<h2>RAPUNZEL</h2>
<p>There were once a man and a woman who had long in in vain wished
for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant
her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their
house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of
the most 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 looked pale and miserable.
Then her husband was alarmed, and asked, "What ails you, dear
wife?" "Ah," she replied, "if I can't get some of the rampion which
is in the garden behind our house, to eat, 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 you what it will." In the
twilight of evening, 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 with much relish. She, however, liked it so much, so
very much, 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 can you dare," said she with angry look, "to descend into my
garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!"
"Ah," answered he, "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 little one came to them, the
enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel,
and took it away with her.</p>
<p>Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child beneath 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 this, and cried,</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<p>"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,</p>
<p>Let down your hair to me."</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>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 yards down, and the enchantress climbed
up by it.</p>
<p>After a year or two, it came to pass that the King's son rode
through the forest and went 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,</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<p>"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,</p>
<p>Let down your hair."</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"><SPAN href= "images/139.png"><ANTIMG width-obs="100%" src="images/139.png" alt=""></SPAN></div>
<p>Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the
enchantress climbed up to her. "If that is the ladder by which one
mounts, I will for once try my fortune," said he, and the next day,
when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried.</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<p>"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,</p>
<p>Let down your hair."</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Immediately the hair fell down, and the King's son climbed
up.</p>
<p>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 a husband, and she saw that he was
young and handsome, she thought, "He will love me more than old
Dame Gothel 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, Dame Gothel, 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, snip, 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.</p>
<p>On the same day, however, that she cast out Rapunzel, the
enchantress in the evening 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,</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<p>"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,</p>
<p>Let down your hair,"</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>she let the hair down. The King's son ascended, but he did not
find his dearest Rapunzel above, but 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 more." 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 nothing but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest
wife. Thus he roamed about I in misery for some years, and at
length came to the desert where Rapunzel 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.</p>
<SPAN name="motherholle"></SPAN>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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