Rumpelstiltskin

The tale of Rumpelstiltskin was part of the collection of the Grimms Brothers who published it in their edition of Children's and Household Tales. The story goes that a miller lied to the king that his daughter can spin gold out of straw. The king then had the miller's daughter locked in the palace's tower so she can spin gold for three days. If she can't she would be executed.

The daughter was resigned to her fate of dying when the dwarf showed up and bartered for her necklace and ring in exchange for spinning gold for the first two nights. On the third night, she has nothing more to trade so the dwarf asked her for her first born child to which she agree out of desperation. The king was so impressed that he ended up marrying the miller's daughter.

A few years passed and the miller's daughter gave birth to her first child. The dwarf soon re-appeared to ask for his payment. Since she's the queen now, she wanted the dwarf to ask for anything else but the dwarf was keen on getting the child. At this time, the dwarf gave the queen 3 days and 3 tries to guess his name. Long story short, someone in the kingdom heard the dwarf singing his name and informed the queen about this. The queen ended up guessing the dwarf's name and keeping the child.

I think this was one of the best fairy tales I've read when I was growing up. Now, that I'm more mature, I sense a lot of trepidation on my part. What was the dwarf thinking asking for a child? Just thinking about all the diapers that has to be changed and the duties associated with caring for a child.

I think it would be funny to see the dwarf returing the child in a couple of hours.