Rapunzel

Once upon a time there was a man and a wife who had long wished for a child, but had not received one. Finally, the wife hoped that God would fulfill her wish. They had a little window at the back of their house, and from there they could see a magnificent garden full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to enter it, for it belonged to a witch who had great powers and whom everyone feared.

One day the wife stood at the window and looked down into the garden. There she caught sight of a bed with the most beautiful rampion, and it looked so fresh and green that she felt a great desire to taste it. The craving grew stronger every day, and since she knew she could not get any of it, she became quite pale and miserable.

The husband became worried and asked: "What is the matter with you, dear wife?" "Oh," she replied, "if I do not get to taste some of that rampion which grows in the garden behind our house, I shall die."

The husband, who loved her, thought: "Rather than let your wife die, I must get her rampion, no matter what it costs." At dusk he climbed over the wall and down into the witch's garden, quickly grabbed a handful of rampion and brought it to his wife.

She made herself a salad at once and ate it with a good appetite. But she liked it so much that the next day she had three times as great a desire for more. If the husband was to have any peace, he had to go down into the garden again.

In the evening gloom he climbed down, but when he came over the wall, he was terrified – for there stood the witch before him.

"How dare you," she said angrily, "come down into my garden and steal rampion like a thief? You shall pay for this!" "Oh," replied the man, "please, have mercy. I did it only out of necessity.

My wife saw the rampion from the window and got such a strong craving for it that she would have died if she had not tasted it." Then the witch grew milder and said: "If it is as you say, I shall let you take as much rampion as you want.

But on one condition: You must give me the child your wife will give birth to. It shall be well treated, and I shall care for it like a mother."

The man agreed to everything in his fear, and when the wife had given birth, the witch came at once, named the child Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Rapunzel grew up and became the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the witch locked her in a high tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had neither stairs nor door, only a small window at the very top.

When the witch wanted to enter, she stood beneath the window and called:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me!"

Rapunzel had long, magnificent hair, fine as spun gold. When she heard the witch's voice, she undid her braids, wound them around a hook in the window, and the hair fell twenty yards down. Then the witch climbed up.

After a couple of years, it happened that the king's son rode through the forest and came past the tower. Then he heard a song so beautiful that he stopped and listened. It was Rapunzel who, in her solitude, let her sweet voice ring out. The king's son wanted to go up to her and looked for a door, but there was none. He rode home, but the song had touched his heart so deeply that he went out into the forest every day and listened.

Once, as he stood behind a tree, he saw that the witch came and called:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me!"

Then Rapunzel let down her braids, and the witch climbed up. "If that is the ladder one comes up with, I will also try my luck," he thought. The next day, when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and called:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me!"

At once the hair fell down, and the king's son climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was very frightened when a man came to her, but the king's son spoke kindly to her and told her that his heart had been so moved that it gave him no rest, and that he had to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked if she would have him as her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: "He will love me more than old Frau Gothel does." She said yes and placed her hand in his.

"I would gladly go away with you," she said, "but I do not know how I am to get down. Bring a skein of silk each time you come, and I shall weave a ladder. When it is ready, I will climb down, and you can take me up on your horse."

They agreed that he should come every evening, for the old woman came during the day. The witch noticed nothing until one day Rapunzel said: "Tell me, Frau Gothel, why are you so much heavier to pull up than the young king's son? He is up with me in a moment."

"Oh, you wicked child!" cried the witch. "What is this I hear? I thought I had shielded you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!" In her rage she seized Rapunzel's beautiful braids, wound them twice around her left hand, took a pair of scissors with her right, and snip, snip – they were cut off, and the beautiful braids lay on the floor. She was so merciless that she led the poor Rapunzel out into a wilderness, where she had to live in great sorrow and need.

That same day the witch fastened the braids she had cut off to the hook in the window. When the king's son came and called:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me!" she let the hair down. The king's son climbed up, but above he found not his beloved Rapunzel, but the witch, who looked at him with evil and venomous eyes. "Aha!" she cried mockingly. "You wanted to fetch your beloved, but the beautiful bird no longer sits singing in its nest. The cat has taken it, and it shall also scratch out your eyes. Rapunzel is lost to you – you will never see her again!"

The king's son was beside himself with grief, and in despair he jumped down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns he fell into pierced his eyes. Then he wandered blind through the forest, ate only roots and berries, and did nothing but mourn and weep over the loss of his beloved wife.

For several years he wandered in misery, and at last he came to the wilderness where Rapunzel, with the twins she had given birth to, a boy and a girl, lived in need. He heard a voice so familiar that he walked toward it. When he approached, Rapunzel recognized him, threw herself around his neck and wept. Two of her tears fell into his eyes, and they became clear again – he could see as before. He led her to his kingdom, where he was received with joy, and they lived long, happy and contented.