Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold. The king said to the miller, that is an art which pleases me well, if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to-morrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test.
And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, now set to work, and if by to-morrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die. Thereupon he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor miller's daughter, and for the life of her could not tell what to do, she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to weep.
But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said, good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying so. Alas, answered the girl, I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do it. What will you give me, said the manikin, if I do it for you. My necklace, said the girl. The little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.
By daybreak the king was already there, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller's daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door opened again, and the little man appeared, and said, what will you give me if I spin that straw into gold for you. The ring on my finger, answered the girl. The little man took the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.
The king rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not gold enough, and he had the miller's daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw, and said, you must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife.
Even if she be a miller's daughter, thought he, I could not find a richer wife in the whole world.
When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and said, what will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also. I have nothing left that I could give, answered the girl. Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first child. Who knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller's daughter, and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold.
And when the king came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller's daughter became a queen.
A year after, she brought a beautiful child into the world, and she never gave a thought to the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, now give me what you promised.
The queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, no, something alive is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world. Then the queen began to lament and cry, so that the manikin pitied her. I will give you three days, time, said he, if by that time you find out my name, then shall you keep your child.
So the queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names that there might be. When the manikin came the next day, she began with caspar, melchior, balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another, but to every one the little man said, that is not my name. On the second day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious. Perhaps your name is shortribs, or sheepshanks, or laceleg, but he always answered, that is not my name.
On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, I have not been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted - to-day I bake, to-morrow brew, the next I'll have the young queen's child. Ha, glad am I that no one knew that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.
You may imagine how glad the queen was when she heard the name. And when soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, now, mistress queen, what is my name, at first she said, is your name Conrad? No. Is your name Harry? No. Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?
The devil has told you that! The devil has told you that, cried the little man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two.
The king pushed her roughly into the room. It was barren except for a single spinning wheel in the center of the room, surrounded by stacks of straw. "Your father tells us you have a gift. You will spin this straw into gold by morning!" The king roared, greed making his lips curl into a smile. He was already a rich and powerful man, yet it still wasn't enough. "If you fail in this task, you will hang in the gallows by evening!"
"But sire," the young woman cried, "I know not what my father-!"
Her father interrupted her. "Your majesty, if I may but have a few moments alone with my daughter?"
The king looked down at the scraggly man in front of him, disgusted by the sight of him. HIs clothes were torn and smudged with filth, dirt clung to his air, and an odor oozed from him that was sure to slay a dragon. But his daughter was the ultimate prize-not only was she pleasing to the eye, but with her skills there wouldn't be a day that went by that his kingdom wouldn't be bursing to the seams with wealth. If putting up with a stinking pile of dung was what he had to do, then he would endure it.
"Very well..." He spoke under his breath, relieved that he could finally leave the man.
Her father closed the door as the king turned away. He waited for a few minuts, listening as the sound of his boots faded away, then he turned savagely toward his daughter. "Rosalind! What are you thinking?"
"Father, why would you lie to the king? You know I cannot do this!" Her father had never been a very honorable man, but she was shocked that he would stoop this low, to put her life on the line like he was doing.
"You will do it, Rosalind!" She gasped as her father grabbed her shoulders, shaking her as he growled at her. "If not for me, they would have come drug you off to the Ogre Wars with that boy five years ago! Is that what you Rosalind-to die by the hands of a monster!"
She winced at the pain that was shooting through her arm. Her father might have not had very much meat on his bones like other men, but it hadn't done much to weather is grip on her. "No father, but how am I to do spin dirty straw into gold?"
"I don't care how you do it!" He nearly screamed at her, pushing her away. She stumbled backwards, catching herself on the sturdy wood of the spinning wheel. "Call to the fairies, if you have to! I won't live in the forest anymore, Rosalind, sleeping in the dirt and eating insects off the ground. I'll have a palace, with servants and everything that I deserve!"
His voice softened. "Do you not love me, child? Do you not desire to see your father a happy man?"
Rosalind didn't find their life so terrible. They had run away five years ago, a few days before her thirteenth birthday. They left their village in such a hurry-she didn't even get the time to say goodbye to Bae, her best friend in all the village. They were coming for her, the kings men. He needed more warriors to fight the Ogres, but it wasn't warriors he was coming after. It was children-boys and girls alike-that he plucked out of the neighboring villages. He gave armour that was too big for their shoulders, a helmet that fell over their eyes, and a sword and shield that they couldn't even hold at the same time for the weight that pulled on them.
So off they fled, her and her father, into the forest. They kept running, night and day, and hadn't stopped until their feet were bleeding. Her father had crafted a makeshift home for them, out of sticks and branches and mud. Rosalind cooked for them every night, gathering herbs and grasses and weeds, occasionally catching small animals in her traps and scopping fish into her straw baskets.
It had been enough for her-it wasn't like her life in the village, but at least she had her father. She only wished that it would have been good enough for him, but she knew he was unhappy. He had been a very important man back in their village, a man that everyone had looked up to and came to for advice. Out here, her father was nothing, and she knew it wounded him deeply. It had cut him deeper than the flesh and bone, it had cut his pride.
Five years they lived in the forest like this, and while Rosalind only grew prettier and stronger, he grew more bitter and angry. Secretly he wished he would have never decided to run away-he could have held his position of importance in the village. They would have taken his daughter, but he could have remarried and had more children.
That was when he decided his life as a nobody had ended, and he would become important once more. His daughter would help him-this entire predicament was her fault, and she owed this to him.
Rosalind leaned down, pulling the straw from the hem of her simple brown dress. Her dark red hair had gotten long, nearly sweeping the floor as she leaned her head down. But as she came up, her green eyes hardened.
"He doesn't want you!" Rosalind wasn't one to saw such horrid words to her father, but she knew that he blamed her. He had changed in the last five years, and not into a man that she was proud to call her father.
With those first few words out of her mouth, she grew bolder. "Did you see the way the king was looking at you? You disgust him! It's me he wants, father. He would throw you out like dirty scrubbing water!"
She knew she had struck him hard with her words when his eyes flashed for a moment. He said not a word, but raised his hand above his head.
Rosalind found herself on the floor, cradling her cheek where his blow had found its mark. She though she tasted blood, but wasn't sure.
Her father stood over her, and she could could see the anger and hurt that still danced in his eyes. "How dare you speak to me that way, you ungrateful wench! I should have let the king men have you!"
She stood to her feet slowly, getting to her knees first. She pulled the straw from her hair and from her gown, letting it fall back to the fllor. It smelled awful, like they had brought it in from the stables. "Given the choice between you and the ogres, I would have welcomed the ogres with open arms." She spoke the words without even looking at him.
He just chuckled, a thought having just occured to him. "It doesn't matter what happens, Rosalind. I win either way-you somehow spin this straw into gold and the king gives me a place in the castle. If you don't and he kills you, I can go back to the village. Have a good night, daughter..." He laughed as he opened the door and closed it harshly behind him.
Rosalind looked down at the floor as she heard the scrape of the metal. He had locked the door...
She turned and stared for a moment at the spinning wheel, then in a bout of anger kicked it. The sturdy wood didn't break, but it tipped and kicked up straw as it fell over on its side.
There was a window on the wall behind the spinning wheel, and Rosalind put her hands across the cold stone of the still. Below her was a steep drop, that gave way to the trees of the forest. At that moment there was one thing that she had in common with her father-she wanted to go home. Not the makeshift structure in the forest, but home, back to the village with Bae and his-
"Such disrespect for a beautiful work of art!"
A voice both startled and confused her-had she not heard someone come in? Surely she couldn't have missed that atrocious metal scraping...
She jerked her head and gasped at the man that stood on the other side of the room, if he was even a man at all. He was lean, with stringy hair and skin that appeared a pale, purplish hue. He was dressed in purple and gold, with a silly grin plastered across his face.
But despite the fact that she had never seen a creature that looked like him before, she knew, almost immediately, who he was.
It appeared that the rumors were true, the odd tales that Rosalind and her father had heard from strangers and passers-by in the forest. She thought they were just stories after all. A man that she had once known, turned into something dark, and evil. Filled with power and anger and malice at all the men that had laughed and scorned him and called him a coward. The same man that had chased her and Bae through the fields and always welcomed her into his home with open arms.
"So its true..." She whispered out loud, her hand coming up without her consent to clutch at her throat.
"Yes, it apears it is, Rosalind." She shuddered at he spoke her name, further cementing the fact that she knew him.
"Rumplestiltskin, what happened to you?" She inched closer, peering at him.
"I didn't come all this way to talk about me, dearie," he giggled, setting the spinning wheel upright with just a simple wave of his hand. "It seems the king had given you quite a task." He gently kicked the straw out of his way as he neared her.
"They said...they said you changed..." She ignored his words, craning her neck so that she could peer into his face.
"Everyone changes, dearie. Some by situations, and some by...choice." He grinned as he said the last word, like it was an inside joke that only he was in on.
"You called me Rosalind...you remember me?"
He smiled devilishly. "I'm not one to forget a face...or a name. Especially a name."
Rosalind wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly aware of the chill that was in the room. Rumplestiltskin leaned down to pick up a piece of straw, then flicked it away like it was nothing. "Tell me what it is that you want, Rosalind. I assure you I can make it happen."
"Oh I think something like that is beyond even your abilities." She laughed half heartedly, and leaned against the open window.
Rumplestiltskin giggled at her absurd remark. "Well we won't know until you tell me, dearie."
She looked down at her hands, fiddling with her fingers for a moment. "I want to go back home, back to the village, and Bae...when we were children and you would chase us out in the fields, and we'd catch crickets late into the night."
She looked back up at him. "Can you do that, Rumplestiltskin?"
He looked at her oddly, tapping his finger at her. "Is that really what you desire? I can spin that straw into gold for you, and by morning you stand ready to gain an entire kingdom full of riches!" He whirled around, holding his hands up.
She just shook her head. "No...that isn't what I really want. Marry a man that I do not love, or death. To me both fates are equally matched. Now, can you give me what I truly want, or not?"
He grunted, but shook his head. "I can control many things, Rosalind, but time is not one of them. Tell me, why would you choose to give up such riches? I can give you anything you want, you understand..."
Rosalind looked at him for another moment. He was so much like the man that she left behind, but so much different.
"How is Bae?" The question was abrupt, that it nearly caught him offguard.
"Bae is...gone." He might be a new creature now, but that didn't take away his memories. In his mind's eye he could clearly see Rosalind and his boy, running after each other in the forest, fighting each other with ordinary sticks that became mighty swords of great strength once they picked them up.
Rosalind had been a wild girl full of spirit, running through the village with her red hair breaking free from their braids. It seemed the two of them were inseparable, and over time the man had come to think of her like a daughter. Her own father was so distracted and concerned with other things, that she had taken refuge with him and Bae, and he always welcomed her into his home. If she and her father had still been at the billage when he became the Dark One, he would have killed her father and taken her in.
But of course those memories were in the past, back when he was nothing more than a weak little worm, crawling around in the dirt and trying not to get stepped on.
He was the one doing the stepping now.
"They...didn't take him in the Ogre Wars, did they?" She could feel her throat begin to swell.
That question put a momentary smile on Rumple's face. "No-I killed them before they got the chance!" Then the smile began to drop at the sides, until it was nothing but a grim line across his face. "He wanted a new life, so he went somewhere else...a land not touched by magic."
Rosalind opened her mouth to say more, but Rumple waved his hands in the air. "But as I said, I am here to make you an offer, dearie!"
"I told you, you can't give me anything that I desire..." She turned away from him and looked out the window, high over the tree tops, back in the direction of her village.
Rumple watched her closely, at the way she gazed out of the window, the longing that swam in her eyes...
"What about a way of escape from the castle?"
"And how shall we do that? The drop would kill us..."
"Not with magic," he giggled, and she suddenly turned to face him, an idea forming in her mind. An escape from the castle...Yes, if she couldn't go back in time to her village, then she knew exactly what she wanted from him.
She turned fiercely, her eyes bright with fire. "An escape is jsut what I want...take me with you!"
Rumple's face dropped-that wasn't exactly what he had in mind. "Now just why would I want to do that. I have no use for you-"
She grabbed his arm. "I can help you with your magic-I can gather supplies for your potions and help you mix them. I cank cook, and I can clean. I'll do anything-just please take me with you!" She pleaded with him.
"You'll just be in the way!"
"No, I promise I won't! I'll do anything you ask, I swear it!" She fell to her knees, her grip on him tighening.
Rumple looked down at her arm that was cluthing him, then back up to her face. She did have a point-she could do the insignificant things, the less importnat things. That would give him more time to focus on his magic. No more gathering the ingredients for his potions. He was starting to like the idea-his own personal work mule...
But then another thought crossed his mind, a thought that made him cringe. "Do not expect, dearie," he explained in an even, controlled tone, "that life with me will be as it once was. I am that man no more-who I am now will not chase you into the fields and catch crickets."
She shook her head, letting go of him. "I understand."
"So that is the price..." He whispered under his breath with a giggle.
"What do you mean?"
He held up his hand, giggling once more. "All magic comes with a price. I take you away from here, and the price is your unwavering servitude to me, forever. You will do as I tell you, with no questions asked. Do we have a deal, dearie?" As he asked he stepped an inch closer, a smile curling around his pale purle face.
Rosalind thought for a moment, perhaps about to change her mind. Forever was, after all, a very long time. But then she hd another thought, this one pertaining to her father, and a king that she could never love. Compared to them, being a servant in Rumplestiltskin's house seemed as easy as...
Catching crickets in the dark.
"Yes," she said, a gleam of something in her eyes. Courage, hope, fear-who knows what it was?
"Alright then, Rosalind." He wrapped his cold hand around her wrist, his dark eyes meeting hers. He waved his fingers in the air. "Let's go home, shall we?"
And so the tale goes, the young, red-headed woman stayed with him in his manor for five long years...
This is a tale, like all good fairytales, about magic and true love. But the magic is dark, and the love one-sided. This tale holds no beautiful princesses, or heroic knights. Just Rosalind, an insignificant young girl who would sacrifice everything for the happiness of her best friend, a dark creature named Rumplestiltskin. Sometimes, happily ever after is out of the question...