|
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Rumpelstiltskin
Once there was a miller who was poor, but
who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had
to go and speak to the King, and in order to make himself
appear important he said to him, "I have a daughter
who can spin straw into gold." The King said to the
miller, "That is an art which pleases me well; if your
daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to-morrow to
my palace, and I will try what she can do."
And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a
room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel
and a reel, and said, "Now set to work, and if by to-morrow
morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during
the night, you must die." Thereupon he himself locked
up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the
poor miller's daughter, and for the life of her could not
tell what to do; she had no idea how straw could be spun
into gold, and she grew more and more miserable, until at
last she began to weep.
But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man,
and said, "Good evening, Mistress Miller; why are you
crying so?" "Alas!" answered the girl, "I
have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do
it." "What will you give me," said the manikin,
"if I do it for you?" "My necklace,"
said the girl. The little man took the necklace, seated
himself in front of the wheel, and "whirr, whirr, whirr,"
three turns, and the reel was full; then he put another
on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the
second was full too. And so it went on until the morning,
when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full
of gold. By daybreak the King was already there, and when
he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but his
heart became only more greedy. He had the miller's daughter
taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger,
and commanded her to spin that also in one night if she
valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself,
and was crying, when the door again opened, and the little
man appeared, and said, "What will you give me if I
spin that straw into gold for you?" "The ring
on my finger," answered the girl. The little man took
the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by morning
had spun all the straw into glittering gold.
The King rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still
he had not gold enough; and he had the miller's daughter
taken into a still larger room full of straw, and said,
"You must spin this, too, in the course of this night;
but if you succeed, you shall be my wife." "Even
if she be a miller's daughter," thought he, "I
could not find a richer wife in the whole world."
When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the
third time, and said, "What will you give me if I spin
the straw for you this time also?" "I have nothing
left that I could give," answered the girl. "Then
promise me, if you should become Queen, your first child."
"Who knows whether that will ever happen?" thought
the miller's daughter; and, not knowing how else to help
herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he
wanted, and for that he once more span the straw into gold.
And when the King came in the morning, and found all as
he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller's
daughter became a Queen.
A year after, she had a beautiful child, and she never
gave a thought to the manikin. But suddenly he came into
her room, and said, "Now give me what you promised."
The Queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all
the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child.
But the manikin said, "No, something that is living
is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world."
Then the Queen began to weep and cry, so that the manikin
pitied her. "I will give you three days' time,"
said he, "if by that time you find out my name, then
shall you keep your child."
So the Queen thought the whole night of all the names that
she had ever heard, and she sent a messenger over the country
to inquire, far and wide, for any other names that there
might be. When the manikin came the next day, she began
with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names
she knew, one after another; but to every one the little
man said, "That is not my name." On the second
day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood as to the
names of the people there, and she repeated to the manikin
the most uncommon and curious. "Perhaps your name is
Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg?" but he always
answered, "That is not my name."
On the third day the messenger came back again, and said,
"I have not been able to find a single new name, but
as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, where
the fox and the hare bid each other good night, there I
saw a little house, and before the house a fire was burning,
and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was
jumping: he hopped upon one leg, and shouted --
"To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,
The next I'll have the young Queen's child.
Ha! glad am I that no one knew
That Rumpelstiltskin I am styled."
You may think how glad the Queen was when she heard the
name! And when soon afterwards the little man came in, and
asked, "Now, Mistress Queen, what is my name?"
at first she said, "Is your name Conrad?" "
No." "Is your name Harry?" "No."
"Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?"
"The devil has told you that! the devil has told you
that!" cried the little man, and in his anger he plunged
his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg
went in; and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard
with both hands that he tore himself in two.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:221-224. |
