Rapunzel

Once upon a time there was a husband and wife who had long wished for a child. At last the woman began to hope that God would grant their wish. At the back of their house there was a little window from which a splendid garden full of the most beautiful flowers and vegetables could be seen. But the garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it, because it belonged to a witch who had great powers and was feared by everyone.

One day the woman was standing at the window looking down into the garden when she saw a bed planted with the finest rapunzel, a kind of wild lettuce. It looked so fresh and green that she longed to eat some. This longing grew every day. Because she knew she could not have any, she grew pale and thin and looked miserable. Her husband was alarmed and asked: "What is wrong, dear wife?" "Oh," she said, "if I can't eat some of that rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall die."

Her husband loved her very much. "Rather than let my wife die, I'll get her some of that rapunzel, whatever it costs," he thought. At dusk he climbed over the wall into the witch's garden, hastily snatched a handful of rapunzel and brought it to his wife. She immediately made a salad and ate it eagerly. But she liked it so much that the next day her longing was three times as strong. Her husband saw that she would have no peace, so at dusk he went down into the garden once more.

But when he climbed down the wall, he was terrified to see the witch standing in front of him. Glaring angrily, she said, "How dare you climb into my garden like a thief and steal my rapunzel? You shall pay for this!" The man begged: "Oh, have mercy! I did it out of need. My wife saw your rapunzel from the window and longed for it so much that she would die if she couldn't have it." The witch's anger softened a little: "If it is as you say, I will let you take as much rapunzel as you like. But on one condition: you must give me the child your wife will bear. I will look after it well and care for it like a mother." In his fear the man agreed to everything.

When the woman gave birth, the witch appeared at once, named the girl Rapunzel and took her away. Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the witch shut her up in a tower in the middle of a forest; the tower had neither stairs nor door. Right at the top there was only a little window. When the witch wanted to go in, she stood at the foot of the tower and called: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me!"

Rapunzel had long, beautiful hair, as fine as spun gold. When she heard the witch's voice, she unfastened her braids, wound them around a hook on the window, and let her hair fall twenty ells down. And the witch climbed up by it.

A few years later, the king's son was riding through the forest and passed by the tower. He heard a song so lovely that he stopped to listen. It was Rapunzel, who passed the time in her loneliness by singing in her sweet voice. The prince wanted to climb up to her and looked for a door to the tower, but there was none. He rode home, but the singing had touched his heart so deeply that every day he went out into the forest to listen.

One day, as he was standing behind a tree, he saw the witch come and heard her call: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me!" Rapunzel let down her hair, and the witch climbed up. "If that is the ladder to go up, I'll try my luck too," thought the prince. The next day, as it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and called: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me!" At once the hair came down, and the prince climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was very frightened when the prince came in, for she had never seen a man before. But the prince spoke to her very kindly and told her that her singing had moved his heart so much that he could not rest until he had seen her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear. When he asked her, "Will you marry me?", she saw that he was young and handsome, and she thought, "He will love me more than old Mother Gothel does," and said yes, and put her hand in his. "I would gladly go with you, but I don't know how to get down. Every time you come, bring a skein of silk with you, and I'll weave a ladder from it. When it's finished, I'll climb down, and you can take me away on your horse." They agreed that he would come every evening, because the old witch came during the day.

The witch noticed nothing, until one day Rapunzel, without thinking, said to her: "Tell me, Mother Gothel, why is it so much harder for me to pull you up than the young prince, who is up here with me in a moment?" "Oh, you wicked child!" cried the witch. "What do I hear? I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!" In her fury she seized Rapunzel's beautiful hair, wrapped it a few times round her left hand, grabbed a pair of scissors with her right, and snip, snap, the hair was cut off. The beautiful braids lay on the floor. Then the witch, without pity, took Rapunzel to a desert wasteland, where she had to live in great hardship and misery.

On the evening of the day she had sent Rapunzel away, the witch fastened the braids she had cut off to the hook on the window. When the prince came and called, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me!", she let the hair down. The prince climbed up, but instead of his dear Rapunzel he found the witch, glaring at him with angry, wicked eyes. "Aha!" she mocked. "You've come to fetch your darling, but the lovely bird is no longer in her nest and sings no more. The cat has taken her, and now it will scratch out your eyes too. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again."

The prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns he fell into pierced his eyes, and he was blinded. Unable to see, he wandered about the forest, living on roots and berries, and did nothing but weep and grieve for the loss of his dear wife.

So he wandered in misery for some years and at last came to the wasteland where Rapunzel lived in poverty with the twins she had borne, a boy and a girl. He heard a voice, and it seemed very familiar. He walked towards it. As he came closer, Rapunzel recognised him, threw her arms around his neck and wept. Two of her tears fell into his eyes. His eyes were healed, and he could see as well as before.

The prince took Rapunzel and the children to his kingdom, where they were welcomed with joy, and they lived happily and contentedly for many long years. And Rapunzel's hair grew long again; but now it no longer hung from a tower window, but waved in the wind in the sunny garden where her children played.