Wicked fairy godmother

The wicked fairy godmother, a rare figure in fairy tales, is nevertheless among the best-known figures from such tales because of her appearance in one of the most widely known tales, Sleeping Beauty, and in the ballet derived from it. Anonymous in her first appearance, she was later named in some variants Carabosse, and as Maleficent in Disney's animated version.

The oldest version of Sleeping Beauty that has been preserved is Sun, Moon, and Talia from Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone. This version does not feature any fairy godmothers; Talia's fate is prophesied, but Talia's fate is not caused by witchcraft.

Charles Perrault added the witch to his variant the story of Sleeping Beauty, "The Beauty in the Sleeping Wood" ("La Belle au bois dormant"), published in Histoires ou contes du temps passé 1697; he did not give her a name. The Brothers Grimm included a version, "Little Briar Rose", in their collected tales; similarly without a name; in Perrault's version, seven fairies were invited, and she is the eighth, and in the Grimms', twelve were invited and she is the thirteenth.

The figure of the witch appeared before Perrault's tale. The first known appearance was in the chanson de geste Les Prouesses et faitz du noble Huon de Bordeaux: the elf-king Oberon appears only dwarfish in height, and explains to Huon that an angry fairy cursed him to that size at his christening.Madame d'Aulnoy had them appear in her fairy tales The Hind in the Wood and The Princess Mayblossom; although their roles in her tales had significant differences from Sleeping Beauty, in The Princess Mayblossom, she receives the name of "Carabosse". At some point, this name was attached to the wicked fairy godmother in Sleeping Beauty; she appears as such in Marius Petipa's ballet Sleeping Beauty with music by Tchaikovsky.

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