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Want to read something different? This is a my version of the Grimm Brother's story Rapunzel. In the gloom of evening, a man let himself down the wall of the enchantress’ garden; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he heard the enchantress roaming about. He quickly made himself scarce behind a bush of roses. It seemed to take days before the enchantress slammed her door for the night. The man waited a bit longer, and soon was gripped with exhaustion. Within moments, the man looked about him, and crept from his hiding place. Unsheathing his small kitchen blade, he hacked at the rampion. Suddenly, a voice rang out: 'How can you dare descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!' It was the enchantress, come to harm him for his deeds. 'Ah,' answered he, 'I am Morice, your neighbor. Let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity.' The man tried to explain, tried to make clear his desperation for his spouse’s life. He recollected the events: “When my wife, Grayda, saw the bed planted with the most beautiful rampion, and it looked so fresh and green that she wanted nothing but it. She started to pine away, and began to look pale and miserable. I was alarmed, and asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?' 'Ah,' she replied, 'if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.' Now, I love this woman very much, so I thought: 'Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.'” The enchantress softened in her face, and said to him: "If you speak the truth, than I will allow you to take as much as you please. I have but one condition: your wife will bring a child to the world, and you must give it to me as I will care for it as a mother should.” Morice, in his terror, consented to everything, and took away the rampion before the enchantress changed her mind. Grayda, the wife, soon conceived a child, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her, Grayda screaming all the while. Rapunzel grew into the sunflower of the desert, the most beautiful child under the sun. As she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a hidden tower within a forest with neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window. Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and sent the hair as the enchantress’ rope. After some time, the king’s son passed by and heard a song so sweet he remained to listen. He did not know this was Rapunzel, who sang in her solitude to pass the time. With no door upon the tower, he could not find a way to greet her, and therefore remained visiting every day to hear her song. Rapunzel did not take notice. One time, the enchantress came and called to Rapunzel: “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.” Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. 'If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,' said the prince, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' Immediately, the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up. At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened as she had never laid eyes on a man; but as the prince spoke to her kindly, she lost her fear. “My heart has been stirred, as I have come many days to listen to your song,” he said. “I found myself needing to see you, my dear.” They talked for some time, and the young and handsome prince asked Rapunzel to marry him. With this, she thought, 'He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does, and agreed to his request. “But, how am I to get down? Perhaps you could bring a skein of silk every visit, and I will weave a ladder. When that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.” They agreed to prince coming by night, as the enchantress comes by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: 'Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw 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 separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!' In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and 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. She then took the cut braids and hooked them to the window. When the prince came, she let down the hair. The prince was mortified as he found the enchantress and not his Rapunzel. 'Aha!' she cried mockingly, 'you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.' The prince was heartbroken, and he leapt from the tower. Despite surviving the fall, the prince lost his eyes to the thorns he found himself in. He wandered blindly into the forest, and lived there for many years with nothing but roots and berries to eat. He did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. With a startle and a shock, Morice’s healthy wife woke him in bed. “Are you quite alright, my husband?” The man replied shakingly, “Let us never look to the enchantress’ garden.” Grayda looked confused, “Why of course, my dearest. Let us sleep once more.” The End Did you see what I did there?
To retell this story, I wrote using a dream sequence, and I started in medias res. By starting with the husband (whom I named Morice) already climbing the wall into the garden, I could then catch you up elsewhere while focusing on the major issue at hand. Note that "in medias res" means "in the middle of things". I used dream sequence to change the entire story into a dream of Rapunzel’s father. Yes, it was all a dream. That means that his wife, the Grayda that bore Rapunzel, never looked at the rampion and Rapunzel was never given life. This was to put an interesting twist to the story we all know and love. Comments? Questions? Links to your own versions? Post below! -ZebraD
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AuthorZebraD is currently a high school senior in Florida. She is constantly writing essays for school and scholarships. Archives
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