Stranica 105 [105]
RAPUNZEL. 73
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,
“Tf itis 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 cold
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 finda
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 td it. Once, as he was stand¬