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Rumpelstiltskin
By the side of a wood, in a country
a long way off, ran a fine stream of water; and upon the stream there stood
a mill. The miller’s house was close by, and the miller, you must know, had
a very beautiful daughter. She was, moreover, very shrewd and clever; and
the miller was so proud of her, that he one day told the king of the land,
who used to come and hunt in the wood, that his daughter could spin gold out
of straw. Now this king was very fond of money; and when he heard the
miller’s boast his greediness was raised, and he sent for the girl to be
brought before him. Then he led her to a chamber in his palace where there
was a great heap of straw, and gave her a spinning-wheel, and said, ’All
this must be spun into gold before morning, as you love your life.’ It was
in vain that the poor maiden said that it was only a silly boast of her
father, for that she could do no such thing as spin straw into gold: the
chamber door was locked, and she was left alone.
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She sat down in one corner of the room,
and began to bewail her hard fate; when on a sudden the door opened, and a
droll-looking little man hobbled in, and said, ’Good morrow to you, my good
lass; what are you weeping for?’ ’Alas!’ said she, ’I must spin this straw into
gold, and I know not how.’ ’What will you give me,’ said the hobgoblin, ’to do
it for you?’ ’My necklace,’ replied the maiden. He took her at her word, and sat
himself down to the wheel, and whistled and sang:
’Round about, round about,
Lo and behold!
Reel away, reel away,
Straw into gold!’
And round about the wheel went merrily;
the work was quickly done, and the straw was all spun into gold.
When the king came and saw this, he was
greatly astonished and pleased; but his heart grew still more greedy of gain,
and he shut up the poor miller’s daughter again with a fresh task. Then she knew
not what to do, and sat down once more to weep; but the dwarf soon opened the
door, and said, ’What will you give me to do your task?’ ’The ring on my
finger,’ said she.
So her little friend took the ring,
and began to work at the wheel again, and whistled and sang:
’Round about, round about,
Lo and behold!
Reel away, reel away,
Straw into gold!’
till, long before morning, all was done
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The king was greatly delighted to see
all this glittering treasure; but still he had not enough: so he took the
miller’s daughter to a yet larger heap, and said, ’All this must be spun
tonight; and if it is, you shall be my queen.’ As soon as she was alone that
dwarf came in, and said, ’What will you give me to spin gold for you this third
time?’ ’I have nothing left,’ said she. ’Then say you will give me,’ said the
little man, ’the first little child that you may have when you are queen.’ ’That
may never be,’ thought the miller’s daughter: and as she knew no other way to
get her task done, she said she would do what he asked. Round went the wheel
again to the old song, and the manikin once more spun the heap into gold. The
king came in the morning, and, finding all he wanted, was forced to keep his
word; so he married the miller’s daughter, and she really became queen.
At the birth of her first little child
she was very glad, and forgot the dwarf, and what she had said. But one day he
came into her room, where she was sitting playing with her baby, and put her in
mind of it. Then she grieved sorely at her misfortune, and said she would give
him all the wealth of the kingdom if he would let her off, but in vain; till at
last her tears softened him, and he said, ’I will give you three days’ grace,
and if during that time you tell me my name, you shall keep your child.’
Now the queen lay awake all night,
thinking of all the odd names that she had ever heard; and she sent messengers
all over the land to find out new ones. The next day the little man came, and
she began with TIMOTHY, ICHABOD, BENJAMIN, JEREMIAH, and all the names she could
remember; but to all and each of them he said, ’Madam, that is not my name.’
Next part 2
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