Section 1
Once, there lived a man and a woman who had been yearning for a child for a very long time. Eventually, the woman started to have faith that her wish would be granted by the grace of the Almighty. From the tiny window at the back of their home, these individuals had a view of a magnificent garden brimming with the most exquisite flowers and herbs. The garden was encompassed by a towering wall, and no one dared to venture inside it as it was owned by a powerful sorceress who was dreaded by all.
One day, the woman was gazing out of this window, and she caught sight of a raised garden bed adorned with the most stunning rapunzel plants. The sight of the lush greenery was so tempting that she yearned to taste some of the rapunzel, which was her utmost desire. With each passing day, her longing for rapunzel intensified, and since she didn't know how to obtain it, she became extremely ill and miserable.
"What's wrong with you, my dear wife?" her husband inquired, with a tone of fear in his voice. "Oh," she replied, "I will die unless I get some rapunzel from the garden behind our house."
The man cherished his wife greatly and pondered, "I must procure some rapunzel for her at any expense before I allow her to perish."
As night fell, he scaled the towering wall and rushed into the sorceress's garden, hastily uprooted a handful of rapunzel, and brought it to his wife. She quickly prepared a salad from the rapunzel and consumed it hungrily. It tasted so delightful that her craving for more tripled by the following day. In order for her to find any solace, the man had to venture into the garden once again. Thus, as night descended, he embarked on the mission again. However, as soon as he had scaled the wall, to his dismay, he spotted the sorceress standing right in front of him.
"How could you be so audacious," she inquired furiously, "to scale my garden wall and thieve my rapunzel? You shall face the consequences for your actions."
"Oh," he responded, "May mercy prevail over justice. I had to do this out of compulsion. My wife caught sight of your rapunzel from our window, and she was seized by such a strong desire for it that she would perish if she didn't have any to eat."
The sorceress's rage subsided to some extent, and she stated, "If what you say is true, then I shall permit you to take as much rapunzel as you require." However, there is one condition: You must surrender to me the child that your wife will bear. The child shall live a good life, and I shall care for it as if it were my own."
Consumed by his fear, the man consented to the sorceress's terms without any resistance.
Upon the woman's delivery, the sorceress arrived, named the newborn girl Rapunzel, and snatched her away. Rapunzel grew up to be the most exquisite child on earth. When Rapunzel reached the age of twelve, the sorceress locked her up in a tower situated in a forest. The tower lacked a door or a staircase, and only possessed a minuscule window situated at the very top.
Whenever the sorceress desired to gain entrance, she stood beneath the tower and hollered:
Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.
Rapunzel possessed stunningly long hair, as delicate as golden thread. Upon hearing the sorceress's voice, she untied her braids, wrapped them around a hook near the window, and lowered her hair down twenty yards to the ground, the sorceress subsequently climbed up Rapunzel's hair to gain entry.
