Rapunzel

Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman who had always wished for a child but had none. After many years, the woman finally believed that her wish was coming true. Behind their house, there was a beautiful garden full of flowers and herbs. It belonged to a powerful enchantress, and no one dared enter the garden because everyone feared her.

One day, the woman was looking out the window and saw some fresh, green rampion (a type of plant) growing in the garden. She wanted it so badly that her desire grew stronger every day. She became sad and sick because she couldn't have it. Her husband grew worried and asked what was wrong. She told him that if she couldn't eat the rampion, she would die.

The man loved his wife very much and decided to sneak into the enchantress’s garden to get her some rampion. At dusk, he climbed over the wall, quickly grabbed a handful of rampion, and brought it to his wife. She made a salad and ate it right away. It tasted so good that the next day she wanted it even more. Her husband, not wanting her to suffer, decided to sneak into the garden again.

But this time, the enchantress caught him. She was very angry and demanded to know why he was stealing from her garden. The man explained that his wife desperately wanted the rampion, or she would die. The enchantress softened a little and said, "If this is true, I will let you take all the rampion you want, but you must give me the child your wife will have."

In his fear, the man agreed. When the baby was born, the enchantress came and took the child away. She named the little girl Rapunzel.

Rapunzel grew up to be very beautiful. When she turned twelve, the enchantress locked her in a tall tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had no door or stairs, only a small window at the top. Whenever the enchantress wanted to visit, she would stand at the bottom of the tower and call out, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" Rapunzel would then lower her long golden hair from the window, and the enchantress would climb up.

One day, a prince was riding through the forest and heard Rapunzel singing. Her voice was so beautiful that he had to find her. He looked around but couldn't find a way into the tower. The next day, he returned and saw the enchantress call out, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" He watched as Rapunzel lowered her hair, and the enchantress climbed up. The prince decided to do the same.

That evening, he stood beneath the tower and called out, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" Rapunzel, thinking it was the enchantress, lowered her hair. The prince climbed up. At first, Rapunzel was scared, but the prince spoke kindly to her and told her he had fallen in love with her because of her singing. Rapunzel soon trusted him, and when he asked if she would marry him, she said yes.

They made a plan for her to escape. Each time the prince visited, he would bring her silk, and Rapunzel would weave it into a ladder. Once the ladder was finished, she would climb down, and they would ride away together.

But one day, Rapunzel accidentally let it slip to the enchantress. She said, "Why are you heavier to pull up than the prince?" The enchantress was furious. She cut off Rapunzel’s long hair and sent her to live alone in a desert.

That evening, when the prince came and called for Rapunzel, the enchantress lowered the cut-off hair. When the prince climbed up, he was shocked to see the enchantress instead of Rapunzel. She told him that he would never see Rapunzel again. In despair, the prince threw himself from the tower. He survived, but the fall caused him to go blind. He wandered the forest, weeping and searching for Rapunzel.

After many years, he finally heard a familiar voice in the desert. It was Rapunzel, who was living there with the twins she had given birth to—a boy and a girl. Rapunzel recognized the prince and ran to him, crying. When her tears touched his eyes, his sight was restored.

The prince took Rapunzel and their children back to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after.