A Summary of the ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ Fairy Tale

  How old do you think the story of Rumpelstiltskin is? It was one of many famous Children’s Tales included in the 1812 volume by the Brothers Grimm (a book that is well knowned as Grimms’ Fairy Tales). The literal meaning of the name ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ (Rumpelstilzchen in the Grimms’ German version) is ‘little rattle stilt’, from rumpelstilt, a goblin that was rumoured to make noises by rattling  stilts), like a sort of poltergeist. Among many of the tales written down by the Grimm siblings it was considerably vintage by then. To put that in perspective, the story of Rumpelstiltskin is thought to be over a thousand years before Homer, and the earliest surviving versions of the tales that comprise the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is widely regarded as the oldest epic. Rumpelstiltskin, in summary, is one of the earliest known narratives in Western literature. The fairy tale can be summarised easily enough. The miller is so proud of his daughter that he exaggerates her abilities. He ...