CHAT: Rumpelstiltskin (was Re: milimpulaktasin)

From: "daniel andreasson" <daniel.andreasson@...>
> Aidan Grey wrote:
>
> > No offense intended, but every time I see
> > "milimpulaktasin", I swear it says "Rumpelstiltskin".
>
> Well, it does mean "beautiful red bird" in Nakiltipkaspimak,
> but I could make "Rumpelstiltskin" a homophonous word. I
> doubt anyone would mix those two up. :)
>
> And what the funk is "Rumpelstiltskin" anyway? :-?
A fairy tale.

I may be mixing a couple of stories (ruuusty), but IIRC it was like this: a
prince was going around looking for a bride, and a poor [miller?] wanted his
daughter to be it, so he told the prince that she could spin straw into gold.
Now, the girl could do no such thing of course, but the prince took her up to
his castle to try this talent.  She was kept in a room full of straw and a
spinning wheel and assigned to do the whole lot overnight, with death involved
if it wasn't done.  The girl spent the majority of the night crying, but then a
gnome appeared and promised to do it for her, if she promised to give him her
firstborn child. (She wasn't entirely happy about that, but there's only so many
things you can offer someone who can make gold out of straw...)

Anyway, a room full of gold was ready for the prince in the morning, and either
they were married right away *or* she hadn't promised the gnome her child the
first time, and she was assigned to do a larger room the next night and an even
larger one the third night, and promised him the child on that last night, and
*then* they were married.

In any case, marriage being marriage, the girl (now a princess) soon gave birth
to an adorable baby boy, and the gnome arrived shortly thereafter to claim his
debt.  Of course the princess (now a mother) didn't want to give her child away.
and was either allowed to keep it for a short while *or* the child was taken
away by the gnome regardless.  Either way, the gnome said that she would be able
to keep her child if she guessed the gnome's name.  Since nobody knew the
gnome's name, he thought this was pretty safe.

Anyway, for three days she went to the gnome and tried every name she could
think of (luckily the gnome felt his name outlandish enough to not limit her to
a certain number of guesses).  Of course she couldn't think of the right one.
But then while she (or somebody else) one day was walking near a river, the
gnome--who didn't know she was there--was rather stupidly singing a song about
how clever he was and that nobody could ever guess a name like his, which was
'Rumpelstiltskin'.  Well, armed with this information the princess went to the
gnome the next day and made a couple of fake guesses for show and then guessed
the 'right' name.  The gnome was horribly mad (I think he might actually have
exploded) and the princess got to keep her child.

And they all lived happily until they died of the plague ever after, etc.

     *Muke!
  [now that's a translation exercise!]  ;)

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