Rumpelstiltskin
There once was a miller who was very poor. The only thing he had in the whole wide world was his beautiful daughter.
One day, the miller was called before the king because he had not paid his taxes. The miller had no money at all, so he told the king, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold."
"Bring her to me," ordered the king.
That night, the king took the miller's daughter to a room filled with straw. "You must spin this straw into gold by morning," he said, "or you and your father will be punished." Then he locked the door.
But the poor girl had no idea how to spin straw into gold. She sat down at the spinning-wheel and did her best to twist the straw into thread, but it was no use. She threw herself on the floor and wept.
Suddenly, the door opened and an odd little man walked in.
"Good evening, mistress miller. Why are you crying?" he asked.
"I'm supposed to spin this straw into gold, but I don't know how," she sobbed.
"What will you give me if I spin it for you?" the little man asked.
"I could give you my necklace," said the girl, handing it to him.
"Well, I suppose that will have to do," said the little man and he sat down at the spinning-wheel.
By morning, all the straw had been spun into gold.
When the king saw the room full of gold, he became even greedier. He took the girl to an even bigger room filled with even more straw, and ordered her to spin it all into gold. The girl could not believe her eyes and ears. "What am I going to do?" she thought to herself.
That night, the little man found the girl crying once again. This time, he agreed to spin the straw into gold in return for her gold ring.
When the king saw so much gold, he became greedier still. He locked the girl into a huge tower packed to the rafters with straw.
"If you spin this into gold by morning," he said, "I will make you my queen." That night the little man returned. But the girl had nothing left to give him.
"Then when you marry, you must give me your first child," he said. The girl could not think of another solution, and agreed.
The next day, the king found to his pleasure that the huge room was filled with gold. As he had promised, he married the miller's daughter and she became queen.
A year later, the new queen had a baby daughter.
The queen had completely forgotten about the little man. But one day he appeared before her. "Now you must give me what you promised," he said.
The queen offered him all sorts of treasures so that she could keep her child, but he refused. "Something alive is more important to me than all the riches in the world," he said.
At that, the queen burst into tears. Finally, the little man said, "I will give you three days to guess my name. If you succeed, you may keep the child." The queen spent the whole night making a long list of all the names she had ever heard.
The next day, she read all the names to the little man, beginning with Abraham. But to each one, he replied, "No, that's not my name." The following day, the queen sent out messengers to look for names all through the town.
The messengers came back with some very odd names, like Ribsofbeef and Muttonchop. But to each one, the little man replied, "That's not my name."
By the third day, the queen was desperate. She sent out her messengers again to search the entire kingdom for any names they might have missed.
At nightfall, the last messenger returned with a strange tale.
"As I was passing through the forest, I saw an odd little man dancing around a fire," he told the queen. "He was singing: The queen will never win this game, for Rumpelstiltskin is my name!"
That night, the queen asked the little man,
"Is your name Alfalfa?"
"No that's not my name," replied the little man.
"Is your name Zebulon?" she asked.
"No, that's not my name," he repeated.
"Could it be Rumpelstiltskin?" asked the queen, at last.
When he heard this, the little man became so angry that his face turned blue! And he stamped his foot so hard that it broke right through the floor.
Rumpelstitlskin disappeared into the hole in the floor and was never seen again.
As for the queen, she lived happily ever after with the king and her lovely daughter
2006-06-15 12:43:15
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answer #5
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answered by JustMe 2
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