>MICKEY: Hi! My name is Mickey Benson, and I'm a volunteer with the San Jose Public Library.
Today, I’m gonna share with you one of my favorite Grimm tales.
It's called Rumpelstiltskin.
Once upon a time long,long, time ago, in a far, far, away place there was a miller.
And he happened to meet the king one day.
And trying to make himself feel really special.
We went up to the king and he said "Hi"
He said, "I have a beautiful daughter."
"And she has a special gift"
And the king says "Oh! What's the gift?"
And he said "Well, she can spin straw into gold"
And the king said "Hmm, that sounds good to me"
"Tell you what bring your daughter to visit me tomorrow; I'd like to meet her"
So the miller was just thrilled to death
So the next day he brought his beautiful daughter.
And he said to the king "This is my daugher"
"This is the one that has this gift"
And the king said "Fantastic!"
"O.K. lovely lady come with me"
And he took her to this room
It wasn't a very big room, but it was big enough.
And it was full of straw
He set her down and there was a spinning wheel there
And he said "My dear" he said "I'd like you to spin this straw into gold"
"and I'll come back tomorrow morning, and if it's not all spun into gold"
"well I'm afraid I'll have to put you in prison for the rest of your life"
Well the little girl was just beside herself.
And she started crying and weeping.
And pretty soon there comes a little funny man
And he comes into the room
And he says "Honey, what are you cryin about"
And she says "Well" she says "I'm supposed to spin this this straw into gold and and
I can't do it"
And he goes "Tell you what I'll do it for you but what will you give me"
And she thought and she thought
"I'll give you my pearl necklace"
"Hmm"
"O.K."
"I'll take that"
And so he sat down and he went
(sound) RRR RRR RRR
There was the first bale all into gold
(sound) RRR RRR RRR
And he did it again.
Pretty soon she fell asleep.
When she woke up the next morning the room was full of gold.
King came and went "Ah! Wow! That's pretty nice! I really like that!
And the King really was good and kindhearted, but he got a little greedy.
So he says "Come with me, honey"
And he took her to another room.
And this other room was bigger and it was full of straw
And he says "Here, here's another room for you"
"Make all this straw into gold"
and in the morning, he said, "I will give you a reward"
"But if you don't I'm afraid I'll have to put you in prison" and he walked out and closed
the door.
Well again the little girl just sat down and weeped and weeped
And pretty soon here comes this funny little man.
And he says "Tell you what, what will you give me if I make all of this straw go into
gold"
And she thought and thought
"Oh!" she says "I'll give you my ruby ring"
And he goes "O.K. suites me" so he sat down and started to spin.
And she curled up and went to sleep.
The next morning she woke up and the room was full of gold again.
And the king came again and the king looked at her and said "Hum this is terrific"
Took her to one more room.
It was huge, just a huge room
And sure enough he left, closed the door, she sat down, cried, and the little man came.
"Whoa!"
"This is a big room"
"What will you give me for this?"
And she goes "I'm sorry I don't have anything left"
"I gave you my necklace."
"I gave you my ring."
And he goes "I'll tell you what"
"Say you get married to the king, and you have a baby."
"Give me your first born child!"
Well the little girl was was horrified!
But she thought "Oh! that's never gonna happen"
I'll go ahead and say yes
"Yes!" she says
"Fine!"
So he sat down and spun and spun and spun
The next morning, sure enough, there was the room full of gold.
Well, the king really was soft hearted and gental and kind.
And he looked at this beautiful, beautiful girl and he says "You shall be my queen."
And after about a year she had this beautiful little baby boy.
And she was sitting in the nursery one day and she was rockin her baby.
And this little man showed up.
And she goes "What do you want?"
And he goes "I'm here for you to pay me what you offered me" "Your first born child"
And she goes "Ah! No!" "I'll..I'll..give you all the riches in the kingdom"
"I'll give you anything you ask for"
"But not my baby"
He goes, "That was the bargin."
"You give me your baby."
She goes, "Oh please please can't we think of something?"
He goes "Well"
"Tell your what"
"If you can figure out what my name is in three days, I'll give you three days"
"Then you can keep your baby"
But he goes off because he knew she'd never never think of his name.
So the next day he came back and says "O.K. I'm here for the kid"
And she goes "No No"
Ah she says "I I I've asked around"
"And I've got ... Is your name Ah Sheepshanks?"
"No"
"Is Is your name Milkyore?"
"No"
"Placeleg?"
"No!"
And he laughed
And he said "I'll be back tomorrow for the baby"
So the next morning sure enough he showed up
And she had sent out a messenger
And she said "Messenger please go throughout the village find all the names you can find
maybe there's an unsusal name I'm not thinking of"
And the messenger went out and he came back and he gave her a whole list of names.
So this little man came in and he says "O.K. I'm here for the baby"
And she goes "Wait a minute"
"Is, is, is it, is it, um, George?"
"Is it John?"
"Is it Jack?"
And she went through this whole list of names.
And he goes " No, No, No, No" and he's laughing
So he leaves.
He says "one more day" and "I'm comin for the baby"
Well she's beside herself.
She sent out the messenger to find more names.
The messenger came back later that day and said "I'm sorry but I couldn't find any names"
"But I did see the strangest thing"
"There was this little house in the wood and there was this funny little man"
And he was jumpin around and jumpin around a fire
And he was saying "I brew today, tommorrow I bake, and next to queens child I take."
"And its all the same but nobody knows."
"Rumpelstiltskin is my name."
Well the queen sat back and she smiled.
And she said "O.K."
So the next morning the little man comes in
And he goes "O.K. give me the baby"
"Wait a minute."
"Wait one little minute", she says
"Is your name Conrad?"
"No" and he laughs and laughs.
"Is your name Harry?"
"No! No! No!"
"Give me the kid"
She goes "Wait a minute"
"Perhaps"
"Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin!"
Ah! Oh! the little man was furious, furious.
He jumped up and down.
He screamed in rage.
He said "The devil told you that"
"The devil told you that"
And he stammped his foot so hard in the ground
And he pulled it out and he ran into the woods.
Screaming and yelling "The devil told you"
"The devil told you"
And then the King came in and put his arms around his beautiful queen and their beautiful
little baby
And they lived happily ever after in the kingdom.
And no more Rumpelstiltskin.
The End.
Thank-you very much.
I hope you liked the story
And if you want more, please go to the San Jose Public Library website.
Thank-you.