✦ Story Summary ✦
Rumpelstiltskin
A fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, 1812. This is a short summary, not the full text. Watch the read-aloud above to hear the whole story.
A poor miller foolishly told the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king locked her in a room full of straw and told her to spin it all into gold by morning. She sat down and cried, for she had no idea how.
Suddenly a strange little man appeared. In exchange for her necklace he spun the straw into gold, and the next night he did it again for her ring. On the third night she had nothing left to give, so she promised him her first child if she became queen. The king married her, and a year later a baby was born.
The little man came to claim the child. When the queen begged, he agreed to let her keep the baby if she could guess his name in three days. Her messenger searched the land and overheard the little man dancing around a fire, singing that no one knew his name was Rumpelstiltskin. On the third day the queen said his name, and the little man stamped his foot so hard in rage that he disappeared and was never seen again.