10/19-10/28 RUMPLESTILTSKIN

RUMPELSTILTSKIN is a fairytale popularly associated with Germany. The tale was one collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1812 edition of Children's and Household Tales. According to researchers, the story originated around 4,000 years ago. According to the story, a Miller lies to a King, telling him that his daughter can spin straw into gold. The King calls for the girl, shuts her in a tower room filled with straw and a spinning wheel, and demands she spin the straw into gold by morning or he will cut off her father’s head. When she has given up all hope, an imp-like creature appears in the room and spins the straw into gold in return for her necklace. When next morning the king takes the girl to a larger room filled with straw to repeat the feat, the imp once again spins, in return for the girl's ring. On the third day, when the girl has been taken to an even larger room filled with straw and told by the King that he will marry her if she can fill this room with gold or execute her father if she cannot, the girl has nothing left with which to pay the strange creature. He extracts from her a promise that she will give him her firstborn child and so he spins the straw into gold a final time. The King keeps his promise to marry the Miller's daughter. But when their first child is born, the imp returns to claim his payment. He finally consents to give up his claim to the child if she can guess his name within three days. When the imp comes to the queen on the third day, after first feigning ignorance, she reveals his name, RUMPELSTILTSKIN, and he loses his temper and their bargain. Come see how The Sigman Brothers put their own spin on this time-honored fable.