Tale of Rapunzel

## Story

A peasant woman was pregnant, and craven for rapunzel flowers she saw in her neighbor 's garden. The problem was, said garden belonged to a witch. The husband finally climbed the wall and stole flowers, so his wife can eat them in salad. He tried to do it again the next day but the witch was waiting for him, furious.

She demanded, in exchange of his own life, that the future father give his newborn. The terrified man accepted, and had to give his daughter to the witch as soon as she was born.

Mother Gothel, the witch, called the child  Rapunzel and leaded her in a faraway house in the forest. The little girl stayed there until she was 12; then, Gothel locked her in very high tower with no door. There was only a window, and to get in or out, Gothel asked "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair." And the young girl let go her extremely long hair.

Once, while the lonely Rapunzel was singing, a prince who was passing by heard her, and stood near the tower, seeing no way to get in.

Gothel came back, the prince hide, and heard the old witch asking for the hair. The next day, the prince came back and waited for the moment of Gothel 's departure. A few moment later, the prince impersonated her voice and said " "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair." Rapunzel let her hair go, the prince climbed and arrived in the tower.

She was terrorized at first, but calmed down quickly and the prince came back to visit her on a regular basis as soon as Gothel was away. Rapunzel was charmed to see another human being, and they even started to have sexual intercourse. The prince asked her to escape, so he could marry her, but Rapunzel hair was the only way. She asked her lover to bring her linen threads, so she could do a rope out of them and use it to escape.

Rapunzel got pregnant, and Gothel noticed this. Either that, or Rapunzel once incautiously exclaimed that the witch was much heavier, thus longer to lift, than her prince. Gothel was furious as she wanted Rapunzel to avoid men and pregnancy. She cut her hair before chase away Rapunzel from the tower.

The prince came back, and climbed the hair once again, not knowing it was actually tied to the window. When he arrived, Gothel cackled to him that he'll never saw Rapunzel again and she pushed him. He survived the fall but fell on thorns and injured his eyes, becoming blind.

The prince wandered for months, until he heard Rapunzel's voice. The latter lived near a desert, all alone with her newborn twins. Rapunzel cried when she saw he was blind, but her tears fell on his eyes and healed them. They came back to the prince's kingdom, and get married there.

## Variants

-Rapunzel is certainly the fairy tale version of the legend of Saint Barbara. In the third century, her father, Discorus, wanted to marry her to a pagan man but Barbara refused. He punished her by locking her away in a tower with two windows. A priest, disguised into a doctor, managed to get into the tower and baptized her. Later, Barbara pierced a third window in honor of the Trinity. Her father was that furious when he discovered it, that he put fire to the tower. Barbara managed to escape, and hide disguised as a shepherd. Another shepherd recognized and denounced her. Barbara was tortured (by burning and her bosom being cut) but still refused to abjure. Dioscurus decapitated her with his own hands, but was hit by a thunder bolt right after as a retribution. That sad story was recalled later with Rapunzel's happy ending.

-The tale of *Melisande* by E. Nesbit is also close of it. The heroin is cursed at birth to be bald, but when she's 16, she wishes imprudently to have long hair "that grow one inch every day". Soon, it become incredibly long, and grow even quicker every time it's cut. Only Prince Florizel manage to free Melisande by cutting exactly the same weight of hair than Melisande's.

-Others version include *Petrosinella* by Basile, *The Shahnameh (*persian poem*), Snow-White-Fire-Red*  and *Prunella* (italian versions), and *The white dove* (danish version).

*-Rapunzel* is filled with plot holes, such as, why did Gothel wanted to have Rapunzel with her? If she simply needed company, why was Gothel so adamant to hide her from the world? It's certainly not to have a daughter of her own and thus descendants as Gothel tried everything she could to restrain Rapunzel to meet men, and become pregnant. She shut the girl when she reached puberty, and as soon Rapunzel loose her purity, Gothel shoo her away. It was probably because of the morality that girls shall stay virgins before marriage, back then. But also the other facet of said morality is that it was unuseful to try to restrain young people to do so.

-Presumably, Gothel let Rapunzel grow her hair long so it's the only way to get in; but Rapunzel could have get out using her hair with the abseiling technique. She take time to braid a rope and escape with, simply to buy time for the story: her prince could have easily bring her one. It's not really possible to lift some one with your hair without injuring your neck, unless you use a pulley. Hair cannot grow that long either. There is no really explanation  to the fact the prince survived his fall or Rapunzel could magically cure him.

-It explain why adaptations usually don't use those elements, and try to explain them. In the Barbie version, Gothel took Rapunzel away from her parents especially in order to make them grieving -and gain a slave. She was a rejected lover of Rapunzel's father. The princess couldn't go out of Gothel's house because of a magical barrer; also Rapunzel never use her hair to let someone in, except in a nightmare, because it's just floor lenght. Gothel cut Rapunzel 's hair in order to use it as a wig and deceive prince Stefan to the ball. Also, the later is not injured.

-In the Disney version, Rapunzel was kidnapped because of the power of rejuvenation located in her hair and that Gothel wanted for her, alone. Her hair grow so long because it's magic and would loose it  if cut. Her power is due to a sun magical flower, that Gothel found, and hide, using it to rejuvenate while singing to it. Until it was found, and take away, to cure the pregnant queen . It's close to the rapunzel's salad and craving story, but look like more justified. Rapunzel don't run away at first because she's afraid of the world, that Gothel intentionally described as dangerous. Still Rapunzel want to see lanterns, and run away with the abseiling technique. And finally, it's Flynn (the equivalent to the prince) who cut her hair with a piece of glass, and not Gothel, in order to free Rapunzel from her powers. Flynn was stabbed, instead of becoming blind, and the healing powers of Rapunzel's tears is explained by what's left of the sun flower in her.

-Mother Gothel is called like this, because she pretend to be Rapunzel's godmother. In *Tangled,* she pass herself as her mother while in *Grimms Manga by* Ishiyama Kei, she is old enough to pretend to be his grandmother.

-In said manga, Rapunzel have the particularity to be male, and it's a peasant girl (instead of princess) who get in the tower. The story remind the same except when it's Rapunzel 's girlfriend who become pregnant, and her infuriated father goes to the tower for explanations. Gothel thus chase Rapunzel away and after months of errance that he find back his girlfriend and children.

-Gothel usually get scott free in the story, but in some versions the prince's father arrest and execute her right after his son been healed. She is stuck in the tower in Barbie's version and die in the Disney's one.