Wood is a magic word that makes one think of so many things: the animals that inhabit it, the trees that grow there, but especially the world of fairy tales .
The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods has undergone over the years, as fairy tales , legends and myths, different versions, one more beautiful than the other . All people, in all places of the earth, are interested in the forest , its wildlife and all that revolves around. Everyone gave their own version and interpretation .
In one of the oldest versions everything revolves around the story of the witch Brunhilde , the heroine of the Volsunghi saga ( which is part of the myth of Siegfried ), but there are also versions even more remote that date back to the times of Greeks and Trojans: the starring is Princess Zellandine who is in love with Troylus. In this version young princess’s father put him to the test to see if he is worthy of his daughter , and as soon as he left , Zellandine falls into an enchanted sleep . On his return , Troylus found her asleep and gets her pregnant. When the baby is born, he awakens her mother by removing the linen thread that caused her sleep. So there is the happy ending of Troylus marrying Zellandine .
In Pentamerone the sleep is not the result of a spell but a prophecy ; the prince doesn’t kiss the princess but he rapes her, and is one of two children resulting from the sexual violence to awaken her.
A more recent version is titled “Sleeping Beauty”, appears in the Kinder-und Hausmarchen (1812 ) written by the brothers Grimm. In the first part it is partially similar to the version of Perrault.
Concerning the italian writers, Italo Calvino wrote his interpretation of the fairy tales of the wood in the collection " Fiabe italiane ."
Yet in the wood are set tales of Little Red Cap passing through it to go to his grandmother; Tom Thumb, that the evil stepmother wants to abandon. Fairy for all seasons that allow us to dream, as in Pretty Woman, detaching ourselves from the real world where good things don’t always happen as in fairy tales