Long hair in literature

[jackiesjottings]

Apart from Rapunzel, are there any other characters in literature, where there long hair is either a major feature of their character, or features in the plot? I can't think of any offhand.

Thanks

[sweet*things]

I think hair is featured in The Goose Girl, she has to spend a lot of time combing out tangles, lol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goose_Girl

[MakeLoveNotWar]

In the original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson, her sisters cut their long, beautiful, flowing hair in exchange for a knife from the sea witch. Also, when the Little Mermaid first meets the prince, she is naked and covers herself with her hair.

[Lamb]

Long hair (and cutting long hair after a bad dye job) is pretty important in Anne of Green Gables. In one of the sequels (Anne's House of Dreams I think), one of the characters has thick blonde hair down to her ankles.

[Marjolein]

Samson in the bible.

[Loreley]

I've heard about two (although I don't know them):
- If I had long, long hair
- The princess with the longest hair.

[Starfilly]

Oo, an excellent thread!

Several come to mind:

• "The Gift of the Magi" by O.Henry--she sells her hair to buy him a pocketwatch chain, he sells the pocketwatch to buy her hair combs, both present the gifts to the other as a surprise and...oops.
• Lady Godiva--I believe there was a poem by Tennyson on this?
• Jo in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott sells her hair so that her mother has the money to visit her wounded father.
• Nearly all of the female characters in Tolkien's writings have beautiful long hair. Galadriel gives Gimili a few hairs, Arwen is famous for her locks, and Luthien wove her own hair into a rope to escape and later into a dark cloak.

There's a fair bit in more recent lit as well:

• Aerin in The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley has very long hair that seems to come up in the story quite often.
• Mary Russell in The Beekeeper's Apprentice series has very long blond hair.
• In The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (which I despised, incidentally), long hair is a status symbol; only certain members of the upper classes are permitted to wear it long.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some favorites. Can't wait to see what others come up with!

[sophistiCat *]

Eve in Adam and Eve lol

[sweet*things]

Mary Magdalene, if we're going biblical.

[halo_tightens]

Long hair (and cutting long hair after a bad dye job) is pretty important in Anne of Green Gables. In one of the sequels (Anne's House of Dreams I think), one of the characters has thick blonde hair down to her ankles.

This was the first thing that came to my mind!