There was once a couple who had
long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about
to grant her desire. They had a little window at the back of their house from
which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of beautiful flowers and
herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into
it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded
by all the world.
One day the woman was standing by
this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was
planted with the most beautiful rampion - rapunzel, and it looked so fresh and
green that she longed for it, and had the greatest desire to eat some. This
desire increased every day, and as she knew that she could not get any of it,
she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable. Her husband was
alarmed, and asked, "what makes you sad, dear wife." "Ah",
she replied, "if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden
behind our house, I shall die". The man, who loved her, thought, sooner
than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost
what it will. At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of
the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his
wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so
good to her - so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as
much as before.
If he was to have any rest, her
husband must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening,
therefore, he let himself down again. But when he had clambered down the wall
he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him.
"How dare you", said she with angry look, "descend into my
garden and steal my rampion like a thief. You shall suffer for it". He
answered, "let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to
do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such
a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat".
Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him, if the
case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as
you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife
will bring into the world. It shall be well treated, and I will care for it
like a mother.
The man in his terror consented
to everything, and when the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared
at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.
Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun.
When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me".
Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.
After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it.
Once when he was thus standing
behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried,
"If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my
fortune". thought he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went
to the tower and cried, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair".
Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up. At first Rapunzel
was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came
to her. But the king's son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told
her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he
had been forced to see her. 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 gothic does. And she
said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said, I will willingly go away with
you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every
time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I
will descend, and you will take me on your 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,
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. You wicked child, cried the
enchantress. What do I hear you say. I thought I had separated you from all the
world, and yet you have 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 that she cast out rapunzel, however, the enchantress 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 your hair, she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks. Aha, she cried mockingly, you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest. The cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well.
Rapunzel is lost to you. You will
never see her again. 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 naught but lament and weep
over the loss of his dear 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.
reference: http://tiga7_--fst12.web.unair.ac.id
