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 makes an empty boast to the king that his daughter can spin gold out of straw. The king, being the monarch, thinks he can command anyone to perform his oddest whim. He take the miller’s daughter to a chamber, locked her up and commanded to spin all of the straw in the room into gold.
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Just as the poor girl is begins to despair, the door opens and a little man enters the chamber. She explains her predicament to him, and he says he will spin the straw into gold for her, if she gives him a gift. She takes off her necklace and the little man accepted it, and, true to his word, he spins all of the straw in the chamber into gold, and then leaves. Even though the king was delighted, because of his greediness, he locks the miller’s daughter up again with more straw.
Once again the little man appears, and agrees to do the same as before, but in exchange for a new gift. The miller’s daughter gives him the ring on her finger, and he starts spinning the straw for her. The king, whose greed for gold grows with each new success, locks her up again, this time in a bigger room. Once again, the mysterious little man appears, and agrees to help her out in exchange for another gift. Having nothing left to offer, she reluctantly agrees to sacrifice her first-born child to the little man when she becomes queen. Being aware that she cannot succeed without his help. The king is so pleased with all of the gold that he marries the miller’s daughter.
When the time passes she gives birth to her first child, and totally forgot what she promise to the little man, who appears in her chamber and reminded her. She begs him to release her from her promise, but he refuses. Instead, he says that if she can guess his name in the next three days, he will let her keep her child. The queen sends out her messengers to see if anyone knows the little man’s name. Unfortunately, the first day and the second day attempts of guessing the name fails.
But on the third day, one of her messengers reports that he overheard a funny-looking little man dancing with glee around a fire, and in his song he let slip that his name is Rumpel-stilts-kin.
When the little man returns to the queen on the third night, she tells him his name, and in his rage at being thwarted, he puts his foot through the floor and promptly splits in two. Everyone lives happily ever after.
The fairy tale of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ is about something that has concern about human beings throughout much of our history. Both the miller and his daughter are prepared to sacrifice their child for it: to take the notion of making sacrifice in return to bring forth gold from straw. The king, whose greed for gold grows with each new success: that gives other people the motivation to take advantage. And, Rumpelstiltskin whom overconfident, givn his magical abilities, and his mysteriousness, why didn’t he just come in and snatch the child? Not only does he not do so, but he even gives the queen another opportunity to wriggle out of their deal, by guessing his name which became his greatest tragedy: nobody seems to know his name, and it’s only discovered because of his own big mouth. And certainly the three male characters in the story – the miller, the king, and Rumpelstiltskin himself – are too cocky for their own good, in many ways.
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