Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin is a children's book that first appeared as a story in a book by The Brothers Grimm in 1812. Over the years it was revised and finally published on its own in 1857.

Fast Facts

1. Author: The Brothers Grimm
2. Genre: Children's Book
3. Publication Date: 1857
4. Pages: 32
5. Adaptations: Opera, stage, film and ballet
6. First recorded by The Brothers Grimm, 1812
7. Age level 4 to 8
8. Themes: murder, deceit, kidnapping, greed
9. Possibly influenced by medieval belief that faerie folk replaced infants with changelings
10. Rumpelstilzchen translates into "little rat stilt"
11. Tom Tit Tot in England, Päronskaft in Sweden

Synopsis

Rumpelstiltskin is a fairytale about a miller who tells the king his daughter can spin straw into gold. The daughter bargains with a strange little man who spins it for her, and the final time he promises to do the task only if she will give up her first-born child. To keep her baby she must guess the strange little man's name.

History

"Rumpelstiltzkin has been studied by many folklorists with a critical study of it dating back to Edward Clodd's Tom Tit Tot, An Essay on Savage Philosophy in Folk-Tale, a full length book from 1898. The tale is well-known throughout most of Europe, ranging from Italy to Scandinavia to Spain. In all of the versions, its principal traits are usually the same. In fact, the Grimms collected four versions of the tale in their research in Hesse which they combined into the Rumpelstiltzkin that is best known in English speaking countries today." — SurLaLune Fairy Tales

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