Rapunzel

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For other uses, see Rapunzel (disambiguation).

"Rapunzel" is a fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales. It is one of the best known of fairy tales, and its plot has been used and parodied by many cartoonists and comedians, its best known line ("Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair") having entered popular culture.

1 Synopsis
2 Origins
- 2.1 What is "Rapunzel"?
3 Adaptations
4 See also
5 External links

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Synopsis

A childless couple who wanted a child lived next to a walled garden which belonged to an enchantress. The wife, at long last pregnant, noticed some rapunzel planted in the garden and longed after it to the point of death. For two nights, the husband went out and broke into the witch's garden to gather some for her, but on the third night, as he was scaling the wall to return home, the enchantress (Dame Gothel) appeared and accused him of thievery. He begged for mercy, and the old woman agreed to give him some rapunzel, on condition that the child his wife was pregnant with be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agreed; a girl was born; the enchantress appeared, and the child was taken away. She named her Rapunzel. When Rapunzel reached her twelfth year, the enchantress shut her away into a tower in the middle of the wood, with neither stairs nor door, and only one room and one window. When the witch went to visit Rapunzel, she stood beneath the tower and called out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair

Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her hair around a hook that sat beside the window, and drop it down to the enchantress, who would then climb up to Rapunzel.

One day a prince rode through the forest and heard Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he went to look for the girl and found the tower, but no door leading in, and no stairway leading up. He then returned often, listening to her sing, and one day saw the enchantress visit, thus learning how to gain access to Rapunzel. When the witch was gone he bade Rapunzel let her hair down, and he climbed up, made her acquaintance, and finally asked her to marry him. Rapunzel agreed.

Together they planned a way to get her out of the tower: he would come each night (thus avoiding the enchantress who visited her by day), and bring her silk, which Rapunzel would gradually weave into a ladder. Before the plan came to fruition however, Rapunzel foolishly gave the prince away, when she asked the witch one day (in a moment of forgetfulness) why it was easier for her to draw him up instead of her. In another version, Rapunzel had mentioned that her dress was getting tight around her belly, alerting the witch. In anger, Dame Gothel cut short Rapunzel's braided hair and cast her out into the wilderness to fend for herself.

When the prince called that night, the enchantress let the braids down to haul him up. To his horror he found himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who was nowhere to be found. When she told him in anger that he would never see Rapunzel again, he leapt from the tower in despair, and was blinded by the thorns below.

For months he wandered through the wastelands of the country. During this time, Rapunzel gave birth to the prince's twin children, a boy and a girl. One day, while Rapunzel sang as she fetched water, the prince heard Rapunzel's voice again and were reunited. When they fell into each others arms, her tears immediately restored his sight. The prince led her and their children to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after.

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Origins

An influence on Grimm's Rapunzel was Petrosinella, written by Giambattista Basile in his collection of fairy tales in 1634, Lo cunto de li cunti (The Story of Stories), or "Pentamerone". This tells a similar tale of a pregnant woman desiring some parsley from the garden of an ogress, getting caught, and having to promise the ogress her baby.

About half a century later, in France, a similar story was published by Mademoiselle de la Force, called "Persinette".

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What is "Rapunzel"?

It is difficult to be certain which plant species the Brothers Grimm meant by the word Rapunzel, but the following, listed in their own dictionary,[1] are candidates.

Valerianella locusta, common names: Corn salad, mache, lamb's lettuce, field salad. Rapunzel is called Feldsalat in Germany, Nusslisalat in Switzerland and Vogerlsalat in Austria. In cultivated form it has a low growing rosette of succulent green rounded leaves when young, when they are picked whole, washed of grit and eaten with oil and vinegar. When it bolts to seed it shows clusters of small white flowers. Etty's seed catalogue states Corn Salad (Verte de Cambrai) was in use by 1810.
Campanula rapunculus is known as Rapunzel-Glockenblume in German, and as Rampion in Etty's seed catalogue, and although classified under a different family, Campanulaceae, has a similar rosette when young, although with pointed leaves. Some English translations of Rapunzel used the word Rampion. Etty's catalogue states that it was noted in 1633, an esteemed root in salads, and to be sown in April or May. Herb catalogue Sand Mountain Herbs describes the root as extremely tasty, and the rosette leaves as edible, and that its blue bell-flowers appear in June or July."
Phyteuma spicata (picture), known as Ährige Teufelskralle in German.

The story of Rapunzel is an example of Aarne and Thompson's (see link) type 310 The Maiden in the Tower. It contains many fairy tale fragmentary themes: the Forbidden Fruit, the Womanly Wiles, a Hard Bargain, the Changeling Child, Enchanting Singing, the Unseen Watcher, the Princely Rescue, and Healing Tears.

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