In the Grimm's version of the story, a king and a queen hold a great feast to celebrate the birth of their one and only child, a baby girl. In hopes that they will bestow blessings upon her daughter, the queen insists the thirteen fairies be invited to the event. The king, however, finds himself ill-prepared. In his set of gold plates there are only twelve, and so one of the fairies is cut from the guest list. But the overlooked fairy makes an appearance at the party regardless, and for the parents' slight she curses the daughter, that on her fifteenth birthday she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. It is only by the grace of the twelfth of the good fairies that the curse is altered, so that Briar Rose falls into a deep slumber for a hundred years, only to be awakened by the kiss of (who else?) a prince. It is a familiar tale.
