Once upon a time there was a poor man who
happened to meet the local king. He wanted to feel important, so he
bragged to the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold.
Well,
the king who loved gold could not believe such a story, so the king
demanded that the man bring his daughter back to him to prove her skill.
When the daughter returned with her father, she was put into a room
full of straw.
The king yelled "Weave this straw into gold by dawn or you will die!"
The
daughter had no idea what to do and she just cried and cried.
All at
once a little man in a red cape and funny little hat appeared and asked, "Why
are you crying?"
"I don’t know how to spin straw into gold," she cried
and "If I don’t I will die tomorrow."
Next the little man asked her "What
will you give me if I help you spin it all."
She offered her gold
necklace and little man went right to work on the straw. It wasn’t long before
all the straw became gold.
The king was thrilled and demanded more,
so he brought her to an even bigger room that was filled with straw.
He made the some threat of death. Again, the girl cried as she did
not know what to do. Sure enough the queer little man showed up offering
his talent for exchange of a gift. This time she offered a ring on
her finger. In no time, the room was filled with gold.
You think
the king was happy? No. He wanted even more. This time he took her
to an even bigger room and promised her that he would make her his
queen, if she spun all the straw into gold. If she didn’t agree then death would be waiting.
While
she sat there lonely in this huge room, the little man appeared asking
for what she would give him in return for his spinning. Unfortunately,
this time she had nothing to offer him.
He sat there puzzled and said,
"Promise me that when you become queen that you will give me your
first born child. "
She did not want to say yes, but she
saw no other way out of her troubles. She did not want to die, so
she reluctantly said yes. The little man spun a massive amount of
straw into gold.
The king, happy with his riches, married
the girl and she became his queen. A year later they were blessed
with a baby. The queen forgot all about the promised she had made,
until one night the little man in red appeared demanding what was
promised to him….a child.
The queen was frightened and she offered
him all the riches in the kingdom, but he replied "A living thing
is more valuable to me than all the treasures in the world."
The
queen cried uncontrollably and the little man felt sorry and offered
her a deal. "If you can guess my name in three days, then you can
keep your baby."
The first day the man came back and the
queen tried the names Thomas, Michael, Richard and John. Each time
the little man said, "That’s not my name."
She tried
to guess on the second day, with names like Sheepshanks and Spindleshanks.
She still did not guess his name.
One evening a messenger spotted a
little man dancing around a campfire in the forest. While he danced
he sang, Tee-hee, ha-ha, it’s really such a shame that no one can guess Rumpelstiltskin
is my name," The messenger ran back to the queen to tell what he had
heard.
The next day, the little man arrived and
asked the queen "What is my name?" The queen asked" Is Rumpelstiltskin
your name? The little man was so angry that he stamped his foot so
hard that he disappeared into the ground.