Rapunzel's Forest
Rapunzel's Forest Home Page Rapunzel's Forest About Us Rapunzel's Forest Chat Rapunzel's Forest Advice Rapunzel's Forest Forum Rapunzel's Forest Nursery Rapunzel's Forest Success Stories

Welcome to Rapunzel's Forest

Becoming a new mother is an exciting and challenging event.  From the moment your child is born, the life you knew will be magically transformed.   These new responsibilities can fill you with accomplishment and pride, but may also leave you feeling as if you were locked alone in a tall tower.

Celebrate your successes and discuss your missteps with other girls who have walked in your glass slippers.  No need to worry, there are no wicked stepmothers here to judge or criticize.

Come down from your tower, let down your hair and make your way through the thorny forest.  Your path may be a jagged one, but your dreams can still come true.  At the end of your journey can be your happily ever after.

Why the name Rapunzel's Forest?

This is a perfect explanation from the contributors at Wikipedia. It has been modified for this website. Feel free to share it with your friends.

Rapunzel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales.[1] It is one of the best known fairy tales, and its plot has been used and parodied by many cartoonists and comedians, its best known line ("Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair") having entered popular culture.

Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.[2] Another version of the tale also appears in A Book of Witches by Ruth Manning-Sanders.

Synopsis

A childless couple who wanted a child lived next to a walled garden which belonged to an enchantress. The wife, as a result of her long-awaited pregnancy, noticed some rapunzel plant (or, in some versions [1] of the story, radishes or lamb's lettuce), planted in the garden and longed for it to the point of death. For two nights, the husband went out and broke into the garden to gather some for her; on the third night, as he was scaling the wall to return home, the enchantress, whose name is said to be "Dame Gothel", caught him accused him of theft. He begged for mercy, and the old woman agreed to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agreed. When a girl was born, the enchantress took her and raised her as a ward, naming her Rapunzel. When Rapunzel reached her twelfth year, the enchantress shut her away into a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor door, and only one room and one window. When the witch went to visit Rapunzel, she stood beneath the tower and called out:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair.

Rapunzel in the castle park in Ludwigsburg

Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her long, fair hair around a hook that sat beside the window and drop it down to the enchantress, who would then climb up the hair to Rapunzel's tower room.

One day, a prince rode through the forest and heard Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he went to look for the girl and found the tower, but was unable to enter. He then returned often, listening to her beautiful singing, and one day saw Dame Gothel visit, thus learning how to gain access to Rapunzel. When Dame Gothel was gone, he bade Rapunzel let her hair down. When she did this, he climbed up, made her acquaintance, and finally asked her to marry him. Rapunzel agreed.

Together they planned a means of escape, wherein he would come each night (thus avoiding the enchantress who visited her by day), and bring her silk, which Rapunzel would gradually weave into a ladder. Before the plan came to fruition, however, Rapunzel foolishly gave the prince away. In the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Rapunzel innocently asks why her dress was getting tight around her belly, alerting Dame Gothel to the fact that Rapunzel was no longer a virgin. In subsequent editions, she asks the witch (in a moment of forgetfulness) why it was easier for her to draw him up than her.[3] In anger, Dame Gothel cut short Rapunzel's braided hair and cast her out into the wilderness to fend for herself.

When the prince called that night, the enchantress let the severed braids down to haul him up. To his horror, he found himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who was nowhere to be found. When she told him in anger that he would never see Rapunzel again, he leapt from the tower in despair and was blinded by the thorns below.

For months he wandered through the wastelands of the country. During this time, Rapunzel gave birth to the prince's twin children, a boy and a girl. One day, while Rapunzel sang as she fetched water, the prince heard Rapunzel's voice again, and they were reunited. When they fell into each other's arms, her tears immediately restored his sight. The prince led her and their children to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after.

Please visit the original article which includes: Commentary, Origins, Variants, What is Rapunzel?, Adaptations, References, External Links, Discussions and edit history.