There
was 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 cant 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 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
this 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 Kings 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 Kings
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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Rapunzels 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 Kings son came and cried,
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down thy hair."
she
let the hair down. The Kings 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 Kings 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.
