Fairytales of Famous Authors Compared to Disney Cartoons with proper respect etc

Story 7: Rapunzel German Version Brothers' Grimm (Published in 12/20/1812)

Once after a man and wife had long wished in vain for a child, the wife had reason to hope that God would grant them their wish. In the back of their house there was a little window that looked out over a wonderful garden, full of beautiful flowers and vegetables. But there was a high wall around the garden, and no one daree enter it because it belonged to a witch, who was very powerful and everyone was afraid of her. One day the wife stood at this window, looking down into the garden, and her eyes lit on a bed of the finest rapunzel, which is at type of lettuce. (Author's Note: The authors weren't botanists this is an actually type of edible radish plant today, but it's common name is that of a Bellflower. And Rapunzel has lavender petals that make up a flower.) And looked it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it and her mouth watered. Her craving for it grew from day to day, and she began to waste away because she knew she would never get any. Seeing her so pale and wretched, her husband took fright and asked: "What's the matter with you, dear wife?" "Oh," she said, "I shall die unless I get some rapunzel from the garden behind our house." Her husband, who loved her, thought: "Sooner than let my wife die, I shall get her some of that rapunzel, cost what it may." As night was falling, he climbed the wall into the witch's garden, took a handful of rapunzel, and brought it to his wife. She made it into a salad right away and ate it hungrily. But it tasted so good, so very good, that the next day her craving for it was three times as great. Her husband could see she would know no peace unless he paid another visit to the garden. So at nightfall he climbed the wall again, but when he came down on the other side he had an awful fright, for there was the witch right in front of him. "How dare you!" she said with an angry look. "How dare you sneak into my garden like a thief and steal my rapunzel! I'll make you pay dearly for this." "Oh, please," he said, "please temper justice with mercy, I only did it because I had to. My wife was looking out of the window, and when she saw your rapunzel she felt such a craving for it that she would have died if I hadn't got her some." At that the witch's anger died down and she said: "If that's how it is, you may take as much rapunzel as you wish, but on one condition: that you give me the child your wife will bear. It will have a good life and I shall care for it like a mother." In his fright, the man agreed to everything, and the moment the wife delivered the child, the witch appeared and gave the child the name of Rapunzel and took her away.
Rapunzel grew to be the loveliest child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the witch took her to the middle of the forest and shut her up in a tower that had neither stairs nor door, but only a little window at the very top. When the witch wanted to come in, she stood down below and called out:
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair for me."
Rapunzel had beautiful long hair, as fine as spun gold. When she heard the witch's voice, she undid her braids, and fastened them to the window latch. They fell to the ground twenty ells down, and the witch climbed up them.
A few years later it so happened that the king's son was passing through the forest. When came to the tower he heard someone singing, and the singing was so lovely that he stopped and listened. It was Rapunzel, who in her loneliness was singing to pass the time. The prince wanted to go up to her and he looked for a door but found none. He rode home, but the singing had so touched his heart that he went out into the forest every day and listened. Once as he was standing behind a tree, he saw a witch come to the foot of the tower and heard her call out:
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let your hair down for me."
Whereupon Rapunzel let down her braids, and the witch climbed up to her. "Aha," he thought, "if that's the ladder that goes up to her, then I'll try my luck too." And next day, when it was beginning to get dark, he went to the tower and called out:
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair!"
A moment later her hair fell to the ground and the prince climbed up.
At first Rapunzel was dreadfully frightened, for she had never seen a man before, but the prince spoke gently to her and told her how he had been so moved by her singing that he couldn't rest easy until he had seen her. At that Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked if she would have him as her husband and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: "He will love me better than my old godmother." So she said So she said yes and put her hand in his hand. "I'd gladly go with you," she said, "but how will I ever get down? Every time you come, bring a skein of silk and I'll make a ladder with it. When it's finished, I'll climb down, and you will carry me home on your horse." They agreed that in the meantime he would come every evening, because the old witch came during the day. The witch noticed nothing until one day Rapunzel said to her. "Tell me, Godmother, how is it that you're so much harder to pull up than the young prince? With him it hardly takes a minute." "Wicked child!" cried the witch. "What did you say? I thought I had shut you away from the world, but you've deceived me." In her fury she seized Rapunzel's beautiful hair wound it several times around her left hand and picked up s pair of scissors in her right hand. Snippety-snap went the scissors, and the lovely braids fell to the floor. Then the heartless witch (Author's Noted Opinion that description is so over the top too harsh considering she keeps her word this long and wouldn't you be mad if some kept a secret from you and insulted your weight? I would too. This lashback is actually acceptable and a common sense reaction therefore the witch is not heartless at all. This is the second Princess story where the Brothers' Grimm have contradicted themselves when they've stayed the opposite in the early pages of the fairytale) sent poor Rapunzel to a desert place, where she lived in misery and want. (To further prove my point she never lays a physical hand on Rapunzel or physically abuses her to me that is the truth definite characteristic heartless witch, honestly.)

At dusk on the day she had sent Rapunzel away, she fastened the severed braids to the window latch, and when the prince came and called:
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair."
she let the hair down. The prince climbed up, but instead of his dearest Rapunzel, the witch was waiting for him with angry, poisonous looks. "Aha!" she cried, "You've come to take your darling wife away, but the bird is gone from the nest, she won't be singing anymore; the cat has taken her away and before she's done she'll scratch your eyes out too. You've lost Rapunzel, you'll never see her again."
(And let's be honest the Prince was trepassing on private property just as Rapunzel's father was awhile ago. That is a huge crime so becoming blind is not a huge punishment. The witch does not lay physical harm to either of them, but the punishment does make sense for both their misdeeds.) The prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped from the tower. It didn't kill him, but brambles he fell into scratched his eyes out and he was blind. He wandered through the forest, living on roots and berries and weeping and wailing over the loss of his dearest wife. For several years he wandered wretchedly, until at last he came to the desert place where Rapunzel was living in misery with the twins she had borne-a boy and a girl. He heard a voice that seemed familar, and when he approached Rapunzel recognized him, fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears dropped on his eyes, which were made clear again, so that he could see as well as ever. He took her to his kingdom, where she was welcomed with rejoicing, and they lived happy and contented for many years to come.