Rapunzel and the Tower in the Wood

Once upon a time, a husband and wife lived in a little cottage. Over their garden wall grew the finest garden in the land, full of lettuces called rampion, and the wife longed for them so much that the husband climbed over the wall to pick some.

But the garden belonged to an old enchantress, and she caught him with his hands full. “You may keep the lettuces,” she said, “but when your baby is born, she will come to live with me.”

And so she did. The baby was called Rapunzel, after the lettuces, and she grew up with hair the colour of sunshine, longer and longer every year.

When Rapunzel was twelve, the enchantress led her deep into the wood, past the tall trees and the dark trees, along a path that nobody else knew.

At the end of the path stood a tower with a flag on top. It had a window at the very top, and no door at all. Rapunzel lived in the little room at the top, and every day the enchantress stood at the bottom and called,

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” And Rapunzel let down her long golden plait, all the way to the ground, and the enchantress climbed up it like a ladder.

Rapunzel was lonely in the tower, so she sang. She sang to the birds, and the birds sang back. She sang to the clouds, and the clouds drifted by to listen.

One day a young traveller heard her singing as he rode through the wood. He hid behind a tree, and he watched, and he listened, and he learned the words.

When the enchantress had gone, he stood beneath the window and called, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Down came the golden plait, and up he climbed.

Rapunzel had never seen anyone but the enchantress before. But the traveller was gentle, and he told her about rivers and markets and the sea, and she laughed for the first time in years.

“I'll come every evening,” he said, “and each time I'll bring a skein of silk. You can weave a ladder, and one night we'll climb down together.”

But the enchantress found the silk, and in a temper she snipped off Rapunzel's long plait and sent her away into the wild wood, all on her own.

Rapunzel wandered through the wood, singing to keep her courage up. And the traveller wandered through the wood too, looking for her, through the brambles and the bracken, for a long, long time.

Then one evening he heard a song he knew. He followed it between the trees, and there she was.

They walked out of the wood together, hand in hand, and found a little cottage of their own with a garden full of lettuces, which they shared with anyone who asked.

And Rapunzel's hair grew back, as long as you like, but she always kept it in a plait, just in case anyone ever needed a ladder. The End.