Once upon a
time there lived a man and his wife who were very unhappy because they had no
children. These good people had a little window at the back of their house,
which looked into the most lovely garden, full of all manner of beautiful
flowers and vegetables; but the garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no
one dared to enter it, for it belonged to a witch of great power, who was
feared by the whole world.
One
day the woman stood at the window overlooking the garden, and saw there a bed
full of the finest rampion: the leaves looked so fresh and green that she longed
to eat them. The desire grew day by day, and just because she knew she couldn't
possibly get any, she pined away and became quite pale and wretched. Then her
husband grew alarmed and said:
"What
ails you, dear wife?"
"Oh,"
she answered, "if I don't get some rampion to eat out of the garden behind
the house, I know I shall die."
The
man, who loved her dearly, thought to himself, "Come! rather than let your
wife die you shall fetch her some rampion, no matter the cost." So at dusk
he climbed over the wall into the witch's garden, and, hastily gathering a
handful of rampion leaves, he returned with them to his wife. She made them
into a salad, which tasted so good that her longing for the forbidden food was
greater than ever. If she were to know any peace of mind, there was nothing for
it but that her husband should climb over the garden wall again, and fetch her
some more. So at dusk over he got, but when he reached the other side he drew
back in terror, for there, standing before him, was the old witch.
"How
dare you," she said, with a wrathful glance, "climb into my garden
and steal my rampion like a common thief? You shall suffer for your
foolhardiness."
"Oh!"
he implored, "pardon my presumption; necessity alone drove me to the deed.
My wife saw your rampion from her window, and conceived such a desire for it
that she would certainly have died if her wish had not been gratified."
Then the Witch's anger was a little appeased, and she said:
"If
it's as you say, you may take as much rampion away with you as you like, but on
one condition only - that you give me the child your wife will shortly bring
into the world. All shall go well with it, and I will look after it like a
mother."
The
man in his terror agreed to everything she asked, and as soon as the child was
born the Witch appeared, and having given it the name of Rapunzel, which is the
same as rampion, she carried it off with her.
Rapunzel
was the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old the
Witch shut her up in a tower, in the middle of a great wood, and the tower had
neither stairs nor doors, only high up at the very top a small window. When the
old Witch wanted to get in she stood underneath and called out:
"Rapunzel,
Rapunzel,
Let down your
golden hair,"
for Rapunzel had wonderful long
hair, and it was as fine as spun gold. Whenever she heard the Witch's voice she
unloosed her plaits, and let her hair fall down out of the window about twenty
yards below, and the old Witch climbed up by it.
After
they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a Prince was
riding through the wood and passed by the tower. As he drew near it he heard
someone singing so sweetly that he stood still spell-bound, and listened. It
was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to while away the time by letting her
sweet voice ring out into the wood. The Prince longed to see the owner of the
voice, but he sought in vain for a door in the tower. He rode home, but he was
so haunted by the song he had heard that he returned every day to the wood and
listened. One day, when he was standing thus behind a tree, he saw the old
Witch approach and heard her call out:
"Rapunzel,
Rapunzel,
Let down your
golden hair."
Then Rapunzel
let down her plaits, and the Witch climbed up by them.
"So
that's the staircase, is it?" said the Prince. "Then I too will climb
it and try my luck."
So
on the following day, at dusk, he went to the foot of the tower and cried:
"Rapunzel,
Rapunzel,
Let down your
golden hair,"
and as soon as she had let it
down the Prince climbed up.
At
first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man came in, for she had never
seen one before; but the Prince spoke to her so kindly, and told her at once
that his heart had been so touched by her singing, that he felt he should know
no peace of mind till he had seen her. Very soon Rapunzel forgot her fear, and
when he asked her to marry him she consented at once. "For," she
thought, "he is young and handsome, and I'll certainly be happier with him
than with the old Witch." So she put her hand in his and said:
"Yes,
I will gladly go with you, only how am I to get down out of the tower? Every
time you come to see me you must bring a skein of silk with you, and I will
make a ladder of them, and when it is finished I will climb down by it, and you
will take me away on your horse."
They
arranged that till the ladder was ready, he was to come to her every evening,
because the old woman was with her during the day. The old Witch, of course,
knew nothing of what was going on, till one day Rapunzel, not thinking of what
she was about, turned to the Witch and said:
"How is
it, good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than the young Prince? He
is always with me in a moment."
"Oh!
you wicked child," cried the Witch. "What is this I hear? I thought I
had hidden you safely from the whole world, and in spite of it you have managed
to deceive me."
In
her wrath she seized Rapunzel's beautiful hair, wound it round and round her
left hand, and then grasping a pair of scissors in her right, snip snap, off it
came, and the beautiful plaits lay on the ground. And, worse than this, she was
so hard-hearted that she took Rapunzel to a lonely desert place, and there left
her to live in loneliness and misery.
But
on the evening of the day in which she had driven poor Rapunzel away, the Witch
fastened the plaits on to a hook in the window, and when the Prince came and
called out:
"Rapunzel,
Rapunzel,
Let down your
golden hair,"
she let them down, and the Prince
climbed up as usual, but instead of his beloved Rapunzel he found the old
Witch, who fixed her evil, glittering eyes on him, and cried mockingly:
"Ah,
ah! you thought to find your lady love, but the pretty bird has flown and its
song is dumb; the cat caught it, and will scratch out your eyes too. Rapunzel
is lost to you for ever - you will never see her more."
The
Prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped right down
from the tower, and, though he escaped with his life, the thorns among which he
fell pierced his eyes out. Then he wandered, blind and miserable, through the
wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and weeping and lamenting the loss
of his lovely bride. So he wandered about for some years, as wretched and
unhappy as he could well be, and at last he came to the desert place where
Rapunzel was living. Of a sudden he heard a voice which seemed strangely
familiar to him. He walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when he
was quite close, Rapunzel recognised him and fell on his neck and wept. But two
of her tears touched his eyes, and in a moment they became quite clear again,
and he saw as well as he had ever done. Then he led her to his kingdom, where
they were received and welcomed with great joy, and they lived happily ever
after.
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