I live in a house on a hill in a corner of the wood where the foxes and the hares say goodnight to one another. Nobody knows my name and I intend to keep it that way!

I can spin. No one can spin like me. I can spin straw into gold. The miller’s daughter is a good spinner, but she doesn’t have my gift. The other day, when the king came out to hunt in the wood, the miller boasted to him that his daughter could spin straw into gold. And what do you think happened? He put her in a locked room and made her spin for her life!

Who do you think put the bug in the miller’s ear to go out and boast to the king? I won’t say! But the miller’s daughter will be queen, and I will do her work behind the scenes. No one will be any the wiser, and I will get what I want. Haha!

Rumpelstiltskin in Rumpelstiltskin, Grimms. Illustration by George R. Halkett.