Having spent most of my life studying people who either sleep too little or too much, I was naturally intrigued by the title of 'The sleeper and the spindle'. In it, a young queen learns that in the neighboring kingdom there is a kind of sleeping sickness, which is rapidly expanding and will soon threaten her own territory. Though on the threshold of a wedding about which she has mixed feelings, she dons her armor, and escorted by three dwarves (the first hint that she herself was once Snow White, long-since awakened) travels to the other kingdom in search of an enchanted castle surrounded by thorns. There she finds a beautiful young woman in an endless sleep, whom she awakens with a kiss. Now the story takes another twist: the awakened beauty turns out not to be an innocent victim, but rather (without giving too much away) is a malevolent figure, who ultimately gets her just comeuppance. The queen, having saved her kingdom from the sleeping sickness, makes some decisions of her own. Instead of returning to marry her handsome prince, she rides off with the dwarf sidekicks, in search of new adventures.
Gaimon, then, has woven together two fairy tales, 'Snow White' and 'Sleeping Beauty'. Both in their original forms portray beautiful young women who are passively asleep, awaiting a man's kiss to save them. In his telling, Snow White grows into a capable, active figure who can conquer castles and save others with her own kiss, before riding off to explore the world. Even more interesting to me is the sleeping beauty, who in my Disneyfied view was always such a sweet innocent victim, who turns out to be something else entirely. I realize there is a large scholarly literature on the dark side of fairy tales, but what a great reminder that Gaimon has given us that things are not always what they seem.
