IV. La torre sin puerta
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A Grimm tale of a tower, retold for A1
Rapunzel Rapunzel
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
This is a retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale in simple Spanish, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation for readers who are just starting to read in Spanish. The tale comes from Kinder- und Hausmärchen, first published in 1812, and the retelling follows the revised edition of 1857. In the catalog it is A1: about 3,500 words told in the present tense, with sentences of 6 words on average. 8 short chapters about a girl whom a witch takes from her parents and shuts in a tower without a door, and about the king’s son who hears her singing.
- A1
- 3 540 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
This text
You can manage it at A1: sentences are short, the story stays in the present tense, and words like trenzas or rapónchigos translate with a tap.
Check this passageA2
With room to spare
At A2 the tale reads almost without translation: a quick read for building speed before longer books in Spanish.
Start readingThe average sentence has 6 words: the tale moves in short present-tense statements, and much of it is the characters’ lines in quotation marks. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 150 words, and the most frequent one is rapónchigos, the Spanish name of the plant the story starts with. The difficulty is even: each of the 8 chapters has 5-6 words per sentence. Hansel y Gretel, another Brothers Grimm tale in the catalog, is A2 with 9 words per sentence, and full texts in Spanish start at B2: Unamuno’s Mist has 13 words per sentence and one long word in fourteen. Hence A1. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 3 540
- words
- 6
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
A couple who have waited years for a child live next to a walled garden that belongs to a witch. The wife longs for the green rampion growing there, and her husband climbs the wall at dusk to pick it, until the witch catches him and makes him promise her the baby. The girl, Rapunzel, grows up with long golden hair, and at twelve the witch shuts her in a tower with no door and no stairs and climbs up by her braids. One day a king’s son riding through the forest hears her singing. What happens when the witch finds out is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Rapunzel
VII. Las trenzas
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Choose an underlined word.
Suelta tu cabello
Suelta is the tú command of soltar, “to let loose”: in the call it means “let down your hair”. In the next paragraph the same form tells what Rapunzel does: suelta las trenzas, “she lets down her braids”. Cabello and pelo both mean hair; cabello sounds more formal and is kept for the call. Deja caer el pelo: dejar caer, “to let fall”.
Why are you so heavy?
¿Por qué pesas tanto?: pesar, “to weigh”, with tanto, “so much”, gives “why are you so heavy?”. Te tengo lejos de todo el mundo: tener here means “to keep”, “I keep you far from everyone”. Lo enrolla dos veces: lo stands for el pelo, “she winds it twice”. Una vez, y otra vez: vez is “time” as in “once, and once more”.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Reader translates the whole sentence where simple words add up to an unfamiliar phrase, as in Pase lo que pase, “whatever happens”.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
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Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
An adaptation, not the original text. It is MovaReader’s own retelling in simple Spanish of the Brothers Grimm tale Rapunzel from Kinder- und Hausmärchen, first published in 1812. The retelling follows the revised edition of 1857, the gentler of the two versions of the scene in which the witch finds out about the prince. The language and length have changed: the present tense, 6 words per sentence on average, and a few scenes opened up into short conversations, so the 8 chapters, about 3,500 words, are much longer than the tale itself. The episodes of the source remain, from the rampion in the walled garden and the father’s promise to the tower without a door, the call “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, suelta tu cabello”, the prince who hears her singing and the silk for a ladder, through to the tale’s own ending. The full text of the tale is not in the catalog.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version of this tale on MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears: here that will mostly be words such as trenzas (braids) or tijeras (scissors).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. But sentences in this tale average 6 words, so you will rarely need a whole one translated: mostly lines like Pase lo que pase or Te tengo lejos de todo el mundo, where the words are simple but the pattern is not. Without the plan you can translate single words until the daily limit runs out.
How many hours does it take?
About an hour for the whole tale: the pace of someone who still translates new words, not a native speaker’s. There are 8 chapters of roughly 300 to 550 words each, so a chapter is easy to read in one sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even from start to finish: each of the 8 chapters averages 5-6 words per sentence. Chapters I and IV, which describe the garden and the tower, run slightly longer at about 6; the last chapter, with the most dialogue, is the shortest at about 5.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. After you sign in, the reader remembers where you stopped and which words you opened. The contents on this page also open any of the 8 chapters directly, for example chapter V, “La canción en el bosque”.