Original Story and Final Authoress's Note
Rapunzel
credited to the Grimm Brothers
~Short Summary of them: "You may already know these stories (includes The Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Rapunzel (of course), and others). Or perhaps they will be new to you (such as The Shepherd Boy). I feel like I have always known about Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. These tales seem to have been a part of me, almost from birth. And that's true all over the world. The best-known stories, like "Cinderella," are found in Africa, China, and Japan, just as they are in Europe and America.
"Two very learned brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, had a good idea many, many years ago. They traveled around the German countryside, going directly to the people for their folktales. One grandmother, a tailor's widow named Katherina Viehmann, knew scores of them, and the brothers took down the stories just as she told them.
"They published their first collection in 1812. That seems a long time ago. But probably the stories began to be told many hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years before that. No one knows who thought of them first, et someone must have done so.
"To me they seem like dreams poor people might have. The poor boy or girl always wins out, the treasure is found, the good food is eaten. But it isn't easy for poor people to get food and money and power by their own efforts. And so they need magic to help them -- magic clocks, magic sticks, magic birds, dwarfs, fairies. Fairy tales mix a lot of common sense with a lot of uncommon happenings. And they always end happily. That's the best part of it."
And here is one of their stories, from which I wrote my version.
Rapunzel
(This version and the summary of fairy tales/the Grimm Brothers is quoted from "The World Treasury of Children's Literature, Book II," with stories selected and commentaried by Clifton Fadiman...sorry for all the legal stuff, guys...on with the original!)
Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife, who had long wished for a child, but all in vain. And, it so happened that at the back of their house was a little window which overlooked a beautiful garden full of the finest vegetables and flowers. But there was a high wall round it, and no one ventured there, for it belonged to a witch of great power of whom all the world was afraid.
One day when the wife was standing at the window, and looking into the garden, she saw a bed filled with the finest rampion (editor's note: Rampion is a kind of flower whose root can be used in salads); 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. The man was uneasy, and he 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 the 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 to her heart's content. She liked it so much, and it tasted so good, that the next day she longed for it thrice as much as she had 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 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. My wife saw your rampion from our window, and became possessed with so great a longing for it that she would have died if she could not have 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 the man promised everythin, and when the time came and the child was born the witch appeared, and gave the child the name of Rapunzel (which is the same as rampion). Then she took it away with her.
Rapunzel grew to be 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. It had neither steps nor door, only one small window above.
When the witch wished to be let in, she would stand below and cry, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down thy 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 fall down twenty ells below, and the witch would climb up by it.
They had lived thus a few years when it happened that the King's son came riding through the wood. He came to the tower; and as he drew near he head a voice singing so sweetly that he stood still and listened. It was Rapunzel. In her loneliness she tried 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 here was none. So he rode home, but the song had entered 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 he listened while she called out, "O Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down thy hair."
Then he saw how Rapunzel let down her long tresses, and how the witch climbed up by them 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 they 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, telling her how her singing had entered into his heart, so that he could have no peace until he had seen her himself, that Rapunzel forgot her terror. When he asked her to take him for her husband, she saw that he was young and beautiful, and she thought to herself, "I certainly like him much better than old mother Gothel."
She put her hand into his hand, and said, "I would willingly go with thee, but I do not know how I shall get out. Each time thou comest, bring a silken rope, and I will make out a ladder. When it is quite ready I will use it to get down out of the tower, and thou shalt take my away on they horse." They agreed that he should come to her by evening, as he old woman only came in the daytime.
Now the witch knew nothing of all this until one day when Rapunzel said to her unwittingly, "Mother Gothel, how is it that you climb up her so slowly, and the King's son is with my in a moment?"
"O wicked child," cried the witch, "what is this I hear! I thought that I had hidden thee from all the world, and now 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 -- she cut, and the beautiful locks lay on the ground. The witch was so hardhearted that she took Rapunzel and put her in a waste and desert place, where the young girl lived in great woe and misery.
On the evening of the same day on which she took Rapunzel away she went back to the tower and made fast the severed lock of hair to the window hasp.
The King's son came and cried, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down they hair."
The witch let down the hair, and the King's son climbed up. But instead of his dearest Rapunzel he found the witch looking at him with her wicked glittering eyes.
"Aha!" cried she, mocking him, "you came for your darling, but the sweet bird sits no longer in the nests. She sings no more. The cat has got her, and will scratch out your eyes as well! Rapunzel is lost to you; you will see her no more."
The King's son was beside himself with grief, and in his agony he sprang from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns on which he fell put out his eyes. He wandered blindly through the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and doing nothing bit lamenting and weeping for the loss of his dearest wife.
He wandered for several years in this misery until one day he came to the desert place where Rapunzel lived with her twin chldren. She had borne him a boy and a girl. At first he heard a voice that he thought he knew, and when he reached the place from which it seemed to some Rapunzel recognized him, and fell on his neck and wept. When her tears touched his eyes they became clear again, and he could see as well as ever.
He took her and the children to his kingdom, where he was received with great joy, and there they lived long and happily.
Well there it is, guys...cept i got the idea that the witch found out about the prince cuz of the pregnancy in another version...the one with all the pretty pictures (i know that helps a lot, BUT...)
personally, i like my version a lot better, but i'm a lil biased...i like a lil more true love and common sense in my stories (y'know, Rapunzel loves him just cuz he looks better the witch, and she asks him to bring a lil bit of rope each time for a ladder...couldn't he have just brought a big ladder? DUH!!! wow...plus there's some premarital relations goin on here...mmmmhmmm...yup yup...innocence destroyers!!! i'm tellin ya...and i never liked the thought of someone's eyes being put out...anybody seen minority report? then ya know what i'm talkin about...g-ROSS!!!!)
anywho, this is my last and final authoress's note (for this story, at least!)
i love this story...it was my first, and it started it all...one day, when i actually have time, i'll rewrite it so it's more on level with what i've learned to write now (i wrote this a year and a half ago, guys, in the middle of eighth grade...gimme a break!)
welps, i'll reply to the reviews for the last time (sniffle!) and thanks, guys, for putting up with me!
fufie ~ thanx...very sweet review!
ThePenMage ~ thankies!
Chien ~ lol...the novel is still quite far away...sorry all the chappies were so short...but my other stories are longer (hint, hint)
Faeriegurl ~ thanx for comin back! you're awesome! update anniya NOW!!! =o)
Cinnamon ~ I'm glad you loved my story!
hemlock ~ i miss u! Where'd ya go? many thanks!
FairySpirite ~ Wow...one for every chappie! i'm quite flattered! I think that you've found my other fairy tales...if not, it's "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and "Rosemarie"
chava ~ Wow...you're great...i WILL expand it...one day...uno dios...but yeah, Zel is awesome...that's actually the reason i took the thorns thing out of my story, because her explanation of how the tears healed the prince was so awesome that i would have had no choice but to plagiarize it!
Well, that's all, folks! almost...i've updated "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" (17 chappies now), and I'll try to update "Rosemarie" soon!
Plus, i hope to work on expanding this and perhaps writing another retelling of Rapunzel, either one closer to the original or one set in present-day...hmmmm...oh, and i've started writing a retelling of Cinderella, but i won't post it until i'm done, because it eases a lot of the stress and totally prevents forced chapters (at least for the most part!)
So please review this one last time, and i luv u all! (and it wouldn't hurt y'all to stop by to do a lil bit of readin and reviewin some other stuff by that author Jenny the chica...wink, wink, nudge, nudge...lol)
Tootles!
Peace and love in the meantime!
~Jenny the chica~
Rapunzel
credited to the Grimm Brothers
~Short Summary of them: "You may already know these stories (includes The Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Rapunzel (of course), and others). Or perhaps they will be new to you (such as The Shepherd Boy). I feel like I have always known about Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. These tales seem to have been a part of me, almost from birth. And that's true all over the world. The best-known stories, like "Cinderella," are found in Africa, China, and Japan, just as they are in Europe and America.
"Two very learned brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, had a good idea many, many years ago. They traveled around the German countryside, going directly to the people for their folktales. One grandmother, a tailor's widow named Katherina Viehmann, knew scores of them, and the brothers took down the stories just as she told them.
"They published their first collection in 1812. That seems a long time ago. But probably the stories began to be told many hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years before that. No one knows who thought of them first, et someone must have done so.
"To me they seem like dreams poor people might have. The poor boy or girl always wins out, the treasure is found, the good food is eaten. But it isn't easy for poor people to get food and money and power by their own efforts. And so they need magic to help them -- magic clocks, magic sticks, magic birds, dwarfs, fairies. Fairy tales mix a lot of common sense with a lot of uncommon happenings. And they always end happily. That's the best part of it."
And here is one of their stories, from which I wrote my version.
Rapunzel
(This version and the summary of fairy tales/the Grimm Brothers is quoted from "The World Treasury of Children's Literature, Book II," with stories selected and commentaried by Clifton Fadiman...sorry for all the legal stuff, guys...on with the original!)
Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife, who had long wished for a child, but all in vain. And, it so happened that at the back of their house was a little window which overlooked a beautiful garden full of the finest vegetables and flowers. But there was a high wall round it, and no one ventured there, for it belonged to a witch of great power of whom all the world was afraid.
One day when the wife was standing at the window, and looking into the garden, she saw a bed filled with the finest rampion (editor's note: Rampion is a kind of flower whose root can be used in salads); 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. The man was uneasy, and he 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 the 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 to her heart's content. She liked it so much, and it tasted so good, that the next day she longed for it thrice as much as she had 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 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. My wife saw your rampion from our window, and became possessed with so great a longing for it that she would have died if she could not have 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 the man promised everythin, and when the time came and the child was born the witch appeared, and gave the child the name of Rapunzel (which is the same as rampion). Then she took it away with her.
Rapunzel grew to be 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. It had neither steps nor door, only one small window above.
When the witch wished to be let in, she would stand below and cry, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down thy 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 fall down twenty ells below, and the witch would climb up by it.
They had lived thus a few years when it happened that the King's son came riding through the wood. He came to the tower; and as he drew near he head a voice singing so sweetly that he stood still and listened. It was Rapunzel. In her loneliness she tried 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 here was none. So he rode home, but the song had entered 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 he listened while she called out, "O Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down thy hair."
Then he saw how Rapunzel let down her long tresses, and how the witch climbed up by them 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 they 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, telling her how her singing had entered into his heart, so that he could have no peace until he had seen her himself, that Rapunzel forgot her terror. When he asked her to take him for her husband, she saw that he was young and beautiful, and she thought to herself, "I certainly like him much better than old mother Gothel."
She put her hand into his hand, and said, "I would willingly go with thee, but I do not know how I shall get out. Each time thou comest, bring a silken rope, and I will make out a ladder. When it is quite ready I will use it to get down out of the tower, and thou shalt take my away on they horse." They agreed that he should come to her by evening, as he old woman only came in the daytime.
Now the witch knew nothing of all this until one day when Rapunzel said to her unwittingly, "Mother Gothel, how is it that you climb up her so slowly, and the King's son is with my in a moment?"
"O wicked child," cried the witch, "what is this I hear! I thought that I had hidden thee from all the world, and now 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 -- she cut, and the beautiful locks lay on the ground. The witch was so hardhearted that she took Rapunzel and put her in a waste and desert place, where the young girl lived in great woe and misery.
On the evening of the same day on which she took Rapunzel away she went back to the tower and made fast the severed lock of hair to the window hasp.
The King's son came and cried, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down they hair."
The witch let down the hair, and the King's son climbed up. But instead of his dearest Rapunzel he found the witch looking at him with her wicked glittering eyes.
"Aha!" cried she, mocking him, "you came for your darling, but the sweet bird sits no longer in the nests. She sings no more. The cat has got her, and will scratch out your eyes as well! Rapunzel is lost to you; you will see her no more."
The King's son was beside himself with grief, and in his agony he sprang from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns on which he fell put out his eyes. He wandered blindly through the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and doing nothing bit lamenting and weeping for the loss of his dearest wife.
He wandered for several years in this misery until one day he came to the desert place where Rapunzel lived with her twin chldren. She had borne him a boy and a girl. At first he heard a voice that he thought he knew, and when he reached the place from which it seemed to some Rapunzel recognized him, and fell on his neck and wept. When her tears touched his eyes they became clear again, and he could see as well as ever.
He took her and the children to his kingdom, where he was received with great joy, and there they lived long and happily.
Well there it is, guys...cept i got the idea that the witch found out about the prince cuz of the pregnancy in another version...the one with all the pretty pictures (i know that helps a lot, BUT...)
personally, i like my version a lot better, but i'm a lil biased...i like a lil more true love and common sense in my stories (y'know, Rapunzel loves him just cuz he looks better the witch, and she asks him to bring a lil bit of rope each time for a ladder...couldn't he have just brought a big ladder? DUH!!! wow...plus there's some premarital relations goin on here...mmmmhmmm...yup yup...innocence destroyers!!! i'm tellin ya...and i never liked the thought of someone's eyes being put out...anybody seen minority report? then ya know what i'm talkin about...g-ROSS!!!!)
anywho, this is my last and final authoress's note (for this story, at least!)
i love this story...it was my first, and it started it all...one day, when i actually have time, i'll rewrite it so it's more on level with what i've learned to write now (i wrote this a year and a half ago, guys, in the middle of eighth grade...gimme a break!)
welps, i'll reply to the reviews for the last time (sniffle!) and thanks, guys, for putting up with me!
fufie ~ thanx...very sweet review!
ThePenMage ~ thankies!
Chien ~ lol...the novel is still quite far away...sorry all the chappies were so short...but my other stories are longer (hint, hint)
Faeriegurl ~ thanx for comin back! you're awesome! update anniya NOW!!! =o)
Cinnamon ~ I'm glad you loved my story!
hemlock ~ i miss u! Where'd ya go? many thanks!
FairySpirite ~ Wow...one for every chappie! i'm quite flattered! I think that you've found my other fairy tales...if not, it's "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and "Rosemarie"
chava ~ Wow...you're great...i WILL expand it...one day...uno dios...but yeah, Zel is awesome...that's actually the reason i took the thorns thing out of my story, because her explanation of how the tears healed the prince was so awesome that i would have had no choice but to plagiarize it!
Well, that's all, folks! almost...i've updated "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" (17 chappies now), and I'll try to update "Rosemarie" soon!
Plus, i hope to work on expanding this and perhaps writing another retelling of Rapunzel, either one closer to the original or one set in present-day...hmmmm...oh, and i've started writing a retelling of Cinderella, but i won't post it until i'm done, because it eases a lot of the stress and totally prevents forced chapters (at least for the most part!)
So please review this one last time, and i luv u all! (and it wouldn't hurt y'all to stop by to do a lil bit of readin and reviewin some other stuff by that author Jenny the chica...wink, wink, nudge, nudge...lol)
Tootles!
Peace and love in the meantime!
~Jenny the chica~
