The Original Rapunzel

Rapunzel by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm
Translated by Kathleen J. Rinkes
Source: http://german.berkeley.edu/poetry/rapunzel.php

Once upon a time, a man and his wife longed fruitlessly for a child of their own. Endlessly, the woman hoped that God would fulfill her wish. These folks had a little window at the back of their house from which one could see a magnificent garden full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was surrounded by a high wall, however, and no one dared to enter, for it belonged to a powerful Enchantress who was feared all over the world.

One day, the wife stood by the window and looked into the garden. There she spied a patch of garden planted with the most beautiful lamb’s lettuce called rapunzel. It looked so fresh and green that she longed to eat it. Her craving for the rapunzel increased with every day, though she knew she couldn’t have any. She pined away, and she began to look pale and miserable.

Alarmed, her husband asked, “What is wrong, dear wife?”

“Oh,” she sighed, “if I can’t eat any rapunzel from that garden I shall die!”

The man, who loved her, thought, “Rather than let your wife die, bring her some rapunzel yourself, whatever the cost.”

In the twilight, he clambered over the wall into the garden of the Enchantress, quickly grabbed a handful of rapunzel and took it to his wife. She ate it eagerly. It tasted so good that she craved it three times as much. If she were to have any peace, her husband would have to climb into the garden once more. He went in the gloom of the evening. But when he climbed over the wall, he was terribly afraid, for he saw the Enchantress standing there before him.

“How can you venture,” she spoke with an angry look, “to climb into my garden and, like a thief, steal my rapunzel? You shall suffer for this.”

“Ah,” he pleaded,” may your mercy take the place of justice, I stole the rapunzel only out of necessity. My wife saw your rapunzel from our window and longed for it so greatly that she would have died had she not eaten it.”

The Enchantress allowed her anger to soften, and said to him, “If the case is as you say, I will allow you to take as much rapunzel as you’d like, on one condition: you must give me the first child your wife brings into the world. I shall treat her well, and care for her like a mother.”

The man in his terror consented, and when his wife’s time had come, the Enchantress at once appeared. She named the baby girl Rapunzel and took her away.

Rapunzel grew to be the most beautiful child under the sun. After celebrating her twelfth birthday, the Enchantress safely locked Rapunzel in a tower. The tower, which lay in the forest, had neither stairs nor doors. At the very top, however, it possessed one, tiny window. When the Enchantress wanted to visit, she placed herself beneath the tower window and cried:
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Lass mir dein Haar herunter!”
(Which translates:)
Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair!”
(The Enchantress was from the Black Forest where they spoke a different language.)

Rapunzel had long, splendid hair, as fine as spun gold. When she heard the voice of her mother, the Enchantress, she unfastened her braided tresses and wound them around one of the hooks of the window. Her hair fell twenty ells down, and the Enchantress climbed up.

After a couple of years, it came to pass that the son of a king rode through the forest and passed by the tower. There he heard a song that was so lovely that he stopped to listen. This was Rapunzel who, in her solitude, passed the time by letting her sweet voice resound. The king’s son, who was a prince, wanted to climb up to her, and looked for a door, but none was to be found. He rode home. The singing had so deeply touched his heart, however, that he returned daily to listen to Rapunzel. Once, when he was standing behind a tree, he saw that an Enchantress came, and heard how she cried:
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Lass dein Haar herunter!”
(Growing up on the edge of the enchanted Black Forest, the Prince understood her words.)

Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the Enchantress climbed up to her. “Is that the ladder, by which one climbs? Then I, too, will try my luck.” He went to the tower and cried:
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair.”
(The new voice piqued the bilingual Rapunzel’s curiosity.)

The hair fell down promptly, and the Prince climbed up. Rapunzel was terribly frightened at first, when a man, such as her eyes had never beheld, came to her. But the Prince spoke to her as a friend, and told her how his heart had been so stirred by her singing that it let him have no rest, and he had to see her. Rapunzel was fearful no more, and when he asked her to marry him, and recognized that he was young and handsome, she thought, “He will love me more than the Enchantress, old Frau Gothel, does.” She said, “Yes,” and laid her hand in his.

She said,” I will willingly go away with you, but I don’t know how I can climb down. When you come, bring with you a skein of yarn, then I will weave a ladder with it, and when it is finished, I will climb down, and you can take me away on your horse.”

They agreed that he should come to her every evening, for the old Frau came by day.

The Enchantress knew nothing of this arrangement, until once Rapunzel said to her, “Tell me why, Frau Gothel, when you climb up, you are so much heavier than the young Prince? He is here in the blink of an eye.”

The Enchantress cried, “Oh you godless child! What did I hear you say? I thought I had protected you from all the world, and you have betrayed me!”

In her anger, she clutched Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses, wrapped them around her left hand, gripped a pair of scissors in her right hand and “Snip!” Snap!” she cut off Rapunzel’s hair. The lovely braids lay on the ground. She was so unforgiving that she took Rapunzel into the desert to wander in misery and grief.

On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, the Enchantress fastened the braids around the window hook; and, that evening, the Prince came and cried:
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair!”

Then she let down the hair. The Prince climbed up, but instead of finding his love, Rapunzel, he found the Enchantress, who looked at him with wickedness and venom.
“Aha!” she cried, “you wish to fetch your loving wife, but the beautiful bird sits and sings in her nest never more. The cat has got it and will scratch your eyes as well! Rapunzel is lost to you. You will never see her again!”

The Prince was beside himself with pain; and in his despair, sprang from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns from the bush below, which broke his fall, pierced his eyes. He wandered blind through the forest. He ate only berries and roots, and did nothing but weep and lament the loss of his dearest wife, Rapunzel.

He wandered this way for many years. At length, he wandered into the desert where Rapunzel lived in wretchedness with their two children, a boy and a girl, that she had given birth to in exile. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he traveled towards it. When he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her joyful tears fell into his blinded eyes, and they grew clear again. He could see with them as before. He lead her to his kingdom where they were joyfully welcomed, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and content.