Rapunzel

Part One · The Garden Wall

Once upon a time, a man and his wife lived in a little house and longed for a child. At the back of their house was a tiny window that looked down into a wonderful garden, full of flowers and vegetables. But nobody dared to go into that garden, because it was surrounded by a high stone wall, and it belonged to a powerful enchantress whom everyone in the land feared.

One day, the wife stood at the window and saw a bed of rapunzel, a kind of leafy green salad. It looked so fresh and crisp that she longed to taste it. Day after day she wanted it more, until she grew pale and miserable. "If I cannot have some of that rapunzel," she sighed, "I don't know what will become of me." Her husband loved her dearly, so he decided to get some for her, whatever it cost.

At twilight, he climbed over the high wall into the enchantress's garden, quickly grabbed a handful of rapunzel and climbed back. His wife made a salad and gobbled it up. It tasted so delicious that the next day she wanted three times as much. So at twilight the man climbed the wall again. But as he dropped down into the garden, he froze with terror. The enchantress was standing right in front of him.

"How dare you climb into my garden like a thief and steal my rapunzel!" she said with an angry look. "You will be sorry for this." "Please have mercy," begged the man. "My wife saw your rapunzel from our window, and she wanted it so badly that she was growing ill." The enchantress calmed down a little. "Then take as much as you like," she said, "but only on one condition."

"When your wife has a baby, you must give the child to me, and I will care for it like a mother." The man was so frightened that he agreed. When a baby girl was born, the enchantress appeared at once. She named the child Rapunzel, after the salad, and carried her away. Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun, and her golden hair grew longer and longer every year.

Part Two · The Tower

When Rapunzel was twelve years old, the enchantress locked her in a tall tower deep in the forest. The tower had no stairs and no door, only one little window right at the very top. No one could get in or out. Rapunzel had wonderful long hair, as fine as spun gold. Whenever the enchantress wanted to come in, she stood at the bottom of the tower. Then she called up in a high, sharp voice.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" Then Rapunzel unpinned her long braids, wound them around a hook beside the window and let them fall all the way to the ground, twenty arm-lengths below. And the enchantress climbed up her hair as if it were a rope. Year after year it went on like this. Rapunzel was lonely, so to pass the time she sang to the birds that came to her window.

One day, a king's son was riding through the forest when he heard someone singing. The song was so lovely that he stopped and listened. He rode all around the tower, looking for a door, but there was none. He rode home, but the song had touched his heart so deeply that he came back to the forest every day to listen. One day, while he was hiding behind a tree, he saw the enchantress arrive.

He heard her call out, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" and he watched her climb up the golden braids. "So that is the ladder," he thought. "Then I will try my luck too." The next evening, when it was growing dark, he went to the tower and called, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" The hair tumbled down at once, and the prince climbed up. His heart was beating fast.

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened, because she had never seen a stranger before. But the prince spoke to her kindly. He told her how her singing had touched his heart, and soon she was no longer afraid. He came to visit every evening. They talked and laughed, and he told her all about the world. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, and together they planned how she could escape.

"Bring a skein of silk every time you come," said Rapunzel, "and I will weave a ladder. When it is long enough, I will climb down, and you can take me away on your horse." The enchantress knew nothing about it. She came by day, and he came by night. But one day Rapunzel forgot herself. "Tell me," she said to the enchantress, "why are you so much heavier to pull up than the young prince?"

Part Three · The Wilderness

"Oh, you wicked child!" cried the enchantress. "I thought I had kept you away from the whole world, and you have tricked me!" In her fury, she grabbed Rapunzel's beautiful braids, took a pair of scissors and snip, snap, they were cut off. Then she took poor Rapunzel far away to a lonely wilderness. She left her there to live as best she could, in a little hut all by herself.

That evening, the enchantress went back to the tower. She tied the cut braids to the hook at the window and waited. When the prince came and called, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair," she let the braids down. The prince climbed up, but instead of his dear Rapunzel, he found the enchantress glaring at him. "Your pretty bird has flown away," she said with a nasty laugh, "and you will never see her again."

The prince was so full of sorrow that he leaped from the window. He was not badly hurt, but he fell into a thick bush of thorns, and the thorns caught his eyes, so that afterward he could not see. For years he wandered through the forest, feeling his way from tree to tree and eating nothing but roots and berries. Everywhere he went, he called Rapunzel's name softly into the trees.

At last, after many years, he came to the very wilderness where Rapunzel lived. Suddenly he heard a voice singing, a voice he knew so well. He walked toward it, and Rapunzel saw him and knew him at once. She threw her arms around his neck and cried. Two of her tears fell into his eyes, and at once his eyes grew clear, and he could see again as well as ever.

The prince took Rapunzel home to his kingdom, where everyone welcomed them with great joy. They were married, and they lived happily together for many long years. And the enchantress? She was left all alone at the top of her tall tower, with a long golden braid and nobody to climb it. No one ever called up to her window again. Some say she is still sitting there, waiting and waiting.