The Tower at Stony Wood (2000) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Cyan Dag: knight of Gloinmere
• Regis Aurum: King of Yves
• Lady Gwynne: Queen of Yves, princess of Skye
• Idra: Bard of Skye
• Thayne Ysse: son of the king of Ysse
• Melanthos: the daughter of a fisherman and a land-bound selkie, Joed (deceased) & Sel
• Sel: Selkie
• Cria: Cyan's love
• Sidera: Idra's woods-wise sister
• Craiche: lame brother of Thayne
• Una: Idra's third sister

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Yves
• Ysse
• Skye
• North Islands
• Stony Wood

First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Brother's Gimm Fairy Tales: Rapunzel: "Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales.> The Grimm Brothers' story is an adaptation of the fairy tale Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force originally published in 1698. Its plot has been used and parodied in various media and its best known line ("Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair") is an idiom of popular culture.It is Aarne-Thompson type 310, The Maiden in The Tower.Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book. Other versions of the tale also appear in A Book of Witches by Ruth Manning-Sanders and in Paul O. Zelinsky's 1998 Caldecott Medal-winning picture book, Rapunzel.SynopsisA childless couple that wanted a child lived next to a walled garden which belonged to an enchantress. The wife, as a result of her long-awaited pregnancy, noticed a rapunzel plant (or, in some versions of the story, rampion radishes or lamb's lettuce), planted in the garden and longed for it to the point of death. For two nights, the husband went out and broke into the garden to gather some for her; on the third night, as he was scaling the wall to return home, the enchantress, whose name is said to be "Dame Gothel", caught him and accused him of theft. He begged for mercy, and the old woman agreed to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be surrendered to her at birth. Desperate, the man agreed. When the girl was born, the enchantress took her and raised her as a ward, naming her Rapunzel. When Rapunzel reached her twelfth year, the enchantress shut her away into a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor door, and only one room and one window. When the witch went to visit Rapunzel, she stood beneath the tower and called out:Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair.Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel would wrap her long, fair hair around a hook that sat beside the window and drop it down to the enchantress, who would then climb up the hair to Rapunzel's tower room. A variation on the story also has the enchantress imbued with the power of flight and/or levitation and the young girl unaware of her hair's length.One day, a prince rode through the forest and heard Rapunzel singing from the tower. Entranced by her ethereal voice, he went to look for the girl and found the tower, but was unable to enter. He then returned often, listening to her beautiful singing, and one day saw Dame Gothel visit, thus learning how to gain access to Rapunzel. When Dame Gothel was gone, he bade Rapunzel let her hair down. When she did this, he climbed up, made her acquaintance, and finally asked her to marry him. Rapunzel agreed.Together they planned a means of escape, wherein he would come each night (thus avoiding the enchantress who visited her by day), and bring her silk, which Rapunzel would gradually weave into a ladder. Before the plan came to fruition, however, Rapunzel foolishly gave the prince away. In the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Rapunzel innocently says that her dress is getting tight around her belly; in subsequent editions, she asks the witch (in a moment of forgetfulness) why it was easier for her to draw him up than her. In anger, Dame Gothel cut short Rapunzel's braided hair and cast her out into the wilderness to fend for herself. When the prince called that night, the enchantress let the severed braids down to haul him up. To his horror, he found himself staring at the witch instead of Rapunzel, who was nowhere to be found. When she told him in anger that he would never see Rapunzel again, he leapt from the tower in despair and was blinded by the thorns below. In another version, the witch pushes him and he falls on the thorns, thus becoming blind.For months he wandered through the wastelands of the country. One day, while Rapunzel sang as she fetched water, the prince heard Rapunzel's voice again, and they were reunited. When they fell into each others' arms, her tears immediately restored his sight. In another variation, it is said that Rapunzel eventually gave birth to two boys (in some variations, a girl and a boy). The prince leads her to his kingdom, where they lived happily ever after. In another version of the story, the ending reveals that the witch untied Rapunzel's braid after the prince leapt from the tower, but it slipped from her hands and landed below the tower. This left the witch trapped in the tower.The original story came from the story of Rudaba in an ancient Iranian book called Shahnameh, written by Ferdowsi around 1000 AD. Some elements of the fairy tale might also have originally been based upon the legends about Saint Barbara, who was said to have been locked in a tower by her father.Commentary Rapunzel - Rapunzel statue at the Old Market of Dresden in Saxony, Germany.The witch is called "Mother Gothel", a common term for a godmother in German. She features as the overprotective parent, and interpretations often differ on how negatively she is to be regarded.Folkloric beliefs often regarded it as quite dangerous to deny a pregnant woman any food she craved. Family members would often go to great lengths to secure such cravings. Such desires for lettuce and like vegetables may indicate a need on her part for vitamins.The uneven bargain with which it opens is quite common in fairy tales having little else in common with this one: in Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack trades a cow for beans, and in Beauty and the Beast, Beauty comes to the Beast in return for a rose.An influence on Grimm's Rapunzel was Petrosinella or Parsley, written by Giambattista Basile in his collection of fairy tales in 1634, Lo cunto de li cunti (The Story of Stories), or "Pentamerone". This tells a similar tale of a pregnant woman desiring some parsley from the garden of an ogress, getting caught, and having to promise the ogress her baby. The encounters between the prince and the maiden in the tower are described in quite bawdy language.About half a century later, in France, a similar story was published by Mademoiselle de la Force, called "Persinette". As Rapunzel did in the first edition of the Brothers Grimm, Persinette becomes pregnant during the course of the prince's visits.VariantsItalo Calvino included in his Italian Folktales a similar tale of a princess imprisoned in a tower, "The Canary Prince", though the imprisonment was caused by her stepmother's jealousy.A German tale Puddocky also opens with a girl falling into the hands of a witch because of stolen food, but the person who craves it is the girl herself, and the person who steals it her mother. Another Italian tale, Prunella, has the girl steal the food and be captured by a witch.Snow-White-Fire-Red, another Italian tale of this type, and Anthousa, Xanthousa, Chrisomalousa, a Greek one, tell the story from the hero's point of view; he and the heroine escape the ogress, but have to deal with a curse after.References in popular cultureIn 1961, Season 1, Episode 1, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show began its "Fractured Fairy Tales" segments with a spoof of Rapunzel. Narrated by Edward Everett Horton, the sight gags in the episode include the prince being "blinded," not by thorns, but by the witch pulling his hat over his eyes.In the 1968 episode of Doctor Who, "The Mind Robber", The Master of the Land of Fiction writes about, and subsequently bring into existence, princess Rapunzel who was portrayed by Christine Pirie.In the film Airplane!, Captain Rex Kramer says, "We're going to the Tower." Johnny responds, "The Tower? The Tower? Rapunzel! Rapunzel!"The song Rappunzel of German band Megaherz's 1998 album Kopfschuss references the tale.Rapunzel is a supporting character in the Shrek film series. She is deconstructed into becoming a villainess in Shrek The Third. She is voiced by Maya Rudolph.In the musical Into the Woods, Rapunzel is the sister of The Baker.The band Passion Pit references the character in their song Cuddle Fuddle.Rapunzel is a character in the Vertigo title Fables where her hair grows constantly, forcing her to get it cut three times a day.It also has a indirect reference in the 2005 film The Brothers Grimm as the wicked Queen who is still keeping the village hostage to her evils.In 2009 on the Monster Ball Tour, Lady Gaga was dressed as Rapunzel as she performed her song "Paparazzi".In Inkheart, Darius reads Rapunzel, which brings her out of the book. Rapunzel was played by Tereza Srbova.In "The 10th Kingdom", Virginia's hair is cursed by the huntsman and won't stop growing, a definite nod to the classic tale of "Rapunzel."In cyanide and happiness, the most recent animated short "repulsel" is a spoof of the original story.Film adaptationsDisney has made a 2010 version called Tangled, originally titled Rapunzel Unbraided.An adaptation featuring Barbie, entitled Barbie as Rapunzel, was released in 2002.There was also an animated film adaptation with Olivia Newton-John narrating the story. The major difference between the film and the book is that instead of making the prince blind, the witch transformed him into a bird."Rapunzel the Dance Film", a Sisters Grimm Ltd production with the Royal Ballet, is due for screening in 2013.What is "Rapunzel"?It is difficult to be certain which plant species the Brothers Grimm meant by the word Rapunzel, but the following, listed in their own dictionary, are candidates.1.Valerianella locusta, common names: Corn salad, mache, lamb's lettuce, field salad. Rapunzel is called Feldsalat in Germany, Nuesslisalat in Switzerland and Vogerlsalat in Austria. In cultivated form it has a low growing rosette of succulent green rounded leaves when young, when they are picked whole, washed of grit and eaten with oil and vinegar. When it bolts to seed it shows clusters of small white flowers. Etty's seed catalogue states Corn Salad (Verte de Cambrai) was in use by 1810.2.Campanula rapunculus is known as Rapunzel-Glockenblume in German, and as Rampion in Etty's seed catalogue, and although classified under a different family, Campanulaceae, has a similar rosette when young, although with pointed leaves. Some English translations of Rapunzel used the word Rampion. Etty's catalogue states that it was noted in 1633, an esteemed root in salads, and to be sown in April or May. The herb catalogue Sand Mountain Herbs describes the root as extremely tasty, and the rosette leaves as edible, and that its blue bell-flowers appear in June or July.3.Phyteuma spicata, known as Ährige Teufelskralle in German.-by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Patricia A. McKillip (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Nebula (Finalist, 2001: Best Novel)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: 99040441
• Dewey: 813.54

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• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Authors, A-Z › ( M ) › McKillip, Patricia A.
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy › Magic & Wizards
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction › Alternate History
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Men's Adventure

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