Rumpelstiltskin

Part One · Straw into Gold

Once there was a poor miller who had a beautiful daughter. One day, when the miller met the King on the road, he wanted to seem important, so he said something very foolish. "My daughter is so clever," he boasted, "that she can spin straw into gold." The greedy King loved gold more than anything else in the world. "Now that is a skill I like," he said. "Bring her to my castle tomorrow."

When the girl arrived, the King led her to a little room piled high with straw, and in the middle of it stood a spinning wheel. "Get to work," he said. "If you have not spun all this straw into gold by morning, you will be in terrible trouble." Then he locked the door and left her all alone. The poor girl had no idea how to spin straw into gold.

She sat down on a bundle of straw and began to cry. Suddenly, the door creaked open, and in walked a tiny little man with a long gray beard and a pointed hat. "Good evening, miller's daughter," he said. "Why are you crying so hard?" "I must spin this straw into gold," she sobbed, "and I don't know how." "What will you give me if I do it for you?" asked the little man.

"My necklace," said the girl. The little man took the necklace and sat down at the wheel. Whirr, whirr, whirr! Three turns, and the spool was full of gold. Then he put on another, and whirr, whirr, whirr, that one was full too. He spun all night long, and by morning all the straw was gone and every spool shone with golden thread.

When the King came in at sunrise, his eyes grew wide, but the gold only made him greedier. That evening he took the girl to a bigger room, filled with even more straw. "Spin this into gold by morning too," he said. Again she cried, and again the little man appeared. This time she gave him the ring from her finger, and once more he spun all night.

Part Two · The Promise

The King was delighted, but he still wanted more. On the third night, he led the girl to an enormous room, stuffed with straw up to the ceiling. "Spin all this tonight," he said, "and you shall be my wife." He thought to himself, "She is only a miller's daughter, but I could never find a richer wife in the whole world."

As soon as she was alone, the little man appeared for the third time. "What will you give me if I spin the straw again?" he asked. "I have nothing left to give," said the girl sadly. "Then promise me this," said the little man. "When you are Queen, you must give me your first baby." The girl did not know what else to do, so she promised.

So the little man spun the whole huge room into gold. In the morning, the King found everything just as he wished, and he married the miller's daughter that very day, so the miller's pretty daughter became a Queen. A year later, she had a beautiful baby, and she was so happy that she forgot all about the little man and her promise.

But one day, he suddenly stepped right into her room. "Now give me what you promised," he said. The Queen was terrified, and she offered him all the riches in the kingdom if only he would let her keep her child. "No," said the little man. "Something alive is worth more to me than all the treasures in the world." Then the Queen wept so hard that he felt sorry for her.

Part Three · The Name

"I will give you three days," he said. "If by then you can guess my name, you may keep your child." The Queen lay awake all night, thinking of every name she had ever heard. She also sent a messenger far and wide to discover new names. When the little man came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, and then every name she knew.

But each time, the little man said, "That is not my name." On the second day, she tried the strangest names her messenger had found. "Is your name Ribs-of-Beef? Is it Sheepshanks? Is it Lace-leg?" "That is not my name," he said with a grin, and he went off chuckling. The Queen was more worried than ever, and that night she could not sleep a wink.

On the third day, the messenger returned with a very strange story. "I couldn't find a single new name," he said. "But high on a mountain, where the fox and the hare say good night, I saw a little house. In front of it a fire was burning, and around the fire a funny little man was hopping on one leg and singing."

"This is what he sang," said the messenger. "Bake today and brew tomorrow, then the Queen will weep in sorrow! Oh, it's good that no one can claim that Rumpelstiltskin is my name!" You can imagine how happy the Queen was when she heard that name. She said it over and over to herself, so that she would not forget it.

That evening, the little man came for the last time. "Well, my Queen," he said with a nasty grin, "what is my name?" The Queen pretended to think very hard. "Is your name Conrad?" she asked. "No!" "Is your name Harry?" "No!" He was already rubbing his hands together. Then the Queen smiled. "Then could your name be Rumpelstiltskin?"

"Who told you that? Who told you that?" shrieked the little man. He was so furious that he stamped his right foot, and it went straight through the floor, right up to his knee! He tugged and he yanked until he got it out again. Then he stormed off in a terrible huff, out of the castle and over the hills, and nobody ever saw him again.

The Queen kept her baby, and she never had to spin a single thread of gold again. And from that day on, the miller was very careful about what he said. He had learned that a silly boast can cause a great deal of trouble. He had also learned that the right word at the right time can be worth more than a room full of gold.