Rapunzel

There were once a man and a woman who had long wished for a child. At last the woman hoped her desire would be granted. Behind their house a window looked onto a splendid garden full of flowers and herbs, surrounded by a high wall; it belonged to an enchantress whom all feared.

One day the wife saw the finest rampion (rapunzel) in that garden and longed for it until she grew pale and miserable. Her husband, afraid she would die, climbed the wall at twilight, hastily seized a handful of rampion, and brought it to her. She made a salad and ate it with delight. The next day her longing was three times worse. He climbed again—and the enchantress stood before him.

“How dare you steal my rampion?” she said. “It shall cost you dear.” He begged for mercy, explaining his wife’s need.

“If it is as you say,” said the enchantress, “you may take as much as you will—but you must give me the child your wife will bear.” In his terror he consented.

When the baby was born, the enchantress appeared, named the child Rapunzel, and took her away. Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. At twelve the enchantress shut her in a tower in the forest with neither stairs nor door—only a little window at the top. When the enchantress wanted to enter, she called,

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.” Rapunzel had long hair like spun gold; she wound it round a hook, let it fall, and the enchantress climbed up.

A few years later a king’s son rode through the forest and heard singing so sweet he stopped to listen. He saw the enchantress climb by the hair, and learned the call. The next day, as evening fell, he cried:

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.” She let it down; he climbed. At first she was frightened—she had never seen a man—but his kind voice calmed her. He asked her to take him for her husband; she saw he was young and handsome, and thought, “He will love me better than old Dame Gothel.” She said, “Yes,” and that he should come every evening, for the old woman came by day. She planned to weave a ladder of silk so she could descend and ride away with him; he was to bring the silk.

They kept the secret until one day Rapunzel asked, “Tell me, Dame Gothel, how is it that you are so much heavier to draw up than the young king’s son?”

“Wicked child!” cried the enchantress. “I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!” She seized Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses, cut them off, and took the poor girl into a desert where she lived in great misery.

That same day the enchantress fastened the cut braids to the window hook. When the prince called, she let the hair down; he climbed—and found not his dearest Rapunzel but the enchantress, who mocked him: “The cat has got the bird, and will scratch out your eyes as well—Rapunzel is lost to you.” In despair he leapt from the tower; he fell among thorns that put out his eyes. He wandered blindly through the forest, eating only roots and berries, and lamented the loss of his wife.

So he wandered for years until he came to the desert where Rapunzel lived with the twins—a boy and a girl—to which she had given birth. He heard a familiar voice, went toward it, and Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck weeping. Two of her tears wetted his eyes; they grew clear again, and he saw as before. He led her to his kingdom, where they were joyfully received, and they lived long afterwards happy and contented.

Where this story comes from

“Rapunzel” is German and comes from the Brothers Grimm; it is not an Indian tale. It is number 12 in Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation. Rapunzel is the German name of rampion, the salad plant the mother craves, and this retelling follows the Project Gutenberg English based on Taylor and Edwardes.

The Grimms’ note says Friedrich Schulz had already printed the story in his Kleine Romane (Leipzig, 1790), at too great length but plainly from oral tradition. The notes also describe an alternate opening in which a girl enters a forbidden room, sees a horned witch and is shut in a tower. That variant should not be confused with this telling’s garden bargain.

The prince’s blinding in the thorns is kept, and healed by her tears.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales, tr. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes (Project Gutenberg #2591, Rapunzel)

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult: includes a child given away, imprisonment, a despairing leap, blinding and prolonged separation.

Rapunzel makes a plan

Her hair lets other people enter but does not let her leave by herself. The silk ladder is her proposal to change that arrangement. After the hair is cut and the plan fails, her voice remains: it first attracts the prince and later makes recognition possible. The story thus gives her more than a passive waiting role.

Follow the means of connection

Make a sequence with hair, silk and song. For each, say who controls it and whether it helps Rapunzel leave, brings someone in or reunites people. Which connection survives the enchantress’s interference?

Talk about it

• Why did Rapunzel’s father go into the enchantress’s garden?
• How did the enchantress find out about the prince’s visits?
• Rapunzel’s tears heal the prince’s eyes. Why do you think the story ends this way?

Related stories

• Rumpelstiltskin — a Grimm mother who must give up her child unless she finds a name
• The Six Swans — a Grimm heroine who stays silent and patient through years of trouble
• The Goose-Girl — a Grimm princess who suffers in silence until the truth comes out