Rumpelstiltskin

By a wood ran a fine stream, and on it stood a mill. The miller had a beautiful daughter, shrewd and clever, and he was so proud of her that one day he told the king—who hunted in that wood—that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king loved gold. He ordered the girl brought to the palace, led her to a room filled with straw, gave her a spinning-wheel, and said, “If by morning you have not spun this straw into gold, you shall die.”

She sat alone and wept; she could not spin straw into gold. Suddenly a little manikin appeared. “Good evening, miller’s daughter—why are you crying?” She told him.

“What will you give me if I spin it for you?”

“My necklace,” she said. He took it, sat down, and whirrr, whirrr—the wheel ran till by morning all the straw was gold.

The king was delighted yet not satisfied. He took her to a larger room of straw: “Spin this too by morning, or die.” She wept; the manikin came again.

“What will you give me?”

“The ring from my finger.” He took it and spun the gold. The king still wanted more. He led her to a yet greater room: “If you succeed this night, you shall be my wife.” She did not know how, but she thought of being queen.

The manikin came a third time. “What will you give me?”

“I have nothing left.”

“Then promise me your first child when you are queen.” In her distress she promised. He spun the straw into gold. In the morning the king married her, and she became queen.

When her first child was born she was glad and forgot the little man—until he walked in to claim the bargain. She offered him all the kingdom’s riches if he would leave the child. “No—something living is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world.” Yet he took pity enough to give her three days: if in that time she learned his name, she might keep the child.

She sent messengers far and wide; they brought every name they could hear. The first day she tried Caspar, Melchior, Balzer, and many more; none was right. The second day she tried longer and stranger names; still wrong. On the third day a messenger came from a high hill in the forest: he had seen a little house, and before it a fire, and round the fire a ridiculous little man hopping on one leg and singing:

Today I bake, tomorrow brew,
The next I’ll have the young queen’s child.
Ha! glad am I that no one knew
That Rumpelstiltskin I am styled!

When the manikin came, she first tried ordinary names, then asked, “Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?”

“The devil has told you that!” he cried, and stamped his right foot so deep into the floor that he had to pull it out with both hands. Then he made the best of his way off, while the nurse laughed and the baby crowed, and the court jeered at him for having had so much trouble for nothing.

Where this story comes from

“Rumpelstiltskin” is a German tale from the Brothers Grimm, not an Indian one. It is number 55 in Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation (Rumpelstilzchen), and the English here follows the Project Gutenberg text built on Taylor and Edwardes.

The Grimms’ note says they put it together from four stories collected in Hesse that fill out one another. In one, the queen sends out no messengers: the king gets lost while hunting and overhears the little man singing his name. A fifth story begins with a girl whose flax always spins into gold thread, to her great sorrow.

In this English version the little man simply runs away in a rage at the end.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales, tr. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes (Project Gutenberg #2591, Rumpelstiltskin)

Best for ages 6–8: a spinning-wheel, a boastful father and a strange little man whose name is the key to everything.

The bargain begins before the little man arrives

The miller invents an ability his daughter does not have, and the king threatens her life to profit from it. Her promise is made under that pressure. The name puzzle offers a way out, but it does not make the earlier demands fair. The king also escapes criticism within the happy ending, even though his greed created the danger.

Trace the demands

List what the miller, king and little man ask or claim, and who bears the cost. Which demands can the daughter freely refuse? Use that distinction when discussing whether her promise was simply careless.

Talk about it

• Why was the miller’s daughter in trouble in the first place?
• The little man helped her, but asked for terrible things in return. Was he a helper or a villain? Explain.
• How did the queen finally find out his name? What would you have done if no one had found it?

Related stories

• The King of the Golden Mountain — a Grimm father tricked into promising his child to a dwarf
• Rapunzel — a Grimm child promised away before birth because of her parents’ wish
• The Elves and the Shoemaker — tiny Grimm helpers who work at night, but ask for nothing in return