A year after, she had a beautiful child, 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 that is living is dearer to me
than all the treasures in the world.” Then the Queen began to weep 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 think 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.
56 Sweetheart Roland
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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