Rapunzel in one of those stories we seem to have been born knowing. The girl with long hair, imprisoned in a tower, rescued by a prince. It is definitely imbedded in our culture, appearing in picture books, cartoons, and films; the Grimm’s fairy tale has been retold countless times since it was first published. And yet, almost no one I ask seems to know where the girl’s name comes from. But then why should they? We don’t grow rampion in our gardens anymore, and we definitely don’t recognize its alternate name “rapunzel”. It is simply the girl’s name.
Of course, it’s not so surprising when you think about where the story came from. For “Rapunzel” is a reinterpretation of an older Italian fairy tale called “Petrosinella”. That story is almost two hundred years older, but the plot is basically the same: a pregnant woman steals from the garden of an ogre, who demands her unborn child in return for her life. This time the theft was of petrosinella, a kind if parsley, and no mention is made of the husband. But the girl is still taken and imprisoned in a tower, which can only be reached by climbing her hair. Apparently, the exact name and genus of the vegetable isn’t that important. There are other differences between the two tales. Magic is much more emphasized in the older version. The ogress teaches magic to the girl as she is growing up, magic which the girl later steals in order to employ against her. We are never told of the crone’s powers in the Grimm’s tale, she just threatens to use them; and neither is the old woman killed at the end, she just disappears from the story. The ogress is not so lucky, she is eaten by a wolf conjured by Petrosinella in her attempt to escape.
Stories are like that of course, they are after all entertainments, so they need to be relevant to their listeners. And for that matter, their storytellers. The first time I worked with this story, my children were making their first forays out into the world. Like the crone in Grimm’s tale, I was afraid of losing them. When I created my collage book of the story, I focused on the prying eyes of the world, peering into the private world we had created, tempting my children with unknown wonders. Perhaps exploring the story and creating the book was a way to help me let them go.
Now, ten years later, I have taken up the story again. I began writing this version, Rapunzel: a retelling, in the early months of lock-down, the summer of 2020. A close friend was confined to her apartment over-looking a large park, and I had been sending her short stories that she would read on Sunday afternoons to distract herself from her isolation. As I was confined as well, I decided one week I might as well try and write a new story. (Actually, I was running out of material to share with her.) “Rapunzel” seemed a good choice given the circumstances, and I did know the Grimm’s version by heart. That original retelling was brief, and not very polished, but somehow it captured both of our imaginations, and with her encouragement, I decided to take up the project more seriously.
I had made several seemingly random choices when I retold the Grimm version of the story for my friend, some based on humor, others to place the story more specifically in familiar historical period so that I could focus on specific details. When I went back to the story to ostensibly “clean it up”, I found myself traveling further and further into the world I had created, exploring backstories and locals, attempting to align historical references to at least a semblance of what we believe actually occurred. Summer turned to fall, and then winter, and I still was not finished. As they say, don’t open the door if you don’t want to see what’s on the other side.
Briefly, in my retelling, the story unfolds as follows:
After a brief introduction, we are introduced to her parents. Rapunzel is the child of Romeo and Juliet. It gives her a context, and it sets up a joke. “Oh, no! Did you think I meant them? Sorry, this story takes place in Firenze not Verona.” My Romeo and Juliet are still the children of rival families. In this case the Medici’s and the Bardi’s. And like their names-sakes, they are never supposed to be in the same room, let alone fall in love. But Fate has other ideas and does what Fate does best, arranging for the two beautiful teenagers fall in love. Anxious to avoid any suicide pacts, their parents give in and allow the couple to marry. The youngsters are set up in a small villa, part of a family compound on the edge of the city. Their neighbor is a reclusive old woman, devoted to her gardens, and unbeknownst to them, Romeo and Juliet’s great aunt. Simone is herself a Medici who withdrew from the court almost fifty years before when her husband was killed in a war. Her early tragedy continued when the child she was carrying was stillborn, leaving her crushed and alone. Her gardens are the only thing that has sustained her over the years, and she treats them like family.
Not surprisingly, left to their own devices, the young couple are soon to be blessed with a child. Juliet develops food cravings, and Romeo tries to help her. He decides to steal the leafy vegetable she so desires form their neighbor’s garden. But he thoughtlessly attempts his thievery in broad daylight and is caught by his father who is visiting Simone. Señor Bardi is furious, but still is surprised by the depth of Simone’s reaction, until he realizes the truth of what his son has truly done. For while digging out the roots, he has disturbed the grave of the baby Simone lost so long ago. When Romeo scales the wall to obtain the “rapunzel” for his pregnant wife, his actions are of a of greater effrontery than he ever could have imaged.
The families never held much hope for the children’s marriage lasting more than a few years, and arrangements had already been made for where to place their child when it fell apart. Now, given the circumstances, the children are told that it will be annulled, and they will be charged with assuming the roles that were always planned for them. Romeo will be sent to the court in Versailles with his father, and Juliet will honor the commitment her father made when she was ten and marry the son of the Doge in Venice. All that changes from long existing plans, is that Romeo’s father asks Simone to raise the child, praying that doing so will finally restore her from the loss she endured fifty years before.
Thankfully his intuition proves correct. Simone thrives in motherhood, loves the child as her own, and seems if anything to grow younger in the process. The child is happy and precocious, devoted to her mother and their life together. They continue to live alone in the villa. Rapunzel is schooled by tutors appropriate to her station, and Simone teaches her a lifetime’s knowledge of horticulture and cuisine. But recognizing other gifts the child has been blessed with, Simone encourages her musical development, and the child demonstrates herself to be a musical prodigy who discovers the harpsichord at seven and never looks back.
But it is not so easy to escape the past, and soon it comes to haunt them in the form of young men, fortune hunters who want to see the young Medici who lives with the old woman. They try to hide the girl’s appearance, or failing that, Simone tries to drive them away. But ultimately, they decide to flee themselves, and secretly take up residency on a family estate outside the city. The act is not entirely innocent, Simone is aware she is trying to hold onto the girl’s childhood as long as possible. She had spent a lifetime grieving, and now she is finally happy. But she is aware this cannot go on forever, she is well into her seventies and the years are catching up with her. She only hopes that the child might be with her until she passes. She begins to involve Rapunzel in planning every aspect of their life, and when the time is right, she withdraws to the city, and leave the child control of the estate. She visits, often, but Rapunzel’s life is to be her own.
Fate however returns to remind everyone who is in charge of destiny. She guides a handsome young man to the estate and arranges a meeting. History repeats itself as the couple find themselves entranced by a stranger, and suddenly Rapunzel finds she has discovered in Rafael the one thing that her mother had always denied her. Somehow, she keeps her head, for by now she is in her twenties, and nowhere near as reckless and young as her birth mother had been. A grown woman, she is quite aware of her mother’s desire to keep her for herself. Reluctantly she heeds her neighbor’s council and withdraws. But when the young man returns to Firenze and searches out the secret of her hiding place, she can no longer make herself resist the temptation that love offers to complete her world. She attempts to divide her life into two parts and keep her lover a secret, but of course intimacy can only be staved off for so long, and once she gives in to her desire and becomes pregnant her mother discovers the truth.
Simone’s initial pain was so great, and she lived alone with it for so long, it rises up again and consumes her. That she might lose her daughter is her greatest fear. At first, she attempts to deny what is happening, but then when she can no longer remain blind to it, she retreats into silence and lets her fantasy govern her life. Rapunzel has made a choice to give herself to another. She has betrayed her and everything they shared, she cannot bear to have her near, and she has her sent away. The man, she cares nothing for. And without every looking him in the eye, she attempts to kill him and leaves him for dead. She returns to the city, and there, having thrown away the love that had renewed and sustained her all these years, she withers away and is dead by the year’s end.
Rapunzel’s lover, Rafael, nearly dies in the attack, and is left blind by the poison the crone administered. He is sustained only by the knowledge that he must find Rapunzel. It takes him most of the winter to regain his strength. No one in the city knows the truth of whom he was visiting each day, and he returns there and begins frequenting the taverns, adopting the guise of the reckless Lothario many believed him to have been. Eventually he befriends the very men who spirited his Rapunzel away and discovers that they took her to Padua. Traveling there with his original companions, it still takes weeks to discover her hiding place, and it is only the obvious depth of his love that loosens the tongues of those who can help him free her.
You know the rest. The lovers are reunited, and God smiles down on them, turning their tears to a salve that restores his vision, and Rapunzel introduces him to their children, born in exile. Together they return to the estate where, we assume they will live out their days in peace.
The decision to make the child the daughter of Romeo and Juliet was spontaneous. An extension of an old parlor game from my student days. “What if so-and-so didn’t die?” We played it a lot with history and literature. Of course, they would have a child almost immediately, but then what would happen, they certainly couldn’t raise it. Also, I needed a context for them and a family structure, obviously they could not remain Capulets and Montagues. Making Juliet a Medici solve myriad issues, it gave her immediate access to wealth and power, and moving the scene to Florence gave me an added trove of familiarity to draw upon. And setting the time of the action in Renaissance Italy felt distant enough that I felt pretty free in shifting events to my purposes.
But then what of the Crone? What would drive a woman to steal a child from her parents? Simply, there is no theft here. Family structure is more fluid in this time, and she is given the child in an attempt to help her heal past wounds. Simone suffered terribly in her youth, and alas, all the attempts to heal those wounds seem to fall short. That she is not able to overcome them and release the child once she has grown is her great failing, and the deep tragedy of the story. Thankfully, Rapunzel and her family are allowed to move on and try and remember the good in her.
All in all, the journey has taken me several years. It has definitely been an adventure, and I hope you enjoy the results. The entire story has published in book form by Karl Schrimper and Sons and will be available from the on-line printing services of Barnes and Noble.
If you would like to experience my last book, just follow the link below:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/turtle-and-the-moon-harlan-mathieu/1138549966