This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2014 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

There once lived a man and his wife, who had long wished 

for a child, but in vain. Now there was at the back of their 

house a little window which overlooked a beautiful garden 

full of the finest vegetables and flowers; but there was a 

high wall all round it, and no one ventured into it, for it 

belonged to a witch of great might, and of whom all the 

world was afraid.

One day that the wife was standing at the window, and 

looking into the garden, she saw a bed filled with the finest 

rampion; and it looked so fresh and green that she began to 

wish for some; and at length she longed for it greatly. This 

went on for days, and as she knew she could not get the 

rampion, she pined away, and grew pale and miserable. 

Then the man was uneasy, and asked, "What is the matter, 

dear wife?"

"Oh," answered she, "I shall die unless I can have some of 

that rampion to eat that grows in the garden at the back of 

our house." The man, who loved her very much, thought to 

himself, "Rather than lose my wife I will get some rampion, 

cost what it will." So in the twilight he climbed over the wall 

into the witch's garden, plucked hastily a handful of rampion 

and brought it to his wife. She made a salad of it at once, 

and ate of it to her heart's content. But she liked it so much, 

and it tasted so good, that the next day she longed for it 

thrice as much as she had done before; if she was to have 

any rest the man must climb over the wall once more. So he 

went in the twilight again; and as he was climbing back, he 

saw, all at once, the witch standing before him, and was 

terribly frightened, as she cried, with angry eyes, "How dare 

you climb over into my garden like a thief, and steal my 

rampion! it shall be the worse for you!"

"Oh," answered he, "be merciful rather than just, I 

have only done it through necessity; for my wife saw 

your rampion out of the window, and became 

possessed with so great a longing that she would have 

died if she could not have had some to eat." Then the 

witch said,

"If it is all as you say you may have as much rampion 

as you like, on one condition - the child that will come 

into the world must be given to me. It shall go well 

with the child, and I will care for it like a mother."

In his distress of mind the man promised everything; and 

when the time came when the child was born the witch 

appeared, and, giving the child the name of Rapunzel 

(which is the same as rampion), she took it away with her.

Rapunzel was the most beautiful child in the world. When 

she was twelve years old the witch shut her up in a tower 

in the midst of a wood, and it had neither steps nor door, 

only a small window above. When the witch wished to be 

let in, she would stand below and would cry,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair!"

Rapunzel had beautiful long hair that shone like gold. When 

she. heard the voice of the witch she would undo the 

fastening of the upper window, unbind the plaits of her 

hair, and let it down twenty ells below, and the witch would 

climb up by it.

After they had lived thus a few years it happened that 

as the King's son was riding through the wood, he 

came to the tower; and as he drew near he heard a 

voice singing so sweetly that he stood still and listened. 

It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to pass away 

the time with sweet songs. The King's son wished to go 

in to her, and sought to find a door in the tower, but 

there was none. So he rode home, but the song had 

entered into his heart, and every day he went into the 

wood and listened to it. Once, as he was standing there 

under a tree, he saw the witch come up, and listened 

while she called out,

"O Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair."

Then he saw how Rapunzel let down her long tresses, and 

how the witch climbed up by it and went in to her, and he 

said to himself, "Since that is the ladder I will climb it, and 

seek my fortune." And the next day, as soon as it began to 

grow dusk, he went to the tower and cried,

"O Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair."

And she let down her hair, and the King's son climbed up by 

it. Rapunzel was greatly terrified when she saw that a man 

had come in to her, for she had never seen one before; but 

the King's son began speaking so kindly to her, and told 

how her singing had entered into his heart, so that he could 

have no peace until he had seen her herself. Then Rapunzel 

forgot her terror, and when he asked her to take him for her 

husband, and she saw that he was young and beautiful, she 

thought to herself, "I certainly like him much better than old 

mother Gothel," and she put her hand into his hand.

She said: "I would willingly go with thee, but I do not know 

how I shall get out. When thou comest, bring each time a 

silken rope, and I will make a ladder, and when it is quite 

ready I will get down by it out of the tower, and thou shalt 

take me away on thy horse." They agreed that he should 

come to her every evening, as the old woman came in the 

day-time.

So the witch knew nothing of all this until once Rapunzel 

said to her unwittingly, "Mother Gothel, how is it that you 

climb up here so slowly, and the King's son is with me in a 

moment?"

"O wicked child," cried the witch, "what is this I hear! I 

thought I had hidden thee from all the world, and thou hast 

betrayed me!" In her anger she seized Rapunzel by her 

beautiful hair, struck her several times with her left hand, 

and then grasping a pair of shears in her right - snip, snap - 

the beautiful locks lay on the ground. And she was so hard-

hearted that she took Rapunzel and put her in a waste and 

desert place, where she lived in great woe and misery.

The same day on which she took Rapunzel away she went 

back to the tower in the evening and made fast the severed 

locks of hair to the window-hasp, and the King's son came 

and cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair."

You've previewed 17 of 26 pages.

To read more: