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There once was a man and a woman. The woman was extra remarable because she was recognizable by her red hooded cape. The couple lived a happy married life together and wanted nothing more in life than to have a child of their own. They waited years and years until the wife was finally with child. But as cruel fate would have it, the wife fell very ill. The only cure was the herb from the garden of the wicked enchantress. The man knew that he had to do whatever it took to save his wife. In the mist of the dark night, the went into the enchantress' garden and stole some of her herbs.
The next day, he made his wife the tonic and she was instantly cured. However, the enchantress knew that the man had stolen herbs from her garden and vowed to punish him for his crime. When the wife gave birth, the enchantress appear and proclaimed, "You theives have stolen herbs from my precious garden. Now, I shall steal your precious child as payment!" The wife and the man were devastated that they have lost their daughter so soon after waiting years for her.
The enchantress stowed the child away in a tall tower hidden deep in the forest and named the child Rapunzel. Rapunzel had magnificent golden hair that grew so long the enchantress used it as a ladder to enter and exit the tower. The tower had no doors except for a single window at the very top.
One day a prince was lost in the forest and stumbled across the tower. There he saw the enchantress say "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair" and golden locks cascaded down from the window. He was curious to see who could be up in the tower so he waited until the enchantress left before he recited, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your own hair."
Long golden locks flowed down the tower and he mounted his way up. When the prince met Rapunzel they fell instantly in love and were secretly married. The prince continued to come back to see Rapunzel every night after the enchantress departed. One night the enchantress came back after she left and saw the prince come to see Rapunzel. The enchantress was furious and devised a plan to punish the treacherous pair.
The next day the enchantress climbed up the tower and cut off Rapunzel's hair. The enchantress then took Rapunzel to the middle of another deep part of the forest and left her there to rot. As for the prince, when he came to see Rapunzel later in the night, the enchantress tricked him into thinking the hair was from Rapunzel. When he climbed up into the tower, the person waiting at the top was not his beloved Rapunzel. It was the evil enchantress. She cursed him for ever laying eyes upon the tower and jabbed both his eyes out so he can ever see Rapunzel and then pushed him off the tower. The prince luckily survived the fall and spent the remainder of his days searching for Rapunzel hoping to find her again.
As for Rapunzel, she realized she was pregant. Alone in the forest she gave birth to a pair of twins, one boy and one girl. The enchantress naturally of course knew of this and stole her twins away from Rapunzel after she gave birth to them despite Rapunzel's protest. The enchantress decided not to keep the twins after exhausting so much work with Rapunzel. Instead she decided the twins can be for someone; a gift for her cousin who lived in a candy house in the middle of the wood. Her cousin loved the taste of young children, so the enchantress wanted to give the twins to a couple that would raise them to be plump.
She decided to give the twins to a couple in the next town over hoping that they would raise the twins to be big and scrumptious for her cousin to devour. The couple found the twins at the foot of their doorstep and decided to name the pair Hansel and Gretel.
Author's Note
Ever since reading the Grimm Brothers' version of Rapunzel and knowing that Rapunzel gave birth to twins, I knew the twins has to be Hansel and Gretel. To start off, in the original story, the wife was just hungry and wanted to eat from the enchantress's garden but to be more sympathetic to the characters, I made it so that the wife was ill. This way I also pay homage to the cute Disney version where the queen was ill when she was pregnant with Rapunzel, but devouring the magical flower saved her like in this version how the herbs saved the wife. (Fun fact, in German, Rapunzel was named after the herb that the man stole from the Enchantress's garden. Instead of making the husband agree out of fear to hand over his child, I made it so that he did not encounter the enchantress until she came to take their child as punishment to keep the sympathetic theme going. In the Grimm version the prince heard Rapunzel singing and was drawn to her voice, so he come to listen and that was when he witnessed how the enchantress climbed the tower. In my version I just skipped the singing. In the original version, Rapunzel basically exposed herself by telling the enchantress that she is lighter to carry up than the prince whom she sees every day. In my version, to keep the theme of sympathy, I made it so the enchantress just found out on her own. Instead of leaving Rapunzel in the desert, I made it so she was left in the middle of another dense forest. When Rapunzel gave birth, I wanted the tragedy to strike so I had the enchantress take her babies away. I then set up the prequel to Hansel and Gretel as best as I could without giving too much away. Surprisingly, in Grimm Brothers' version, the prince and Rapunzel were reunited, the blind prince could see again, and they lived happily ever after. This was a shock to me. In my version, it was the complete opposite. This was a fun for me to pull from the Disney and Grimm versions of Rapunzel to write my story.
Story Source : Rapunzel by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, translated by D. L. Ashliman
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