| Rapunzel | |
|---|---|
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| Folk tale | |
| Name | Rapunzel |
| Aarne–Thompson grouping | ATU 310 (The Maiden in the Tower) |
| Mythology | European |
| Published in | Grimms' Fairy Tales |
"Rapunzel" (/rəˈpʌnzəl/rə-PUN-zəl;German:[ʁaˈpʊnt͡sl̩]ⓘ;French:Raiponce orPersinette) is a German[1]fairy tale most notably recorded by theBrothers Grimm and it was published in 1812 as part ofChildren's and Household Tales (KHM 12). The Grimms' story was developed from the Frenchliterary fairy tale ofPersinette byCharlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force (1698), which itself is an alternative version of the Italian fairy talePetrosinella byGiambattista Basile (1634).[2][3]
The tale is classified asAarne–Thompson type 310 ("The Maiden in The Tower").[4] Its plot has been used and parodied in variousmedia. Its best known line is, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair."
After years of wishing for a child, a couple is expecting their first baby. The husband and wife live next to a large high-walledflower and herb garden belonging to asorceress.[a] The wife craves the rapunzel (which is eithercornsalad orrampion[5]) that she sees growing in the garden. She refuses to eat anything else and begins to waste away. Her husband fears for her life and one night, he scales the garden wall tosteal some rapunzel for her. When the man returns home, his wife makes asalad out of the rapunzel and eats it. But the next day, the wife craves more rapunzel, so her husband returns to the garden that night to steal some more. As he climbs down the garden wall, the sorceress catches him and accuses him of theft. The man begs for mercy and explains his wife's condition. The sorceress agrees to be lenient, allowing the man to take all the rapunzel he wants on the condition that the baby be given to her when it is born.[b] Desperate, he agrees.[c]
When the wife gives birth to a baby girl, the sorceress takes her to raise as her own and names her "Rapunzel" after the plant her mother had craved. Rapunzel grows up to be a beautiful child with longgolden hair.[d] When she turns 12, the sorceress locks her up in atower in the middle of thewoods, with neither stairs nor a door, and only one room and one window at the top.[e] In order to visit Rapunzel, the sorceress stands at the bottom of the tower and calls out:
Rapunzel!
Rapunzel!
Let down your hair
That I may climb thy golden stair![f]
Whenever Rapunzel hears that rhyme,[g] she fastens her longbraided hair to ahook in the window before letting it fall 20yards to the ground, and the sorceress climbs it.
A few years later, aprince rides through the forest and hears Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he searches for her and discovers the tower, but is unable to get in. The prince returns to the tower often, listening to Rapunzel's beautiful singing, and one day sees the sorceress visit her as usual and learns how to gain access. When the sorceress leaves, the prince bids Rapunzel to let her hair down. Thinking it is the sorceress calling her again, Rapunzel lets down her hair and the prince climbs up. The two then fall in love and secretlymarry. As the sorceress visits Rapunzel by day, the couple plans a means of escape: the prince will bring his wife a strand ofsilk every night until she has enough to make a ladder for her to climb down the tower and ride away with him on horseback.
Before the couple's escape plan can come to fruition, however, the sorceress visits one day and Rapunzel innocently asks her why allher clothes are tight around the waist (this part comes from the 1812 original edition ofKinder- und Hausmärchen orChildren's and Household Tales, most commonly known in English asGrimms' Fairy Tales;[12] in later editions, Rapunzel instead asks "Dame Gothel",[h] in a moment of forgetfulness, why it is easier for her to draw up the prince than her[14]). In anger, the sorceress cuts off Rapunzel's hair and banishes her into the wilderness to fend for herself.
When the prince calls that night, the sorceress hooks Rapunzel's severed hair and lets it down to haul him up. To the prince's horror and shock, he finds himself meeting the sorceress instead of Rapunzel. After the sorceress tells the prince in a rage that he will never see Rapunzel again, he throws himself from the tower, landing in a patch ofthorns. Although the prince survives, the thornsblind him. A month later, Rapunzel gives birth in the wilderness to hertwin children with the prince – a boy and a girl.
For some years, the blind prince wanders through the wastelands of the country and eventually comes to the wilderness where Rapunzel has been living with their children. One day, as Rapunzel sings, the prince hears her voice again, and they are reunited. When they fall into each other's arms, Rapunzel shedstears, two of which fall into the prince's eyes, immediately restoring his sight. The prince leads Rapunzel and their children to his kingdom where they live happily ever after.[i]
Another version of the story ends with the revelation that the sorceress had untied Rapunzel's hair after the prince leapt from the tower, and it slipped from her hands and landed far below, leaving her trapped in the tower.[16]
Some researchers have proposed that the earliest possible inspiration for the "Maiden in the Tower" archetype is to theproto-Indo-Europeansun ordawn goddess myths, in which the light deity is trapped and is rescued.[17][18] Similar myths include that of theBalticsolar goddess,Saulė, who is held captive in a tower by a king.[19] Inspiration may also be taken from theclassical myth of the hero,Perseus; Perseus' mother, the PrincessDanaë, was confined to abronze tower by her own father,Acrisius, the King ofArgos, in an attempt to prevent her from becoming pregnant, as it was foretold by theOracle of Delphi that she would bear a son who would kill his grandfather.
Inspiration may come fromEthniu, daughter ofBalor, in Irish myth.
Inspiration may also come from the story ofSaint Barbara ofNicomedia, who is said to have been a beautiful woman who was confined to a tower by her father to protect her from bad influences.[20] While in the tower, she is said to have converted to Christianity and be ultimately martyred for her faith after a series of miracles delaying her execution.[20][21] Her story was included inThe Book of the City of Ladies, completed by 1405 byChristine de Pizan in vernacular French, which may have been highly influential on later writers, as it was popular throughout Europe.[21]
The earliest surviving reference to a female character with long hair that she offers to a male lover to climb like a ladder appears in the Persian epic poemShahnameh, written byFerdowsi betweenc. 977 and 1010 AD.[21] The heroine of the story,Rudāba, offers her hair so that her love interestZāl may enter the harem where she lives. Zāl instead uses a rope he had his servant brought with him so that she will not hurt herself.[21]
The first written record of a story that may be recognized asRapunzel isGiambattista Basile'sPetrosinella, translating to parsley, which was published inNaples in the local dialect in 1634 in a collection entitledLo cunto de li cunti (The Tale of Tales).[3] This version of the story differs from later versions as it is the wife not the husband who steals the plant, the maiden is taken by the villain as a child rather than a baby, and the maiden and the prince are not separated for years to be reunited in the end.[3] Most importantly, this version of the story contains a "flight" scene in which Petrosinella uses magic acorns that turn into animals to distract the ogress while she pursues the couple fleeing the tower.[22] This "flight" scene, with three magic objects used as distraction, is found in oral variants in theMediterranean region, notablySicily (Angiola),Malta (Little Parsley andLittle Fennel), andGreece (Anthousa the Fair with Golden Hair).[22]
In 1697,Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force published a variation of the story,Persinette, while confined to an abbey due to perceived misconduct during service in the court ofLouis XIV.[21][23] Before her imprisonment, de la Force was a prominent figure in the Parisian salons and considered one of the earlyconteuses as a contemporary toCharles Perrault.[21] This version of the story includes almost all elements that were found in later versions by the Grimm Brothers.[22] It is the first version to include the maiden's out of wedlock pregnancy, the villain's trickery leading to the prince's blinding, the birth of twins, and the tears of the maiden restoring the prince's sight. The tale ends with the antagonist taking pity on the couple and transporting them to the prince's kingdom.[21] While de la Force's claim thatPersinette was an original story cannot be substantiated, her version was the most complex at the time and did introduce original elements.[23]
In 2025, Indian author Rajesh Talwar publishedThe Witch, the Princess and the Tower of Doom, a reimagining of the classic fairy tale set within an Indian cultural framework. The story incorporates regional elements such as idlis and vadas, and blends traditional myth and folklore to create a uniquely localized narrative.[24]
The first known German translation ofCharlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force's talePersinette came about in 1766 by Friedrich Immanuel Bierling under the name "Das Cabinet der Feen. Oder gesammelte Feen-Märchen in neun Theilen, Aus dem Französischen übersetzt", published in Nürenberg. More famously,Persinette was translated into German by Friedrich Schulz and appeared in 1790 inKleine Romane (Little Novels), as it was Schulz who changed the plant and the maiden's name to Rapunzel.[25]Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm included the story in their first (1812) and seventh (1857) edition publications ofChildren's and Household Tales and removed elements that they believed were added to the "original" German fairy tale.[22] Although the Grimms' recounting of the fairy tale is the most prevalent version of the "Maiden in the Tower" in the western literary canon, the story does not appear to have connections to a Germanic oral folktale tradition.[22] Notably, the 1812 publication retains the out of wedlock pregnancy that reveals the prince's visits to the witch, whereas in the 1857 version edited byWilhelm Grimm, it is Rapunzel's slip of the tongue to address criticism that the tale was not appropriate for children.[23] It can be argued that the 1857 version of the story was the first written for a primarily child-aged audience.[23]
According to Greek folklorist Georgios A. Megas, fellow folklorist Michael Meracles concluded that the tale type originated in Southeastern Europe, by analysing 22 Greek variants, 2 Serbo-Croatian and 1 from Corsica.[26]
Scholar Jack Zipes stated that the tale type is "extremely popular throughout Europe".[27] However, scholar Ton Deker remarked that the tale type is "mainly known" in Central and South Europe, and in the Middle East.[28] In the same vein,Stith Thompson argued for a Mediterranean origin for the story, due to "its great popularity" in Italy and nearby countries.[29]
Scholar Ulrich Marzolph remarked that the tale type AT 310 was one of "the most frequently encountered tales in Arab oral tradition", albeit missing fromThe Arabian Nights compilation.[30]
Many scholars have interpreted "Maiden in the Tower" stories, which Rapunzel is a part of, as a metaphor for the protection of young women from pre-marital relationships by overzealous guardians.[22] Scholars have drawn comparisons of the confinement of Rapunzel in her tower to that of a convent, where women's lives were highly controlled and they lived in exclusion from outsiders.[3]
Scholars have also noted the strong theme of love conquering all in the story, as the lovers are united after years of searching in all versions afterPersinette and are ultimately happily reunited as a family.[31]
The seemingly unfair bargain that the husband makes with the sorceress in the opening ofRapunzel is a common convention in fairy tales, which is replicated inJack and the Beanstalk, when Jack trades a cow for beans, and inBeauty and the Beast, when Beauty comes to the Beast in return for a rose.[32] Furthermore, folkloric beliefs often regarded it as dangerous to deny a pregnant woman any food she craved, making the bargain with the sorceress more understandable, since the husband would have perceived his actions as saving his wife at the cost of his child.[31] Family members would often go to great lengths to secure such cravings, and such desires for lettuce and other vegetables may indicate a need forvitamins.[33][34]
The "Maiden in the Tower" archetype has drawn comparisons to a possible lostmatriarchal myth connected to thesacred marriage between the prince and the maiden and the rivalry between the maiden, representing life and spring, and thecrone, representing death and winter.[21]
Andrew Lang included the story in his 1890 publicationThe Red Fairy Book.[35] Other versions of the tale also appear inA Book of Witches (1965) byRuth Manning-Sanders and inPaul O. Zelinsky'sCaldecott Medal-winning picture book,Rapunzel (1997).
Anne Sexton wrote a poem called "Rapunzel" in her collectionTransformations (1971), a book in which she re-envisions sixteen of theGrimm's Fairy tales.[36]
Donna Jo Napoli's novelZel (1996) retells the Rapunzel story from three perspectives: the maiden, her mother, and the prince.[37]
Cress is the third book inThe Lunar Chronicles, ayoung adultscience fiction series written byMarissa Meyer that is an adaptation ofRapunzel. Crescent,nicknamed "Cress", is a prisoner on a satellite who is rescued and falls in love with her hero "Captain Thorne" amidst the story about "Cinder" a cyborg version of Cinderella.
Kate Forsyth has written two books about Rapunzel, one is a fictional retelling of the tale and of the life ofMademoiselle de la Force entitled,Bitter Greens, and her second book wasnon-fiction describing the development of the tale entitled,The Rebirth of Rapunzel: A Mythic Biography of the Maiden in the Tower.[21]
InNikita Gill's 2018 poetry collectionFierce Fairytales: & Other Stories to Stir Your Soul she has several poems that reference Rapunzel or Rapunzel's story includingRapunzel's Note Left for Mother Gothel andRapunzel, Rapunzel.[38]
In 2022,Mary McMyne published a standalone adult historical fantasy novelThe Book of Gothel, which speculates that the witch's character was inspired by the life of a medieval midwife named Haelewise, daughter-of-Hedda, who lived in 12th century Germania. The novel is a revisionist backstory for Rapunzel that also connects to elements ofSnow White,Little Red Riding Hood, and other tales.[39]
Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958–1961) featured a media of Rapunzel in an episode which aired on 27 October 1958.[46]Carol Lynley played Rapunzel andAgnes Moorehead played the evil witch.[46]
The fictional TV show, "The Flora Follicle Show" onSlim Goodbody in Nutri-City had a direct reference to the Rapunzel story, as Flora Follicle played Rapunzel to Lustre Lanolin's Prince Charming.
In the American fairy tale miniseries,The Tenth Kingdom (2000), the main character, Virginia Lewis is cursed by a Gypsy witch. As a result, she grows hair reminiscent of Rapunzel's and is locked away by the Huntsman in a tower.[47]
Rapunzel appears in theOnce Upon a Time episodeThe Tower (2014), portrayed by Alexandra Metz.[48] A second iteration of Rapunzel appears as one of the main antagonists in the seventh season ofOnce Upon a Time (Season 7, 2018), portrayed byGabrielle Anwar andMeegan Warner in flashbacks.[49] In this season, Rapunzel is Lady Tremaine, the wicked stepmother toCinderella.
The video of the song "Circles" byPost Malone is inspired by the story of Rapunzel.[50]
The American television animated anthology series,Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1995-2000), the classic story is retold with a fullAfrican-American cast and set inNew Orleans.[51] The episode starredTisha Campbell-Martin as Rapunzel,Whoopi Goldberg as Zenobia the Hoodoo Diva,Meshach Taylor as the Woodcutter,Hazelle Goodman as the Woodcutter's Wife,Donald Fullilove as Friend #1, andTico Wells as Friend #2.[51]
TheMattel cartoonEver After High (2013–2017), features Rapunzel's identical twin daughters: Holly and Poppy O'Hair.[52]
Tangled: The Series (2017–2020) is a 2D animated TV show based onDisneyAnimation's computer animated musical feature filmTangled. Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi reprise their roles ofRapunzel andEugene Fitzherbert.[53] A new main character named Cassandra appears, who is Rapunzel's feisty lady-in-waiting, and later revealed to be Mother Gothel's biological daughter.[54]
The Japanese anime seriesGrimm's Fairy Tale Classics (1987–1989) features the tale in its second season.[55]
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