Rapunzel

RAPUNZEL

Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife who were very unhappy

because they had no children. These good people had a little window at

the back of their house, which looked into the most lovely garden, full

of all manner of beautiful flowers and vegetables; but the garden was

surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to enter it, for it

belonged to a witch of great power, who was feared by the whole world.

One day the woman stood at the window overlooking the garden, and saw

there a bed full of the finest rampion: the leaves looked so fresh and

green that she longed to eat them. The desire grew day by day, and just

because she knew she couldn’t possibly get any, she pined away and

became quite pale and wretched. Then her husband grew alarmed and said:

‘What ails you, dear wife?’

‘Oh,’ she answered, ‘if I don’t get some rampion to eat out of the

garden behind the house, I know I shall die.’

The man, who loved her dearly, thought to himself, ‘Come! rather than

let your wife die you shall fetch her some rampion, no matter the

cost.’ So at dusk he climbed over the wall into the witch’s garden,

and, hastily gathering a handful of rampion leaves, he returned with

them to his wife. She made them into a salad, which tasted so good that

her longing for the forbidden food was greater than ever. If she were

to know any peace of mind, there was nothing for it but that her

husband should climb over the garden wall again, and fetch her some

more. So at dusk over he got, but when he reached the other side he

drew back in terror, for there, standing before him, was the old witch.

‘How dare you,’ she said, with a wrathful glance, ‘climb into my garden

and steal my rampion like a common thief? You shall suffer for your

foolhardiness.’

‘Oh!’ he implored, ‘pardon my presumption; necessity alone drove me to

the deed. My wife saw your rampion from her window, and conceived such

a desire for it that she would certainly have died if her wish had not

been gratified.’ Then the Witch’s anger was a little appeased, and she

said:

‘If it’s as you say, you may take as much rampion away with you as you

like, but on one condition only—that you give me the child your wife

will shortly bring into the world. All shall go well with it, and I

will look after it like a mother.’

The man in his terror agreed to everything she asked, and as soon as

the child was born the Witch appeared, and having given it the name of

Rapunzel, which is the same as rampion, she carried it off with her.

Rapunzel was 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

great wood, and the tower had neither stairs nor doors, only high up at

the very top a small window. When the old Witch wanted to get in she

stood underneath and called out:

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel,

Let down your golden hair,’

for Rapunzel had wonderful long hair, and it was as fine as spun gold.

Whenever she heard the Witch’s voice she unloosed her plaits, and let

her hair fall down out of the window about twenty yards below, and the

old Witch climbed up by it.

After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day

that a Prince was riding through the wood and passed by the tower. As

he drew near it he heard someone singing so sweetly that he stood still

spell-bound, and listened. It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to

while away the time by letting her sweet voice ring out into the wood.

The Prince longed to see the owner of the voice, but he sought in vain

for a door in the tower. He rode home, but he was so haunted by the

song he had heard that he returned every day to the wood and listened.

One day, when he was standing thus behind a tree, he saw the old Witch

approach and heard her call out:

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel,

Let down your golden hair.’

Then Rapunzel let down her plaits, and the Witch climbed up by them.

‘So that’s the staircase, is it?’ said the Prince. ‘Then I too will

climb it and try my luck.’

So on the following day, at dusk, he went to the foot of the tower and

cried:

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel,

Let down your golden hair,’

and as soon as she had let it down the Prince climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man came in, for she

had never seen one before; but the Prince spoke to her so kindly, and

told her at once that his heart had been so touched by her singing,

that he felt he should know no peace of mind till he had seen her. Very

soon Rapunzel forgot her fear, and when he asked her to marry him she

consented at once. ‘For,’ she thought, ‘he is young and handsome, and

I’ll certainly be happier with him than with the old Witch.’ So she put

her hand in his and said:

‘Yes, I will gladly go with you, only how am I to get down out of the

tower? Every time you come to see me you must bring a skein of silk

with you, and I will make a ladder of them, and when it is finished I

will climb down by it, and you will take me away on your horse.’

They arranged that till the ladder was ready, he was to come to her

every evening, because the old woman was with her during the day. The

old Witch, of course, knew nothing of what was going on, till one day

Rapunzel, not thinking of what she was about, turned to the Witch and

said:

‘How is it, good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than

the young Prince? He is always with me in a moment.’

‘Oh! you wicked child,’ cried the Witch. ‘What is this I hear? I

thought I had hidden you safely from the whole world, and in spite of

it you have managed to deceive me.’

In her wrath she seized Rapunzel’s beautiful hair, wound it round and

round her left hand, and then grasping a pair of scissors in her right,

snip snap, off it came, and the beautiful plaits lay on the ground.

And, worse than this, she was so hard-hearted that she took Rapunzel to

a lonely desert place, and there left her to live in loneliness and

misery.

But on the evening of the day in which she had driven poor Rapunzel

away, the Witch fastened the plaits on to a hook in the window, and

when the Prince came and called out:

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel,

Let down your golden hair,’

she let them down, and the Prince climbed up as usual, but instead of

his beloved Rapunzel he found the old Witch, who fixed her evil,

glittering eyes on him, and cried mockingly:

‘Ah, ah! you thought to find your lady love, but the pretty bird has

flown and its song is dumb; the cat caught it, and will scratch out

your eyes too. Rapunzel is lost to you for ever—you will never see her

more.’

The Prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped

right down from the tower, and, though he escaped with his life, the

thorns among which he fell pierced his eyes out. Then he wandered,

blind and miserable, through the wood, eating nothing but roots and

berries, and weeping and lamenting the loss of his lovely bride. So he

wandered about for some years, as wretched and unhappy as he could well

be, and at last he came to the desert place where Rapunzel was living.

Of a sudden he heard a voice which seemed strangely familiar to him. He

walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when he was quite

close, Rapunzel recognised him and fell on his neck and wept. But two

of her tears touched his eyes, and in a moment they became quite clear

again, and he saw as well as he had ever done. Then he led her to his

kingdom, where they were received and welcomed with great joy, and they

lived happily ever after.[23]

[23] Grimm.