Illustration by Anne Anderson
This is the first story in a series of stories about German fairytales reimagined. The second story "Mother Holle and the Lost Spindle" can be read here.
Rumpelstiltskin had been called small all his life. He was sick and tired of having to prove his worth in the challenges life threw at him. He wanted to be tall like other men. He wanted to have the strength of any other average human. So, when the ruthless and unfeeling God Balder came to him and offered to fulfil all his wishes in exchange for a hundred years of servitude, Rumpelstiltskin had not hesitated. He had jumped at the opportunity. What was a hundred years of having to do a God’s bidding compared to a lifetime of being normal – of normal height and of normal strength.
Rumpelstiltskin had never regretted his choice, even though Balder had him do some abhorrent things in the past 80 years. Yet now, the God had reached the pinnacle of his own viciousness. Balder had appeared to him in the middle of his dinner, which had made Rumpelstiltskin already quite grumpy. But when he had told him his new task, the little man had protested – for the first time in all his years of service. Balder wanted him to go to the King and Queen and steal their newly born daughter Aurora. Rumpelstiltskin had heard of her beauty, if you could call a baby beautiful. He certainly doubted it. But the travelling tradesmen in his village had spoken in hushed tones about the aura that was shining from the princess. That’s how her regal parents had supposedly determined her name. Not very original, was it? But no matter how strange he found all the reports about this young princess, he did not understand how Balder could ask him to do such a thing as steal a baby from the arms of its mother.
Of course, Rumpelstiltskin had done many horrendous things for Balder. All of them meticulously planned and meant to be the cause of a lot of pain. 80 years of servitude for a ruthless God meant many acts of brutality. Seldomly had Rumpelstiltskin missed his mark. Except for that one time, where he had accidentally poisoned the wrong person. But it hadn’t been his fault, you see? Balder had sent him to the top of a mountain, a place he had never been before. When he had reached the final plateau, there had been two small houses standing there in the lush, green grass. Rumpelstiltskin remembered the sound of the bells ringing, as the cows who were wearing them around their necks, munched on the grass. Balder had asked him to poison a young woman, who lived atop the mountain. He had given him the seeds of a poisonous plant and asked him to brew her a tea from it. When a young woman in a rustic Dirndl emerged from one of the stone houses, he engaged her in a jolly conversation. The girl was trusting beyond her own good and invited him in for a drink. Rumpelstiltskin saw his opportunity and took it. But when Balder came to claim the dead girl, he cried out in frustration. He had meant the maid living next door. After a few moments of anxious arguing, the God and the small man decided it had been fate. Maybe this girls time had simply come. Rumpelstiltskin had relaxed visibly, knowing Balder wouldn’t turn his wrath on him. Instead, though, the God turned to him expectantly and said: “Well, aren’t you going to poison the other one?” Dread bowing him down, Rumpelstiltskin did as he was told and walked over to the other house, the ringing bells haunting him every step of the way. It was the only time – until now – that he had felt true remorse for his actions.
Because stealing baby Aurora, in the dead of night, and handing her over to the madly smiling Balder was an act that Rumpelstiltskin knew, he would regret for the rest of his life. Therefore, the little man decided to take the Princess elsewhere. To the heavenly pastures of the Heide where Mother Holle lived with her many spinning women and their spinning wheels. He handed the baby over to this benign and wise Goddess and told her of Balder and his evil plan. Mother Holle assured him that she would keep the babe safe and sent him on his way. When he had to face Balder the next day, Rumpelstiltskin made up a tale. He told the barbaric God that the baby had already been stolen, before he had got there. And when the news of the disappeared Aurora spread through all the lands, Balder believed his little servant. With a content sigh, Rumpelstiltskin went to bed that night, knowing that for the first time in his life he had done the right thing – a good deed. What he didn’t know though, was that Aurora was destined to die by pricking her finger on a spindle.
