--- title: "Rapunzel" story_id: "36d1b567-be80-4fe4-b3dc-8013e651b558" text_id: "e4f1b4c6-081f-4251-b3c4-031ff7ee7898" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/rapunzel" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/rapunzel" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # Rapunzel > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/rapunzel) Version: Modernized In this German tale from the Brothers Grimm, an enchantress shuts Rapunzel in a tower with no door or stairs. To reach her, the enchantress climbs up her long hair. One day, a prince hears Rapunzel singing and looks for a way into the tower. But the enchantress is watching… **Content warning:** This tale contains a young woman’s confinement, forced separation and a serious injury to the eyes. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/60d0fd30-0f40-48c2-ab96-0114f2d8ab3f) Once upon a time, there were a man and a woman who had long wished for a child without success. At last the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house. Through it, they could see a splendid garden 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 with great power, feared by everyone. One day the woman stood at the window looking down into the garden. She saw a bed of beautiful rampion (rapunzel), a plant eaten in salads. It looked so fresh and green that she longed to eat some. This desire increased every day. As she knew she could not get any of it, she grew weak and looked pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and asked, “What is wrong, dear wife?” “Ah,” she replied, “if I can’t eat some of the rampion in the garden behind our house, I shall die.” The man, who loved her, thought, “Rather than let your wife die, bring her some rampion yourself, whatever it costs you.” 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 peace, her husband had to go down into the garden again. 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 dare you,” she said angrily, “climb down into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You will suffer for it!” “Ah,” answered he, “let mercy take the place of justice. I only did it because I had no choice. 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’s anger softened, and she said to him, “If it is as you say, I will let you take as much rampion as you want. But I have one condition: you must give me the child your wife will bring into the world. It will be treated well, and I will care for it like a mother.” In his terror, the man consented to everything. When the woman gave birth, the enchantress appeared at once, named the child Rapunzel, and took it away with her. Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child beneath the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her in a tower in a forest. It had neither stairs nor door, but right at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she stood beneath it and cried, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.” Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold. When she heard the enchantress, she unfastened her braids and wound them around a window hook. Her hair fell a good many yards down. The enchantress climbed up it. After a year or two, 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 passed her lonely hours singing in her sweet voice. 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. One day, as he stood behind a tree, he saw an enchantress approach and heard her call, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair.” Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. “If that is the ladder to use, I will try my luck for once,” he said. The next day, when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair.” Immediately the hair fell down and the King’s son climbed up. At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened: she had never seen a man before. But the King’s son spoke to her like a friend. He told her that his heart had been so deeply stirred that he could find no rest and had to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear. When he asked her to marry him, she saw that he was young and handsome and thought, “He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does.” She said yes and laid her hand in his. She said, “I will gladly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring a bundle of silk thread every time you come, and I will weave a ladder. When it is ready, I will climb down and you will take me on your horse.” They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress noticed none of this, until once Rapunzel said to her, “Tell me, Dame Gothel, why are you so much heavier for me to pull 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 cut you off from the whole world, and yet you have deceived me.” In her anger she clutched Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses and wrapped them twice round her left hand. She seized a pair of scissors with her right hand and snip, snap, cut off the hair. 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. That same evening, after casting out Rapunzel, the enchantress fastened the cut braids to the window hook. When the King’s son came and cried, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair,” she let the hair down. The King’s son climbed up. Instead of his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks. “Aha!” she cried mockingly, “You have come for your dearest, but the beautiful bird no longer sings in its nest. The cat has caught it and will leave you blind too. Rapunzel is lost to you. You will never see her again.” The King’s son was beside himself with pain. In his despair, he badly hurt himself. He survived, but the thorns left him blind. Then he wandered through the forest, completely blind. He ate nothing but roots and berries, and did nothing but mourn and weep for his dearest wife. He wandered in misery for several years. At last he reached the desert where Rapunzel lived in poverty with the twins she had borne, a boy and a girl. He heard a voice so familiar that he went towards it. As he approached, Rapunzel recognised him, threw her arms around his neck and wept. Two of her tears fell into his eyes. They grew clear again, and he could see as before. He led her to his kingdom, where he was joyfully received. They lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented. **Translator’s note.** Rapunzel, *Campanula rapunculus* (rampion), a relative of the common harebell. It has a long white root, tapering at both ends, which is eaten raw like a radish and has a pleasant sweet flavour. Its leaves and young shoots are also used in salads—and so are the roots, sliced. — Tr. ## Modernization notes - 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 → stood at the window looking down into the garden. She saw a bed of beautiful rampion (rapunzel), a plant eaten in salads. It looked so fresh and green that she longed: Rampion is an edible plant. Rapunzel receives the same name as the plant in the enchantress’s garden. - pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. → pain. In his despair, he badly hurt himself.: Exceptional softening for children: keep the despair and serious injury without detailing the act from the tower. The original is retained. - escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell, pierced his eyes. → survived, but the thorns left him blind.: Exceptional softening for children: keep survival, the thorns and blindness while omitting graphic eye details. The original is retained. - Thou wouldst fetch thy dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out thy eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to thee; thou wilt never see her more → You have come for your dearest, but the beautiful bird no longer sings in its nest. The cat has caught it and will leave you blind too. Rapunzel is lost to you. You will never see her again: Exceptional softening for children: keep the cat’s threat and the loss of sight, without the graphic description of scratching out eyes. The original is retained. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Grimm’s Household Tales, with the Author’s Notes, volume 1, 1884, George Bell and Sons, London - author: Jacob Grimm - author: Wilhelm Grimm - translator: Margaret Hunt ## Illustration [John R. Gruelle](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/60d0fd30-0f40-48c2-ab96-0114f2d8ab3f) — Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1914, Cupples & Leon Company, New York ## Reading music Three Romances, Op. 28 — No. 2 Robert Schumann Ivan Ilić (piano) [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) ## Quiz ### What is hair mainly made of? - Keratin (Correct answer) - Chalk - Wax Hair is mainly made of keratin, a protein also found in nails. [Nemours KidsHealth — Your Hair](https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/hair.html) ### Where does a hair begin to grow? - At its tip - At its root beneath the skin (Correct answer) - Halfway along its length Growth begins at the root, inside a tiny tube in the skin called a follicle. [Nemours KidsHealth — Your Hair](https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/hair.html) ### What kind of animal is the silkworm? - A spider - A bee - The caterpillar of a moth (Correct answer) The silkworm is the caterpillar of the silk moth. It spins a thread around itself to make a cocoon. [Museo Civico di Rovereto — The silkworm](https://www.fondazionemcr.it/silk05-the-silkworm) ### What does the silkworm raised for its cocoons eat? - Mulberry leaves (Correct answer) - Wheat grains - Rose petals Silkworm caterpillars feed on mulberry leaves before spinning their cocoons. [Museo Civico di Rovereto — The silkworm](https://www.fondazionemcr.it/silk05-the-silkworm) ### Which group of plants does rampion belong to? - Roses - Bellflowers (Correct answer) - Ferns Rampion, Campanula rapunculus, is a bellflower. Its flowers look like little bells. [Royal Horticultural Society — Campanula rapunculus](https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/41753/campanula-rapunculus/details) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/rapunzel?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)