Rapunzel (tale)

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.

### **Trivia**

* Rapunzel 's kingdom is unknown.
* Rapunzel is one of the few princesses who became a mother before being married, with Sleeping Beauty in earlier versions. But in her case, it wasn't from rape.
* Her long hair does not really have purpose, except for let Gothel in. In the Barbie version, her hair are floor length and only long as the tower in her dreams. In the Disney version, her hair must never be cut in order to keep her healing powers.
* Rapunzel is probably the fairy tale version of saint Barbara.
* She is maybe at the origin of the cliché of a princess "waiting in a tower, to be saved by a prince". However, she is nearly the only fairy tale example of it.
* Unlike in adaptations, Rapunzel is a princess by marriage only as she was born of peasants. Her parents are said to have died of despair after their daughter was gone.
* In the musical *Into the woods,* Rapunzel have a younger brother, her parents having enough time to conceive him after they had to give their daughter. Learning this, the offended witch cursed said brother (The Baker) and his wife in order they never have a child.