The story is about a miller’s daughter who gets into a difficult situation and is helped by a mysterious man, but at a cost. Her intelligence and a bit of luck help her in the end.
Once upon a time, a penniless miller, his clothes patched and worn wanted to impress the king. So, he boasted that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king, always eager for more riches, ordered the miller’s daughter to prove this claim.
The king took the miller’s daughter to a room filled with straw, gave her a spinning wheel, and told her she must spin all the straw into gold by morning, or she would die. The frightened girl, her eyes wide with terror had no idea how to do this and began to cry.
Suddenly, a little man appeared and offered to help her. In exchange for her necklace, he spun the straw into gold. The next morning, the king was pleased with the gold but demanded more. He took her to a larger room filled with straw, and the little man appeared again, this time asking for her ring in return. Again, he spun the straw into gold.
Finally, the king took her to an even larger room filled with straw, promising to marry her if she could spin it all into gold. The little man appeared a third time. The girl had nothing left to give him, so he made her promise her firstborn child. Desperate, she agreed, and he spun the straw into gold once more.
The king married the miller’s daughter, and she became queen. A year later, she gave birth to a child. The little man appeared, demanding the child. The queen begged him to take anything else, but he refused. Finally, he said, “I will give you three days to guess my name. If you guess correctly, you can keep your child.”
The queen spent the first day listing every name she knew, but the little man said, “That is not my name.” The next day, she sent her servants to search the kingdom for unusual names. But when the little man came, he again said, “That is not my name.”
On the third day, a servant came to the queen and said, “I saw a little man dancing around a fire in the woods. He was singing, ‘Tonight I’ll brew, tomorrow I’ll bake, the queen’s little child I shall take. For nobody knows, and nobody guesses, that my name is Rumpelstiltskin!’”
When the little man came that evening, the queen pretended to be unsure. She asked, “Is your name Caspar?” “No,” he said. “Is your name Melchior?” “No,” he replied. Then she said, “Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?”
The little man, his face contorted with rage, shrieked in fury. He stamped his foot so hard that he broke through the floor and was never seen again. The queen kept her child and lived happily ever after.
Rumpelstiltskin story summary:
The story of “Rumpelstiltskin” has several different interpretations, so it does not have a single, definitive moral.
Here are some of the morals or lessons people often take away from the story:
- Keep your promises: The miller’s daughter (who becomes the queen) makes a promise to a mysterious being, and the story explores the consequences of that promise.
- Don’t be greedy: The king’s greed sets the whole story in motion.
- Be careful what you wish for: The miller’s daughter gets herself into trouble by accepting help without fully considering the cost.
- Knowledge is power: The queen is able to save her child by learning Rumpelstiltskin’s name.
- Pride comes before a fall: Rumpelstiltskin’s overconfidence in believing his name would remain a secret leads to his downfall.