Once upon a time, there lived a man and woman who longed for a child with all their hearts. Their little house had a window that looked out upon a magnificent garden filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. But this garden belonged to a powerful witch, and it was surrounded by a high wall that no one dared to climb.

One day, as the woman looked out of her window, she saw a bed of the most delicious rapunzel lettuce growing in the witch’s garden. The sight of it made her mouth water, and she longed for it so desperately that she began to waste away.

Her husband, seeing his wife growing pale and thin, asked with concern, “What troubles you, my dear?”

“Oh,” she replied, “if I cannot have some of that rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall surely die.”

The man, who loved his wife dearly, thought to himself, “Rather than let my wife die, I will get her some of that rapunzel, no matter what the cost.”

That evening, as twilight fell, he climbed over the wall into the witch’s garden. Quickly, he gathered a handful of rapunzel and brought it to his wife. She made it into a salad at once and ate it greedily, for it tasted better than anything she had ever eaten before.

But instead of satisfying her craving, the rapunzel only made her long for it three times as much. The next day, she begged her husband to get her more.

So once again, the man climbed over the wall. But as he gathered the rapunzel, he was startled by a terrible voice behind him.

“How dare you steal my rapunzel!” shrieked the witch, her eyes blazing with fury. “You shall pay for this!”

“Oh, please,” the man begged, falling to his knees. “I only did it out of necessity. My wife saw your rapunzel from our window, and she longed for it so much that she would have died if she had not gotten some to eat.”

The witch’s anger cooled somewhat, and she said, “If what you say is true, I will allow you to take as much rapunzel as you wish, but on one condition: you must give me the child that your wife will bring into the world. I will care for it like a mother.”

In his terror, the man agreed to everything, and when the woman gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, the witch appeared immediately and took the child away. She named her Rapunzel after the plant that had caused all this trouble.

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the witch shut her away in a tower that stood in a forest. The tower had no stairs and no door—only a small window at the very top.

When the witch wanted to go up, she would stand at the bottom of the tower and call out:

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

For Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold. When she heard the witch’s voice, she would unfasten her braids and wind them around a hook beside the window. Then she would let her hair fall down twenty ells to the ground, and the witch would climb up by it.

Years passed, and Rapunzel grew more beautiful each day, though she remained lonely in her tower. She had only the birds for company and would sing to them with a voice so lovely that it seemed to make the very air around the tower shimmer with magic.

One day, a young prince was riding through the forest when he heard her sweet song. He followed the sound until he came to the tower, but when he searched for a door and found none, he rode away. However, the song had so touched his heart that he returned every day to listen.

Once, as he stood hidden behind a tree, he saw the witch approach and heard her call:

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

He watched in amazement as the golden hair fell down and the witch climbed up. “If that is the ladder by which one mounts,” he thought, “I too will try my fortune.”

The next day, when it was beginning to get dark, he went to the tower and called:

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

Immediately the hair fell down, and the prince climbed up. At first, Rapunzel was terribly frightened when she saw a man climb through her window, for she had never seen one before. But the prince spoke to her kindly and told her that her singing had so touched his heart that he could have no rest until he had seen her.

Soon Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would marry him, she thought, “He is young and handsome, and he will love me better than old Dame Gothel does.” So she said yes and placed her hand in his.

“I will gladly go with you,” she said, “but I do not know how to get down. Each time you come, bring a skein of silk with you. I will weave it into a ladder, and when it is ready, I will climb down and you can take me away on your horse.”

They agreed that until then, he would come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day.

For months, the witch knew nothing of their meetings, until one day Rapunzel thoughtlessly said to her, “Tell me, Dame Gothel, how is it that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young prince who will be here soon?”

“Wicked child!” cried the witch in a rage. “What do I hear? I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!”

In her fury, she seized Rapunzel’s beautiful hair, wrapped it twice around her left hand, grabbed a pair of scissors with her right, and snip, snap—the lovely braids lay on the ground. The witch was so merciless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.

On the same day that she had banished Rapunzel, the witch fastened the cut-off braids to the hook of the window. When the prince came and called:

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

She let the hair down, and the prince climbed up. But instead of finding his dear Rapunzel, he found the witch, who stared at him with wicked, 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 prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair, he leaped down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes, and he became blind.

For years, he wandered through the forest, eating nothing but roots and berries, and doing nothing but weep and lament over the loss of his dearest wife. At last, he came to the desert where Rapunzel lived in misery with the twins she had borne—a boy and a girl.

He heard a voice that seemed familiar to him and walked toward it. When he approached, Rapunzel recognized 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 afterward, happy and contented, with their beautiful children.

As for the wicked witch, she was never seen again, and some say that her power was broken forever when true love conquered her cruel magic.

And they lived happily ever after.