Spinning Gold

The little man asked what was up and she admitted that she had no idea how to spin straw into gold.

He offered to help her out and asked what she would give him to get the job done overnight. She offered her necklace, which he took, and he spun all of the straw into gold. The King was not satisfied and put the miller’s daughter into even a lager room with the same task set before her. Once again, the little man appeared and offered to help – this time taking her ring in return – and spun the straw into gold. The King’s appetite was still not whetted and he placed her into an even larger room filled with straw, this time offering to marry the miller’s daughter and make her Queen if she could accomplish this. Right on time, the little man showed up with the same offer but she had nothing left to give. His requirement was her firstborn after she became Queen. The straw was spun, she became Queen, and in a year she gave birth to a beautiful child, forgetting the price that the little man had asked. Suddenly, he showed up to collect his prize and the Queen offered him all of her riches not to take the child. Wanting something living more than all the treasures of the world, he gave the Queen three days to guess his name in order to keep the child. She sent a messenger out into the Kingdom to gather all the names he could find. On day one and day two the little man showed up and the Queen guessed in vain. The messenger then told the Queen of a comical little man he had seen dancing naked around a fire in front of his house shouting,

“Today do I bake, tomorrow I brew,
The day after that the Queen’s child comes in;
And oh! I am glad that nobody knew
That the name I am called is Rumpelstiltskin!”