Rumpelstiltskin - a GRIMM Fairytale - the Princess and Her Promise

Rumpelstiltskin is a Grimm fairytale with a happy ending - happy for the princess, that is. Written by the brothers William (Wilhelm) and Jacob (Jakob) Grimm in the early 19th century, this folk story is a classic folk tale of a beautiful lady in distress. The Grimm fold stories have been published many times over in the two hundred years that followed their writing, and are still popular today. It should be noted that this version of RUMPELSTILTSKIN has a somewhat dark ending, as is true to original versions of the Grimm stories. Disney has mutated the Grimm tales and presented different (and perhaps less disturbing) endings over the years. This channel remains true to the original or classic versions of the tales, so you get the grim Grimm ending to the story here.

This reading of the fairytale or folk story (for children) is taken from "THE BEACON SECOND READER" by JAMES H. FASSETT. This book for children was published by GINN AND COMPANY: BOSTON - NEW YORK - CHICAGO - LONDON -ATLANTA - DALLAS - COLUMBUS - SAN FRANCISCO (COPYRIGHT, 1914).

"Rumpelstiltskin" tells of a miller who lies about his daughter's abilities in order to impress the king. The king, a greedy man, jumps on the lie and calls on the miller to produce his daughter. The king orders the girl to turn straw into gold or die!

The frightened girl has no idea how to proceed with her task, so she dissolves into tears. This time there is no white knight in shining armor to save her, but a little, old man does make an appearance. He offers to convert the straw to gold by spinning the straw into gold thread. In exchange, he takes the girl's gold bead necklace as payment. The old man's involvement is kept secret. The king is so impressed with the result that he insists the girl convert an even bigger pile of straw to gold. Again, the little man saves her life in exchange for her ring.

The third time, the greedy king demands the conversion of a room full of straw to gold. The little, old man saves the life of the miller's daughter, but because she has nothing to offer as payment for his hard work, he demands to be given her first born child.

The king is so impressed with the third demonstration of the girl's ability to make him wealthy that he marries her and makes her the queen. The queen becomes a mother and forgets about her promise, but the little, old man does not. A year later, the old man returns - he wants what was promised to him. The queen is terrified, and once again her tears bring out the compassion in the little, old man. He gives her three days to guess his name or give him her child.

The queen does her best to guess the little man's name, but gets it wrong every time. She is smart enough to send scouts throughout her kingdom to research new and strange names while she entertains the old man with her wild guesses. Finally, on the last day, one scout returns with news of a sighting of a little, old man. The old man fits the description of the queen's gold spinner, plus he gives himself away while dancing a jig deep in a secret forest.

At the last possible moment, the queen correctly guesses the little, old man's name: RUMPELSTILTSKIN. He is livid, and sure he was betrayed by the fairies. In his fury, the queen is released from her promise and Rumpelstiltskin's fury tears himself apart.

This fairytale is a story woven with lies and deception. It ends with smart thinking and emotional turmoil, presenting opportunities for many life lessons to be extracted from the story threads.

MUSIC CREDITS:
The Evergreen Tales theme music heard in this video was created and recorded by Eddie Lewis (https://www.EddieLewis.com).

ART CREDITS:
The graphics for this children's story reading video were created by Pearl Lewis (https://www.DrPearlLewis.com).