Little Labors

Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin is a small man with the exuberance and temper of a two-year-old child. He helps the miller’s daughter spin straw into gold. He helps her in this way not once, not twice, but three times! His help saves both the miller’s daughter and the miller. In some versions of the story, this even leads to the miller’s daughter’s marriage to the king. But Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t do this for nothing; the third time he spins straw into gold, he does so in exchange for the miller’s daughter’s future as yet unconceived firstborn.

Still, Rumpelstiltskin isn’t too bad a guy. When the miller’s daughter doesn’t want to hand over her firstborn, Rumpelstiltskin offers her an out. He doesn’t have to offer her an out, but he does. That’s why he’s kind of sweet. The famous out that he offers her — if she can guess his name within three tries then she doesn’t have to give over her baby — wasn’t part of their original deal. Why does he offer her an out at all?

Maybe naming a newborn baby isn’t all that different from guessing the name of Rumpelstiltskin: any name is possible, but only one name proves to be right. It almost seems as if what Rumpelstiltskin is trying to do is to get the miller’s daughter to remember that she is his mother. Rumpelstiltskin’s name, in all the versions, in all the languages, translates into something like, “dear little goblin who makes noise with a stilt.” He is the firstborn, he is the original source of gold; he’s ambivalent about having a sibling.