Rapunzel and Prince Oblong!

Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!

In this episode we bring Amelia’s story, Rapunzel and Prince Oblong! – to life.

If you have a story idea, you could be like Amber and have it turned into a Story Quest. All you have to do is send us your story idea here. We know you have the best imaginations and together we can create the most brilliant stories!

That’s just what Amelia did. You can watch the story they suggested come to life below, plus they tell us all about the inspiration behind the story at the end.

Listen out for brand new Story Quest episodes every Thursday!

You can read along to Rapunzel and Prince Oblong below!

Rapunzel’s And Oblong: A Great Escape 

“You’re going to have to give me more time, Rapunzel. I can’t work out how to get to the window” said Prince Oblong of Rectangular.  

Rapunzel was in the tower, waiting for the prince to rescue her but Prince Oblong was, well, not very good at rescuing people. And Rapunzel, well, she wasn’t very good at waiting.  

“I’m not waiting for months and months for a stupid prince” said Rapunzel to herself. “I need a hobby or something” 

I know what you’re thinking; why is Rapunzel trapped and what sort of hobby can you have while locked in a room at the top of a tower? 

Well, it’s all down to a cunning witch, who locked Rapunzel in a tower because she was very jealous. It was sometimes easy to be a little bit jealous of Rapunzel because she was clever and very very good at collecting hobbies.  

Rapunzel was good at football, and singing, and collecting things, and writing blood curdling tales of nasty trolls… you name it, she was good at it. The only thing she was really bad at was waiting. Yet here she was, locked in a tower, with nothing to do. 

“Oi, Prince Oblong” she shouted from the tower. “I need a hobby while I’m stuck here. I can’t just wait for you to rescue me. That’s sooooo boring”. 

The prince looked a little shocked. “A hobby? Can’t you just spend ages growing your hair so I can climb up it and rescue you? I’m pretty sure that would work.” It turns out that was not the thing to say to Rapunzel. 

“You. Are. Joking. You’re joking right? I mean, mate, that’s just the worst idea ever. Who ever heard of someone who grew their hair so they could get rescued? Besides, have you seen my hair? This style looks amazing. I don’t need my hair getting messed up thank you.” 

“Fine” said Prince Oblong. “I’ll find something you can do as a hobby”. And so the Prince went off to find something, anything, to keep Rapunzel occupied. And while he was gone, something rather unexpected occurred.  

Rapunzel noticed a few bricks in the tower were a bit loose. There was a bit of a gap in them. Rapunzel put her hand near the gap and there was a bit of a draft. And then she pushed, and pushed, and the more she pushed, the more the bricks moved until…  

“Wait, this is a door. How have I been in here all the time and not known there is a door” 

Rapunzel opened the door and looked at what was on the other side. It was a staircase, so she followed it down, and down, and down until… she was outside. She was free!! 

I know what you’re thinking, this is a really short story. And it would be, if it wasn’t for Prince Oblong charging back to the tower. 

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, where are you?” 

Now she was free, Rapunzel didn’t really need the Prince anymore, but the last thing she wanted to do was have a conversation with him. “I think”, she thought, “I would be better to just tell him to keep bringing me things. Then I can have some more hobbies. The witch never checks up on me, so I may as well collect hobbies” 

So Rapunzel ran up and up and up the stairs and stuck her head out of the window to shout at Prince Oblong. 

“Yeah, sorry, I was just doing something” she shouted. 

“Eh? You’re locked in a tower. You have nothing to do” said Prince Oblong, quite reasonably. 

“Er… toilet” Rapunzel replied. 

“Oh, sorry” said the Prince. “Look, I’ve got you a hobby” and with that he threw some balls of wool up into the tower.  

“You can take up knitting. Now move out the way while I get the knitting needles to you”. Knitting is not quite what Rapunzel had in mind but she always liked a hobby that had an element of challenge to it. 

“Thanks Prince Oblong. I’ll get started on this while you go away and work out a way to rescue me. Bye now”. And with that, the Prince galloped off and Rapunzel got to grips with her new friends – the knitting needles. Before long she was knitting really complicated things, like fancy jumpers for tiny dogs, football scarves and a cat shaped like a donut. 

Rapunzel was doing really well at her knitting and completely forgot that she was actually still technically a prisoner in the tower. Besides, talking to Prince Oblong was really boring and she really didn’t want to have him rescue her, especially now she knew about the tower’s secret door. 

After several weeks of very high quality knitting, Prince Oblong was back.  

“Can I just pretend to be out?” Rapunzel thought to herself. But she knew that wouldn’t work. Instead, she opened the secret door, and went down and down and down the stairs until she was outside. She hid behind a massive tree to avoid Oblong.  

At this point Rapunzel noticed that she could hear something. It sounded like… breathing. She realised she wasn’t alone. And there, standing just by her, behind the massive tree, was the jealous witch who put her in the tower. 

“Did you think you would get away from me?” Cackled the witch. 

Rapunzel tried to run, but the witch was too fast for her.  

“You’re coming with me back up to the tower” said the witch, and with that, she took Rapunzel back up and up and up the big staircase to the room at the top of the tower. 

The room was filled with knitted items that Rapunzel had made.  

“What have you been doing in here?” Asked the witch. 

“Oh, I have a hobby. I have knitting. I’m a knitter now. Would you like a jumper for a tiny dog, or a football scarf – I’ve knitted loads of those for all the different teams – or maybe you’d like a kitty shaped like a donut?” 

“No. No no no no no” shouted the witch with anger. The witch was so, so angry she didn’t know what to do. And as it turned out, she had no time to think because… 

“It’s me, Prince Oblong. I’m here to rescue Rapunzel” 

Rapunzel and the witch were both taken aback. 

“How did you get up here?” They both asked. 

“I have a very special power” said Prince Oblong. He didn’t. He’d just worked out how to pick the lock on the front door. But nevertheless, he was making a rescue attempt. The witch was furious. 

“Arrrrrrrrggh. Noooo. This cannot be happening” and with that she cast a spell. There was a massive bang, a cloud of smoke and all the doors were sealed. 

“Now you’ll never get out of here. All the doors are sealed up. You will both have to live in this tiny room full of knitting forever and ever. And with that, just like the drama queen she was, the witch disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

“Oh no” said Prince Oblong “what are we going to do?” 

Rapunzel sorted her knitting and gathered some pieces together. 

“I said, what are we going to do?”. Prince Oblong was getting a bit stressed about it all. 

“Rapunzel, why are you playing with your knitting? We’re trapped. We need to get out of here. There are no doors anymore. There are no locks to pick. We’re doomed” 

Rapunzel looked at Prince Oblong and showed him what she had been doing. While Oblong had been moping, Rapunzel had tied together all the football scarves she had knitted. She had knitted one for each team, and each one was a long, sturdy scarf, perfect for a cold afternoon watching football. But also perfect to tie together in order to make a long knitted rope that they could use to escape. 

Rapunzel tied one end to the window and threw out the other end of the huge collection of scarves. And with that, like a giant chain of sausages, the scarves fell down and down and down until they got to the ground. 

They both climbed down the scarves and escaped.  

After this, Prince Oblong gave up being a prince. He became a really good locksmith. So if you’re ever in trouble with a door, it’s worth trying to get in touch with Oblong. And Rapunzel? Well, she’s still knitting, but also playing football, leading her local book group, singing, collecting bees and learning a few languages. Just in case any of those come in handy. Because you never know when one of them might come in handy.