"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. It is one of the best
known of 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.

The story of Rapunzel is an example ofAarne-Tho mpson type 310 The Maiden in the
Tower. It contains many fairy tale fragmentary themes: the Forbidden Fruit, the Womanly
Wiles, a Hard Bargain, the Changeling Child, Enchanting Singing, the Unseen Watcher,
the Princely Rescue, and Healing Tears.

), planted in the garden and longed after it to the point of
death. For two nights, the husband went out and broke into thewitch's garden to gather
some for her, but on the third night, as he was scaling the wall to return home, the
enchantress (Dame Gothel) appeared and accused him ofthiever y. He begged for mercy,
and the old woman agreed to give him some rapunzel, on condition that the child his wife
was pregnant with be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agreed; a girl was
born; the enchantress appeared, and the child was taken away. She named 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:

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.

One day aprince 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 no
door leading in, and no stairway leading up. He then returned often, listening to her sing,
and one day saw the enchantress visit, thus learning how to gain access to Rapunzel.
When the witch was gone he bade Rapunzel let her hair down, and he climbed up, made
her acquaintance, and finally asked her tomarr y him. Rapunzel agreed.

Together they planned a way to get her out of the tower: he would come each night (thus
avoiding the enchantress who visited her by day), and bring hersilk, which Rapunzel
would gradually weave into aladder. 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 the witch. In

subsequent editions, she asked the witch one day (in a moment of forgetfulness) why it
was easier for her to draw him up instead of her.[1] 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 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 wasblind ed by the thorns below.

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

The witch is called "Mother Gothel", a common term for a godmother in German.[2] She features as the overprotective parent, and interpretations often differ on how negatively she is to be regarded.

A Biblical precept to remember here is that God\u2019s Word is written on many levels and
because of that there are disagreements between members from saint to saint and from
group against group. We don\u2019t need to know who is right just to know this situation exists
and then as we work through it we will see that none is right but God. God enters into
these disagreements and what we initially perceive as heresies, to show His way.

I Cor 18: For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be
divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
19: For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be
made manifest among you.