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  RUMPELSTILTSKIN

  The following famous fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin, is part of the collection Grimm’s Fairy Tales from the brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859). A miller’s daughter is forced to spin straw into gold for the king or else lose her life. A little man comes to the girl’s aid and performs her task for her twice. Then the king demands she do a third task and if successful she will become his queen. The little man performs the third task for her but as compensation makes her promise to give him her firstborn after she is queen.

  THERE was once a miller who was poor, but he had one beautiful daughter. It happened one day that he came to speak with the king, and, to give himself consequence, he told him that he had a daughter who could spin gold out of straw.

  The king said to the miller, “That is an art that pleases me well; if thy daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to my castle to-morrow, that I may put her to the proof.”

  When the girl was brought to him, he led her into a room that was quite full of straw, and gave her a wheel and spindle, and said, “Now set to work, and if by the early morning thou hast not spun this straw to gold thou shalt die.” And he shut the door himself, and left her there alone.

  And so the poor miller’s daughter was left there sitting, and could not think what to do for her life; she had no notion how to set to work to spin gold from straw, and her distress grew so great that she began to weep.

  Then all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, who said, “Good evening, miller’s daughter; why are you crying?”

  “Oh!” answered the girl, “I have got to spin gold out of straw, and I don’t understand the business.”

  Then the little man said, “What will you give me if I spin it for you?”

  “My necklace,” said the girl.

  The little man took the necklace, seated himself before the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr! three times round and the bobbin was full; then he took up another, and whirr, whirr, whirr! three times round, and that was full; and so he went on till the morning, when all the straw had been spun, and all the bobbins were full of gold.

  At sunrise came the king, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and very much rejoiced, for he was very avaricious. He had the miller’s daughter taken into another room filled with straw, much bigger than the last, and told her that as she valued her life she must spin it all in one night.

  The girl did not know what to do, so she began to cry, and then the door opened, and the little man appeared and said, “What will you give me if I spin all this straw into gold?”

  “The ring from my finger,” answered the girl.

  So the little man took the ring, and began again to send the wheel whirring round, and by the next morning all the straw was spun into glistening gold.

  The king was rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but as he could never have enough of gold, he had the miller’s daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw, and said, “This, too, must be spun in one night, and if you accomplish it you shall be my wife.” For he thought, “Although she is but a miller’s daughter, I am not likely to find any one richer in the whole world.”

  As soon as the girl was left alone, the little man appeared for the third time and said, “What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time?”

  “I have nothing left to give,” answered the girl.

  “Then you must promise me the first child you have after you are queen,” said the little man.

  “But who knows whether that will happen?” thought the girl; but as she did not know what else to do in her necessity, she promised the little man what he desired, upon which he began to spin, until all the straw was gold. And when in the morning the king came and found all done according to his wish, he caused the wedding to be held at once, and the miller’s pretty daughter became a queen.

  In a year’s time she brought a fine child into the world, and thought no more of the little man; but one day he came suddenly into her room, and said, “Now give me what you promised me.”

  The queen was terrified greatly, and offered the little man all the riches of the kingdom if he would only leave the child; but the little man said, “No, I would rather have something living than all the treasures of the world.”

  Then the queen began to lament and to weep, so that the little man had pity upon her.

  “I will give you three days,” said he, “and if at the end of that time you cannot tell my name, you must give up the child to me.”

  Then the queen spent the whole night in thinking over all the names that she had ever heard, and sent a messenger through the land to ask far and wide for all the names that could be found. And when the little man came next day, (beginning with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar) she repeated all she knew, and went through the whole list, but after each the little man said, “That is not my name.”

  The second day the queen sent to inquire of all the neighbours what the servants were called, and told the little man all the most unusual and singular names, saying, “Perhaps you are called Roast-ribs, or Sheepshanks, or Spindleshanks?”

  But he answered nothing but, “That is not my name.”

  The third day the messenger came back again, and said, “I have not been able to find one single new name; but as I passed through the woods I came to a high hill, and near it was a little house, and before the house burned a fire, and round the fire danced a comical little man, and he hopped on one leg and cried,

  “To-day do I bake, to-morrow 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!”

  You cannot think how pleased the queen was to hear that name, and soon afterwards, when the little man walked in and said, “Now, Mrs. Queen, what is my name?”

  She said at first, “Are you called Jack?”

  “No,” he answered.

  “Are you called Harry?” she asked again.

  “No,” he answered.

  And then she said, “Then perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin!”

  “The devil told you that! The devil told you that!” cried the little man, and in his anger he stamped with his right foot so hard that it went into the ground above his knee; then he seized his left foot with both his hands in such a fury that he split in two, and there was an end of him.

  AN ANALYSIS OF THE FAIRY TALE

  The first thing to find out is whether this fairy tale fits the 3 act plot arc structure used for our own work in this book.

  Act 1

  Set -up

  No time is wasted at the set-up. We know a poor miller has a beautiful daughter and then we go straight to the inciting incident.

  Inciting incident

  To make himself seem important, the miller boasts that his daughter can spin straw into gold. So the king decides to test her. She must spin a room full of straw into gold in a single night or else die.

  Act 2

  Middle part

  Here we are looking for escalating tension, possibly structured into three little scenes. Let’s see how the fable goes about it.

  The maiden is locked in the room with all the straw, and, of course, she cannot turn it into gold. A little man appears, agrees to spin it into gold in exchange for her necklace. The king’s delighted with the results (first scene). The king orders her to turn a bigger room full of straw into gold in a single night or else die. In exchange for her ring, the little man spins all the straw into gold. Again, the king is delighted (second scene). The king shows her an even bigger room full of straw which she must spin into gold in a single night. If she succeeds she will be his wife. For the third time the little man appears, offering his services. But she has nothing to offer him as payment for his task. So she must promise him her firstborn child when she becomes queen. She agrees, and he fills the room with gold (third scene).

  So we get three little scenes with escalating tension and a
dilemma for the girl the third time, and, of course, her choice throws the plot in another direction, giving us another three little scenes where she is attempting to guess the little man’s name and where the tension is rising with the running out of time.

  But, in actual fact, if we see the inciting incident as one event and the two important cycles, the spinning of the straw and the guessing of the name, each with three little scenes, as two big events, then we get there major events in total that create and constantly ratchet up the tension of the story.

  High point

  The high point is at the end of the spinning cycle where the king marries her.

  Darkest moment

  A dark moment is where the little man returns to claim the child as the queen promised him. But the darkest moment comes after she has guessed his name wrong on the second attempt, for if she cannot get it right next time she loses her child, and it really seems at this point that she won’t get it right.

  Act 3

  Climax

  She guesses his name right.

  Resolution

  Rumpelstiltskin is no longer a threat; she remains the queen and keeps her child.

  So there it is! We may not only take inspiration from the tale but also copy its plot arc structure in exactly the same way if we fancy because it is a suitable one for the modern short story.

  Now let’s examine the storytelling elements.

  There are five characters in this story: the miller, his daughter/the queen, the king, Rumpelstiltskin and a messenger. Despite the tale’s overall character weaknesses, the character nonetheless convincingly demonstrates cause and effect, pushes the plot forward and keeps the conflict and tension flowing.

  The miller’s appearance is brief but gives us the inciting incident. A boastful idiot throws his daughter across the path of a greedy homicidal bully who in turn throws her across the path of a man who wants her firstborn as payment for his third task. The miller is only a plot device to get the story going. The messenger actually helps the queen, but he, too, is hardly more than a plot device. What would be nice would be for the miller’s character in our story to help undo the harm he has done rather than it being the messenger’s task. This will help give his character some depth within the movement of the plot, while also giving the actual story a circular feeling.

  The king is hardly much better than a plot device as we learn little about him except through stereotypes. In our story, we must try and give his character a little complexity.

  The maiden/queen is a very passive character and has little depth as a result, though enough to grab our sympathy. But why isn’t she angry with her father for what he’s done to her? Events spin out of control around her but she always relies on others to sort them out. Why isn’t she a little more proactive on the problem of name solving? If she becomes less passive and more a problem solver in our story, that alone will greatly deepen her character.

  Rumpelstiltskin is by far the most interesting and complex character here. Why does he want the child more than the treasure? Is he lonely? He feels sorry for the queen, so gives her a chance to keep the child. You could almost pity him when he fails to get it. He’s weird, creepy, odd, flamboyant but is he really so bad? He seems to be a mixture of good and bad. We can ask open-ended questions about him because he is somewhat complex. Our own character must have at least this much complexity and Rumpelstiltskin is certainly a great inspiration for this task.

  Although much of the story revolves around the daughter/queen and we gain access to her feelings and POV, the story has an omniscient POV. The first scene, the set-up, doesn’t involve the miller’s daughter at all, and we are also told things in the narrative about the king’s character and his reaction to events. The story would be stronger with a POV where everything is seen through the maiden/queen’s eyes. If she overheard her father boasting about her in the set-up, we could share her feelings at the thought of what she would soon have to endure. We will use a third person limited POV in our story.

  Of course conflict exists here. The girl struggles to deal with the demands of first one exploiter and then the other. But the conflict would rise if the maiden was less passive and more active.

  The abstract physical plot amounts to this: A boasts to B that C has a skill they don’t actually have. Because of this boast, B puts C through a task which they will fail without help. As a consequence, C seeks help from D to manage the task. But in the process D traps C into promising a very high repayment for their help.

  The setting is the usual fairy tale one, though a bit thin on the ground in detail here.

  Is there humour? Rumpelstiltskin offers us some funny moments but otherwise there seems little in the actual narrative.

  There is no significant plot-driven irony in the tale. The little man is boasting in his song of outwitting the queen and soon having her namesake and is also singing out his name just as the queen’s messenger is listening. This is sort of ironic due to the boasting, though it is as much coincidence as irony. It is also the twist in the story. In our story, we need a stronger twist which hopefully will emerge with greater character depth.

  This is a moral tale with real moments of drama. Should the maiden let the king take her life or should she agree to give over her firstborn child to Rumpelstiltskin? Even though she has no idea what will happen, and feels trapped by circumstances, and so agrees to the little man’s demands, it is still a fraught moment and must involve some soul searching on her part. A longer tale with greater character depth would make more of this.

  It is often assumed that greed is the theme of this famous tale and though it’s obviously a part of the story, greed as theme is quite vague. Another commonly accepted theme is that mindless bragging has unforeseen consequences. The problem with this is that the story is called Rumpelstiltskin and he isn’t greedy or a mindless brag. In fact, he is quite the opposite. He turns down treasure for a human life and he can do exactly what he says he can do. A more interesting and focused theme to take from the story is this: the rescuer may in turn become the oppressor.

  A SAYING AND TWO FABLES

  The saying and the two fables, an old style and a modern style one, may be attempted before or after writing the short story plan. Creating them, of course, is a good way of focusing on and practising manipulating theme into other media.

  Here’s our theme: the rescuer may in turn become the oppressor.

  Our abstract physical plot amounts to this: A boasts to B that C has a skill they don’t actually have. Because of this boast, B puts C through a task which they will fail without help. As a consequence, C seeks help from D to manage the task. But in the process D traps C into promising a very high repayment for their help.

  Although the theme of the fairy tale is sharp and situational, for the fable we need to put emphasis on a human flaw inherent in the theme. Despite genuine feelings of being trapped by circumstances, our flaw will suggest that the victim is responsible for whatever choice they make. This cut and dry approach works well in the fable, but of course, in the actual story, which works on a much more complex level, we will not be anywhere near as cut and dry.

  Let’s start by emphasizing the human flaw in the saying.

  The saying

  To seek refuge with a grey wolf after an attack by a white, shows not only that you fail to understand all wolves share the same insatiable appetite but that you are the target of their appetite.

  We don’t need to analyse this saying because we reverse-engineered into it. But if we came to it fresh and wanted to use it as inspiration for a short story, look how easily it can lead us into writing an old style fable. Look out for any saying that allows for this! From there, we can take a single step into a modern style fable and have at our disposal a short story idea.

  The old style fable

  The Sheepdog, the Cock, the Farmer & the Wolf

  To look important in front of the farmer, a cock boasted that his best friend, the sheepdog, could catch a wild boar.
So the farmer ordered the sheepdog into the forest to catch one, on pain of a sound thrashing if he returned empty handed. Wandering the forest, the sheepdog soon lay down in the bracken, and sobbed, “Catch a wild boar! All I know is how to round up sheep. I’m in for a thrashing when I return without one.”

  It happened that a passing wolf overheard the sheepdog, and approaching him, said, “My son, I couldn’t help but hear your sad words. Look! I’ll catch the boar and your boss will never know.”

  The sheepdog picked up at these words. “But I’ve nothing to offer you for your trouble.”

  “Oh, don’t think so little of yourself. Come the winter, I’ll be awfully hungry. Just once a month throughout that hard time, you turn your back for a moment so I can snatch a sheep.”

  The fear of the thrashing the farmer had promised if he returned without the boar made the sheepdog cry out willingly, “It’s a deal.”

  It had yet to occur to him the thrashing he’d receive during the winter months every time a sheep went missing.

  The modern style fable