Rumpelstiltskin: Villain or Victim?After doing some illustrations based

Aside

Rumpelstiltskin: Villain or Victim?

After doing some illustrations based on the old Brothers Grimm tales, it dawns on me that they teach some pretty shady morality. This image depicts the wicked “Rumpelstiltskin” who I think may have been given a bad rep. What did he do that was so bad? He offered to spin all that straw into gold thus saving the miller’s daughter from having her head chopped off. Then he let the miller’s daughter take the credit watched as she used his hard work entice the king into marrying her. Sure he got her to promise to hand over her first born child, but he was a imp/fairy/pixie. That kid might have ended up hanging out with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. But noooooo, the miller’s daughter has to back out of her bargain. Does Rumpelstiltskin get mad? He does not. He even agrees to let her off if she can beat him in a simple name guessing game. Does she play fair? She does not. She uses her power as the new queen to send a servant to find out the answer to his riddle for her! What a lazy heroine! No wonder Rumpelstiltskin got so mad he stamped through the floor then ripped his body in half. I think I’d be ticked off too. So the moral of the story seems to be, lie to your future husband, pretend to be something you’re not, back out of your agreements, then send a lacky to sort the mess out for you. I wonder how Merida from Disney’s ‘Brave’ would have handled the situation? Probably by socking the king in the teeth and telling him where he can stick his spinning wheel. How times change.