 |
 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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