Rumpelstiltskin Retellings

One of the most widely known fairy tales is that of Rumpelstiltskin. In the original version a small man spins straw into gold for a miller’s daughter, who was imprisoned by a king after he was led to believe that she had that ability. If she does not succeed, the king will execute her. In exchange for Rumpelstiltskin’s help, the miller’s daughter promises him her future firstborn child. Later on he agrees to allow her out of the deal if she can correctly guess his, um, highly unusual name. Needless to say, after much fuss (and a little cheating) the miller’s daughter, now queen after the king married her, eventually recites the correct name: Rumpelstiltskin.

One of my favorite retellings of this story is K.M. Shea’s Rumpelstiltskin. If you haven’t read this novel yet, you should probably stop reading this post now! In K.M. Shea’s version, the main character is a seamstress named Gemma Kielland. Unlike in the original, when Gemma is imprisoned by the king and ordered to spin flax (not straw) into gold, she puts much of her effort into trying to escape. The other main character, Stil (which is short for Rumpelstiltskin), is impressed by Gemma’s efforts and, much like in the original, spins the flax into gold in exchange for her firstborn child (with an interesting caveat that I won’t digress to explain). However, rather than ending up happily married to the king (which would be depressing), much action ensues, the king dies, and Gemma ends up married to Stil.

In the popular show Once Upon a Time, the sequence of events surrounding Rumpelstiltskin and the miller’s daughter are also very different from the original. Spoiler alert once again! The miller’s daughter is Cora, a very ambitious woman who is willing to go to great lengths in order to achieve more power and status. After sneaking into a royal ball and being told to leave, Cora boasts about her ability to spin straw into gold, whereon she is imprisoned. Rather than making a deal for Rumpelstiltskin to spin the straw into gold, Cora bargains for him to teach her how to do it instead.

These retellings are very different.  As a preliminary matter, one is a novel while the other is a TV show, which very much affects everything from the level of detail the retelling will involve to how much the reader or viewer will be able to ascertain each individual character’s inner thoughts and emotions. Beyond that, however, reading or viewing each version poses the one central question that I believe should be asked of all retellings:  why did the author choose to make the changes he or she did to the original? 

In my previous blog post I mentioned the idea of modernization, which embodies how fairy tales and myths are constantly evolving to keep with the times. Both of these versions definitely keep with this trend. More specifically, I believe that the authors chose to make many of the changes they did in order to convert the original story into a vehicle for advancing feminist ideals, a cause near and dear to my own heart. 

In K.M. Shea’s version of the story, Gemma and Stil both work together to defeat the king. Rather than painting Rumpelstiltskin as the evil character, the blame is placed where most people would agree it belongs: on the king who imprisoned her. These are very key changes, because they allow the retelling to illustrate the feminist ideal that those who mistreat women ought to be held to account regardless of their level of power, a concept familiar to anyone who has followed the recent Me-Too movement. They also allow the retelling to illustrate a second feminist ideal, which is that modern-day couples such as Gemma and Stil ought to work together as egalitarian partners rather than, as in the original, having women dependent upon men to work unilaterally to save them.

Beyond that, Gemma shows tremendous courage throughout the book with her goal of escaping and later facing down the king.  In portraying her this way, K.M. Shea’s retelling illustrates that a virtue that was historically thought of as being mainly within the domain of men can apply equally well to women.

Like K.M. Shea’s retelling, Once Upon a Time also modernizes Rumpelstiltskin in a way that effectively echoed feminist ideals. Rather than relying on a man to save her, Cora gains the ability to save herself with her ingenious idea of getting Rumpelstiltskin to teach her how to spin straw into gold herself. While Cora is largely portrayed as a villain throughout the show, we nonetheless see her encompassing feminist ideals by striving to better herself by learning magic which, in turn, allows her to become a self-sufficient agent of her own destiny. 

Both of these Rumpelstiltskin retellings and the original are nuanced in a way that makes the story easy to enjoy regardless of which version one reads or views. Do you have any favorite Rumpelstiltskin retellings? How do they differ from the original, and why do you think they differ in the ways they do?

Fairy truly yours,

Grace W. Wong