Sun, Moon, and Talia

Sun, Moon, and Talia (Sole, Luna, e Talia) is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. Charles Perrault retold this fairy tale in 1697 as The Sleeping Beauty and also the Brothers Grimm in 1812 as Little Briar Rose.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 410; other tales of this type include The Glass Coffin and The Young Slave.

After the birth of a great lord's daughter named Talia, wise men and astrologers cast the child's horoscope and told the lord that Talia would be later endangered by a splinter of flax. To protect his daughter, the father commands that no flax would ever be brought into his house. Years later, Talia sees an old woman spinning flax on a spindle. She asks the woman if she can stretch the flax herself, but as soon as she begins to spin, a splinter of flax goes under her fingernail, and she drops to the ground, apparently dead. Unable to stand the thought of burying his child, Talia's father, the lord, puts his daughter Talia in one of his country estates.

Some time later, a king, hunting in nearby woods, follows his falcon into the house. He finds Talia, overcome by her beauty, he tries unsuccessfully to wake her, and then "Crying aloud, he beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love." Afterwards, he leaves the girl on the bed and returns to his own city. Still deep in sleep, she gives birth to twins (a boy and a girl). One day, the girl cannot find her mother's breast; and instead she begins to suck on Talia's finger and draws the flax splinter out. Talia awakens immediately. She names them "Sun" and "Moon" and lives with them in the house.

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