The Sleeper and the Spindle

The spindle is a central object within the narrative, even giving its name to the book’s title. While not commonly in use in the modern day, spindles were easily recognizable in centuries past when the original Sleeping Beauty tale was told. Spindles are used in the practice of spinning sheep’s wool into thread, either on a spinning wheel (another classic fairy tale motif) or by hand. In this instance, the spindle also functions as a catalyst for the sleeper’s magic.

Throughout the narrative, Riddell uses the spindle as a decorative motif that doesn’t truly make an appearance in the text until halfway through the book on Page 38: “The spindle sat on the ground, beside the stool, where it had fallen seventy years before.” In its first iteration, the story treats the spindle as a weapon; the old woman wishes to use it to harm the sleeper (an event that ultimately comes to pass at the story’s climax). Later, when the queen discovers it discarded and announces that it “smells of magic” (52), the spindle is illustrated with a skull adornment (which was obscured at its first appearance), hinting at its non-domestic use. Through the sleeper’s story, the book reveals that the spindle acted as the catalyst for the dark magic that put the enchantress into a magical sleep and gave her power over the kingdom. When the old woman reclaims it, she recognizes the spun yarn as the thread of her life—an image that subtly alludes to other world myths, such as the Greek morai. She then uses it to injure the sleeper, despite the sleeper’s protestation that “no weapon can harm [her]” (62). In doing so, she reverses the magic by passing her life force backwards through the thread. Finally, the queen destroys the spindle during the first stage of her new journey, a symbolic reclamation of control over her life and choices.

Spindles and spinning wheels feature widely in traditional fairy tales and folkloric stories, largely because these stories were shared by women in domestic roles. They acted as a familiar point of reference in an unfamiliar world and showed the magic inherent in the everyday. In this story, the motif is inverted to become something deadly, entrapping, and ultimately something liberating.