Welcome to the final day of The Horror of Fairytales Week here at White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. For today’s Halloween post, I have saved the best for last, and by best, I mean the most horrific. We will be looking at the ultimate horror fairytale, The Sun, the Moon, and Talia, which is the oldest version of Sleeping Beauty, my favorite fairytale! This tale was written by the famous Italian fairytale author Giambattista Basile. I want to note that this story is very dark and has many horrific themes, so read with caution!
This tale begins much the same way as the more well-known version of the Sleeping Beauty story, with the birth of a beautiful young girl named Talia, who is the daughter of a great Lord. Upon her birth, her father had asked all of the great seers and oracles of the land to divine the future of his beloved daughter. This is how a tragic prophecy of her life revealed that she would be at great peril from a stalk of flax. The Lord sought to prevent any harm that could befall Talia, so he had all the flax, hemp, and other such plants used for weaving brought to him so that he could protect his daughter. As is typical in this type of story, when Talia was a young woman, she discovered a woman spinning flax one day and was fascinated, as she had never seen it before. It was then that a stalk of flax broke off, and a piece of flax got embedded beneath Talia’s fingernail!
The girl fell into a deep, death-like sleep. Her father believed her to be dead, and he was utterly heartbroken, deciding to make the castle a tomb for Talia. Having her laid upon a bed, the Lord left the castle, not wanting to be reminded of his daughter’s tragedy. This is the circumstance Talia remained in when, sometime later, a King from another land happened upon the castle, and this is where the horror truly begins.
The King decided to explore this castle and found the beautiful Talia sleeping so deeply it seemed ordained by enchantment. He attempted to wake her several times, but when he could not, he began to have urges. Seeing that he could not wake her, the King still decided to act on his urges, having sex with the woman in the enchanted sleep. So yes, this King chose to rape Talia, who was in a death-like sleep, so we can also question whether he would have performed necrophilia had she been dead! I did warn you this was a dark story. Now, this King not only slept with Talia when she was unconscious, he also got her pregnant!
Nine months later, Talia gave birth to twins while still in her slumber, with the aid of two faeries who had come to her castle, seemingly knowing she needed help. The faeries taught the twin babies to breastfeed, and that is what led to Talia’s awakening. You see, one of the babies accidentally ended up suckling on Talia’s finger when searching for her breast, and the baby sucked the flax right out from beneath her finger. That is what caused her to awaken! Talia found herself alone in the castle with the two babies and, not knowing what had happened, began to care for the children. Their needs were abundantly met in the castle by unseen hands, those of the faeries that had been helping the babies!
One day, the King remembered the lovely young woman in her enchanted sleep and decided to go visit her again. To his surprise and delight, he found her awake with two small and beautiful children! He explained to her what had happened and that she had born him these two children, who they named Sun and Moon (hence the title of the tale). The King delightedly spent several days at the castle, and he and Talia grew ever closer. Seeing that he was a King, he had to return to his own Kingdom soon enough.
That is when the King’s wife began suspecting that something was off. Yes, you read that right, this King was married! His wife realized something was wrong as he could not stop muttering ‘the Sun, the Moon, Talia’ over and over. The wife found out the truth of the King’s infidelity and had the children sent for. The King’s wife then ordered the cook to kill the children, cook them, and feed them to the King!
Luckily, the cook had a good heart and could not commit the atrocity that was asked of him, so he hid the children and served the King regular meat. The King’s wife was still irate, even though she believed the children were dead, so she had Talia sent for. When Talia arrived, the wife immediately attacked her verbally for being her husband’s mistress. She intended to have Talia be burned alive, but Talia thought quickly, asking to remove her clothes. This act of undressing bought enough time to have the King return and find out what was happening. Talia was saved, and the King’s wife was burned alive in the fire she had lit to kill Talia!
At that point, the cook came forward to explain what had happened with the children. The King was grateful and rewarded the cook for saving his children. Then, the story ended with Talia marrying the King and living a long life with her husband and children. So, clearly, this is supposed to be a happy ending for Talia. However, I have a hard time thinking of marrying a King who had raped you as being a happy end, but at least she survived, and so did her children.
In my opinion, both the King and his first wife are horrific villains in this story. The terror of the tale is largely built on entitlement, thinking you are owed something because of your standing, as the King thought he was owed Talia’s body and her children. The King’s wife thought she was owed revenge for Talia bedding her husband. She was willing to commit atrocities like child murder and cannibalism in the name of vengeance but was thankfully thwarted. At the end of the day, Talia and the children deserved so much better than the lot in life they were granted!
I hope you have enjoyed this retelling and examination of Basile’s The Sun, the Moon, and Talia. Do you agree that this is the most horrific of all fairytales? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is an illustration of the King finding Talia. I found the picture on https://www.fairytalenight.com/2017/06/18/sun-moon-and-talia-stories-from-pentamerone-1637-by-giambattista-basile/.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: https://patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Further Reading
- The Sun, the Moon, and Talia by Giambattista Basile
- https://surlalunefairytales.com/s-z/sleeping-beauty/stories/sunmoontalia.html#top(This site has a retelling of the story that is short and sweet.)