The Brothers Grimm and Andersen

by Cursory Note

The Steadfast- No, Rapunzel

The Brothers Grimm and Andersen

~Welcome, my little ponies. Please, make yourselves comfortable, for tonight you have the special treat of a bedtime story, written by me. Don’t be afraid, it isn’t one of those scary tales you hear around the campfire. No, this is a story about True Love, Honor, and Courage. It begins on-~

<I do hope you forgive my interruption, Hans, but I believe we had the privilege of the first story.>

*Indeed.*

~Bah! Your stories are nothing but Old Mare’s Tales.~

<I…Do believe that is the point.>

*Aren’t all stories Old Mare’s Tales?*

~No! My stories are original, thank you very much Wilhem.~

*So just because we choose to gather folktales from ponies and save them for future generations rather than write our own, they are of less worth? Does that make sense, Jacob?*

<Allow me to think for a moment…No. It makes very little sense.>

~Will you two please allow me to tell my story? I already began.~

<Well, if you look up there you will see that you were only three words in.>

~Your point?~

*They are the same three words that begin almost any story.*

~That is not true. Name one story of yours that doesn’t begin with “Once Upon a Time.”~

<He has a point, Wilhelm.>

*Alright, fine. But we had all agreed that tonight was our turn, didn’t we Hans?*

~You were late. The ponies needed a story and I was happy to fill in for the two of you.~

*We ran into traffic on the way here. I tried to send you a message but somepony put a block on the house.*

~Why are you looking at me? I did no such thing!~

*Oh really?*

~Yes!~

<Gentlecolts, please, let’s not lose our tempers. After all, we are all civilized stallions. Wilhelm, I’m afraid I was the one who blocked all messages to the house.>

*Really Jacob? Why in Equestria did you do that?!*

<A few days ago I was trying to work but somepony kept sending messages nonstop, so I blocked them. I guess I forgot to take the spell off once I had finished.>

~Well that explains why I haven’t gotten any mail from Charles lately.~

<I think that may have more to do with his wife. She was quite distressed during your “Short stay” last summer.>

*In any event, can we please move on with the story?*

~But whose story will we tell first? I still think since I already started I should at least finish it.~

*It will be your turn tomorrow. Tonight it will be either Jacob or I.*

<I quite agree. Hans?>

~Oh…Fine. But which one of you will tell the story tonight?~

*You can do it, Jacob.*

<Thank you very much, Wilhelm. If I may have the chair?>

~Very well.~

<Thank you.>

<Now then, little ones, tonight’s story comes from olden times, when the Earth Pony chiefs still roamed the land, and were liken to the old unicorn Kings and Queens. It is a story of a wicked unicorn Witch and the brave son of an Earth Chancellor, who went through trials and torment to be with his True Love.>

---

There was once an Earth stallion and his wife who had long wished in vain for a foal, when at last they had reason to hope that Heaven would grant their wish. There was a little window at the back of their house, which overlooked a beautiful garden, full of lovely flowers and shrubs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and nopony dared to enter it, because it belonged to a powerful Witch, who was feared by everypony.

One day the mare, standing at this window and looking into the garden, saw a bed planted with beautiful bellflower. It looked so fresh and green that it made her long to eat some of it. This longing increased every day, and as she knew it could never be satisfied, she began to look pale and miserable, and to pine away. Then her husband was alarmed and said:

“What ails you, my dear wife?”

“Alas!” she answered, “If I cannot get any of the bellflower from the garden behind our house to eat, I shall die.”

Her husband, who loved her, thought, “Before you let your wife die, you must fetch her some of that bellflower, cost what it may.” So in the twilight he climbed over the wall into the Witch’s garden, hastily picked a hoof full of bellflower, and took it back to his wife. She immediately dressed it, and ate it up very eagerly. It was so very, very nice, that the next day her longing for it increased threefold. She could have no peace unless he husband fetched her some more. So in the twilight he set out again; but when he got over the wall he was terrified to see the Witch before him.

“How dare you come into my garden like a thief, and steal my bellflower?” she said, with angry looks and a flashing horn. “It shall be the worse for you!”

“Alas!” he answered, “Be merciful to me; I am only here from necessity. My wife sees your bellflower from the window, and she has such a longing for it, that she would die if she could not get some of it.”

The anger of the Witch abated, and she said to him, “If it is as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much bellflower as you like, but on one condition. You must give me the foal which your wife is about to bring into the world. I will care for it like a mother, and all will be well with it.” In his fear the stallion consented to everything, and when the foal was born, the Witch appeared, gave it the name Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Rapunzel was the most beautiful filly under Celestia's sun. When she was twelve years old, the Witch shut her up in a tower which stood in a wood. It had neither staircase nor doors, and only a little window quite high up in the wall. When the Witch wanted to enter the tower, she stood at the foot of it, and cried-

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your mane.”

Rapunzel had a splendidly long mane and tail, as fine as spun gold. As soon as she heard the voice of the Witch, she unfastened her plaits and twisted them round a hook by the window. They fell seventy five feet downwards, and the Witch climbed up by them.

It happened a couple of years later that the Chancellor’s son walked through the forest, and came close to the tower. From within he heard a song so lovely, that he stopped to listen. It was Rapunzel, who in her loneliness made her sweet voice resound to pass away the time. The Chancellor’s son wanted to join her, and he sought for the door of the tower, but there was none to find.

He walked home, but the song had touched his heart so deeply that he went into the forest every day to listen to it. Once, when he was hidden behind a tree, he saw a Witch come to the tower and call out-

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your mane.”

Then Rapunzel lowered her plaited mane and the Witch climbed up to her.

“If that is the ladder by which one ascends,” he thought, “I will try my luck myself.” And the next day, when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried-

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your mane.”

Her mane fell down at once, and the Chancellor’s son climbed up by it.

At first Rapunzel was terrified, for she had never set eyes on a stallion before, but the Chancellor’s son talked to her kindly, and told her that his heart had been so deeply touched by her song that he had no peace, and he was obliged to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked if she would have him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought, “He will love me better than old Mother Gothel.” So she said, “Yes,” and laid her hoof in his.

She said, “I will gladly go with you, but I do not know how I am to get down from this tower. When you come, will you bring a length of silk with you every time? I will twist it into a ladder, and when it is long enough I will descend by it, and you can take me away with you to your home.”

She arranged with him that he should come and see her every evening, for the old Witch came in the daytime.

The Witch discovered nothing, till suddenly Rapunzel said to her, “Tell me, Mother Gothel, how can it be that you are so much heavier to draw up than the young Stallion who will be here before long?”

“Oh, you wicked filly, what do you say?” I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me.” In her rage she seized Rapunzel’s beautiful mane and tail with her magic, snatched up a pair of shears and cut off the plaits, which fell to the ground. She was so merciless that she took poor Rapunzel away into a wilderness, where she forced her to live in the greatest grief and misery.

In the evening of the day on which she had banished Rapunzel, the Witch fastened the plaits which she had cut off to the hook by the window, and when the Stallion came and called-

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your mane,” she lowered the hair. The Stallion climbed up, but there he found, not his beloved Rapunzel, but the Witch, who looked at him with angry and wicked eyes.

“Ah!” she cried mockingly, “You have come to fetch your special somepony, but the pretty bird is no longer in her nest; and she can sing no more, for the cat has seized her, and it will scratch your own eyes out too. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.”

The Stallion was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he sprang out the window. He was not killed, but his eyes were scratched out by the thorns among which he fell. He wandered about blind in the wood, and had nothing but roots and berries to eat. He did nothing but weep and lament over the loss of his beloved wife Rapunzel. In this way he wandered about for some years, till at last he reached the wilderness where Rapunzel had been living in great poverty with the twins who had been born to her, a colt and a filly.

He heard a voice which seemed very familiar to him, and he went towards it. Rapunzel knew him at once, and fell weeping upon his neck. Two of her tears fell upon his eyes, and they immediately grew quite clear, and he could see as well as ever.

He took her to his realm, where he was received with joy, and they lived long and happily together.

---

<Well little ones, the time has come for you to sleep, and for us to head to our own beds as well. I hope you enjoyed my tale of Happily Ever After, and I shall see you all again next time.>

~Jacob?~

<Yes Hans?>

~That was awful.~

Author's Note:

Well, the first tale has been told. What horribly gruesome tale shall I tell next, hmm?

Comments

[Doubtful]

Ho dude... The tales of my childhood!
Really, great idea. If I may suggest, your next chapter could be Daumesdick? (Tom Thumb)
I really do love this adaptation! It deserves a fav and a Rainbow Dash!
th04.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/325/4/4/happy_rainbow_dash___png_by_larsurus-d4gw66i.png

[catfire13]

JACK AND DE BEANSTALK?????

[keam]

Oh Hans Christian Andersen, the writer to so many of the stories I heard as child!
And the Grim brothers, who doesn't love them!

Please, oh please, do the Snow Queen by H.C Andersen next!

[Cursory Note]

The Snow Queen, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Tom Thumb are all on the list.