103 lines
5.6 KiB
Text
103 lines
5.6 KiB
Text
Rumpelstiltskin
|
||
|
||
Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter.
|
||
Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the King, and in order
|
||
to make himself appear important he said to him, “I have a daughter who
|
||
can spin straw into gold.” The King said to the miller, “That is an art
|
||
which pleases me well; if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring
|
||
her to-morrow to my palace, and I will try what she can do.”
|
||
|
||
And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was
|
||
quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said,
|
||
“Now set to work, and if by to-morrow morning early you have not spun
|
||
this straw into gold during the night, you must die.” Thereupon he
|
||
himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the
|
||
poor miller’s daughter, and for the life of her could not tell what to
|
||
do; she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew
|
||
more and more miserable, until at last she began to weep.
|
||
|
||
But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said,
|
||
“Good evening, Mistress Miller; why are you crying so?” “Alas!”
|
||
answered the girl, “I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know
|
||
how to do it.” “What will you give me,” said the manikin, “if I do it
|
||
for you?” “My necklace,” said the girl. The little man took the
|
||
necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and “whirr, whirr,
|
||
whirr,” three turns, and the reel was full; then he put another on, and
|
||
whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too.
|
||
And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and
|
||
all the reels were full of gold. By daybreak the King was already
|
||
there, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but
|
||
his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller’s daughter taken
|
||
into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded
|
||
her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl
|
||
knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door again
|
||
opened, and the little man appeared, and said, “What will you give me
|
||
if I spin that straw into gold for you?” “The ring on my finger,”
|
||
answered the girl. The little man took the ring, again began to turn
|
||
the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.
|
||
|
||
The King rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not
|
||
gold enough; and he had the miller’s daughter taken into a still larger
|
||
room full of straw, and said, “You must spin this, too, in the course
|
||
of this night; but if you succeed, you shall be my wife.” “Even if she
|
||
be a miller’s daughter,” thought he, “I could not find a richer wife in
|
||
the whole world.”
|
||
|
||
When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and
|
||
said, “What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time
|
||
also?” “I have nothing left that I could give,” answered the girl.
|
||
“Then promise me, if you should become Queen, your first child.” “Who
|
||
knows whether that will ever happen?” thought the miller’s daughter;
|
||
and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised
|
||
the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more span the straw
|
||
into gold.
|
||
|
||
And when the King came in the morning, and found all as he had wished,
|
||
he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller’s daughter became a
|
||
Queen.
|
||
|
||
A year after, she had a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought
|
||
to the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, “Now give
|
||
me what you promised.” The Queen was horror-struck, and offered the
|
||
manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child.
|
||
But the manikin said, “No, something that is living is dearer to me
|
||
than all the treasures in the world.” Then the Queen began to weep and
|
||
cry, so that the manikin pitied her. “I will give you three days’
|
||
time,” said he, “if by that time you find out my name, then shall you
|
||
keep your child.”
|
||
|
||
So the Queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever
|
||
heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and
|
||
wide, for any other names that there might be. When the manikin came
|
||
the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all
|
||
the names she knew, one after another; but to every one the little man
|
||
said, “That is not my name.” On the second day she had inquiries made
|
||
in the neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she
|
||
repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious. “Perhaps your
|
||
name is Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg?” but he always answered,
|
||
“That is not my name.”
|
||
|
||
On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, “I have not
|
||
been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain
|
||
at the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other
|
||
good night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was
|
||
burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was
|
||
jumping: he hopped upon one leg, and shouted—
|
||
|
||
“To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,
|
||
The next I’ll have the young Queen’s child.
|
||
Ha! glad am I that no one knew
|
||
That Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.”
|
||
|
||
|
||
You may think how glad the Queen was when she heard the name! And when
|
||
soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, “Now, Mistress
|
||
Queen, what is my name?” at first she said, “Is your name Conrad?”
|
||
“No.” “Is your name Harry?” “No.”
|
||
|
||
“Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?”
|
||
|
||
“The devil has told you that! the devil has told you that!” cried the
|
||
little man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the
|
||
earth that his whole leg went in; and then in rage he pulled at his
|
||
left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two.
|