Once Upon a Time (Fairy Tales)

Rapunzel

There was once a powerful and dreadful witch. This witch lived in a high castle that overlooked a garden. And in this garden grew the freshest and most beautiful fruits and vegetables.

Next to the witches land stood a sad and tiny ramshackle cottage and which lived a poor man and his wife. The wife was expecting the couple's first child.

One evening, the couple sat eating their dinner of hard bread and cold beans when the wife had a craving.

"My dear husband," she said, "I would love just a nibble of the fresh rapunzel lettuce that grows in the witche's garden. It would taste so much better than these cold beans and stale bread."

So later that night, the poor man climbed the fence to the witche's garden and headed into the patch of rapunzel lettuce.

Just as he knelt to pick the freshest head of lettuce he could find, the man heard a wicked crackle. He spun around to see the witch.

"How dare you enter my garden!" screech the witch. "And what do I see? You were trying to steal some of my delicious rapunzel lettuce? Why I never!"

The man covered among the vegetables, begging the angry witch not to hurt him. "I meant no harm. I was merely trying to pick a bit for my hungry wife," he cried. "Let me go home to her, for She is expecting our first child."

"Go home," replied the witch. "Take all you want from my garden. But when your child comes, I shall take her for my own!"

The scared man climbed back over the garden wall and hurried home, his pockets full of rapunzel lettuce.

His wife ate her fill of the fresh lettuce. She loved it so much that she decided to name her child after the delicious vegetable. Her husband did not tell her about the witche's nasty threat.

A short time, later a baby girl is born. The woman named her child Rapunzel. Later that day, there was a knock on the door. It was the witch!

"As I promised," said the witch, "I'm here to take your child."

"What is she talking about?" the woman asked her husband. But the poor couple could do nothing, and the witch took the child from them.

Now, while the witch was very mean, she was also very smart. She knew that the child's parents might try to find her, so she locked the little Rapunzel in a high tower.

Days turned into months, and months turned into years, while little Rapunzel grew from an infant into a beautiful young woman.

During her many years in the tower, Rapunzel had never been allowed to cut her hair. So it had grown long ---- very, very long.

Her two golden braids had grown so long, in fact, that the witch put them to good use. The window to Rapunzel's tower room was very high, so to reach it, the which would call:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
throw down your gold hair!"

Rapunzel would obey, and the witch would scurry up the two golden braids.

One day, a handsome prince was traveling through the forest. From a distance, he heard a girl's voice singing a lovely song. He was following the sound of the beautiful voice when suddenly he heard a scratchy, ugly voice croak:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
throw down your gold hair!"

Through his spyglass, the prince was surprised to see a beautiful girl with long golden hair. She was perched in a tower window. He spotted an ugly old witch coming up her golden braids.

In his hiding spot in the woods, the handsome prince waited until the old witch left the tower. Enchanted by the beautiful girl and her lovely voice, the curious Prince crept up to the towel and called:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
throw down your gold hair!"

Sure enough, as soon as the prince had finished saying these words, two golden braids of hair fell from the high window. Taking hold of them, the prince climbed up the tower wall, where he reached the beautiful girl.

"Who are you?" the prince asked.

"I am Rapunzel," she replied. "An old witch took me from my parents when I was but a baby. I have lived locked in this tower ever since."

"I will save you," said the prince.

He climbed down the tower wall do the ground below. There he stood while Rapunzel leaped from the window into his arms.

No sooner had the prince rescued the beautiful young girl than the witch returned to the tower. Quickly, the prince and Rapunzel hid in the bushes. From their hiding place, they heard the witch call:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
throw down your gold hair!"

This time, no braids of golden hair fell from the high window. This was a shock to the old witch, who yelled, "Alas, Rapunzel has escaped from my tower! Now I will be all alone for the rest of my days!"

Rapunzel the prince stayed hidden and watched as the old witch wandered off into the forest, whining and moaning and gashing her teeth at having lost the prisoner from her tower.

Once they can no longer hear the witch, the prince helped Rapunzel onto his horse away they rode.

After riding for some time, the prince and Rapunzel finally arrived at the home of her parents. It had been many years since the witch had stolen their child, and the poor man and his wife had grown very old.

Yet their sad faces disappeared when they saw the beautiful girl with the golden hair.

"I'm your daughter Rapunzel," said the girl. "This brave and handsome prince rescued me from the old witch. He would like for all of us to come live in his castle."

And that is exactly what they did, living happily ever after.