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Rumpelstiltskin www.kids-pages.com
Once there was a very poor miller, who could not even pay his taxes to the kingdom. Because of this, the king ordered that he should be sent to prison. The miller was afraid, so he tried to trick the king:“Forgive me,” he beseeched, “and I will give you my daughter who can spin straw into gold.””Then bring her to me and I will forgive you,” the king said.
The miller was very sorry for what he said, but it was too late. That night, the king took the miller’s daughter into a room filled with straw. “You must spin the straw into gold by morning,” he said, “or you and your father will be sent to prison.” Then he locked the door. But the poor girl had no idea how she was supposed to do that. She strove hard, but nothing happened. Then, she began to weep bitterly.Suddenly, the door opened and a strange little man entered. “Good evening, mistress miller. Why are you so sad?”“The king ordered me to spin the straw into gold,” she sobbed.“I can help you, but you must give me something in return.””Here’s my necklace,” she said. In response, the dwarf grabbed it in an instant.
The little man sat down at the spinning wheel and, as soon as he started to spin it, the reel was filled with gold. And he did so the whole night till he finished spinning all the straw. By morning, the room was full of glittering gold. The king was so amazed to see all that gold that sparkled and shined incredibly!
But the king became greedier and took the girl into a bigger room, with more straw than before and ordered her to spin all of it into gold. The little man came to her rescue again. This time, the girl offered him her golden ring, which was a gift from her mother.
The king’s greed grew again, though he tried to fight it, feeling compassion for the girl. But he locked her, anyway, for the third time into a tower filled with straw and made a promise to her: “If you can spin all this straw into gold by morning, I promise to marry you,” he said.Once again, the little man came in, but this time, the girl had nothing left to offer him.“Then you must give me your first born child after you get married,” he said. The girl agreed, desperate as she was, though she promised herself never to do that.
The next day, the king was very happy to see so much gold again. At the same time, he was touched by the girl’s patience and endurance. He felt his greed melting away and love blooming instead.The king asked the girl for forgiveness, then, he kept his promise and married the miller’s daughter and made her his queen.
A year later, the queen gave birth to a child. She had completely forgotten about the little man. But one day, he came into her room again.“I have come to take what you promised me, remember?” he said. The queen offered him all the riches in the world, hoping she could keep her baby, but he just wouldn’t hear. “Something alive is more precious to me than all the riches of this world,” he said.Then, the little man proposed her a strange game: “I give you three days to guess my name. If you guess, you can keep your baby.”
The queen spent the whole night making a long list with all the names she had ever heard.The next day, she read all the names to the little man, but she didn’t guess.Then, the queen sent messengers to search for names throughout the kingdom. Even so, she could not guess the little man’s name.
The third day, the queen lost all hope. She sent her messengers again to search for names.When she least expected, the last messenger returned with a strange story.“I was just passing through the forest, when I saw a funny little man dancing around a big fire,” he told the queen. “He was singing: ‘The queen is never going to win,For my name is Rumpelstiltskin.’”
That night, at first, the queen played a little with the dwarf: “Is your name Scattin?”“No, this is not my name,” he answered. “Then, is it Ierarhlon?”“No, it’s not this either.” “Could it be Rumpelstiltskin?” she finally asked, smiling.On hearing this, the little man became so angry, that he turned blue. And he stamped his feet so hard, that he made a hole into the floor. Rumpelstiltskin ran off ashamed and he was never seen again.
The king discovered a new treasure, more precious than gold: Love. He learned that family makes you the richest man on earth. So the king and the queen lived happily ever after together with their beautiful daughter.
