Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin

Brothers Grimm · faithful family retelling

A boastful miller told the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The greedy king locked her in a room piled with straw and said she must spin it all by morning or die.

The girl wept until a strange little man appeared. In exchange for her necklace, he spun every straw into shining gold. The king demanded more the next night. For her ring, the little man did it again. On the third night the king promised to marry her if she succeeded, but she had nothing left to give.

“Promise me your first child when you are queen,” said the little man. In terror, believing the day might never come, she promised. He spun the gold, and the king married her.

A year later the queen bore a child. The little man came to claim it. Her grief moved him enough to offer one chance: if within three days she could discover his name, she might keep her baby.

She named every strange name she knew, but he laughed at each. On the third day a messenger reported seeing a little man dance around a fire in the forest, singing that no one knew his name was Rumpelstiltskin.

When he returned, the queen first guessed wrongly, then asked, “Could your name be Rumpelstiltskin?”

“The devil told you!” he shrieked. In rage he stamped one foot so deep into the earth that he sank to his waist. He seized the other foot and tore himself in two. The queen kept her child, and a bargain made in fear was broken by courage and wit.