Rapunzel

----Original---

There were once a man and a woman who had long 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, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable.

Then her husband was alarmed, and asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?' 'Ah,' she replied, 'if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, 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 what it will.'

At twilight, 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 greedily. It tasted so good to her—so very good, 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, '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 woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under 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 it and cried: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.'

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 ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.

After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through the forest and passed 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:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.'

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 too will try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.'

Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up.

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 her 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, snap, 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.

On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress 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:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.'

she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found 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 again.' 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 naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, 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.

---MY VERSION---

Tears flowed down her face has she held her child in her arms. It was just her. Besides the crying mother there was no one in the room. If only her spell had worked. She wouldn’t be alone. She had always been alone. But her spell had failed and now, her child, the reason she was living was not.

But now, the enchantress, otherwise known only to herself as Jessabell Gothel, or Jess, was tending to her garden. The sad memories flooding her mind. At least with her garden she could take care of something. She was alone, but content with her plants. She stopped by her hanging plants, admiring her Golden Pothos, and watering her prizes with her magical water. Every plant was green, and bright, healthy and perfect. Except one.

Jess gasped, “What happened to my Rampion?” Part of the plant was cut and torn away, it seemed to cry out to Jess in agony.

“I will find the one who has stolen from you,” Jess promised, watering the Rampion with care, “I will find them and I will care for you twice-fold than before.”

She was startled, however, when a man clambered over her garden wall, a terrified look upon his face.

“You are the one!” Jess exclaimed, “How can you dare, descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!”

But the man stumbled out, “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.”

Jess paused for a moment. This was the man whom lived in the house next to her, with a pregnant wife. Oh, how she longed for a caring husband and a child to call her own once again. The thought brought her some joy so she said, “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.”

She saw the look on the man’s face. Shocked, but set on his mission.

The man had agreed. She helped him carefully unroot the plant and set it in a pot.

“Care for this plant like your own son or daughter,” Jess commanded, “I will have enchanted it to bring your wife and the coming child great health.”

He nodded, and left with the plant.

Once the baby had been born, with Jess nearby, having befriended the wife and her husband after the exchange, Jess took the child to her home naming her Rapunzel, after the plant that had helped her be brought into the world.

She lived with Jess, visiting her parents and helping tend the garden. By then Jess had fallen for the parents, in which they fell for the witch. The three cared for Rapunzel as loving parents, and took turns helping with Jess’s garden, and teaching young Rapunzel how to read and write. Jess had almost forgotten what sorrow she had gone through 15 years ago.

But the happiness could not continue as people started to realize what the woman and the parents of Rapunzel had done together at the birth of their child. Participating in magical rituals, which occurred at the birth of Rapunzel, was- to the village people- unacceptable for Rapunzel’s birth parents. The villagers hired another witch, one that had a life-long grudge against Jess already, and curses were started to be thrown at Rapunzel, threatening to be sent to the parents as well.

Not wanting the villagers to harm her lovers she sent Rapunzel away, to a tower in the middle of a forest, guarded by her pet. She forbid her lovers to visit her, or herself, locking herself away from everyone. Jess spent day in and day out forming counter curses against her enemy, protecting her lovers and her daughter.

She would leave at night, and visit Rapunzel during the day, brushing her long locks of golden hair that shimmered in the sun, reflexing her daughter’s beauty. She was the love of Jess’s life since she couldn’t see Rapunzel’s parents. They did try to enter Jess’s house, but Jess pushed them away in despair, determined that since they could not see her that they would be safe.

Whenever Jess visited Rapunzel she called out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel let your hair down for me!” And Rapunzel’s hair would flow out of the small window, by which she was singing to pass the time, and Jess would climb up it to visit her. She brought magical plants and gifts to soothe Rapunzel when she was sad, and make up for not being there like she used to be.

Things went like this for years, until Jess started to come less and less. Her fight with the unnamed enemy who threw curses like they were roses at a wedding grew harder and harder. Jess was going mad with fear for her lovers and daughter, never sleeping, in fear something would happen when she rested.

One day she had gone up to the tower, consumed with grief, as that morning her counterspells had failed her. Her lovers were dead. She had gone to tell Rapunzel this, slowly climbing up her hair after her daughter had let her hair down.

“Tell me, Dame Gothel,” Rapunzel said when Jess was in the tower, “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.”

Jess let her tears flow, “Ah! you wicked child,She cried, “What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!”

Jess, enchantress of the plants she had given Rapunzel, told the vines to grow thorns and they then sheared Rapunzel’s locks off in a heaping motion, still connected to the window, hanging out. But in her grief, the vines went further, and surrounded her, squeezing around Rapunzel.

Jess gasped in horror at what she was doing and willed the vines away, and sent Rapunzel into the desert in smoke, where no plant could harm her.

Jess sat on the floor, sobbing for hours at the horror of it all, when a man climbed into the window from the sheared locks.

“Aha!” Jess cried, standing up shakily, “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 again.”

The man, looking scared for his life jumped out the window, as Jess added, “I will never see her again.”

She heard the screams from the man who had jumped and in dismay of all the horror and grief she had caused, jumped as well. Though unlike the man, not surviving.