Two Grimm Tales
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Rapunzel
(Rapunzel)
There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length
the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at
the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the
most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one
dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was
dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down
into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion
(rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, and had the greatest
desire to eat some. This desire increased every day, and as she knew that she could not get
any of it, she quite pined away, and looked pale and miserable. Then her husband was
alarmed, and asked, "What ails you, dear wife?""Ah," she replied, "if I can't get some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, to eat, I shall die."
| Rampion is Campanula rapunculus: Its turniplike leaves and roots are eaten in salads. |
The man, who loved her, thought, "Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost you what it will."
In the twilight of the evening, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it with much relish. She, however, liked it so much — so very much, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening, therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him.
"How can you dare," said she with angry look, "to descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!"
"Ah," answered he, "let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat."
Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him, "If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother."
The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.
Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful [salad] child beneath the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried,
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.
Let down your hair to me."
After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through the forest and went by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried,
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her.
Let down your hair."
"If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I will for once try my fortune," said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried,
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,At once the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up.
Let down your hair."
At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king's son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought, "He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does;" and she said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said, "I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse."
They agreed that till that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, till once Rapunzel said to her, "Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king's son — he is with me in a moment."
"Ah! you wicked child," cried the enchantress "What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me. In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.
On the same day, however, that she cast out Rapunzel, the enchantress in the evening fastened the braids of hair which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king's son came and cried,
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel,she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but he did not find his dearest Rapunzel above, but the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks.
Let down your hair,"
"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 more."
The king's son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell, pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did nothing but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew 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 afterwards, happy and contented.
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The Three Spinning Women
(Die drei Spinnerinnen)
There was once a girl who was idle and would not spin, and let her mother say what
she would, she could not bring her to it. At last the mother was once so overcome with anger
and impatience, that she beat her, on which the girl began to weep loudly. Now at this very
moment the queen drove by, and when she heard the weeping she stopped her carriage, went
into the house and asked the mother why she was beating her daughter so that the cries could
be heard out on the road? Then the woman was ashamed to reveal the laziness of her daughter
and said, "I cannot get her to leave off spinning. She insists on spinning for ever and
ever, and I am poor, and cannot procure the flax."Then answered the queen, "There is nothing that I like better to hear than spinning, and I am never happier than when the wheels are humming. Let me have your daughter with me in the palace. I have flax enough, and there she shall spin as much as she likes." The mother was heartily satisfied with this, and the queen took the girl with her. When they had arrived at the palace, she led her up into three rooms which were filled from the bottom to the top with the finest flax.
"Now spin me this flax," said she, "and when you have done it, you shall have my eldest son for a husband, even if you are poor. I care not for that, your indefatigable industry is dowry enough."
The girl was secretly terrified, for she could not have spun the flax, no, not if she had lived till she was three hundred years old, and had sat at it every day from morning till night. When therefore she was alone, she began to weep, and sat thus for three days without moving a finger. On the third day came the queen, and when she saw that nothing had been spun yet, she was surprised; but the girl excused herself by saying that she had not been able to begin because of her great distress at leaving her mother's house. The queen was satisfied with this, but said when she was going away, "Tomorrow you must begin to work."
When the girl was alone again, she did not know what to do, and in her distress went to the window. Then she saw three women coming towards her, the first of whom had a broad flat foot, the second had such a great underlip that it hung down over her chin, and the third had a broad thumb. They remained standing before the window, looked up, and asked the girl what was amiss with her? She complained of her trouble, and then they offered her their help and said, "If you will invite us to the wedding, not be ashamed of us, and will call us your aunts, and likewise will place us at your table, we will spin up the flax for you, and that in a very short time."
"With all my heart," she replied, "do but come in and begin the work at once."
Then she let in the three strange women, and cleared a place in the first room, where they seated themselves and began their spinning. The one drew the thread and trod the wheel, the other wetted the thread, the third twisted it, and struck the table with her finger, and as often as she struck it, a skein of thread fell to the ground that was spun in the finest manner possible. The girl concealed the three spinners from the queen, and showed her whenever she came the great quantity of spun thread, till the latter could not praise her enough. When the first room was empty she went to the second, and at last to the third, and that too was quickly cleared. Then the three women took leave and said to the girl, "Do not forget what you have promised us, — it will make your fortune.
When the maiden showed the queen the empty rooms, and the great heap of yarn, she gave orders for the wedding, and the bridegroom rejoiced that he was to have such a clever and industrious wife, and praised her mightily.
"I have three aunts," said the girl, "and as they have been very kind to me, I should not like to forget them in my good fortune; allow me to invite them to the wedding, and let them sit with us at table."
The queen and the bridegroom said, "Why should we not allow that?" Therefore when the feast began, the three women entered in strange apparel, and the bride said, "Welcome, dear aunts."
"Ah," said the bridegroom, "how come you by these odious friends?" Thereupon he went to the one with the broad flat foot, and said, "How do you come by such a broad foot?"
"By treading," she answered, "by treading."
Then the bridegroom went to the second, and said, "How do you come by your falling lip?"
"By licking," she answered, "by licking."
Then he asked the third, "How do you come by your broad thumb?"
"By twisting the thread," she answered, "by twisting the thread."
On this the king's son was alarmed and said, "Neither now nor ever shall my beautiful bride touch a spinning-wheel."
And thus she got rid of the hateful flax-spinning.
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