Petrosinella

"Petrosinella" is a Neapolitan literary fairy tale, written by Giambattista Basile in his collection of fairy tales in 1634, Lo cunto de li cunti (The Tale of Tales), or Pentamerone. It is Aarne–Thompson type 310 "the Maiden in the Tower", of which the best known variant is "Rapunzel", and it is the earliest recorded variant of this tale known to exist. Plot A pregnant woman steals parsley from the garden of an ogress (orca) and agrees to give up her child when she is caught. The baby is born and named Petrosinella, after the southern Italian word for parsley (petrosino or petrusino; the modern standard Italian word is prezzemolo). The ogress watches the girl grow in her mother's care and reminds her often of her mother's promise. Petrosinella, unaware what the promise is, tells her mother of the ogress's comment. Petrosinella's irritated mother tells the girl to say to the ogress that she can act on the promise. The ogress takes Petrosinella by her hair and locks her in a tower deep in the woods with only a single window; the ogress relies on Petrosinella's extremely long hair to enter the tower. Within the tower, Petrosinella is taught "magic arts" by the ogress. One day, a prince sees her hair in the wind. Petrosinella noticing his passionate declarations of love blows him a kiss. Eventually, the prince makes his way to the tower and climbs up Petrosinella's hair after he imitates the ogress's voice. The couple continues to see each other every night, but the ogress is informed by a neighbour of the romance.