The Heavenly Wedding

A poor woman bears a child, and at his baptism, thirteen wise women are invited to bestow gifts as was the custom. The first twelve pronounce blessings of virtue, beauty, and wisdom. The thirteenth, angry at not being invited, curses the child: at age fifteen, he shall prick his finger on a spindle and fall into a sleep like death. The king, determined to save his son, orders all spindles destroyed throughout the kingdom. Years pass, and on the boy's fifteenth birthday, he discovers an old woman in a tower spinning thread on a forbidden spindle. Curious, he pricks his finger and immediately falls into an enchanted sleep. Through the kingdom, a deep sorrow falls. But one of the good fairies, unable to break the curse entirely, softens it: the boy shall not sleep eternally, but awaken when he is kissed by true love. A princess from a distant land eventually finds him in his slumber. Moved by his beauty and innocence, she kisses his forehead. The boy awakens, and the two recognize in each other a perfection that transcends earthly beauty—a union blessed by heaven itself.