There were once a man and a woman who wished very much to have a little child. Now, these people had a small window in their cottage which looked out into a beautiful garden full of the most lovely flowers and vegetables. There was a high wall around it, but even had there not been no one would have ventured into the garden, because it belonged to a sorcerer, whose power was so great that every one feared him. The sorcerer was fond of saying, "Jus' me an' me garden to brood about."
One day, the woman (named Heather) stood at the window looking into the garden, and she saw a bed which was planted full of the most beautiful lettuces. As she looked at them she began to wish she had some to eat (her husband, Keith, had wasted the money away on brandy again), but could not ask for them.
Day after day her wish for these lettuces grew stronger, and the knowledge that she could not get them so worried her that at last she became so pale and thin that her husband was quite alarmed.
"Wot is the mattah wif you, dear gahl?" he asked one day.
"Ah!" she said, "if I do not have some of that nice lettuce which grows in the garden behind our house, I feel that I shall die."
Keith, who loved Heather dearly, said to himself, "Rather than my wife should die, I will get some of this lettuce for her, cost what it may."
So in the evening twilight, he climbed over the wall into the garden of the warlock, hastily grabbed a handful of the lettuces, and brought them to Heather. She made them into a salad, and ate it with great eagerness.
It pleased her so much and tasted so good that, after two or three days had passed, she gave Keith no rest till he promised to get her some more. So again in the evening twilight he climbed the wall, but as he slid down into the garden on the other side he was terribly alarmed at seeing the warlock standing near him.
" 'Ow in bloody 'ell did you get 'ere?" he said with a fierce look. "You 'ave climbed ovah the wall into me garden like a thief an' stolen me lettuces; you shall pay dearly for this!"
"Ah!" replied poor Keith, "let me entreat for mercy; I 'ave only taken it in a case of extreme need. Me wife 'as seen your lettuces from 'er window, an' she wished for them so much tha' she said she should die if she could not 'ave some of them to eat."
Then the warlock's anger cooled a little, and he replied: "If wot you tell me is true, then I will give you me full permission to take as many lettuces as you like, on one condition: you must give up to me the child which your wife may bring into the world. I will be very kind to it, and be as careful of it as a fathah could be."
Keith in his alarm promised everything which the warlock asked, and took with him as many lettuces as Heather wanted.
Not many weeks after this Heather became the mother of a beautiful little boy, and in a short time the warlock appeared and claimed him according to Keith's promise. Thus they were obliged to give up the child, which he took away with him directly, and gave him the name of Rogpunzel. "But I was DRUNK!" Keith protested, pouting.
Rogpunzel was the most beautiful child under the sun, and as soon as he reached the age of fifteen years the warlock caught him skipping class and therefore locked him up in a tower that stood in a forest, and this tower had no steps, nor any entrance, excepting a little window. When the warlock wished to visit Rogpunzel (which wasn't often), he would place himself under this window and sing:
Rogpunzel had most long and beautiful hair like spun gold, and when he heard the voice of the warlock he would unwind his golden locks and let them fall loose over the window sill, from which they hung down to such a length that the warlock could draw himself up by them into the tower.
Two years passed in this manner, when it happened one day that a famous musician's son was riding through the forest. While passing near the tower he heard such a lovely song, and could not help stopping to listen. It was Rogpunzel, who tried to lighten his solitude by the sound of his own sweet voice. "Oh, dear, what can I do? The Warlock's in black, and I'm feeling blue, tell me oh, what can I do?"
The musician's son, Pete, was very eager to obtain a glance of the singer, but he sought in vain for a door to the tower; there was not one to be found.
So Pete rode home, but the song had made such an impression on his heart that he went daily into the forest to listen. Once, while he stood behind a tree, he saw the warlock approach the tower, and heard him say:
Presently he saw a quantity of long golden hair hanging down low over the window sill, and the warlock climbing up by it.
"Oh!" said Pete, "if that is the ladder on which persons can mount an' entah, I will take the first opportunity of tryin' me luck tha' way."
So on the following day, as it began to grow dusk, he placed himself under the window and cried:
Immediately the hair fell over the window, and Pete quickly climbed up and entered the room where Rogpunzel lived.
Rogpunzel was dreadfully frightened at seeing a strange man with a big nose come into the room through the window; but Pete looked at him with such friendly eyes, and began to converse with him so kindly, that he soon lost all fear.
Pete told Rogpunzel that he had heard his singing, and that his song had excited such deep emotion in his heart that he could not rest until he had seen him. On hearing this Rogpunzel ceased to fear him, and they talked together for some time, till at length the musician asked him if he would be in his band, for a time Rogpunzel hesitated, although he saw that it was a good way to get girls... and Pete had told him that he was sure the band would go somewhere. At last he said to himself, " 'E will certainly treat me bettah than ol' Warlock Entwistle does." So he placed his hand in Pete's, and said, "I would willingly go wif you an' be your singah, but I do not know 'ow in the least to get away from this place. Unless," he said, after a pause, "you will bring me every day some strong silken cord; then I will make a microphone out of it, and when it is finished I will climb down the length of it, and you shall take me away in your car."
Pete readily agreed to do this, and promised to come and see him every evening until the microphone was finished, for the warlock always came in the daytime (night was his brooding time).
The warlock had never seen Pete; he knew nothing of his visits till one day Rogpunzel said innocently, "I shall not have such a heavy weight as you to draw up much longah, Warlock Entwistle, for the famous musician's son is comin' very soon to fetch me away."
"You wicked pillock!" cried the warlock, "what do I hear you say? I thought I 'ad 'idden you from all the world, an' now you 'ave betrayed me!" In his wrath he caught hold of Rogpunzel's beautiful hair, and stuck it several times with his left hand. Then he seized a pair of scissors and cut Rogpunzel's hair, while the beautiful locks, glistening like gold, fell on the ground. And he was so hard-hearted after this that he dragged poor Rogpunzel out into the forest, to a wild and desert place, and left him there in sorrow and woe.
On the same day on which the poor singer had been exiled the warlock tied the locks of hair which he had cut off of poor Rogpunzel's golden head into a kind of tail, and hung it over the window sill.
In the evening, Pete came and cried:
Then the warlock let the hair down, and Pete climbed up; but at the open window he found not his great lead singer, but a brooding warlock who looked at him with cruel and malicious eyes.
"Ah!" he cried with a sneer, "you are come to fetch your singer, I suppose; but the one as dumb as a bird 'as flown from the nest, an' will nevah sing any more. The cat 'as fetched it away, an' he intends also to scratch your eyes out! But... not if I get to sing..."
"No way!" cried Pete.
Warlock Entwistle growled: "To thee Rogpunzel is lost; thou wilt nevah be'old 'im again!"
Pete felt almost out of his mind with grief as he heard this, and in his despair he sprang out of the tower window and fell among the thorns and brambles beneath. He certainly escaped with his life, but the thorns stuck into his eyes and blinded them. After this he wandered about the wood for days, eating only roots and berries, and did nothing but lament and weep for the loss of his lead singer.
So wandered he for a whole year in misery, till at last he came upon the desert place where Rogpunzel had been banished and lived in his sorrow. As Pete drew near he heard a voice he seemed to recognize, and advancing toward the sound came within the sight of Rogpunzel, who recognized him at once, with tears. "Bloody 'ell... thought I was out of a job!" Two of his tears fell on Pete's eyes, and so healed and cleared them of the injury done by the thorns that he could soon see as well as ever. Then he traveled with Rogpunzel to his house, and he became Pete's lead singer, and the remainder of their days was spent in happiness and content... until Rog (he had shortened his name) decided he wanted more of a say in what their band (The Who) did.