Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin

Illustration by Andrew Lang.

Author Anonymous Published 1812-??-?? Type Fiction, Short story Genre Drama, Fairy tale Themes Drama Age Group Children

Rumpelstiltskin is a fairy tale first published in the 1812 compendium Children's and Household Tales which was compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The tale has many earlier sources with some dating back thousands of years. It is in the public domain.

In the story, a miller, eager to impress the king, claims his daughter can spin straw into gold. The king orders her to stay up all night spinning an entire room full of straw into gold, and, if she isn't done by morning, he'll murder her. The miller's daughter is terrified, but a tiny man walks in and claims he can spin the straw into gold if she gives him her necklace. They make the trade, and the tiny man is successful. The next morning, the king is very impressed, and ordered the miller's daughter to spin an even larger room full of straw into gold or he'll murder her. The tiny man shows up again and takes her ring and produces the gold. On the third night, the king puts here in an even larger room and tells her if she can spin this into gold, he will marry her. The daughter has nothing left to trade to the tiny man, so he demands her first born child if she becomes queen, which she agrees to. Now exceedingly wealthy, the king marries the miller's daughter, and it isn't long before she bears a child and the tiny man comes to collect. The new queen doesn't want to give up her child and offers the tiny man various riches, but he doesn't want them and instead says he will give the queen three days to guess his name, and, if she can, he'll call off the bargain. For the first two days, the queen has her servants scour the land to make a list of every name they can find, but none of them match the tiny man. On the third day, one of her servants says he found the tiny man's home and heard him singing his own name as Rumpelstiltskin. The queen guesses it, and Rumpelstiltskin becomes so mad that he tears himself in half and dies.

Personal

Own?	Compilation book.
Read?	Margaret Raine Hunt translation.
Finished	2025-03-03.

My mother took me to a children's play when I was kid to see a rendition of this story (minus the brutal ending). Knowing of it, I read the story and found it to be quite terrible.

Review

Overall:

Good

• Rumpelstiltskin's last act is kind of funny at least.

Bad

• After the miller claims his daughter can spin straw into gold, the king threatens to murder her if she can't actually do it. Why not the miller who lied?

Ugly

• After threatening to murder her three times, the king marries the miller's daughter. I don't think this is going to be a loving relationship.
• The story leaves a lot of unanswered questions. How does the little man have the ability to spin straw into gold, and, if he does, why hasn't the economy tanked? Why does the little man want a child? What does he plan to do with it? Why would the little man offer the new queen a way out of their agreement when it doesn't benefit him at all? Can't the king just have Rumpelstiltskin executed for trying to steal the royal child?

Media

Illustrations

• 

  Illustration by Andrew Lang from The Blue Fairy Book, 1889.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	The sole woman is bullied about and has little volition of her own.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There is only one woman.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	The setting implies everyone is white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Adaptions

Due to its age, the story has been adapted times to numerous to pretty much every form of media.

The character Rumpelstiltskin appears in King's Quest, though just in name, no relation to the story. Spinning straw into gold occurs in the video game Loom.

Links