SOLVED. Fairytale Girl lost in the desert, blind, gives birth to twins

[Jess]

I remember a fairytale from when I was little, about a girl and she is abandoned in the desert. I remember her being blinded, and something to do with birds not sure if the birds, I think maybe the birds blinded her? I also remember her giving birth to twins. I feel like it's an alternate or an extended version of a well known fairytale but I don't remember hearing it since I was very little. I was born in the 70s. I don't necessarily remember reading an exact book just the story being told to me. Thank you for any help you can give me.

[Juels]

Gothel blinds the prince at the end of Rapunzel. In the Grimm version, the prince jumped out the window to escape Gothel and landed in a thorn bush. Supposedly the thorns stabbed out his eyes. He wandered in the forest until he came upon Rapunzel. She had given birth to twins. Rapunzel wept tears onto his face and the tears magically healed his blindness.

I remember Shelly Duvall and Christopher Reeve acting in a Faerie Tale Theatre episode based on this same version.

[Melanti]

I immediately thought of Rapunzel too, even though it was the prince that was blinded. She was left in a desert where she gave birth to her twins and lived there until the prince found her - but I don't recall any birds involved.

Cinderella's stepsisters were blinded by their eyes being pecked out by birds - but of course the story ends a couple of sentences later.

I can't think of any other fairy tale that involves blindness.

[Melanti]

Wait, doesn't the French version of Rapunzel involve birds? The one by Charlotte-Rose de La Force?

But I still don't think they blinded her. I can look it up for you if the birds are a sticking point...

(And, of course, it's much more likely you came across an un-kiddified version of Grimms that we talked about above than the earlier French versions.)

[Jess]

That's it Rapunzel thank you so much that's exactly the story I was thinking of. My daughters and I were talking about it and I kept thinking it was sleeping beauty but I knew that wasn't right. Thank you for your help. I want to see if I can track down this version every pencil to read with my girls. If anyone knows of a specific book that follows this version of the story please let me know. And if I find one I'll post it here thank you so much again for your help everyone is been bugging me for a week.

[Juels]

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

[Melanti]

The french variant I was thinking of does have birds involved in the end, but it has nothing to do with the blinding and Rapunzel was left on an island rather than a desert. There's another French version that has a parrot but the ending is quite different so it can't be that one either. I believe the major Italian versions predate de La Force's version, and since she was really the one to come up with the "Rapunzel" story as we think of it today, it's unlikely to be those either.


A complete edition of Grimm's is your best bet. It's the one that (from what I can recall) most closely matches what you remember and it's relatively common. But even then, different editions are going to have slightly different details depending on the translator and what specific edition of Grimms they used.

The edition Jules linked to says Rapunzel was left in a desert. That's translated by Margaret Hunt - so if you look for other editions translated by her, you should be fine.

I'm partial to the Zipes translations but both his older translation and his new translation of the first Grimm's edition just say "desolate spot" rather than specifying a desert.




If you're really, really interested, Rapunzel And Other Maiden In The Tower Tales From Around The World collects all the different Rapunzel versions in one volume (though it only has one version of Grimm's).

And here's an article by Terri Windling that summarizes some of the different well-known versions and talks about the history of the story.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Jess, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Jess, are you still looking for this or did you find it?"

No response in 2 years. Moving to Abandoned.

[Jess]

I am still looking for this. I am not sure how to locate a post so I can keep bumping it up. At one point I thought I had some link to it but I've been unable to find it and I am so glad you found this for me I really would like to find this book.

[Jess]

Oops never mind this is not the one I thought it was. This one is solved it was Rapunzel.