Questioning Rumpelstiltskin's Motives

As children, we are more open and willing to believe the things that are presented to us as facts. We don't even question the validity of some statements, just take them as truths because that is the way it is.

One example of this was when I was sitting in a library during a reading of the Brothers Grimm story, Rumpelstiltskin. This is the story of a young woman who is forced to produce a room full of gold or else the King will have her head.

I am not going to say the whole story was believable (it is not) spinning straw into gold and having a small man visit a locked up dungeon is all part of a fairy tale.

The oddest part of the story (to me) was when the little unnamed man tells the fair maiden that he will spin the straw into gold as a trade off for her first child. When I heard that line as an adult, I looked up and said, "Wait, what? Why?" The librarian reading the book looked at me in agreement. It makes little sense why a little imp would want to take care of a human baby. I mean, there's the crying, the constant need for attention, having to be fed throughout the day, and changing diapers.

Later that day, I looked up "Why would Rumpelstiltskin want a baby?" on the Internet and was met with: He wanted to take something that was most precious to the girl; He was hungry; He might have wanted to raise the baby. It came down to this idea that the story was told as a warning for mothers not to leave their babies alone because they might be stolen or replaced with a changeling.

Fairy tales are rather quirky.


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