Story and Analysis of Rumpelstiltskin

Article by Ty Hulse    Read the Original Story

According to Sara Graça da Silva and Jamshid J. Tehrani's research the Rumpelstiltskin stories are likely over 2500 years old, and possibly as old as the Indo-European's life on the Steppes 6000 years ago. Most of the stories related to Rumpelstiltskin involve a fairy being trying to take the woman to be his wife. In fact the version taken down by the Brother's Grimm, the story of "Rumpelstiltskin" is the only story I know of where the fairy wants a baby. This begs the question "Why is this story different?"

It may of course be that Rumpelstiltskin is different because the woman who told it to the Brothers Grimm, being educated, changed it. It may be that they changed it. However, this article presumes that the story is different because of regional differences.

Like many fairy tales, “Rumpelstiltskin” is a story that is without a character which we can define as pure or innocent. Rather, it’s a story of two obviously wicked characters in the form of the father who lies to and thus ends up getting his daughter in a lot of trouble with the king who is a greedy man who cares about nothing but the gold he can get out of the miller’s daughter. Not all the characters are wicked, of course. The miller’s daughter clearly isn’t evil when she agrees to give a baby to a strange man, just desperate. She has been forced into an inescapable predicament by the two men in her life that she should be able to trust above anyone else, her father and her future husband. Clearly this situation puts her in a space between. She is not yet a fiancé, yet she is no longer free in that regard. She is trapped in a prison, but an honored guest. She is between being a member of her father’s house, the executioner, and the king’s household. It is at this moment when she is trapped; pulled by so many worlds that the fairy appears.

One of the premier experts on the history of European witch mythology and lore, Emma Wilby, believes that fairytales such as Rumpelstiltskin represent the idea of the familiar spirit, or shamanistic helping spirit, which comes to people in times of desperation and liminal moments. In such stories the familiar or helping spirit will either offer to aid the person or will demand that they work for them. We see this in a number of stories similar to ‘Rumpelstiltskin’.

In England’s Tom Tit Tot’, a small creature with a tale, the conversation between the girl who must spin for the king or die and the fairy goes;

"tell me what you're a-crying for."

"That won't do me no good if I do," says she.

"You don't know that," that said, and twirled that's tail round.

"well," says she, "that won't do no harm, if that don't do no good," and she upped and told about the pies, and the skeins, and everything.

"This is what I'll do," says the little black thing, "I'll come to your window every morning and take the flax and bring it spun at night."

"What's your pay?" says she.

That looked out the corner of that's eyes, and that said: "I'll give you three guesses every night to guess my name, and if you haven't guessed it before the month's up, you shall be mine.

Notice that there is no mention of a baby in this story. Nor is there any mention in most of the dozen other similar fairy tales except for the fairytale ‘Zirkzirk’. In most such fairy tales the fairy creature asks for the woman themselves. Again, this makes sense if we think of this story in terms of a helping or familiar spirit seeking to obtain a potential shamanistic figure’s service. Of course, many people didn’t want to be shamans or witches and would resist the fairy’s call.

It is telling that the woman in these stories is often unable to perform what were considered ‘normal’ tasks, that they are in some ways outsiders in their community – who are expected to act in a way that is magical. Those who worked with the spirits/fairies often acted in ways that failed to conform to the larger society, being dirty, wild, and or lazy.

It isn’t atypical, however, for the people who are called by the fairies and spirits to resist their call. After all, to work for the spirits, to be a shaman or witch, is to live on the margins of society, especially in Christian Europe. Even in Asia and Siberia, however, many would try to get out of becoming a shaman, and the spirits would torment them until they gave in, unless they could find some way to gain power over the spirits and drive them off.

In any case the initiation of a new shaman/witch and the love of a fairy could cause madness. In Georgia, for example, the forest goddess Dali’s love and attention caused a man to go mad, he would tear his clothes and scratch himself, wandering around in the forest alone (Meskhia). Pocs, 2009 states of new witch shamans that

“Such a person becomes weak or ill, either physically or mentally. If they survive, they have the power of healing, soothsaying, and the ability to contact the afterworld. This motif may be found in a number of tales of South Slavic and the Balkan peoples as well as those from Central Europe.

South Slavic folktale “Stanko and the Fairy” narrates about a shepherd named Stanko, who played beautifully on his shepherd’s flute. When the Angelus bell tolled he did not start to pray but instead played the melody on his flute, and was punished. A Fairy appeared before him, and from that moment on he could not find peace any more. The fairy was following him like a shadow, even when he ate or slept. Neither the priest nor the witch doctor could help him. Totally deranged…

People who had been lured to remote places by the fairies returned to their homes only with great difficulty and were physically or mentally afflicted.”

Given this we can think of the stories of guessing at a supernatural being’s name as a sort of moral on how to escape a forced relationship with the supernatural beings.

Why a Baby?

It is rare in the ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ like stories for the fairy to want a baby, as already stated they are more likely to want the woman themselves. Obviously, fairies often did want human children. Briggs in “The Vanishing People” states that “One of the earliest of the traditions about fairies is that they coveted and stole children (and adults)… Women were stolen to be wet nurses to fairy children or to human babies taken into fairyland, young men with special talents, musicians and singers or those beloved by fairy women…. The fairies seem to have been shy breeders… and they were always anxious to revive their powers with a human strain.”

Obviously, Briggs was talking about British and not German fairies, but Germany too has numerous stories about fairy like beings coveting human labor and lusting after humans.

Yet typically when a fairy wanted someone for nefarious purposes, they simply kidnapped them. Fairy tales are full of people being kidnapped by fairies to work for them, to be their mates, etc. Yet this particular “männlein,” as the German text designates, Rumpelstiltskin, despite outward appearances doesn’t just take the baby.

Again, most fairies in stories don’t ask for the child they want, instead they simply take it. Rumpelstiltskin, however, despite being clearly able to sneak into a prison, being able to weave magic doesn’t just take the child as he obviously could. He tries to get the girl to accept giving the baby to him. What’s more, even after he comes to collect the child, he decides to give her another chance to escape her agreement with him.

Considering that during the time this story takes place children were left in the forests in droves or orphaned on the streets, Rumpelstiltskin could have taken hundreds of children easily, and taking them would have been an act of kindness as Rumpelstiltskin would have been rescuing them from starvation. He doesn’t just want any baby then. What he wants is this particular baby. Indeed, by his own words, this baby is more precious to him than all the treasures in the world.

W know then that this particular baby is precious to Rumpelstiltskin for some reason. This leaves us with the question; Why does Rumpelstiltskin want the baby in the first place? To answer these questions, we must examine what fairies are as well as a few other fairy tales. Let us begin by placing Rumpelstiltskin into the possible categories of fairy to see where he might fit, or if he even has a place as all fairies don’t necessarily seem to.

Possibility 1 - Rumpelstiltskin is an ancestor spirit or a forgotten god.

Jack Zipes echoes Eliade’s belief that “fairy tales are mythic morals after the religious ideas became taboo to talk about.” Fairy tales, according to Zipes, include the concept that; “Since myth narrates the deeds of supernatural beings, it sets examples for human beings that enable them to codify and order their lives. By enacting and incorporating myths in their daily lives, humans are able to have a genuine religious experience.”

 

Spinning itself was a magical act, there are stories of women using spun thread to block the passage of vampires, or to protect themselves from dangerous fairies that were seeking to harm them. Spinning was associated with the figures who controlled the fates of people, and with many of the most powerful goddesses. After all, spinning and weaving predate farming, meaning the idea of deities that worked thread and clothes predates the idea of a deity associated with the earth and the fertility of crops. Zipes states that “A common wish was a good marriage obtained through skill at spinning, through productivity and the ability to make excess well. In equal measure these tales reflect the fear of being bad at spinning, at being clumsy and the social shame that came with this. Indeed, many are the deific figures that would punish women who were slow at their spinning. As with many fairy tale figures these women had to use cleverness and help to overcome their lack of skill.”

It was common for the most important goddess figures of the Alps to encourage spinning and punish those who were lazy or bad with their work. 

In my book “I Writer’s Guide to Spirit Journeys and Fairies” I note that;

“there were in fact two separate types of spirit journeys which have both come to be called wild hunts, and often confused for each other. The first of these is the trooping journey, in which witches would join chthonic goddess figures in trooping around the countryside. These goddesses were not usually connected with fertility, but were instead connected with the spirits of the dead, and household chores such as spinning. In Scotland this figure was Nicnevin, the queen of the fairies, on the borders between England and Scotland she was Gyre Carling, in Tyrol she was Perchta, and in Northern Germany Holda. She was also known by numerous other names in numerous other regions. In essence she was the queen of the witches, leading them along with troops of the dead and unborn children on hunts through the sky on holidays. She was in the habit of punishing lazy women who did not complete their spinning fast enough, while rewarding hardworking ones. This goddess, and by extension the wild hunt she led was ambivalent.”

Wilby states of the goddesses who lead the wild hunt that; “she possessed the same ambivalence seen so clearly in the tribal dark shaman and the spirits he emulates, with a witch from Val di Fiemme claiming, for example, that when her mistress ‘‘journeys through the air she has two patches around her eyes, one on each side, so that she cannot see anything: and if she were able to see everything she would do great harm to the world.’’ 

Rumpelstiltskin fits the idea of this wild and ambivalent deity figure. For he is at once threatening and helping. Rumpelstiltskin is a teacher and guide. According to Zipes “he is more a prophet or miracle-maker, who makes a straightforward bargain, and when he returns to receive the firstborn child, he offers another deal in the form of a riddle to see if she has perhaps become smarter than she was before.” (Jack Zipes)

So, while at first glance the idea that Rumpelstiltskin might be a god seems preposterous, it’s important to keep in mind that many fairy tales are about previous pagan gods and moral values that are now taboo to speak of. Now consider that Merlin was raised by a fairy as was Malagigi the wizard who aided Charlemagne in myth. King Arthur was taken by Merlin who saw his future before he was even born, and Lancelot was taken and raised by fairies as well. This might mean then that Rumpelstiltskin is after the child because he sees the child’s future or at least its potential future. This particular baby is not just that of the woman’s after all but also that of a king, and so is the future king just as King Arthur was. Thus, Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t just want any baby he wants to raise, or have someone else raise a king, while removing the child and future king from what is quite possibly a long line of tyrants or, at the very least, from his currently greedy father. We see something similar happen in a French fairy tale in which a fairy tells the king and queen:

“If I left him (your son) to you to bring up... you would be certain to make him as foolish as yourselves. I do not even intend to let him know that he is your son.”

So at least in one incidence a fairy claims to be removing a child from their parents to help ensure that they are raised properly. While one can’t always trust fairies, of course, we must again recall that the fairies don’t have to give any explanation. They can just take the child if they want it and leave. Further, we must also consider that because Rumpelstiltskin may potentially be able to see the future, that he is actually after the child he knows he loves more than “all the treasures in the world.” As an ancestor or deity, he could be either the child’s grandfather or seeking a way to help his descendants by putting a better king on the throne.

Possibility 2 - Rumpelstiltskin is the spirit of a conquered people or one of their gods. In this possibility, Rumpelstiltskin might be after a mixture of revenge or is attempting to help his people rise up to their former glory by raising the future king of the land. In this he could be a Merlin-like figure of a conquered people who, just as Malagigi the wizard of Charlemagne’s court, was later derided as a devil by later people. Rumpelstiltskin might be a hero to a conquered people still hiding in the woods thus making him an enemy to the kingdom.

Possibility 3 - Rumpelstiltskin is a nature spirit or a simply a unique fairy. It is more challenging to understand the reason a nature spirit or unique fairy would be interested in a specific human child except that perhaps they are aware that they do love the child because of divination. Another possibility comes to us from the story of Powell in Wales in which a human king aids the fairies by slaying an enemy they couldn’t. Thus, it’s conceivable that a nature fairy could desire to take a specific child because it knows that it loves or could help that child.

Possibility 4 - Rumpelstiltskin is a devil/fallen angel or witch. Although I’ve chosen to leave this theory of fairy nature out of this book because it is a much later addition to the fairy theory and so ultimately doesn’t fit within a book explaining the motivations of fairies in more original traditions, it is still conceivable that Rumpelstiltskin is meant by the storytellers to be a devil trying to tempt the girl into the sin of giving away her child. Ultimately, however, while this idea could be workable, after thousands of years of Christianizing the people, telling this story would likely jump on the opportunity to accuse a creature of being a devil if they thought it was so.

Through this simple review we can now see that Rumpelstiltskin is after the baby for four possible reasons:

1 - Rumpelstiltskin wants the baby because he knows that he loves him.

2 - He sees the baby’s future and realizes that it can be a good king finally bringing peace to the land of his ancestors.

3 - He seeks revenge or a way to protect his fallen people.

4 - He knows he’ll need the baby’s help at some future date.

To understand which of these answers makes sense, we must again find an answer to the question: Why doesn’t Rumpelstiltskin just take the baby? Again, there are a number of possible answers which present themselves:

1- Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t simply take the baby in order to mock the miller’s daughter. It’s possible, of course, given the capricious nature of fairies that Rumpelstiltskin is simply teasing the girl, mocking her as mischievous fairies often do. However, if this is the case, why not simply take the child even if she is successful in guessing his name? Or better yet, why even give her that possibility in the first place? Perhaps as a way to mock her further, for he assumes she’ll fail.

2- Rumpelstiltskin seeks to lead the miller’s daughter into sin. The girl is the only good character in the story. If Rumpelstiltskin can get her to give her child to a devil, then he has caused her to sin. The problem with this theory, however, is that if his goal is to cause her to sin, why give her any chance to redeem herself? Why not simply take the child as per their first agreement? Further, why would he suspect the devil of telling the girl his name as he accused when she discovered it if doing so would cause him to lose her soul? In general, this answer makes no sense, so it further eliminates the possibility that he is a devil or fallen angel.

3- Rumpelstiltskin has a conflict. Rumpelstiltskin knows what he needs to do; he knows that he can make the kingdom better, gain help from the child, have a child of his own, etc., but he has a conflict about his method of doing it. So he doesn’t simply want to take the child from its mother. He wants her to accept the loss. In the end, however, he realizes that this is impossible and so he symbolically tears himself in two, ripping his dual nature in half.

4- Rumpelstiltskin is after something more than the child. In a similar story, that of Tim Tom Tat, a little, hairy creature offers to weave for a girl in return for her. In a similar vein, it’s possible that Rumpelstiltskin is hoping by giving the girl a second chance to save the baby he’ll be able to make her feel so defeated that she agrees to come with him. In this case, he is after both the future king and the queen.

5-In another similar story, the Scottish Rumpelstiltskin Whuppity Stoorie tells the girl that fairy law requires that they give the girl three days to guess her name. This is a confusing requirement as, again, fairies take babies without asking all the time. So why do they have to give a person the chance to get out of it unless there is something else at play because of the girl or the child’s relationship to the fairy world?

It seems most likely, given all the possibilities, that Rumpelstiltskin gives the girl a chance to get out of giving him the child because he is in a conflict about what he’s doing. Recalling also that fairies can be multi-natured, we must also consider the possibility that part of him is perhaps trying to force the other part of him to allow the girl to keep the child because he feels sorry for her. This makes even more sense considering what Rumpelstiltskin is. The German version of the Rumpelstiltskin’s fairy tale uses the word “männlein” to represent him.

Männleins in fairy tales have a history of helping girls marry the prince. In the story of “The Three Männlein of the Woods” a young girl is sent by her evil stepmother into the snowy forest to pick strawberries. As she searches for a way to complete her impossible task, she stumbles upon a cottage of three männlein who, in return for her kindness, make gold coins fall from her mouth whenever she speaks, cause her to grow ever more beautiful, and bless her that she’ll marry the king. In other tales, männlein offer advice to princes, or to young men, in order to help them rescue a kingdom and save the princesses.

Männleins appear as knowledgeable. They are the creators of fate. Rumpelstiltskin himself is so good at spinning he can spin straw into gold, spinning ultimately being the activity used to help control fate. Rumpelstiltskin was also showed just when the girl needed him and is also capable of doing the impossible to help her. So, he clearly is able to manipulate the future. What we must presume then is that, at least to an extent, Rumpelstiltskin is attempting to create fate. However, neither his ability to tell when someone needs his help nor his ability to do the impossible prevents him from giving the girl the chance to get out of having her baby taken from her. So obviously he’s in a conflict about what he’s doing. So, it’s likely that like the other Männlein he is kind and is essentially attempting to make the world a better place. However, in doing so he has stepped outside of his usual role of helping damsels in distress and princes on quests and is now trying to steal a prince from a damsel in distress.

Rumpelstiltskin then is most likely some form of deity or ancestor spirit seeking to help his people by raising a king who will actually be good and a child which he loves. Unfortunately, in order to do this properly he must play the role of a villain, a role at least half of his dual nature is not comfortable with. This is why he tries at first to give the miller’s daughter a chance to keep her baby.

A Writers Guide to 

Fairies, Witches, and Vampires

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Fairies are some of the most compelling characters in fairy tales, yet few people understand them. From fairy refugees to blood thirsty vampires this book takes you on a journey to discover what drove these characters, where they came from, and what they wanted.

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