‘Rapunzel’
‘Rapunzel’,the best‐known version of which was published in the Grimms' Kinder‐ und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales, 1812) from which the title originates. In the Grimms' version, a king climbs into the garden of a witch to steal some of her Rapunzel salad leaves which his pregnant wife craves. Upon being caught by the witch, he promises her their child, whom the witch keeps in a doorless tower. One day, a prince observes the witch climbing up the girl's long golden hair and, doing likewise, he enjoys a secret relationship with Rapunzel until she becomes pregnant and the tightness of her clothes uncovers her deceit to the witch. In later editions, the Grimms revised this motif so that a naïve Rapunzel gives herself away when she unfavourably compares the witch's weight to that of the prince. The witch banishes Rapunzel to a desert and lures up the prince...
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