A pregnant woman wanted red cabbage that she saw was being grown over a stone wall and ordered her husband to go and bring her some. He did after some nagging and prodding. And his wife ate it all only to repeat the same request for three days. On the third day of his stealing cabbage from their neighbor a witch came to their door, refusing to be turned away. She told them that the only way to appease her was to give them the child that was growing and was soon to come. In return she also promised that the woman could have all the cabbage that she wished until that time.

The witch returned and took the child nearly as soon as she'd been born, whisking her away from her parents to a far away hiding place where Rapunzel, as she was named for the cabbage that her mother had eaten, grew and grew until one day a man came into the field in which Rapunzel was playing. The witch, seeing how beautiful Rapunzel was in his eyes decided that it was time to hide her away from the prying eyes of the world and so locked her up in a high tower, the only way in being a single window at the very top.