Rapunzel

A man and woman, long childless, desire a child desperately. Behind their house grows a magical garden belonging to a sorceress. In the garden grows rampion—a vegetable the wife craves above all else. The husband, desperate to satisfy her desire, steals into the garden and steals some rampion. The sorceress discovers him and demands payment: their firstborn child. Bound by his promise, the man surrenders his daughter at birth. The sorceress raises the girl, Rapunzel, in a tower with a single window and no door. Rapunzel's only contact with the world is through her long, magnificent hair, which the sorceress uses to climb in and out of the tower. Years pass—Rapunzel grows into a beautiful young woman, lonely beyond measure, yet she does not despair or rage. Instead, she practices patience, singing to the empty air and maintaining hope that someday, somehow, she will escape. A prince, hunting nearby, hears her singing and discovers the tower. He climbs her hair and meets Rapunzel. They fall in love. But when the sorceress discovers their meetings, she cuts Rapunzel's hair and casts her into the wilderness, pregnant and alone. Rapunzel endures years of hardship, bearing twins in the forest, sustained only by her faith and the memory of the prince's love. At last, the prince finds her. His tears of reunion fall upon her eyes, restoring her sight (which the sorrow had blinded). They are reunited, their love vindicated by her years of patient suffering. Patience—the refusal to surrender to despair even in utter isolation—proves stronger than the sorceress's cruelty. Through patience and hope, Rapunzel achieves freedom and love.