The following is an annotated version of the fairy tale. I recommend reading the story in its entirety before exploring the notes links, especially if you have not read it in a while.
THERE was once upon a time a poor miller1 who had a very beautiful daughter.2 Now it happened one day that he had an audience with the King,3 and in order to appear a person of some importance4 he told him that he had a daughter who could spin straw into gold.5 "Now that's a talent worth having,"6 said the King to the miller; "if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to my palace to-morrow, and I'll put her to the test." When the girl was brought to him he led her into a room full of straw,7 gave her a spinning-wheel8 and spindle,9 and said: "Now set to work and spin all night till early dawn,10 and if by that time you haven't spun the straw into gold11 you shall die."12 Then he closed the door behind him and left her alone inside.
So the poor miller's daughter sat down, and didn't know what in the world she was to do. She hadn't the least idea of how to spin straw into gold, and became at last so miserable that she began to cry. Suddenly the door opened, and in stepped a tiny little man13 and said: "Good-evening, Miss Miller-maid; why are you crying so bitterly?" "Oh!" answered the girl, "I have to spin straw into gold, and haven't a notion how it's done." "What will you give me if I spin it for you?"14 asked the manikin.15 "My necklace,"16 replied the girl. The little man took the necklace, sat himself down at the wheel, and whir, whir, whir, the wheel went round three17 times, and the bobbin18 was full. Then he put on another, and whir, whir, whir, the wheel went round three times, and the second too was full; and so it went on till the morning, when all the straw was spun away, and all the bobbins were full of gold. As soon as the sun rose the King came, and when he perceived the gold he was astonished and delighted, but his heart only lusted more than ever after the precious metal.19 He had the miller's daughter put into another room full of straw, much bigger than the first, and bade her, if she valued her life, spin it all into gold before the following morning. The girl didn't know what to do, and began to cry; then the door opened as before, and the tiny little man appeared and said: "What'll you give me if I spin the straw into gold for you?" "The ring from my finger,"20 answered the girl. The manikin took the ring, and whir! round went the spinning-wheel again, and when morning broke he had spun all the straw into glittering gold. The King was pleased beyond measure at the sights but his greed for gold was still not satisfied, and he had the miller's daughter brought into a yet bigger room full of straw, and said: "You must spin all this away in the night; but if you succeed this time you shall become my wife."21 "She's only a miller's daughter, it's true," he thought; "but I couldn't find a richer wife if I were to search the whole world over." When the girl was alone the little man appeared for the third time, and said: "What'll you give me if I spin the straw for you once again?" "I've nothing more to give,"22 answered the girl. "Then promise me when you are Queen to give me your first child."23 "Who knows what may not happen before that?" thought the miller's daughter; and besides, she saw no other way out of it,24 so she promised the manikin what he demanded,25 and he set to work once more and spun the straw into gold. When the King came in the morning, and found everything as he had desired, he straightway made her his wife, and the miller's daughter became a queen.26
When a year had passed a beautiful son27 was born to her, and she thought no more of the little man, till all of a sudden one day he stepped into her room and said: "Now give me what you promised." The Queen was in a great state, and offered the little man all the riches in her kingdom28 if he would only leave her the child. But the manikin said: "No, a living creature is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world."29 Then the Queen began to cry and sob so bitterly that the little man was sorry for her,30 and said: "I'll give you three days to guess my name, and if you find it out in that time you may keep your child."31
Then the Queen pondered the whole night over
all the names she had ever heard, and sent a messenger to scour the land,32
and to pick up far and near any names he could come across. When the little man
arrived on the following day she began with Kasper, Melchior, Belshazzar,33 and all the other names she knew, in a
string, but at each one the manikin called out: "That's not my name."
The next day she sent to inquire the names of all the people in the
neighborhood, and had a long list of the most uncommon and extraordinary for
the little man when he made his
appearance. "Is your name, perhaps, Sheepshanks Cruickshanks,
Spindleshanks?"34 but he always replied: "That's not
my name." On the third day the messenger returned and announced: "I
have not been able to find any new names, but as I came upon a high hill round
the corner of the wood, where the foxes and hares bid each other good night, I
saw a little house, and in front of the house burned a fire, and round the fire
sprang the most grotesque little man, hopping on one leg and crying:
"To-morrow
I brew, to-day I bake,
And then the child away I'll take;
For little deems my royal dame
That Rumpelstiltskin is my name!"35
You may imagine the Queen's delight at hearing the name, and when the little man stepped in shortly afterward and asked: "Now, my lady Queen, what's my name?" she asked first: "Is your name Conrad?"36 "No." "Is your name Harry?" "No." "Is your name perhaps, Rumpelstiltskin?"37 "Some demon has told you that, some demon has told you that!"38 screamed the little man, and in his rage drove his right foot so far into the ground that it sank in up to his waist;39 then in a passion he seized the left foot with both hands and tore himself in two.40
1. Miller: A miller is "one who keeps or attends a flour mill or gristmill" (Webster's 1990). A miller, while not a peasant, would be part of the working class and not the nobility. He would have some property and a few comforts for himself and his family, depending on the success of his mill. He may also be a community leader due to his property ownership and thus have access to meeting the king.
A miller often symbolizes greed,
habitual and uncreative thinking as well as logic as a feeble protection
against passion (Olderr 1986).
Return to place in
story.
2. Beautiful daughter: Note that the daughter's beauty is not an
issue in the story, but it is still mentioned. The daughter is not valued for
her beauty, however, so it is not a critical part of the story.
3. King: The king is not
present in all versions of the tale. Often the tale is about a young woman's
parent trying to achieve a comfortable marriage, sometimes to a king and
sometimes to a wealthy merchant, by falsely bragging about her skill at
spinning.
Return to place in story.
4. To appear a person of some importance: The events of this story begin thanks to a father's false
boasts and brags about his daughter. Many variants of the tale start with a
parent's outrageous boast about a daughter's skills with spinning. Some
scholars consider the tale's secondary moral to be a warning about false
boasting. A few, such as Peter and Iona Opie consider
the primary moral to be a warning against boasting (Opie
1974).
Return to place in story.
5. Who could spin straw into gold: Formerly scholars concentrated on the false boasting and "name of the helper" aspects of the tale. For example, the Aarne-Thompson classification focuses on the name of the helper theme of the story. However, scholars such as Ruth Bottigheimer and Jack Zipes have offered newer theories concerning the spinning aspects of the story. They compare the tale to the Grimms' The Three Spinners and consider the tale to be "an amalgamation of literary and oral tales that the Grimms carefully reworked to represent the dilemma of a young peasant woman who cannot spin to save herself" (Zipes 1994, 55).
In times past, women gained marriage offers and social standing through their domestic arts. Spinning was part of their domain and was later taken over by men and machinery. Bottigheimer contends that the tale was originally about a woman who was threatened because she could only spin gold, not the flax needed to clothe those who depended on her skills. She contends that Wilhelm Grimm changed the tale into one about boasting and greed instead of a young girl's ability to spin (Bottigheimer 1982, 149).
Maria Tatar finds irony in the tale: The daughter "works her way up the ladder of social success through her alleged accomplishments as a spinner, yet also manages to avoid sitting down at the spinning wheel" (Tatar 1987, 123). In an early French version of the tale, Ricdin-Ricdon, the daughter marries up by spinning beautifully and performing other domestic chores well.
Also consider the parallels between the spinner of flax and the spinner of tales, a storyteller. Storytellers spin stories with their words and imaginations. In times past, spinning and cloth production were places where storytelling took place and was in the domain of the women of the community.
In past centuries, alchemy, the
predecessor of the science of chemistry, was focused on trying to transmute
something common, such as straw, into something precious, such as gold.
Return to place in
story.
6. A talent worth having: Usually
the woman does not have the skills her parent boasts of. Sometimes she cannot
spin flax and can only spin gold which is actually an undesirable trait in
these versions of the story. In these versions gold is worthless in comparison
to the ability to create much needed clothing. Othertimes
she cannot spin the gold, only flax and the gold is preferred as by the king in
this story. Othertimes she cannot or will not spin at
all, being lazy and a burden to her family that just wants to be rid of her.
Return to place in story.
7. Straw: Straw is a
thing without value (Olderr 1986). Straw is abundant
and inexpensive. It is best used either as an ingredient in bricks for building
or as fodder for animals. The king would not have much value for straw, but he
would have plenty of it. He would be pleased with the prospect of turning
something so abundant and worthless into a precious substance to refill his
coffers.
Return to place in story.
8. Spinning-wheel: A
spinning wheel is "a small domestic spinning machine with a single spindle
that is driven by hand or foot" (WordNet).
Return to place in story.
9. Spindle: A spindle is
"the long, round, slender rod or pin in spinning wheels by which the
thread is twisted, and on which, when twisted, it is wound; also, the pin on
which the bobbin is held in a spinning machine, or in
the shuttle of a loom" (Websters 1990).
Return to place in story.
10. Spin all night till early dawn: Nighttime has long been associated with magical power and mystery. Magic is thought by some to have greater power under the cover of darkness.
Night represents the unconscious,
the feminine principle, death, evil, germination, potentiality, darkness, the
subconscious, and the precursor of creation (Olderr
1986).
Return to place in
story.
11. Gold: Gold, as always, is a precious metal and was reserved for the wealthy in past centuries. Gold has often been used for money and jewelry, to represent wealth and power.
Gold represents virtue,
intelligence, superiority, heaven, worldly wealth, idolatry, revealed truth,
marriage, and fruitfulness (Olderr 1986).
Return to place in
story.
12. You shall die: The
king threatens death to insure obedience. He has nothing to lose as king. If
the gold is spun, he gains the riches. If the gold isn't spun, he gets to
punish the liar for making a fool of him. The daughter, while not initiating
the lie, is complicitious in it.
Return to place in story.
13. A tiny little man: Rumpelstiltskin's size poses many questions unanswered by the text. Is he a dwarf? Most scholars do not think so, but some do. He may also be a demon, an elf or simply a small statured man. Jane Yolen proposes another interesting theory about the tale's meaning and Rumpelstiltskin's origin:
"So I looked more carefully
at the little man, Rumplestiltskin, himself. He has
an unpronounceable name, lives apart from the kingdom, changes money, and is
thought to want the child for some unspeakable blood rites. Thwack! The holy
salmon of inspiration hit me in the face. Of course. Rumplestiltskin is a medieval German story. This is an
anti-Semitic tale. Little man, odd name, lives far away from the halls of
power, is a moneychanger, and the old blood-rites
canard" (Yolen 2000, 288).
Return to place in
story.
14. What will you give me if I spin it for you?: Magical helpers
rarely help the protagonists in fairy tales without a good reason or bargain.
In fairy tales, either the main character is virtuous and thus earns help or
she must make a bargain, usually one she would not make except in desperate
circumstances. In some earlier versions of the tale, the little man freely
helps the maid with no bargain required.
Return to place in story.
15. The manikin: A manikin
is a "person who is very small but who is not otherwise deformed or
abnormal" (WordNet).
Return to place in story.
16. My necklace: The young woman does not have many things to offer. Her first offering is the least important of her possessions that has any value.
A necklace represents order from
chaos, fertility, light, and protection (Olderr
1986).
Return to place in
story.
17. Three: The number and/or pattern of three often appears in fairy tales to provide rhythm and suspense. The manikin assists the daughter three times over three nights and then later gives her three days to discover his name. The pattern adds drama and suspense while making the story easy to remember and follow. The third event often signals a change and/or ending for the listener/reader.
The reasons and theories behind
three's popularity are numerous and diverse. The number has been considered
powerful across history in different cultures and religions, but not all of
them. Christians have the Trinity, the Chinese have the Great Triad (man,
heaven, earth), and the Buddhists have the Triple Jewel (Buddha, Dharma, Sanga). The Greeks had the Three Fates. Pythagoras
considered three to be the perfect number because it represented everything:
the beginning, middle, and end. Some cultures have different powerful numbers,
often favoring seven, four and twelve.
Return to place
in story.
18. Bobbin: A bobbin is
"a spool or reel of various material and construction, with a head at one
or both ends, and sometimes with a hole bored through its length by which it
may be placed on a spindle or pivot. It is used to hold yarn or thread, as in
spinning or warping machines, looms, sewing machines, etc." (Webster's 1990).
Return to place in story.
19. Lusted more than ever after the precious metal: The Grimms emphasized the King's
money lust in their version of the tale. The emphasis makes the story far from
romantic. The daughter marries the man who has threatened her with death and
wants her only for her ability to increase his riches. One also wonders how the
queen will survive if her husband ever demands more spun gold. Their
relationship is based upon deception and greed.
Return to place in story.
20. The ring from my finger: The young woman's offering is the last of her valuable possessions. It is a more symbolic piece of jewelry than a necklace. Rings are used to plight troths and represent formal unions, especially marriages.
A ring represents continuity,
wholeness, marriage, a contract, power, bond, fertility, female love, justice,
legitimacy, mourning, and eternity (Olderr 1986).
Return to place in
story.
21. You shall become my wife: This is not a romantic fairy tale in which a love match marriage takes
place. The king appears interested in the daughter for his wife only for
monetary reasons. First, he will be able to keep her supposed skills for his
own monetary gain. Second, he can keep her from providing the same skills to a
possible rival.
Return to place in story.
22. I've nothing more to give: The young woman doesn't have any more material, or
physical, possesions to give the manikin in exchange
for his services. Now comes the test of what she is
willing to give up to save her life.
Return to place in story.
23. Give me your first child: Giving up a first child in a bargain is not uncommon in fairy tales.
Besides Rumpelstiltskin, the most famous story with
similar conditions is Rapunzel. Even Beauty and the
Beast includes the motif of a child given up by a parent. Rumpelstiltskin is one of the few tales in which the
bargain will be broken and the birth parent will be able to keep the child.
Return to place in story.
24. She saw no other way out of it: The young woman may be condemned for her agreement by some readers, but she is doing the best she can to survive. At this time she can't imagine bearing a child because she has no great hope of surviving the situtation she is currently in. She makes the deal in order to save her life. Perhaps she would not have made the deal if she were pregnant or already had a child. Right now, she has nothing but the idea of a child to protect which is not a strong motivation to avoid the bargain when her life is at stake.
Critic Steven Jones considers the
daughter to be a typical persecuted heroine in fairy tale style. First she
finds herself in danger thanks to her father's boasting. Then she marries the
king after trial and tribulation along with the promise to give up her
firstborn. Finally she fights to save her child by accomplishing the seemingly
impossible task of naming her former helper (Jones 1993, 18).
Return to place in
story.
25. Promised the manikin what he demanded: The young maid seals the bargain with a promise. Promises,
while important today, were more powerful in the past when honor was a great
motivator. Also, before the time of literacy among the masses and written
contracts, verbal promises were given greater weight. A promise was a contract
and actionable by law if broken. Folklore emphasizes the importance of a
promise by meting punishment upon those who do not keep their promises. The
queen is honor bound to keep this promise.
Return to place in story.
26. Became a queen: The
young woman marries the king and becomes queen. Her ability to spin gold
becomes more important than a noble birth.
Return to place in story.
27. A beautiful son: A
first born son would be the crown prince. Giving up the crown prince to the
manikin would not be just a personal tragedy for the Queen, but a possible
disaster for her kingdom which relies on progeny to avoid strife in the royal
lineage.
Return to place in story.
28. Offered the little man all the riches in her kingdom: Here lies some of the greatest irony of the story. The
queen now has many treasures to offer in payment for the services she received.
However, nothing is now good enough except for her child. The manikin has
always asked for her most precious possessions, previously even when those
possessions were of small wordly value and now her
child which is priceless.
Return to place in story.
29. No, a living creature is dearer to me than all the
treasures in the world: His refusal of
this offer shows how Rumpelstiltskin prefers a person
for his prize than riches. It also implies that his intention was to win the
baby from the beginning of his participation in the story. He was happy to
accept the maid's necklace and ring before, but he took those so he could
reduce her to agreeing to the horrible arrangement they made previously.
Return to place in story.
30. Little man was sorry for her: Here is one of the few actions which might engender sympathy for Rumpelstiltskin. In some modern interpretations of the tale, the Rumpelstiltskin character is in love with the daughter/queen. Sometimes he is even the child's father. In Donna Jo Napoli's Spinners, the little man is the queen's father and the baby's grandfather.
31. I'll give you three days to guess my name, and if you find it out in that time you may keep your child: In Joseph Jacobs' notes to Tom Tit Tot, a tale similar to Rumpelstiltskin, he writes: one "sees in the class of name-guessing stories, a 'survival' of the superstition that to know a man's name gives you power over him, for which reason savages object to tell their names (Jacobs 1890).
The name is the key to power (Olderr 1986). When someone knows your name, they have power over you. When Rumpelstiltskin challenges the Queen to guess his name, he is challenging her to gain power over him. If she has power over him, he cannot take her child away from her.
Hornyansky believes that Rumpelstiltskin is a devil character and thus unsympathetic despite the abuse he receives. "There are only two beings in the universe who have secret names, unknown to all but the adept: one of them is God, whose holy Name must not be spoken; the other, over whom mortal man may gain power by pronouncing his mysterious proper name, is the devil" (Hornyansky 1965, 130).
In his early years of fairy tale
analysis, Jack Zipes wrote that the tale
"demonstrated how we must seek the power to name the forces acting upon us
if we want to be free and autonomous" (Zipes
1979, 177).
Return to place in
story.
32. A messenger to scour the land: In the early versions of the tale collected by the Grimms, the queen sends a faithful female companion or
servant to seek the name. By 1857, they had changed the servant to a male one.
In a few versions, the king happens to mention the name to the queen after
meeting the man beyond the castle.
Return to place in story.
33. Kasper, Melchior, Belshazzar: The queen offers obscure names, ones that are present in the Bible, but are not well-known.
Melchior appears in the New Testament as "one
of the three sages from the east who came bearing gifts for the infant Jesus;
usually represented as a king of
Belshazzar appears in the Old Testament as a
"Babylonian general and son of Nebuchadnezzar II; according to the Old
Testament he was warned of his doom by divine handwriting on the wall that was
interpreted by Daniel (6th century BC)" (WordNet).
Return to place in
story.
34. Sheepshanks Cruickshanks, Spindleshanks?: These names are even more nonsensical than the ones provided the day before, primarily used for their rhyming qualities.
A shank is "the part of the human leg between the knee and the ankle" (WordNet).
A sheepshank is "a knot for shortening a line" (WordNet).
A spindleshanks
is "a thin person with long thin legs" (WordNet).
The name is ironical since it definitely does not describe Rumpelstiltskin's
short stature.
Return to place in
story.
35. To-morrow I brew, to-day I bake,/
And then the child away I'll take;/ For little deems my royal dame/ That Rumpelstiltskin is my name!: This rhyme fuels many speculations about the little man,
but no sure answers. Does he want the child for a meal, such as the witch in Hansel and
Gretel? Or does he want a child of his own, like the witch in Rapunzel? Is he baking and brewing in preparation for a
celebratory meal with or of the queen's child? Either way, we
know he is thrilled at the prospect of gaining the child and does not
anticipate the queen learning his name.
Return to place in story.
36. Is your name Conrad?:
Note that the Queen, now sure of her victory, plays with the tiny man by
guessing common names instead of the unusual ones she tried the previous two
days. Critics often consider the queen's actions to be reprehensible. Critic
Roger Sale, for example, condemns the queen for her cruelty to the only character
who has shown her any sympathy and offered her any assistance (
Return to place in
story.
37. Rumpelstiltskin: While most scholars believe that Rumpelstiltskin is simply a nonsense name, others have proposed explanations for the name's meaning and/or origins. I have included some of the theories here.
One theory concerning Rumpelstiltskin's name comes from Edmund Bergler. He thinks that "stilzchen" is derived from a diminutive version of the German word for stilts. "Thus man is again defined as one who puts on airs, elevates and elongates himself artificially...and is there to be ridiculed and regarded with contempt" (Begler 1961, 66).
Another theory comes from Lutz Rohrich. One "associates the name 'Rumpelstiltzchen' first of all with the notion of a Rumpelgeist, a poltergeist, a goblin, that is, of a dwarf-like creature. Yet wherever a Martin Luther or Johannes Fischart speak of a 'Rumpelgeist' they always already mean the devil" (McGlathery 1991, 185).
38. Some demon has told you that!: If Rumpelstiltskin is himself a
devil, he speaks the truth: a demon did reveal his name.
Return to place in story.
39. In his rage drove his right foot so far into the ground
that it sank in up to his waist: Bettelheim proposes
that Rumpelstiltskin's rage is the true source of his
destruction, not the queen's power over him (Bettelheim
1975). However, Bettelheim did not consider the Grimms' changes to the tale. See the next note for more
information on the Grimms' changes to the tale's
ending.
Return to place in story.
40. Tore himself in two:
The Grimms changed the ending of the story from the
oral tale they originally collected. In the oral version, the manikin flies out
a window riding a cooking ladle. The little man's rage was perhaps added and
accentuated to make him less sympathetic and more demonic in appearance.
Return to place in story.