The famous brothers Grimm, who traveled throughout the territory of modern Germany, heard and recorded a huge number of folk tales. One of such works is the popular fairy tale "Rapunzel".
Brothers Grimm's tale "Rapunzel"
As already noted, the tale "Rapunzel" (Rapunzel) appeared in a collection of famous brothers during their travels through the territory of modern Germany. The tale tells about a young and beautiful girl with very long hair, who from an early age was imprisoned in a high tower far from human settlements.
The tale "Rapunzel" has been repeatedly translated into many languages. However, it was not created by brothers, it is a folklore creation, which describes a certain collective image and customs of that time.
According to the story, a married couple lived next door to the witch. Once a pregnant wife saw that a delicious salad was growing in the garden of a strange neighbor, and unable to resist the desire to taste it, she persuaded her husband to steal this delicacy for her at night. The poor husband agreed to get a salad for his beloved wife, but when he was about to return with the booty, the witch caught him. Oddly enough, the witch agreed not only to let the thief go, she allowed him to take salad in any quantity. In return, she took a promise from her husband to give her the firstborn. Later, a girl was born, the witch took the child for herself and gave her the name Rapunzel. Such an unusual name was chosen for a reason. The word "rapunzel" means the very delicious green salad that the real mother of the girl loved so much.
Unlike the Disney cartoon of the same name, the fairytale Rapunzel was banished by a sorceress to a dense forest for her love with the prince, and the latter was blinded. Also, the beautiful girl was the daughter of poor peasants, not a royal couple. When Rapunzel and the prince met again after years of separation, her tears returned the prince's sight, and then they lived happily until the end of their days.
The most modern film adaptation of the fairy tale is the cartoon of the Disney studio "Rapunzel: A Tangled Story". The original tale and all existing film adaptations are quite different from each other.
Rapunzel salad
Rapunzel is an edible plant from the Valerian family. Similar names are Valerianella spikelet, Valerianella vegetable garden, Field salad. In Russia, this type of salad is grown extremely rarely, but in Western Europe it is very popular. Presumably, this particular salad was implied in the tale. There is also an opinion that it could be Rapunzel's bell, but in German the valerian sounds like "Rapunzel" when the Bell is translated as "Rapunzel-Glockenblume". Therefore, most likely, we are talking about Field salad.
Incidentally, it was precisely because of this confusion that the first translations of the work had a different name. It was "Bell" in the translation of Pyotr Polevoy, and there was even a translation of a fairy tale called "Salatochka".
