People are dubious about Lynda Snell’s choice of Rumpelstiltskin for her Christmas show. And perhaps with good reason...
Rumpelstiltskin is a German folk tale. It was collected by the Brothers Grimm and published as Rumpelstilzchen in Children's and Household Tales in 1812.
The story tells of a proud and foolish miller. In order to impress his king, the miller claims that his daughter can spin straw into gold.
The king summons the daughter and locks her in a room filled with straw. She has to spin all the straw into gold or lose her head the following morning. As she despairs, a manikin or imp appears. He spins the straw into gold in exchange for the girl’s necklace.
On finding the gold the next morning, the greedy king locks the miller’s daughter into a larger room filled with more straw, giving her the same ultimatum. Again the imp appears, and spins the straw into gold overnight. This time she pays him with the ring on her finger.
Filled with avarice, the king has an even bigger room filled with straw. The penalty for failure is again for the girl to lose her head. But if she succeeds, he promises to marry her and make her his queen.
The imp appears once more. But the girl has nothing else to pay him with. So he has her promise that she will give him her firstborn child. Once more, he completes the task and the king duly marries the girl.
The imp returns
A year later the girl – now queen – has a beautiful baby. She is horrified when the imp arrives to claim the child for himself. The queen offers him all her riches, but he has no interest in them. Eventually he takes some pity on her and offers a further bargain. If she can guess his name within three days, he will give up his claim.
Over the first two days, the queen guesses all the names she can think off. She starts with well-known ones and resorts to more and more unusual names in growing desperation. She sends a messenger to collect names from all over the land. But none are right.
On his travels, by chance the messenger comes upon a remote mountain dwelling. He sees a strange creature dancing and singing outside. During the course of the triumphant song the creature reveals his name: Rumpelstiltskin.
On the third evening, the imp returns to claim his prize. But of course the queen is now able to name him. In a rage, Rumpelstiltskin accuses the devil (or in some versions, witches) of having revealed his secret.
In his fury, Rumpelstiltskin strikes his foot so far into the ground that it sinks in waist deep. He then grasps his other foot and tears himself in two. In some versions, he simply creates a deep chasm that he falls into. Or rather less gorily, he just flies out of the window on a ladle.
Whatever the nature of the imp’s demise, the queen gets to keep her baby. And naturally they all live happily ever after.
Keri Davies is an Archers scriptwriter and web producer.
Read about the Brothers Grimm and Children's and Household Tales in Wikipedia
Learn more about Lynda Snell in our Who’s Who
