Speaker 1: A school of humans.
Speaker 2: This episode discusses sensitive topics. Please listen with care. My
Speaker 2: name is Miranda Hawkins. Welcome to the Deep Dark Woods.
Speaker 2: Today's story is Atu three ten or Rapunzel.
Speaker 3: Rapunzel had splendid, long hair as fine as spun gold.
Speaker 3: When she heard the sorceress's voice, she untied her braids,
Speaker 3: wound them around a window hook, let her hair fall
Speaker 3: twenty yards to the ground, and the sorceress climbed up it.
Speaker 3: A few years later, it happened that a king's son
Speaker 3: was riding through the forest. As he approached the tower,
Speaker 3: he heard a psalm so beautiful that he stopped to listen.
Speaker 3: It was Rapunzel, who was passing the time by singing
Speaker 3: with her sweet voice. The prince wanted to climb up
Speaker 3: to her and looked for a door in the tower,
Speaker 3: but none was to be found. He rode home, but
Speaker 3: the song had so touched his heart that he returned
Speaker 3: to the forest every day and listened to it. One time,
Speaker 3: as he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw
Speaker 3: the sorceress approach and heard her say, Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let
Speaker 3: down your hair. Then Rapunzel let down her strands of
Speaker 3: hair and the sorceress climbed up them to her. If
Speaker 3: that is the latter to the tower, then sometime I
Speaker 3: will try my luck. And the next day, just as
Speaker 3: it was beginning to get dark, he went to the
Speaker 3: tower and called out, Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.
Speaker 3: The hair fell down, and the prince climbed up. At first,
Speaker 3: Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man such as she
Speaker 3: had never seen before came in to her. However, the
Speaker 3: prince began talking to her in a very friendly manner,
Speaker 3: telling her that his heart had been so touched by
Speaker 3: her singing that he could have no peace until he
Speaker 3: had seen her in person. Then Rapunzel lost her fear,
Speaker 3: and when he asked her if she would take him
Speaker 3: as her husband, she thought he would rather have me
Speaker 3: than old fraw gothel. She said yes and placed her
Speaker 3: hand into his. She said, I would go with you gladly,
Speaker 3: but I do not know how to get down. Every
Speaker 3: time that you come, bring a strand of silk from
Speaker 3: which I will weave a ladder. When it is finished,
Speaker 3: I will climb down and you can take me away
Speaker 3: on your horse. They arranged that he would come to
Speaker 3: her every evening for the old woman came by day.
Speaker 3: The sorceress did not notice what was happening until one
Speaker 3: day Rapunzel said to her, fraw gothel tell me why
Speaker 3: it is that you are more difficult to pull up
Speaker 3: than is the young young prince who will be arriving
Speaker 3: any moment. Now, you godless child, cried the sorceress, What
Speaker 3: am I hearing from you? I thought that I had
Speaker 3: removed you from the whole world, but you have deceived
Speaker 3: me none the less. In her anger, she grabbed Rapunzel's
Speaker 3: beautiful hair, wrapped it a few times around her left hand,
Speaker 3: grasped a pair of scissors with her right hand, and
Speaker 3: snip snap, cut it off. And she was so unmerciful
Speaker 3: that she took Rapunzel into a wilderness, where she suffered greatly.
Speaker 3: On the evening of the same day that she sent
Speaker 3: Rapunzel away, the sorceress tied the cut off hair to
Speaker 3: a hook at the top of the tower, and when
Speaker 3: the prince called out, Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.
Speaker 3: She let down the hair. The prince climbed up, but above,
Speaker 3: instead of his beloved Rapunzel, he found the sorceress, who
Speaker 3: peered at him with poisonous and evil looks.
Speaker 4: Aha, she cried scornfully.
Speaker 3: You have come for your man, mistress.
Speaker 4: Darling, But that beautiful bird is no longer sitting in
Speaker 4: her nest, nor is she singing anymore. The cat got her,
Speaker 4: and I will scratch your eyes out, as will you
Speaker 4: have lost Rapunzel.
Speaker 1: You will never.
Speaker 3: See her again. The prince was overcome with grief, and
Speaker 3: in his despair, he threw himself from the tower. He
Speaker 3: escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he
Speaker 3: fell poked out his eyes. Blind he wandered about the forest,
Speaker 3: eating nothing but grass and roots, and doing nothing but
Speaker 3: weeping and wailing over the loss of his beloved wife.
Speaker 3: Thus he wandered about miserably for some years, finally happening
Speaker 3: into the wilderness where Rapunzel lived miserably with the twins
Speaker 3: that she had given birth to. He heard a voice
Speaker 3: and thought it was familiar. He advanced toward it, and
Speaker 3: as he approached, Rapunzel recognized him, and, crying, threw her
Speaker 3: arms around his neck. Two of her tears fell into
Speaker 3: his eyes, and they became clear once again, and he
Speaker 3: could see as well as before. He led her to
Speaker 3: his kingdom, where he was received with joy, and for
Speaker 3: a long time they lived happily and satisfied.
Speaker 2: As someone who has an incredibly sensitive head, I always
Speaker 2: cringed at the prince climbing Rapunzel's hair, and also what
Speaker 2: about footholds, I don't know. It never made sense to me.
Speaker 2: The story of Rapunzel could have been based on the
Speaker 2: Christian legend of Saint Barbara, whose story was first recorded
Speaker 2: by the Archbishop of Genoa, Jacobis Dave Virognay. It was
Speaker 2: published in the Legenda Aria between twelve sixty five and
Speaker 2: twelve sixty six. Saint Barbara was a third century martyr
Speaker 2: who lived in either what would now be present day
Speaker 2: Turkey or present day Lebanon. Dioscorus, who was her pagan father,
Speaker 2: locked her in a tower to hide her great beauty
Speaker 2: from the world. Still, many a prince called for her
Speaker 2: hand in marriage, but she refused them all. While Dioscorus
Speaker 2: was away on business, Saint Barbara had a third window
Speaker 2: installed in her tower in honor of the Blessed Trinity.
Speaker 2: The Blessed Trinity is part of the Christian faith that
Speaker 2: believes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all part
Speaker 2: of God. When Dioscorus returned, Saint Barbara showed him the
Speaker 2: window and confessed her Christian faith to him. Naturally, he
Speaker 2: was angry and drew his sword to kill his daughter,
Speaker 2: but Saint Barbara swiftly prayed to God, who opened a
Speaker 2: hole in the tower for her to escape. Unfortunately, it
Speaker 2: wasn't long until she was captured and tortured before being beheaded.
Speaker 2: It's said not long after that a bolt of lightning
Speaker 2: killed her father. Because of this, Saint Barbara became the
Speaker 2: patron Saint of explosives and lightning, and therefore artillery men
Speaker 2: and miners because they use explosives. As a side note,
Speaker 2: in twenty ten, thirty three Chilean miners were trapped underground
Speaker 2: for two months. Upon the rescue, many thinked Saint Barbara.
Speaker 2: There are many stories of maidens and towers, but the
Speaker 2: first time we hear of a maiden with long hair
Speaker 2: is in an epic poem titled the Channamee. The story
Speaker 2: recounts the history of pre Islamic Persia or Greater Iran
Speaker 2: author and poet A Bulkassam for Dosi started this poem
Speaker 2: in nine seventy seven and finished thirty three years later.
Speaker 2: In ten ten. He wrote the poem at a time
Speaker 2: himwen Persia, which is now modern Iran, was forming and
Speaker 2: the standard for its language was being set. Unlike other
Speaker 2: maiden in Tower stories, the maiden in Shaannamee, Rudiba, isn't trapped.
Speaker 2: She goes there to wait for her lovers all In
Speaker 2: the most famous scene, Rudiba lets down her long hair
Speaker 2: and tells him to climate, but Zal says no and
Speaker 2: uses a rope instead. But apart from a Filipino version,
Speaker 2: all stories of maidens in the Tower have long flowing hair.
Speaker 2: But how did we get from the Shanamee to Rapunzel,
Speaker 2: It actually started with Parsley. In sixteen thirty four, Italian
Speaker 2: author John Batista Bazilee published Petro Snela, which translates to
Speaker 2: Little Parsley. Very few people saw this story because the
Speaker 2: language it was written in was obscure. A pregnant woman
Speaker 2: named Pascadosia was living beside an ogres. One day, she
Speaker 2: looks out her window and sees the ogress has a
Speaker 2: beautiful bed of parsley in her garden. The woman, unable
Speaker 2: to contain herself, waits for the ogress to leave before
Speaker 2: going to the garden to take a handful of the herb.
Speaker 2: The ogress comes home to cook her meal and sees
Speaker 2: some of her parsley has been stolen. Angered she swears vengeance.
Speaker 2: Even so, Pascadosia continues to steal parsley from the ogress.
Speaker 2: One day, the ogress catches Pascadosia and the woman pleads
Speaker 2: for her in her unborn baby's life. The ogress says
Speaker 2: she'll spare the woman in exchange for the unborn cho
Speaker 2: Pascadosia agrees. Later, she gives birth to the most beautiful
Speaker 2: little girl named Petro Sonella. When the girl turns seven,
Speaker 2: she is sent to school. Every day she passes by
Speaker 2: the ogress, and every day the ogress tells the girl
Speaker 2: to remind her mother of her promise. Finally, Pascadozia is
Speaker 2: so irritated she tells her daughter that the next time
Speaker 2: the ogress reminds Petro Snella of her mother's promise, to
Speaker 2: say take it. When the young girl does as she
Speaker 2: is told, the ogress grabs her by her hair and
Speaker 2: drags her to the woods and locks her in a tower.
Speaker 2: There is no door or ladder. The only way to
Speaker 2: get in and out is to climb Petro Sonella's hair.
Speaker 2: Petro Sonella grows into a beautiful young woman with two
Speaker 2: gleaming braids of golden hair. One day after the ogre
Speaker 2: is away, a prince comes across her and instantly falls
Speaker 2: in love. She agrees to let him climb her hair
Speaker 2: into the tower. After that first encounter, there are many
Speaker 2: days of getting to know each other. As Basillie writes,
Speaker 2: Petra Snella and the prince becomes so intimate that they
Speaker 2: made an appointment to meet. That night, Petra Snella doses
Speaker 2: the ogress with poppy juice so that she would not wake,
Speaker 2: and then pulls the prince into the tower with her hair,
Speaker 2: where he stays for the night. The next morning, Petrasonella
Speaker 2: lets him back down. This happens so much a local
Speaker 2: gossip finds out and tells the ogress. The ogress then
Speaker 2: puts a spell on Petrasnella so that she has to
Speaker 2: have three acorns or she won't find her way out.
Speaker 1: Of the woods.
Speaker 2: But Petra Snella overhears the ogress talking to the gossip
Speaker 2: about the spell. Night, she has the prince find the acorns.
Speaker 2: The two had been working on a rope ladder that
Speaker 2: they used to climb down the tower. Before they head
Speaker 2: for the city, the gossip sees Petra Snella and the
Speaker 2: Prince and yells so loudly it wakes the Ogres. The
Speaker 2: woman and ogress then begins chasing the couple. Petra Snella
Speaker 2: throws an acorn at them, and when it breaks open,
Speaker 2: a ferocious dog springs forth and swallows the gossip, But
Speaker 2: the Ogress pulls out some bread to give to the
Speaker 2: dog and continues to pursue the lovers. Then Petra Snella
Speaker 2: throws the second acorn and a lion jumps out. The
Speaker 2: Ogress quickly finds a donkey in the middle of a meadow,
Speaker 2: strips it of its skin, and then puts it on
Speaker 2: and attacks the lion. The lion, thinking it's a real donkey,
Speaker 2: runs away. Petra Snella throws the third and final acorn.
Speaker 2: The Ogris, who is worried the lion might come back,
Speaker 2: is still wearing the donkey's skin, so when a wolf
Speaker 2: jumps out, it devours her whole. The lovers are safe.
Speaker 2: They return to the Prince's kingdom, where the king gives
Speaker 2: the too his blessing. Petra Snella and the Prince Mary.
Speaker 2: The moral Basilier writes at the end of this story
Speaker 2: is when hour in port, the sailor, freed from fears,
Speaker 2: forgets the tempests of one hundred years. Basically, basili is
Speaker 2: saying that Petrasonnella's happily ever after can help her forget
Speaker 2: the awfulness she dealt with before. In most Rapunzel stories,
Speaker 2: the pregnant woman craves Parsley or Rapunzel, or some kind
Speaker 2: of vegetable or fruit. In the seventeenth century, when Basilier
Speaker 2: was writing, folk wisdom held the denying a pregnant woman
Speaker 2: her cravings would calls a miscarriage, stillbirth, or bad luck
Speaker 2: for the baby. That's why family members would go to
Speaker 2: great links to satisfy those cravings, and why in these
Speaker 2: particular tales, couples made these really intense deals. We now
Speaker 2: know that pregnancy cravings indicated that a woman probably wasn't
Speaker 2: getting the vitamins and minerals she needed, especially in the
Speaker 2: lower farming classes, which highlights the story's humble beginnings. But
Speaker 2: there were a lot of takes on Parsley. In nineteenth
Speaker 2: century Britain. Many believed that of too much parsley grut
Speaker 2: in one's garden, a family would have only girls. Common
Speaker 2: British law also held that if a woman of childbearing
Speaker 2: age planted parsley, she would become pregnant before it began
Speaker 2: to grow. There are a lot of ideas about parsley,
Speaker 2: but here are a couple I've found really interesting. Parsley
Speaker 2: it flourishes only when planted by a witch. One should
Speaker 2: never transplant or give away parsley as a gift, lest
Speaker 2: the recipient become ill or have bad luck. Stories abound
Speaker 2: in rule England that children who ask about the origin
Speaker 2: of babies are told babies are dug up from parsi
Speaker 2: beds using golden shovels, and an old English saying goes
Speaker 2: Parsley grows for the wicked, but not for the just.
Speaker 2: It's important to note that evil was often used to
Speaker 2: condemn a witch, midwife, or medicine woman because it was
Speaker 2: suspicious they knew how to use plants to save a
Speaker 2: woman's life if there were complications during pregnancy. After Bazille
Speaker 2: published his version of Rapunzel, French author Charlotte Rose de
Speaker 2: Commande de la Force published Percinet in sixteen ninety seven.
Speaker 2: This was during the time when women in French salon
Speaker 2: culture were writing fairy tales. In fact, many Rapunzel like
Speaker 2: stories came from France because tower prisons were popular devices
Speaker 2: of the French salon authors. Folklore's doctor Claudia Schwabe is
Speaker 2: a professor of German at Utah State University. She explained
Speaker 2: why seventeenth century women wrote these stories.
Speaker 1: Most of these were told by women from the French
Speaker 1: salon culture, so these were told by women for women,
Speaker 1: and a lot of these tales were sort of meant
Speaker 1: to give women an idea about marriage and what kind
Speaker 1: of challenges to expect when you get married, and then
Speaker 1: also to give them an idea of independence and how
Speaker 1: that could look like.
Speaker 2: But unlike the brothers Grim who claimed their stories came
Speaker 2: from everyday people, these authors wanted to distance themselves from
Speaker 2: the folk. To drive home that point, De la Force
Speaker 2: even claimed that the idea for Percinet was entirely her
Speaker 2: own creation. Percinet is different, and that it is almost
Speaker 2: four times longer than the brother's Grim version and includes
Speaker 2: many additions to the plot. In her version, a young
Speaker 2: couple is preparing for their first child when the woman
Speaker 2: starts craving parsley, she sees some in the garden next door.
Speaker 2: The two know the garden is owned by a fairy,
Speaker 2: but the husband sneaks in Parsley anyway. The second time
Speaker 2: the husband sneaks into the garden, he is caught by
Speaker 2: the fairy. She promises to let him go and exchange
Speaker 2: for the unborn child. After the girl is born, the
Speaker 2: wife willingly gives the girl to the fairy. The fairy
Speaker 2: raises the girl Personette. When she has grown, the fairy
Speaker 2: locks her in a silver tower. It's beautiful, except it
Speaker 2: has no doors. The fairy must call Percinet and climb
Speaker 2: up her hair to get in. Personette is given all
Speaker 2: the luxuries in this version. Her tower has grand rooms
Speaker 2: filled with all the natural daylight. As a baby, her
Speaker 2: sheets are made of gold, She has drawers full of jewels,
Speaker 2: and her wardrobe was as magnificent as that of the
Speaker 2: Queen of Asia. She has delicious food, reads pains, and
Speaker 2: plays music. She is raised as a well educated woman.
Speaker 2: This mirrors the fact that when da la Force wrote this,
Speaker 2: French culture was all about having the best and newest luxuries.
Speaker 2: It was all about opulence and indulgence. Years go by
Speaker 2: until one day a prince here's a maiden singing. He
Speaker 2: follows the voice until he finds Percinet. He calls to her,
Speaker 2: but she is terrified and doesn't respond. The fairy has
Speaker 2: taught her men are monsters who can kill with a
Speaker 2: single look. The prince learns from a nearby village that
Speaker 2: Perconet is the fairy's prisoner, so he goes back and
Speaker 2: hides and waits for the fairy. He then sees how
Speaker 2: the fairy calls to Perconet to get into the tower.
Speaker 2: The next day, the prince returns and mimics the fairy
Speaker 2: when he reaches the top. Perconete is again terrified, but
Speaker 2: the prince convinces her of his love. He immediately proposes
Speaker 2: to her, and then the two have sex. Or, as
Speaker 2: Mademoiselle de la Force puts it, Percinette consented without hardly
Speaker 2: knowing what she was doing, Even so she was able
Speaker 2: to complete the ceremony. The prince continues to visit, but
Speaker 2: Percinette's belly begins to swell. Not understanding she is pregnant,
Speaker 2: she asks the fairy why her clothes have gotten tighter.
Speaker 2: The fairy realizes what's happened and is furious. She cuts
Speaker 2: off Personette's braids and uses magic to send her to
Speaker 2: a remote place, where Percinet gives birth to twins. When
Speaker 2: the prince shows up, the fairy tricks him into climbing
Speaker 2: up and then flings him from the tower, where he
Speaker 2: is blinded by briar thorns. The prince searches for Percinet
Speaker 2: for years. When he finds her, Percinet cries tears of
Speaker 2: joy at the reunion, Her tears fall into his eyes
Speaker 2: and heal his sight. But the Fairy is still angry,
Speaker 2: so she makes their life a living hell. The family
Speaker 2: prepares to die, but the lovers continue to stay happy
Speaker 2: at finally finding each other again. It is this happiness
Speaker 2: that finally melts the Fairy's heart. She forgives them, blesses them,
Speaker 2: and then returns them to the castle, where the king
Speaker 2: and Queen receive them with open arms. In these stories,
Speaker 2: although Reponsel has little say in her fate due to
Speaker 2: her parents' choices, she is not a passive maiden. She
Speaker 2: is rebellious and strong willed. In Bezillai's version, she's even cunning.
Speaker 2: Rapunzel doesn't lack agency, and in the end takes control
Speaker 2: of her own fate, but she doesn't stay that way
Speaker 2: for long. Parsley became Rapunzel in seventeen ninety when Frederick
Speaker 2: Schultz created his own tail, which was basically a German
Speaker 2: translation of Percinet. That is, where the Brother's Grim pick
Speaker 2: it up. Like its predecessors, the Brother's Grim version begins
Speaker 2: pretty much the same way. A couple desperately wants a child,
Speaker 2: but to no avail. Every day, the woman looks into
Speaker 2: the garden next door and sees the most beautiful flowers
Speaker 2: and herbs. The garden is surrounded by a high wall,
Speaker 2: and no one dares enter because everyone knows a garden
Speaker 2: is owned by a sorceress. One day, the woman is
Speaker 2: staring at the rapunzel plant, which is also known as rampion,
Speaker 2: and begins craving sound. She would have no peace until
Speaker 2: her craving could be satisfied, so her husband sneaks into
Speaker 2: the garden and steals them for his wife. She makes
Speaker 2: a salad and is content, that is until the next day,
Speaker 2: when her craving returns threefold. The husband waits until it's
Speaker 2: dark before once again climbing over the wall, but this
Speaker 2: time the sorceress is waiting for him, taking pity on him.
Speaker 2: Mother Gothel, who is the sorceress, says he can take
Speaker 2: as much a Punzel as he wants in exchange for
Speaker 2: his firstborn. The man agrees. When the woman gives birth,
Speaker 2: the sorceress appears, names the child Rapunzel, and then takes
Speaker 2: her away. Rapunzel becomes the most beautiful child under the sun.
Speaker 2: When Rapunzel turns twelve years old, the sorceress locks her
Speaker 2: in a tower with only a window to get anyone
Speaker 2: in or out. And here is where we come full
Speaker 2: circle to the brother's Grim excerpt you heard at the
Speaker 2: beginning of the episode. Doctor Schwabe says the biggest difference
Speaker 2: in the Grim version and the previous versions is the
Speaker 2: explicit mention of premarital sex. The Grims eventually removed that completely.
Speaker 1: Previously, there was a reference of a Punzel saying to
Speaker 1: mother Gothel, how come my dress is getting so tight
Speaker 1: around my waistline, And this was implying that she is
Speaker 1: already pregnant. So the prince and to her they had sex,
Speaker 1: and that was just too much for the Grims, so
Speaker 1: they just eliminated this reference and swapped it out with
Speaker 1: the slip of tongue.
Speaker 2: In the original eighteen twelve story, the Grims or Punzel
Speaker 2: was like earlier tales, and that the maiden gets pregnant
Speaker 2: and gives birth to twins. But the Grims were conservative,
Speaker 2: and when they realized their stories were popular with children,
Speaker 2: they did some strategic censoring. By their eighteen fifty seven
Speaker 2: edition of Collected Tales, the pregnancy and twins had been
Speaker 2: removed entirely. That's a version you heard in this episode.
Speaker 2: In removing the pregnancy and birth, the Grims made their
Speaker 2: Rapunzel more passive. It ennuls the story of a woman
Speaker 2: giving birth alone in the wild, which, if you ask
Speaker 2: anyone who has given birth, is not an easy feat.
Speaker 2: So throughout two hundred years, Rapunzel's character changed from a
Speaker 2: spunky heroine who has sex, rescues herself from prison, and
Speaker 2: gives birth solo to a naive, innocent But Rapunzel wouldn't
Speaker 2: stay a meek woman for long. Walt Disney released its
Speaker 2: own adaptation of Rapunzel in twenty ten. The feature length
Speaker 2: cartoon is titled Tangled, and it involves a princess, sorceress, thief,
Speaker 2: and cute little chameleon. In this story, a thief named
Speaker 2: Flynn Writer happens upon Rapunzel while he's trying to avoid
Speaker 2: the King's guards. Unlike other stories, Rapunzel is already a princess,
Speaker 2: she just doesn't know it. And once a year, the
Speaker 2: whole kingdom releases sky lanterns with lights in them and
Speaker 2: hopes the princess will find her way back home. The
Speaker 2: kingdom doesn't know that the sorceress Mother Goffel, had stolen
Speaker 2: Rapunzel from her crib. The story is similar to De
Speaker 2: la Forces and that Rapunzel is given luxuries, and one
Speaker 2: such luxury is paints. She sees the sky lanterns every
Speaker 2: year and has painted them on her wall, and she's
Speaker 2: smart enough to recognize the sky lanterns align with her birthday.
Speaker 2: Rapunzel begs Mother Gofel to let her go see the
Speaker 2: sky lanterns, but Mother Gothel talks her out of it.
Speaker 2: The sorceress scares her and convinces Rapunzel she needs to
Speaker 2: stay isolated and protected. Giving in to Mother Gothel's argument,
Speaker 2: Rapundle agrees, that is until Flynn Writer shows up. Doctor
Speaker 2: Schwabe says, in this version, Disney made the characters more relatable.
Speaker 2: For example, when Flynn Rider first climbs into the tower,
Speaker 2: Rapunzel clabors him with the frying pan.
Speaker 1: I think modern readers and viewers they really want an
Speaker 1: active heroine these days who can be a match for
Speaker 1: any fairy or witch. What I personally like how feisty
Speaker 1: she is and how she takes the pan and whips
Speaker 1: the pan over Flynn Ryder. Yeah, so she takes the
Speaker 1: pan and she smacks him with it. Even though she's
Speaker 1: sort of trapped in this tower and seems helpless, she
Speaker 1: actually can stand up for herself. She's not afraid of
Speaker 1: the robbers. Den Flynn writer tries to scare her by
Speaker 1: taking her to this in filled with thieves and robbers,
Speaker 1: but she's not scared at all. And she uses her
Speaker 1: hair as a weapon. How cool is that. I mean
Speaker 1: she can use it, you know, to strike out, and
Speaker 1: she stared these karate moves and she's very independent and
Speaker 1: self confident that way.
Speaker 2: In the previous stories, Rapunzel is a maiden who comes
Speaker 2: from a humble background. She becomes a princess when the
Speaker 2: Prince finds her and the two Mary, But in Disney's Tangled,
Speaker 2: the roles have been reversed. Rapunzel is a princess and
Speaker 2: Flynn Wrider is a lily thief, so it's his status
Speaker 2: that becomes elevated when the two are married. Then, in
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, international best selling author Kate Forsyth published Bitter Greens.
Speaker 2: The novel blends De la Force's personal story with that
Speaker 2: of De la Force's history is colorful. She was the
Speaker 2: cousin of Louis the fourteenth of France, who was known
Speaker 2: as a son king. She was banished from court for
Speaker 2: having an affair with an impoverished actor, who she later
Speaker 2: dressed as a dancing bear to try and help rescue.
Speaker 2: She was also accused of using black magic to ensnare
Speaker 2: a husband, and then later she wrote scandalous novels about
Speaker 2: the king's even more notorious sexual exploits.
Speaker 3: So off to a.
Speaker 2: Convent she was sent, and it was there she wrote Rapunzel.
Speaker 2: In Forcis's Bitter Greens, De la Force is a character
Speaker 2: who is comforted by an old nun. The nun tells
Speaker 2: her the story of a young girl from one hundred
Speaker 2: years earlier whose parents sold her for a handful of
Speaker 2: bitter greens. The novel is set in Italy, and the
Speaker 2: young girl's name in the novel is Margarita. It's her
Speaker 2: father who steals part from a cortison named Selina Leonelli.
Speaker 2: Leah Nelly threatens to cut off the man's hands unless
Speaker 2: he and his wife give her their little girl. Of course,
Speaker 2: they acquiesce. The story continues from there in your weaving
Speaker 2: de la Force's, Margarita's, and Lea Nelly's stories. It's an
Speaker 2: exploration about the difficult situations and the limited world women
Speaker 2: found themselves in and how they endured. In twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer published her adaptation Kres.
Speaker 2: We've talked about the Lunar chronicles in the show a
Speaker 2: couple different times. Cress is the third book in the series.
Speaker 2: I interviewed Marissa Meyer in a previous episode if you'd
Speaker 2: like to hear more about her and her fairy tale adaptations.
Speaker 2: In Meyer's novel, sixteen year old Kress isn't trapped in
Speaker 2: a tower but an orbiting satellite, and she's a hacker
Speaker 2: and programmer. And the Prince isn't a prince but a
Speaker 2: space thief named Carswell Thorn whose ship is named Rampion.
Speaker 2: Cress is trapped by the evil queen and her hacker
Speaker 2: powers are being used to help the bad guys, but
Speaker 2: Cres rebels and eventually escapes. This adaptation has a strong
Speaker 2: reflection of the medieval stories, and that Thorn, who is
Speaker 2: aptly named, is blinded from a blow to the head.
Speaker 2: When the satellite crash lands with him and Kress aboard,
Speaker 2: they are stuck in the desert, and Chress is the
Speaker 2: one who must bring the two to safety. Again we
Speaker 2: see the Rapunzel character pushing against the boundaries she's been given,
Speaker 2: and again it's her saving herself and in this case
Speaker 2: the guy as well. She may have been trapped, but
Speaker 2: she found a way out. Although these modern adaptations have
Speaker 2: reclaimed Rapunzel's agency, there are other ways to interpret her story.
Speaker 2: For example, Pullitz, surprise winning poet and Sexton's adaptation her
Speaker 2: poem Rapunzel, was published in nineteen seventy one. An essay
Speaker 2: by Britney Cussman argues the first half of the poem
Speaker 2: alludes to sexual abuse between an older and younger woman,
Speaker 2: something Sexton survived as a child with a predatory aunt.
Speaker 2: It isn't until halfway through the poem that the story
Speaker 2: we know of her Punzel shows back up without Sexton
Speaker 2: telling us directly. Maybe that is how she viewed her Punzel,
Speaker 2: an older woman locking away a beautiful young woman so
Speaker 2: only she would have access to her, and maybe she
Speaker 2: used the story as a way to work through it.
Speaker 2: Another idea comes from doctor Schwabe.
Speaker 1: You can read their tale and say, Okay, maybe this
Speaker 1: is a cautionary tale addressed to the parents to show, hey,
Speaker 1: you know the overprotective kind. You cannot overprotect your child
Speaker 1: and expect everything to go well in the end. Imprisoning
Speaker 1: your child is a little bit over the top. But
Speaker 1: we still have helicopter parents, and we still have parents
Speaker 1: who try to really protect their children from every single thing.
Speaker 1: And I think this is something we can take away
Speaker 1: even today. So in a sense, these tales are still contemporary.
Speaker 2: You can read the de la Force, forsythe and Meyer
Speaker 2: stories of her Punzle as examples of a maiden who
Speaker 2: rescues herself. It's also a story that shows us all
Speaker 2: that we have the power to change our fate. Her
Speaker 2: Punzel is a force to be reckoned with. She's brave
Speaker 2: and headstrong and curious, and she's a reminder to any
Speaker 2: of us who feel trapped there is a way out.
Speaker 2: Next time, Who's the Fairest in All the Land? The
Speaker 2: Deep Dark Woods is a production of School of Humans
Speaker 2: and iheartpot Casts. It was created, written, and hosted by
Speaker 2: me Miranda Hawkins. This episode was produced by mikel. June
Speaker 2: was senior producer Gabby Watts. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott,
Speaker 2: Brandon Barr, Elsie Crowley, and Maya Howard. Stories were voiced
Speaker 2: by Julia Christgau. Theme song was composed by Jesse Niswanger.
Speaker 2: This episode was sound designed and mixed by Chris Childs.
Speaker 2: If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review and
Speaker 2: you can follow along with the show on Instagram at
Speaker 2: School of Humans