(In the original version, the witch discovers RapunzelвЂ™s nightly trysts with the prince when she notices that Rapunzel has fallen pregnant.)Д®ven if we buy the GrimmsвЂ™ reference to Rapunzel as the princeвЂ™s вЂwifeвЂ™ in the bowdlerised version, and assume that they got married while she was still imprisoned in the tower, it probably wasnвЂ™t very wise to fall pregnant while trapped in a tower.ДЇor another, the motherвЂ™s craving for rampion (or вЂrapunzelвЂ™) in the witchвЂ™s garden is ripe with sexual symbolism, suggesting a woman who is unable to control her lustful desires: her вЂappetiteвЂ™ for the stuff leads her to nag her husband into agreeing to trespass into the forbidden garden, in a none-too-subtle echo of the Adam and Eve story (itвЂ™s all there: the garden, the man and woman, the forbidden zone, the inexplicable hankering for fresh produce).

Yet the version weвЂ™ve summarised above is very much the child-friendly version which the Brothers Grimm published in 1857, rather than the original from 1812, although even the sanitised version contains signs of the more adult content contained in the original tale. The story of вЂRapunzelвЂ™ is among the most famous fairy tales compiled by the Brothers Grimm. He takes Rapunzel and their children to his kingdom, where they proceeded to live happily ever after, as is often the way with these things. She weeps to see her lover without eyes, but when her tears fall on his face, his sight is magically restored.

Rapunzel as a baby