In the earliest known version of Sleeping Beauty, in the fourteenth-century prose romance Perceforest, the prince (against his better judgment, to be sure!) actually rapes the sleeping maiden, then departs. In due time, still sound asleep, she gives birth, and it is one of her twins, sucking on her finger, who extracts the flax splinter which had cast her into the enchanted slumber.
In the earliest known version of Sleeping Beauty, in the fourteenth-century prose romance Perceforest, the prince (against his better judgment, to be sure!) actually rapes the sleeping maiden, then departs. In due time, still sound asleep, she gives birth, and it is one of her twins, sucking on her finger, who extracts the flax splinter which had cast her into the enchanted slumber.