Rapunzel
On a hill by the countryside stood a little stone cottage with a crooked fence. In it lived a man and his wife, who longed for one thing more than anything else—a beautiful baby girl to love and protect.
Behind their cottage, across a field, was a magnificent walled garden bursting with rampion—green leaves and purple flowers, known also as rapunzel. But the garden belonged to a wicked Witch, the most powerful of all, and none dared to trespass.
One day, gazing from her window, the woman spotted the rampion and became spellbound. She grew pale and weak.
“I must have it,” she whispered. “If I don’t, I shall surely die.”
That night, her husband scaled the Witch’s wall and stole some rampion. His wife devoured it greedily and begged for more. But when he returned the next evening, the Witch caught him red-handed.
“How dare you steal from me!” she thundered.
The man fell to his knees. “Please, my wife is ill—it is all she craves!”
The Witch’s face softened, but her voice was cold. “Very well. Take as much as you like… but when your wife’s child is born, it will be mine.”
And so it was. When their baby girl arrived, the Witch appeared in a puff of smoke, seized the child, and named her Rapunzel.
The Witch raised Rapunzel in a tall, doorless tower deep in the forest. The only way in—or out—was the window at the very top. Rapunzel’s golden hair grew longer than ropes, and whenever the Witch wished to visit, she would call:
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”
Years passed, until one day, a King’s son heard Rapunzel singing. Enchanted by her voice, he returned day after day to listen. One afternoon, he saw the Witch climb the tower on Rapunzel’s hair and thought, So that is the way in!
The next evening he called, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” And up he climbed. Rapunzel had never seen a man before, but the Prince spoke gently of how her singing had stolen his heart. Soon they fell deeply in love.
They planned to escape together. Each night, the Prince brought Rapunzel silk, and she began weaving a ladder. But one day she slipped and mentioned him to the Witch. Furious, the Witch cut off Rapunzel’s hair with a cruel snip-snip-snip and banished her to a desert.
That night, when the Prince called, the Witch let down the shorn hair. Up he climbed—only to find the Witch waiting. “Your Rapunzel is gone forever!” she hissed. Shocked, the Prince stumbled back, fell from the tower, and landed in thorns that blinded him.
For years he wandered the forest, living on berries, hearing only Rapunzel’s voice in his memory. At last, by fate’s kindness, he reached the desert where she had been cast away. Rapunzel saw him, ran to him, and wept tears of joy. Two of her tears fell upon his eyes, and—miraculously—his sight returned.
Together they embraced, and the Prince met the two children Rapunzel had borne during her exile. With hearts full of love, they returned to his kingdom, where they were welcomed with joy. And so Rapunzel, her Prince, and their little family lived happily ever after.
The End