Brothers Grimm's 'Rumpelstiltskin'

The fairy tale I most favored as a child was that of Brothers Grimm's Rumpelstiltskin. This story depicts the daughter of a miller who is trapped and forced to spin straw into gold, or be sentenced to death. A little man appears , and spins it for her, yet says that he will take her child in as a form of payment unless she can guess his name. when she finally figures out the little mans name (Rumpelstiltskin), he gets angry (“The Devil told you that!”) the little man yelled, he then went on to stamp his right foot so hard that it sunk into the ground all the way up to his waist. Then he took hold of his left foot with both hands and tore himself in half. It seemed to teach young children that we should all be more careful of what we say, and think of the consequences that may occur.

I believe that grownups and children alike are not immune to the consequences that happen when we say thinks without thinking of the outcomes. So this fairy tale has a lesson for all of us. An example of an archetypes in this fairy tale is the messenger who saves the millers daughter by bringing her the name of the “little man” (Rumpelstiltskin) he plays an important role. This is am example of a Heroic like archetype. The main theme of Rumpelstiltskin is spinning straw into gold. Straw and grains are useful for feeding animals and for making bedding for people but straw its not edible. Because they mostly ate grains, if a bad harvest occurred that could mean starvation. Gold is usually a symbol representing grain in folklore since grain and gold have the same “golden” color. They were both seen as being very precious