Week 14 Storytelling: Rumpelstiltskin

Long ago, there lived farmer. He had a very beautiful daughter and he wanted to give her a better life than he had. So, one day while delivering his goods to the king’s market he noticed the king walking through the market. The farmer then began to tell those around him about how his beautiful daughter was able to spin straw into gold. Making sure to talk loud enough for the king to hear, the farmer told everyone how one day soon, he would no longer need to grow his crops because of her gift. The king over heard the farmers boasts and approached him and said that if it was indeed true that the daughter could spin straw into gold he would marry her to his son.
That night, the king sent for the farmers daughter and brought her to the castle and locked her in a room filled with straw. He said to spin all the straw in the room into gold by morning and if she did, so he would marry her to his son the prince. However, if she could not, her and her father will be put to death for lying to him. The king then closed and locked the door. As the farmer’s daughter looked around the room, she saw no way she could possibly do such a thing. As she began to cry fearing the punishment the king promised a little man came through the window in her room. He gave her no name but her that he would spin the straw into gold, but at a price. When the farmer’s daughter asked for the price the little man told her he would do it if she gave him her first born child. Fearing her death, the farmer’s daughter readily agreed, and the man went to work spinning all the straw in the room into gold. The next morning when the king arrived, he was excited at what he saw. He quickly married the daughter off to his son. It took years to finally conceive a child, and by that time the daughter had forgotten all about the little man who helped her. The prince never asked her to spin any straw and soon he became just a memory. However, when she finally gave birth to a son years later the following night she was visited by that same little man. He told her that it was time to pay the price and that he was owed her child. She begged and pleaded for him to not take away her child, but the man simply stated that a deal was a deal and that magic always comes at a price. In a puff of smoke, the baby and the little man disappeared, and the woman was left with the fear of telling her husband the full story of what had happened.

Rumpelstiltskin

Image Source

Bibliography: Story source: The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman (1998-2013). Online Source


Author's Note: 

In the original story of Rumpelstiltskin, it was a miller’s daughter. However, as I myself am not exactly sure what a “miller” is I decided to change it to a farmer’s daughter. I believe the spinning of straw went on for a few nights before the king finally wed off the prince and girl. Rumpelstiltskin did tell her that his price after the nights was her first born and he did come after the child. However, because of her pleading to not take her child, Rumpelstiltskin made her another deal. He would give her some time to learn his real name, and if she could he would let her keep her child. After many attempts to guess his name he gave her one last opportunity. However, she learned his name in the time since she saw him and failed at guessing and on her last guess she gave his name of Rumpelstiltskin. Annoyed by this, he took his leave and let her keep her child. I do not like this ending. She is not punished for lying to the king or her husband and she went back on a deal with a magical being. Using a reference to modern day, I said that Rumpelstiltskin told her magic always comes at a price, a phrase used quite often by the portrayal of Rumpelstiltskin in Tv’s Once Upon a Time. I rather liked my ending where he kept to the deal of taking her without giving the opportunity to go back on the deal because the Rumpelstiltskin I’ve come to know from the show loves to make deals and keep them.