medieval-inspired costume gave her the silhouette of a rat.^[9]

[edit] Revisionist

The common knowledge of the wicked fairy godmother has made the figure an obvious target for revisionist fairy tales. The wicked fairy godmother is widely spoofed and parodied. In Andrew Lang's Prince Prigio, the queen, who does not believe in fairies, does not invite them; the fairies come anyway and give good gifts, except for the last one, who says that he shall be "too clever" -- and the problems with such a gift are only revealed later. In George MacDonald's Little Daylight, the evil swamp-fairy, arriving uninvited, tries to continue her curse, claiming that the fairy who had mitigated hers had broken in when she was not done, but the fairies had wisely kept two fairies from giving their gifts until she had come, and the second one was able to mitigate the curse she added. In Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, a princess lamented that she wasn't cursed at her christening, because the fairy danced with her uncle and enjoyed herself instead of getting angry.

[edit] Disney

In the Disney animated version of Sleeping Beauty the character of Carabosse is personified in Maleficent, a dark sinister being who is the "Mistress of all Evil". She lays a curse on the princess (called Aurora here) and the faeries are forced to take the princess away to protect her. Maleficent's monstrous minions hunt for Aurora in years to come and on her sixteenth birthday Aurora returns to the palace and pricks her finger on the spinning wheel that is actually the evil faerie in disguise. When she learns that Prince Phillip is in love with the princess, she captures him so he will be ancient when he can finally free Aurora. When the good fairies help him escape, Maleficent takes over the entire palace and later transforms into a giant European dragon to do battle with the hero, Prince Phillip who defeats the evil villainess with his Sword of Truth and casts her into a fiery pit before rescuing the princess.

[edit] Analysis

Some folklorists have analyzed Sleeping Beauty as indicating the replacement of the lunar year (with its thirteen months, symbolically depicted by the full thirteen fairies) by the solar year (which has twelve, symbolically the invited fairies). This, however, founders on the issue that only in the Grimms' tale is the wicked fairy the thirteenth fairy; in Perrault's, she is the eighth.^[10]

The legend of a bad fairy spinning coupled with the advent of death can also be found in the Slavic myths of Kikimora.^{[citation needed]}

The character of Carabosse was probably inspired by Eris the Goddess of Chaos in the Iliad.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References