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By the side of a wood, in a country 50 kilometers 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 500 grams of 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 for 43,200 seconds .

She sat down in one corner of the room, and began to bewail her hard fate; 

when in one second the door opened, and a droll-looking 70cm tall man 

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 500 grams of 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:

And round about the wheel went merrily; the work was done in 60 

seconds, 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:

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 temperature 

room which was average room temperature at 21 degrees celcius, 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 10 

ml of 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.’

The second day she began with all the comical names she could hear of, BANDY-

LEGS, HUNCHBACK, CROOK-SHANKS, and so on; but the little gentleman still 

said to every one of them, ’Madam, that is not my name.’

The third day one of the messengers came back, and said, ’I have travelled two days without hearing 

of any other names; but yesterday, as I was climbing a high hill, among the trees of the forest where 

the fox and the hare bid each other good night, I saw a little hut; and before the hut burnt a fire; and 

round about the fire a funny little dwarf was dancing upon one leg, and singing:

 ’"Merrily the feast I’ll make.

  Today I’ll brew, tomorrow bake;

  Merrily I’ll dance and sing,

  For next day will a stranger bring.

  Little does my lady dream

  Rumpelstiltskin is my name!"’

When the queen heard this she jumped for joy, and as soon as her little friend came she sat down 

upon her throne, and called all her court round to enjoy the fun; and the nurse stood by her side with 

the baby in her arms, as if it was quite ready to be given up. Then the little man began to chuckle at 

the thought of having the poor child, to take home with him to his hut in the woods; and he cried out, 

’Now, lady, what is my name?’ ’Is it JOHN?’ asked she. ’No, madam!’ ’Is it TOM?’ ’No, madam!’ ’Is it 

JEMMY?’ ’It is not.’ ’Can your name be RUMPELSTILTSKIN?’ said the lady slyly. ’Some witch told you 

that!– some witch told you that!’ cried the little man, and dashed his right foot in a rage so deep into 

the floor, that he was forced to lay hold of it with both hands to pull it out.

Then he made the best of his way off, while the nurse 

laughed and the baby crowed; and all the court jeered 

at him for having had so much trouble for nothing, and 

said, ’We wish you a very good morning, and a merry 

feast, Mr RUMPLESTILTSKIN!’

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