The Story
Once upon a time, a man and woman longed for a child. From their window they could see the beautiful garden of a powerful enchantress, full of magnificent plants. The woman craved the rapunzel lettuce she saw there desperately.
Her husband crept over the wall and gathered some — but the enchantress caught him. "You may have the lettuce," she said, "if you give me the child your wife will bear." Desperate, he agreed.
When their daughter was born, the enchantress took her and named her Rapunzel. When Rapunzel turned twelve, the enchantress locked her in a tall tower with no stairs and no door — only a window high above. Whenever she wished to enter, she called: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" And Rapunzel would lower her long golden braids as a ladder.
One day, a prince riding through the forest heard a beautiful voice singing from the tower. He came back day after day, listening. Finally he saw the enchantress call up to Rapunzel and watched how she climbed. The next day, the prince called: "Rapunzel, let down your hair!"
Rapunzel was startled but let her hair down. They spoke and fell in love, and the prince asked her to marry him.
The enchantress discovered their secret. In a fury, she cut off Rapunzel's braids and banished her to a distant desert. When the prince came and called, the enchantress dropped the braids — and the prince fell from the tower into thorns below, which blinded him.
He wandered for years, weeping, until at last he heard a familiar voice singing across a wasteland. He followed it and found Rapunzel. She held him and wept — and her tears, falling on his eyes, restored his sight.
They returned to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after.