Reading the story with your Child
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Allow your child to read this story to you. If your child does not understand a word or is unable to pronounce it, please assist him/ her by defining or providing the correct pronunciation of the word. Let your child repeat the word a few times. Listen for the correct pronunciation of beginning, middle, and ending sounds.

At the end of the story, ask your child a few questions about the story’s plot. Or, have your child retell the story in his/ her own words. Then, have your child click the "comprehension quiz" button.


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"Rumpelstiltskin"
by the Brothers Grimm
 
Rewritten by
Bob Eschenbach/ Naples, Florida 


Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java. Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that the miller had to go and speak to the king. In order to make himself appear important, the miller said to the king, “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 tomorrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test.”

 The next day the miller took his beautiful daughter to the king. He took her into a room which was quite full of straw and gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel. The king said, “Now set to work, and if by tomorrow morning you have not spun this straw into gold, you must die.” Thereupon the king himself locked up the room, and left the girl inside all alone. 

 So there sat the poor miller's daughter, and, for the life of her, she could not think of what to do. She had no idea how straw could be spun into gold. She grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to weep.


All at once the door opened, and in jumped a little man. He said, “Good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying so?” The girl answered, “Alas, I have to spin all this straw into gold, or I will die. But, I do not know how to do it.” The little man asked, “What will you give me, if I do the spinning for you? “My necklace,” said the girl. The little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the spinning wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr went the sound. In three turns, the first reel was full. Then he put another reel on, and whirr, whirr, whirr. Three times around, and the second reel was full too. And so it went on until the morning. All the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.

 By daybreak the king was already there. When he saw the gold, he was astonished and delighted. But, instead of letting the miller’s daughter go, the king’s heart became only greedier. He had the girl taken into another room full of straw, but this room was much larger. The king commanded her to spin this straw into gold, all in one night if she valued her life. 

 Once again the girl knew not how to help herself, and began crying. When the door opened, there was the same little man. He asked, “What you will give me if I spin all that straw into gold for you?” The girl answered, “I will give you the ring on my finger. The little man took the ring, again began to turn the spinning wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.


The king rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he was greedy and thought he did not have enough gold. He had the miller's daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw. The king told the girl, “You must spin this, too, in the course of this night. But this time, if you succeed, you shall be my wife.” He thought even if she was only a miller's daughter, her spinning straw into gold deserved making her the richest wife in the whole world.

 

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