Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would
take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome,
she thought, “He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does;” and she
said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said, “I will willingly go away
with thee, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with thee a skein
of silk every time that thou comest, and I will weave a ladder with it,
and when that is ready I will descend, and thou wilt take me on thy
horse.” They agreed that until that time he should come to her every
evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked
nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her, “Tell me, Dame
Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up
than the young King’s son—he is with me in a moment.” “Ah! thou wicked
child,” cried the enchantress “What do I hear thee say! I thought I had
separated thee from all the world, and yet thou hast deceived me.” In
her anger she clutched Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice
round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and
snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where
she had to live in great grief and misery. On the same day, however, that she cast out Rapunzel, the enchantress
in the evening fastened the braids of hair which she had cut off, to
the hook of the window, and when the King’s son came and cried,

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down thy hair,”


she let the hair down. The King’s son ascended, but he did not find his
dearest Rapunzel above, but the enchantress, who gazed at him with
wicked and venomous looks. “Aha!” she cried mockingly, “Thou wouldst
fetch thy dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the
nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out thy eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to thee; thou wilt never see her more.” The King’s son
was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the
tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell,
pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate
nothing but roots and berries, and did nothing but lament and weep over
the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some
years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins
to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards
it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and
wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and
he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he
was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy
and contented. 13 The Three Little Men in the Wood

There was once a man whose wife died, and a woman whose husband died,
and the man had a daughter, and the woman also had a daughter. The
girls were acquainted with each other, and went out walking together,
and afterwards came to the woman in her house. Then said she to the
man’s daughter, “Listen, tell thy father that I would like to marry
him, and then thou shalt wash thyself in milk every morning, and drink
wine, but my own daughter shall wash herself in water and drink water.”
The girl went home, and told her father what the woman had said. The
man said, “What shall I do? Marriage is a joy and also a torment.” At
length as he could come to no decision, he pulled off his boot, and
said, “Take this boot, it has a hole in the sole of it. Go with it up
to the loft, hang it on the big nail, and then pour water into it. If
it hold the water, then I will again take a wife, but if it run
through, I will not.” The girl did as she was ordered, but the water
drew the hole together, and the boot became full to the top. She
informed her father how it had turned out. Then he himself went up, and
when he saw that she was right, he went to the widow and wooed her, and
the wedding was celebrated. The next morning, when the two girls got up, there stood before the
man’s daughter milk for her to wash in and wine for her to drink, but
before the woman’s daughter stood water to wash herself with and water
for drinking. On the second morning, stood water for washing and water
for drinking before the man’s daughter as well as before the woman’s
daughter. And on the third morning stood water for washing and water
for drinking before the man’s daughter, and milk for washing and wine
for drinking, before the woman’s daughter, and so it continued. The
woman became bitterly unkind to her step-daughter, and day by day did
her best to treat her still worse. She was also envious because her
step-daughter was beautiful and lovable, and her own daughter ugly and
repulsive. Once, in winter, when everything was frozen as hard as a stone, and
hill and vale lay covered with snow, the woman made a frock of paper,
called her step-daughter, and said, “Here, put on this dress and go out
into the wood, and fetch me a little basketful of strawberries,—I have
a fancy for some.” “Good heavens!” said the girl, “no strawberries grow
in winter! The ground is frozen, and besides the snow has covered
everything. And why am I to go in this paper frock? It is so cold
outside that one’s very breath freezes! The wind will blow through the
frock, and the thorns will tear it off my body.” “Wilt thou contradict
me again?” said the stepmother, “See that thou goest, and do not show
thy face again until thou hast the basketful of strawberries!” Then she
gave her a little piece of hard bread, and said, “This will last thee
the day,” and thought, “Thou wilt die of cold and hunger outside, and
wilt never be seen again by me.”

Then the maiden was obedient, and put on the paper frock, and went out
with the basket. Far and wide there was nothing but snow, and not a
green blade to be seen. When she got into the wood she saw a small
house out of which peeped three dwarfs. She wished them good day, and
knocked modestly at the door. They cried, “Come in,” and she entered
the room and seated herself on the bench by the stove, where she began
to warm herself and eat her breakfast. The elves said, “Give us, too,
some of it.” “Willingly,” she said, and divided her bit of bread in two
and gave them the half.