Rapunzel

There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a
child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her
desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house
from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most
beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high
wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an
enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One
day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the
garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful
rampion (rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longed
for it, and had the greatest desire to eat some. This desire increased
every day, and as she knew that she could not get any of it, she quite
pined away, and looked pale and miserable. Then her husband was
alarmed, and asked, "What aileth thee, dear wife?" "Ah," she replied,
"if I can't get some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our
house, to eat, I shall die." The man, who loved her, thought, "Sooner
than let thy wife die, bring her some of the rampion thyself, let it
cost thee what it will." In the twilight of the evening, he clambered
down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched
a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself
a salad of it, and ate it with much relish. She, however, liked it so
much--so very much, that the next day she longed for it three times as
much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more
descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening, therefore, he let
himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was
terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him. "How
canst thou dare," said she with angry look, "to descend into my garden
and steal my rampion like a thief? Thou shalt suffer for it!" "Ah,"
answered he, "let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my
mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the
window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she
had not got some to eat." Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be
softened, and said to him, "If the case be as thou sayest, I will allow
thee to take away with thee as much rampion as thou wilt, only I make
one condition, thou must give me the child which thy wife will bring
into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a
mother." The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the
woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the
child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child beneath the sun. When she
was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay
in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was
a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed
herself beneath it and cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down thy hair to me."


Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she
heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses,
wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the
hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.

After a year or two, it came to pass that the King's son rode through
the forest and went by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so
charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in
her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The
King's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the
tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so
deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest
and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he
saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down thy hair."


Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress
climbed up to her. "If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I will
for once try my fortune," said he, and the next day when it began to
grow dark, he went to the tower and cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down thy hair."


Immediately the hair fell down and the King's son climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man such as her eyes
had never yet beheld, came to her; but the King's son began to talk to
her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so
stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see
her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would
take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome,
she thought, "He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does;" and she
said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said, "I will willingly go away
with thee, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with thee a skein
of silk every time that thou comest, and I will weave a ladder with it,
and when that is ready I will descend, and thou wilt take me on thy
horse." They agreed that until that time he should come to her every
evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked
nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her, "Tell me, Dame
Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up
than the young King's son--he is with me in a moment." "Ah! thou wicked
child," cried the enchantress "What do I hear thee say! I thought I had
separated thee from all the world, and yet thou hast deceived me." In
her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice
round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and
snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground.
And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where
she had to live in great grief and misery.

On the same day, however, that she cast out Rapunzel, the enchantress
in the evening fastened the braids of hair which she had cut off, to
the hook of the window, and when the King's son came and cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down thy hair,"


she let the hair down. The King's son ascended, but he did not find his
dearest Rapunzel above, but the enchantress, who gazed at him with
wicked and venomous looks. "Aha!" she cried mockingly, "Thou wouldst
fetch thy dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the
nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out thy eyes as well.
Rapunzel is lost to thee; thou wilt never see her more." The King's son
was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the
tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell,
pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate
nothing but roots and berries, and did nothing but lament and weep over
the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some
years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins
to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness.
He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards
it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and
wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and
he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he
was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy
and contented.
