Story Voice

Sleeping Beauty Story

Sleeping Beauty is a classic story from Grimms' Fairy Tales, for children aged 3–7. This page has the English story with a native English narration (about 2 min), plus the Chinese version with Mandarin narration (about 2 min). Free to read and listen, no sign-up.

A wise woman left out of the feast curses the baby princess, the twelfth softens it to a hundred years' sleep, and then come the spindle, the sleeping castle and the hedge of roses. The Grimm tale in simple English with narration, plus the Chinese version in Mandarin.

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Tap any sentence in the story to start reading from there. It stops at the end.

A narrator, and a voice of its own for each character: The king, The thirteenth wise woman, The twelfth wise woman, The princess, The prince

Record about a minute of your voice, and every story here can be read to your child in it. Credits come back automatically if it fails.

Read Sleeping Beauty

A king and queen had a baby princess. The king held a feast and asked the wise women to bless her. He had twelve golden plates, so one of the thirteen was left out.

The wise women gave the baby goodness, beauty and joy. Then the thirteenth stormed in. "At fifteen, she will prick her finger on a spindle and never wake!"

The twelfth still had her gift. "Not forever. She will sleep a hundred years, then wake." The king ordered, "Burn every spindle in the land!"

At fifteen, the princess found an old woman spinning in a tower. "What is that?" She touched the spindle and fell asleep. The whole castle slept, and roses grew around it.

A hundred years later, a prince came. "I am not afraid. I must see her." The roses opened for him. He found the princess and gently kissed her.

She opened her eyes. "You came. I waited so long." The castle woke, and the king yawned. They married and lived happily ever after.

The Chinese version: 睡美人

从前，国王和王后盼了很久，终于有了一个小公主。国王办了一场大宴会，请仙女们来送祝福。可是宫里只有十二个金盘子，十三位仙女只好少请一位。

仙女们一个接一个走到摇篮边，送上善良、美丽和快乐。忽然，大门砰的一声开了。没被请的仙女气冲冲地走进来：“公主十五岁那年，会被纺锤扎到手指，再也醒不来！”

幸好第十二位仙女还没送祝福，她轻声说：“公主不会一直睡下去。她会睡一百年，然后醒来。”国王马上下令：“把全国的纺锤都烧掉！”

公主十五岁那天，走进一座小塔楼，看见老奶奶在纺线。她好奇地问：“这是什么呀？”手一碰纺锤，就睡着了。整座城堡也跟着睡着了，连灶里的火都不跳了。城堡四周长起了高高的玫瑰花篱。

一百年过去了。一位王子骑马来到花篱前，大家都说花篱里有刺。王子说：“我不怕，我一定要见到她。”花篱自动分开，让出一条路。王子找到了沉睡的公主，轻轻亲了她一下。

公主睁开眼睛，笑着说：“你来啦，我等了好久。”城堡醒了，国王打着哈欠，马儿打着响鼻，火又跳了起来。王子和公主结了婚，幸福地过了一辈子。

Sleeping Beauty Story: the moral of the story

Even a cruel curse can be made lighter by one kind blessing, and even the longest sleep has a morning.

Chinese words in Sleeping Beauty

Play the Chinese narration and listen for these words. The pinyin shows the tones.

  • 公主gōng zhǔ

    princess

  • 仙女xiān nǚ

    fairy, wise woman

  • 祝福zhù fú

    blessing

  • 纺锤fǎng chuí

    spindle

  • 睡着shuì zháo

    to fall asleep

  • 城堡chéng bǎo

    castle

  • 玫瑰méi gui

    rose

  • 醒xǐng

    to wake up

For families learning Mandarin

Mandarin learning pack

Print the story, read it together, then listen and say it back. Made for heritage families and children learning Mandarin.

  • A printable PDF (3 pages): the Chinese story with pinyin over every character, the words to know, the English version, questions to talk about, and character writing practice.
  • Slow Mandarin audio (5 min): every sentence at a gentler pace, followed by a pause long enough to say it back.

Buy once, download again any time. The story itself stays free to read and hear. Try the free sample pack (The Tortoise and the Hare) first.

Page one of the Sleeping Beauty learning pack: the Chinese story with pinyin over every character

Bedtime storytelling tips

  • Give the thirteenth wise woman a cold, hard voice and the twelfth the softest voice you have. Children hear at once who is kind.
  • When the castle falls asleep, name each sleeper slowly and more quietly: the king, the queen, the horses, the dogs, the fire. It is a lovely way to send a child off.
  • Afterwards: the princess slept a hundred years, but you only need one night, and someone will come and wake you in the morning. In Chinese she is 睡美人 (shuì měi rén), the sleeping beauty.

Things to talk about afterwards

  • Why did the princess fall asleep?
  • What did the twelfth wise woman do so that the princess would not sleep forever?
  • If you slept for a hundred years, what would you want to see first?

Read this story to your child in your own voice

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Sleeping Beauty Story: common questions

What is the moral of Sleeping Beauty?
When something bad comes, someone can usually make it smaller. The thirteenth wise woman's curse was cruel, but one gentle blessing from the twelfth turned it into a hundred years' sleep. Even the longest night ends, and the one who is meant to come will come.
Is Sleeping Beauty a Grimm or a Perrault tale?
Both. Charles Perrault published The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood in 1697, and the Brothers Grimm printed their shorter German version, Dornröschen (Little Briar Rose), in 1812. The Grimm tale ends with the kiss and the wedding; Perrault's goes on with the prince's ogre mother. This retelling follows Grimm.
How is the Grimm Sleeping Beauty different from this retelling?
In Grimm the blessings come from thirteen wise women, and the thirteenth says the princess will die; here she says the princess will never wake, and the twelfth softens it to a hundred years' sleep. Grimm also has a frog foretell the princess's birth and many princes die in the thorn hedge; we leave those out, and the roses simply open for the right prince.
Is there a Chinese version of Sleeping Beauty?
Yes. It is called 睡美人 (shuì měi rén). This page has our Chinese retelling with Mandarin narration next to the English one.

Source and how we retold it

From the Brothers Grimm, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), no. 50, Dornröschen (Little Briar Rose), first published in 1812 and now in the public domain. The older French version is Charles Perrault's The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (1697), whose second half, about the prince's ogre mother, we leave out. Our retelling follows the Grimm plot. The thirteenth wise woman's curse, death in the original, becomes a sleep the princess will never wake from, which the twelfth softens to a hundred years; and we skip the frog's prophecy and the princes caught in the thorns.

The narration on this page is AI-generated: the English is read by our narrator and the Chinese by our narrator. The audio files are labeled as AI-generated.

If you liked Sleeping Beauty Story, there are more stories in Grimms' Fairy Tales. You can also read this one to your child in your own voice.

More Grimms' Fairy Tales