Briar Rose | Literary Precedents

Briar Rose Literary Precedents

Briar Rose is a blend of traditional and modern elements in literature. It has antecedents in classical fairy-tale tradition, in the nineteenth-century works of the Brothers Grimm and the twentieth-century tales of fantasy by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Like earlier tales, the novel relies upon such conventions as a magical spell, a curse, a quest, a strange land, a heroic confrontation with the forces of evil. The novel has its basis specifically in the German tale Briar Rose, also known by the title of Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.

What sets the novel apart from tradition is the adaptation of the tale. Briar Rose is the sixth novel in the Fairy Tale Series edited by Terri Windling. According to Windling's introduction, the series shows "the diverse uses a modern story-teller can make of traditional material." The underlying concept is historical development in the fairy-tale...
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