‘Rumpelstiltskin’
‘Rumpelstiltskin’.When a poor miller boasts that his daughter can spin straw into gold, the king places her into a chamber full of straw to prove this claim under threat of death. An ugly little man appears and performs this impossible task for her in exchange for her ring and, on the second night, her necklace. On the third night, the king puts her into the largest chamber yet and promises to marry her if she succeeds. With nothing left to trade, she is forced to promise the dwarf her first child. When he comes to claim it, he is moved by her tears to let her keep the baby if she can find out his name in three days' time. Failing to answer correctly on the first two nights, the young queen is told by her messenger at the last moment how he had overheard a strange little man calling himself ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ as he was dancing round a fire in the woods. When the queen confronts ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ with the correct name, he tears himself apart in his...
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