Once upon a time there was a miller who was poor, but he had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he came to speak with the king, and to impress him he said to him, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold." The king, who was fond of gold, thought, "that is an art well pleasing to me," and said to the miller, "if your daughter is so skillful, bring her to my castle tomorrow, and I will put her to the test." And when the girl came, he led her into a chamber all full of straw, gave her a wheel and reel, and said, "Now set to work, and if you have not spun this straw into gold through this night until tomorrow morning, you must die." Then he closed the chamber himself, and she remained alone in it.

There sat the poor miller's daughter and knew nothing for her life, for she understood nothing at all about spinning straw into gold, and her fear grew and grew, so that at last she began to cry. Then suddenly the door opened, and a little man came in and said, "Good evening, spinster miller, why is she crying so much?" "Oh," replied the girl, "I am supposed to be spinning straw into gold and I don't understand it." Said the little man, "what will you give me if I spin it for you?" "My necklace," said the girl. The little man took the collar, sat down in front of the wheel, and purr, purr, purr, three times pulled, the bobbin was full. Then he put on another, and purr, purr, purr, three times pulled, the second was also full: and so it went on until morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the bobbins were full of gold. At sunrise the king came and when he saw the gold, he was amazed and rejoiced. But his heart became only more greedy for money. He had the miller's daughter taken to another chamber full of straw, which was much larger, and ordered her to spin it in one night, too, if her life were dear to her. The girl did not know how to help herself and cried, then the door opened again and the little man appeared and said: "what will you give me if I spin the straw into gold? "My ring from the finger," replied the girl. The little man took the ring, began to purr again with the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into shining gold. The king rejoiced exceedingly at the sight, but was still not satisfied with gold, but had the miller's daughter brought to an even larger chamber full of straw and said, "You must spin this this very night. But if you succeed in this, you shall become my wife." "For," thought he, "a richer wife thou canst not have in the world." When the girl was alone, the little man came again for the third time and said, "what will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time?" "I have nothing more to give," replied the girl. "So promise me, when you become queen, your first child." "Who knows what else this will lead to," thought the miller's daughter, and she did not know any other way to help herself, even in the face of adversity. So she promised the male what he asked for, and in return the male once again spun the straw into gold. And when the king came in the morning and found everything as he had wished, he married her, and the beautiful miller's daughter became a queen.

For more than a year she gave birth to a beautiful child and no longer thought about the male. Suddenly he entered her chamber and said, "Now give me what you promised. The queen was frightened and offered the male all the riches of the kingdom if he would let her have the child. But the male said, "no, I would rather have something alive than all the treasures of the world." Then the queen began to wail and cry so much that the male felt sorry for her and said, "I will give you three days. If you know my name by then, you shall keep your child."
Now the queen thought all night long of all the names she had ever heard and sent a messenger across the country to inquire far and wide about new names. When the little man came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balzer, and said all the names she knew in order, but at each one the little man said: "That's not my name. The second day she asked all the people and told the man the most unusual and strange names, Rippenbiest, Hammelswade, Schnürbein, but he still said: "That's not my name. The third day the messenger came back and told: "I couldn't find any new names, but as I came to a high mountain around the corner of the forest, where fox and hare say good night to each other, I saw a small house there. And in front of the house a fire was burning, and around the fire jumped a very ridiculous little man, hopping on one leg and shouting:

"today I bake, tomorrow I brew,
The day after tomorrow I'll fetch the queen her child;
oh, how good that no one knows
that my name is Rumpelstiltskin!"

Then the queen was quite glad that she knew the name, and when soon after the little man came and asked, "well, Madam Queen, what is my name?" she first asked, "is your name Kunz?" "No." "Is your name Heinz?" "No."

"Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?"

"That's what the devil told you, that's what the devil told you," cried the little man, and with his right foot he pushed so deeply into the earth in anger that it went in as far as his body. Then, in his rage, he grabbed the left foot with both hands and tore himself in half.