Rapunzel

By the Grimm Brothers

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 - apun!el, 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 "uite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable.
Then her husband was alarmed, and asked, #$hat ails you, dear wife%#
#Ah,# she replied, #if I can&t eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.#
The man, who loved her, thought, sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it
cost what it will. At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily
clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. 'he at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily.
It tasted so good to her - so very good, that the ne(t 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. )ut when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the
enchantress standing before him.
#*ow can you dare,# said she with angry look, #descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief% +ou
shall suffer for it.#
#Ah,# answered he, #let mercy take the place of ,ustice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. -y
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 you say, I will allow
you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child
which your 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 apun!el, and took it away with her.
apun!el grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. $hen she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut
her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but "uite at the top was a little window.
$hen the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried,
#apun!el, apun!el,
.et down your hair/#
apun!el 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 passed by the tower. Then he
heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was apun!el, 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. *e 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,
#apun!el, apun!el,
.et down your hair/#
Then apun!el let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. #If that is the ladder by
which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,# said he, and the ne(t day when it began to grow dark, he went to
the tower and cried,
#apun!el, apun!el,
.et down your hair/#
Immediately the hair fell down and the king&s son climbed up. At first apun!el was terribly frightened when a
man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her. )ut the king&s son began to talk to her "uite 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 apun!el 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.
'he said, #I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. )ring with you a skein of silk
every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will
take me on your 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 apun!el said to her, #Tell me, 0ame 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/ +ou wicked child,# cried the enchantress. #$hat do I hear you say. I thought I had separated you from all
the world, and yet you have deceived me.#
In her anger she clutched apun!el&s beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, sei!ed 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 apun!el into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.
On the same day that she cast out apun!el, however, the enchantress 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,
#apun!el, apun!el,
.et down your hair/#
she let the hair down. The king&s son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest apun!el, he found the
enchantress, who ga!ed at him with wicked and venomous looks.
#Aha,# she cried mockingly, #you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the
nest. The cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. apun!el is lost to you. +ou will never see her
again.#
The king&s son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. *e escaped with
his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes. Then he wandered "uite blind about the forest, ate
nothing but roots and berries, and did naught 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 apun!el, with the twins
to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. *e heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar
to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, apun!el 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. *e led her to his
kingdom where he was ,oyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.