It all started with a very strong wish for a tasty green plant. A husband and wife lived next door to a garden owned by a grumpy enchantress. The wife was going to have a baby, and one day, looking into the enchantress's garden, she saw some delicious-looking lettuce called rapunzel. She wanted it more than anything!

"Oh, I must have some of that rapunzel," she told her husband, "or I think I will fade away!"

Her husband loved her very much. So, that night, he climbed over the wall and quickly grabbed a handful of the rapunzel. His wife ate it all up and it was so good, she wanted even more the next day.

So, the husband climbed the wall again. But this time, the enchantress was waiting! "Aha!" she cried. "How dare you steal my rapunzel?"

The husband was very scared. "Please," he begged, "my wife will be so sad without it."

The enchantress thought for a moment. "Alright," she said, "you can take all the rapunzel you want. But, when your baby is born, you must give it to me." The poor husband was so frightened, he agreed.

Soon, a beautiful baby girl was born. The enchantress appeared, named the baby Rapunzel, and took her away.

The enchantress kept Rapunzel in a tall, tall tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had no stairs and no door, only one little window at the very top. When the enchantress wanted to visit, she would stand at the bottom and call out, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb thy golden stair."

Rapunzel had the most wonderful long hair, as fine as spun gold. When she heard the enchantress, she would unpin her braids and let her long hair fall all the way down from the window. The enchantress would then climb up the hair like a rope.

Years went by. One day, a prince was riding through the forest and heard someone singing. It was the most beautiful voice he had ever heard! He followed the sound to the tower but could find no way in. He came back every day to listen.

One afternoon, he saw the enchantress come to the tower and heard her call, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair." He watched as the long golden hair came tumbling down and the enchantress climbed up.

"So that's how you get in!" thought the prince. The next day, when it was getting dark, he went to the tower and called out, just like the enchantress, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair."

Down came the hair, and the prince climbed up. Rapunzel was a bit surprised to see a handsome prince instead of the old enchantress, but he was very kind, and soon they became good friends. The prince started visiting her every evening, because the enchantress only came during the day.

For a while, everything was a happy secret. But one day, Rapunzel said to the enchantress without thinking, "Oh, Mother Gothel, why is it that you are so much heavier to pull up than the young prince?"

The enchantress was furious! "You wicked child!" she shrieked. "You tricked me!" In her anger, she grabbed a pair of scissors and snip, snap! She cut off all of Rapunzel's beautiful long hair. Then, she took Rapunzel far away to a lonely, wild place to live all by herself.

That evening, when the prince came and called, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair," the enchantress let down the cut-off braids. The prince climbed up, but instead of his dear Rapunzel, he found the angry enchantress.

"She's gone!" cackled the enchantress. "And you'll never see her again!"

The prince was so sad and scared that he jumped from the tower. He didn't die, but he fell into a thorny bush, and the thorns poked his eyes, making him blind.

For years, the poor prince wandered through the forest, sad and blind, eating only roots and berries. All he did was cry for his lost Rapunzel.

One day, he wandered into the wild place where Rapunzel lived. She was singing sadly, and he recognized her voice! He stumbled towards the sound. When Rapunzel saw him, she knew him at once and ran to hug him, crying with joy. Two of her tears fell onto his eyes, and suddenly, he could see again! His eyes were all better.

The prince was overjoyed. He took Rapunzel (and their two little children, who had been born in the wild place) back to his kingdom. They lived there happily for a very, very long time.

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