Rumpelstiltskin - Fairy tale

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 put her to the test.

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 frightened, 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 opened again, 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, to give me 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 spun 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 brought a beautiful child into the world, 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 alive is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world.  Then the queen began to lament 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 imagine 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.

Analysis of “Rumpelstiltskin”

Like many fairy tales, “Rumpelstiltskin” is a story that is without a character which we can define as pure or innocent. Rather, it’s a story of two obviously wicked characters in the form of the father who lies to and thus ends up getting his daughter in a lot of trouble with the king who is a greedy man who cares about nothing but the gold he can get out of the miller’s daughter. Not all the characters are wicked, of course. The miller’s daughter clearly isn’t evil when she agrees to give a baby to a strange man, just desperate. She has been forced into an inescapable predicament by the two men in her life that she should be able to trust above anyone else, her father and her future husband. Clearly this situation puts her in a space between. She is not yet a fiancé, yet she is no longer free in that regard. She is trapped in a prison but an honored guest. She is between being a member of her father’s house, the executioner, and the king’s household. It is at this moment when she is trapped; pulled by so many worlds that the fairy appears.

In many ways Rumpelstiltskin is the most confusing and intriguing part of this story.  For this particular “männlein,” as the German text designates, Rumpelstiltskin, despite outward appearances, is neither clear in his goal nor his motivation. On the cusp of it, it would seem that he wants the girl’s first-born baby. However, most fairies in stories don’t ask for the child they want, instead they simply take it. Rumpelstiltskin, however, despite being clearly able to sneak into a prison, being able to weave magic doesn’t just take the child as he obviously could. He tries to get the girl to accept giving the baby to him. What’s more, even after he comes to collect the child, he decides to give her another chance to escape her agreement with him.

Considering that during the time this story takes place children were left in the forests in droves or orphaned on the streets, Rumpelstiltskin could have taken hundreds of children easily, and taking them would have been an act of kindness as Rumpelstiltskin would have been rescuing them from starvation. He doesn’t just want any baby then. What he wants is this particular baby. Indeed, by his own words, this baby is more precious to him than all the treasures in the world.
We are left then with two questions, the first being, why doesn’t Rumpelstiltskin simply take the baby? Secondly, why does Rumpelstiltskin want the baby in the first place? To answer these questions, we must examine what fairies are as well as a few other fairy tales. Let us begin by placing Rumpelstiltskin into the possible categories of fairy to see where he might fit, or if he even has a place as all fairies don’t necessarily seem to.

Possibility 1 - Rumpelstiltskin is an ancestor spirit or a forgotten god.

At first glance this idea may seem preposterous; however, consider that Merlin was raised by a fairy as was Malagigi the wizard who aided Charlemagne in myth. King Arthur was taken by Merlin who saw his future before he was even born, and Lancelot was taken and raised by fairies as well. This might mean then that Rumpelstiltskin is after the child because he sees the child’s future or at least its potential future. This particular baby is not just that of the girl’s after all but also that of a king, and so is the future king just as King Arthur was. Thus, Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t just want any baby he wants to raise, or have someone else raise a king, while removing the child and future king from what is quite possibly a long line of tyrants or, at the very least, from his currently greedy father. We see something similar happen in a French fairy tale in which a fairy tells the king and queen:

“If I left him (your son) to you to bring up... you would be certain to make him as foolish as yourselves. I do not even intend to let him know that he is your son.”

So at least in one incidence a fairy claims to be removing a child from their parents to help insure that they are raised properly. While one can’t always trust fairies, of course, we must again recall that the fairies don’t have to give any explanation. They can just take the child if they want it and leave. Further, we must also consider that because Rumpelstiltskin may potentially be able to see the future, that he is actually after the child he knows he loves more than “all the treasures in the world.” As an ancestor or deity, he could be the either the child’s grandfather or seeking a way to help his decendents by putting a better king on the throne.

Possibility 2 - Rumpelstiltskin is the spirit of a conquered people or one of their gods. In this possibility, Rumpelstiltskin might be after a mixture of revenge or is attempting to help his people rise up to their former glory by raising the future king of the land. In this he could be a Merlin-like figure of a conquered people who, just as Malagigi the wizard of Charlemagne’s court, was later derided as a devil by later people. Rumpelstiltskin might be a hero to a conquered people still hiding in the woods thus making him an enemy to the kingdom.

Possibility 3 - Rumpelstiltskin is a nature spirit or a simply a unique fairy. It is more challenging to understand the reason a nature spirit or unique fairy would be interested in a specific human child except that perhaps they are aware that they do love the child because of divination. Another possibility comes to us from the story of Powell in Wales in which a human king aids the fairies by slaying an enemy they couldn’t. Thus, it’s conceivable that a nature fairy could desire to take a specific child because it knows that it loves or could help that child.

Possibility 4 - Rumpelstiltskin is a devil/fallen angel or witch. Although I’ve chosen to leave this theory of fairy nature out of this book because it is a much later addition to the fairy theory and so ultimately doesn’t fit within a book explaining the motivations of fairies in more original traditions, it is still conceivable that Rumpelstiltskin is meant by the storytellers to be a devil trying to tempt the girl into the sin of giving away her child. Ultimately, however, while this idea could be workable, after thousands of years of Christianizing the people, telling this story would likely jump on the opportunity to accuse a creature of being a devil if they thought it was so.

Through this simple review we can now see that Rumpelstiltskin is after the baby for four possible reasons:

1 - Rumpelstiltskin wants the baby because he knows that he loves him.

 2 - He sees the baby’s future and realizes that it can be a good king finally      bringing peace to the land of his ancestors.

3 - He seeks revenge or a way to protect his fallen people.

4 - He knows he’ll need the baby’s help at some future date.

To understand which of these answers makes sense, we must find an answer to the second question: Why doesn’t Rumpelstiltskin just take the baby? Again, there are a number of possible answers which present themselves: