Rapunzel!
Once upon a time, there was a husband and wife who longed for a child. They lived next to a beautiful garden that belonged to a powerful and evil witch. One day, the wife noticed some lush, green plants called rapunzel growing in the witch’s garden. She craved them so badly that she felt she would die without eating them.
Her husband, desperate to help her, sneaked into the witch’s garden to steal some rapunzel. He brought it back to his wife, who ate it greedily. But her craving only grew stronger, and she begged him to go again. The next night, as he was about to take more rapunzel, the witch caught him.
“How dare you steal from my garden!” the witch said, furious.
The terrified man begged for mercy, explaining that he only took the plants because his wife was pregnant and needed them. The witch softened slightly and said, “You can take as much rapunzel as you need, but in return, you must give me your baby when it is born.”
The man, too frightened to refuse, agreed. When the baby girl was born, the witch appeared, took the child away, and named her Rapunzel after the plant her mother had craved.
The witch raised Rapunzel in a tall tower deep in the forest. The tower had no door or stairs, only a single window at the top. When the witch wanted to visit her, she would stand at the bottom of the tower and call out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Rapunzel would let her long, golden hair fall from the window, and the witch would climb up.
Rapunzel grew into a beautiful young woman, but she was isolated from the world and had never seen another human besides the witch. One day, a prince happened to ride by the tower. Hearing Rapunzel sing, he was enchanted by her voice and wanted to see who was singing. He watched as the witch called for Rapunzel to let down her hair and realized how to reach her.
The next day, after the witch left, the prince went to the tower and called, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Thinking it was the witch, Rapunzel let her hair down, and the prince climbed up. Rapunzel had never seen a man before and was frightened at first, but the prince was kind and gentle, and they soon became friends. The prince visited her often, and over time, they fell in love.
They made a plan to escape. The prince would bring Rapunzel a piece of silk every time he visited, and she would weave a ladder to climb down. But one day, Rapunzel accidentally let slip to the witch about her prince. She said, “Why are you so much heavier to pull up than the prince?”
The witch was enraged. She cut off Rapunzel’s long hair and banished her to a desolate place far away. That same evening, when the prince came to the tower, the witch let Rapunzel’s cut hair fall down. When the prince climbed up, he found the witch instead of Rapunzel.
In horror, the prince fell from the tower and landed in a patch of thorns. The thorns scratched his eyes, making him blind. Heartbroken and unable to see, the prince wandered the forest for years, searching for Rapunzel, but never finding her.
One day, while wandering aimlessly, the prince heard a familiar voice singing. It was Rapunzel! She was living alone in the wilderness, trying to survive. Overjoyed, the prince followed her voice and found her. Rapunzel recognized him immediately and wept with happiness. Her tears fell onto the prince’s eyes, and magically, his sight was restored.
The prince and Rapunzel returned to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after, far away from the wicked witch who had once held her captive.
The end!