Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

Rump fears that the trolls will eat him, but they explain that this is only a rumor trolls spread to dissuade humans from attempting to enslave them. The trolls trust Rump because he smells different from other humans. They set the snare because one of them hopes to catch a pet goat. When Rump inquires about the apples, they explain that the tree grew from a poison apple that a wicked witch-queen used to send her stepdaughter into an enchanted sleep. The trolls cavort and wrestle with one another, inadvertently revealing a treasure trove containing “a coil of golden rope that looked oddly like hair, a shimmering cloak, and a golden harp” that plays itself (148).

The trolls explain that they’re hiding the magical objects so that humans can’t use them to cause trouble. Generations ago, humans enslaved trolls and forced them to sniff out magic. The trolls smell magic on Rump, and the boy worries that the trolls will add him to the treasures they guard. The trolls insist that Rump stay the night with them. While they slumber, Rump searches the treasure trove, hoping one of the magical objects is a stiltskin. A troll named Slop awakens and warns Rump that each object exacts a heavy price from anyone foolish enough to use it. Ignoring the trolls’ warning, Rump returns to the apple tree and sees that its fruit glows in the dark “like sparkling jewels growing on the branches” (155). Rump hopes that the tree is a stiltskin, but he decides not to chance death by eating one of the apples, and he falls asleep against the trunk.

Slop finds Rump and leads him back to the trolls’ camp. A troll named Mard tells Rump that he has the most sensible human name she’s ever heard and criticizes humans for overcomplicating everything. When the trolls have a mud fight, Rump joins in the fun. As a parting gift, Rump entrusts Nothing to the troll who wanted a pet. Resuming his journey, the boy finds himself envying the trolls’ simple existence because his own life feels “like nothing but snarled knots of complicated” (158).

A gnome arrives with a message from Red saying that Oswald the miller is now a lord. Four days after leaving the trolls, Rump reaches a village in Yonder. After many failed attempts to find someone who knew his mother, Anna, Rump meets an old man spinning wool into yarn. When Rump mentions magical spinners, the man tells Rump about the “Wool Witches” who live in the woods and “can turn wool into silk and grass into silver” (163). Rump enters the forest and nears a little cottage with a red door, worrying that the witches may be cruel. At his approach, a girl a few years older than Rump happily invites him in for cake.

The girl tugs Rump into the cottage, which is filled with vibrant colors and the tantalizing smell of food. Her name is Ida, and Rump tells her that his is Robert. Ida’s older sisters, Balthilda and Hadel, recognize their sister Anna’s features in Rump’s face. While Ida is thrilled to learn that she has a nephew, Balthilda and Hadel regard him with suspicion. After Rump washes away the dirt from his long journey and enjoys a delectable spread of food, he watches the three women spinning, knitting, and weaving threads in colors no dye could create—“[r]ed brighter than strawberries, yellow like sunshine, blue like the morning sky and blue like deep water” (169).

Hadel explains that they must show restraint with their magic or risk losing control, and she laments the folly and greed of Rump’s mother, Anna. Balthilda recounts the tale of how a merchant challenged Anna to spin straw into gold and gave her a pittance when she completed the work. This process repeated, and the merchant gave her a spinning wheel. Knowing that the merchant would continue to use her for her magic, Anna took the wheel and fled to another kingdom. Hadel says that Anna was caught in a rumpel, a word that the Wool Witches use to describe their textiles and that means “wrapped or trapped in magic” (176). Rump reaches the gloomy conclusion that his full name is Rumpel and that his mother named him this because she knew that he would share her fate and be trapped by magic.

Rump overhears the three sisters whispering about him. They know that he’s hiding something from them, suspect that he shares his mother’s magic, and worry that he may bring danger to their door. Rump fears that he was “born in the magic, trapped inside of it” (181), and he wonders if even a stiltskin is powerful enough to undo a rumpel.

The next morning, Rump and his aunts move around one another in awkward silence until he offers to help with the chores. That night, Rump watches his aunts spin. Although part of him longs to join them, he resists the urge. Ida explains that the natural world is full of magic, and that she and her sisters must take care not to draw too much magic into themselves or put more than a spark of magic into their work.

Rump continues to study his aunts’ work over the following days. The next week, they surprise him with two new sets of clothes, which seems to Rump like a luxury worthy of royalty. As the weeks go by, Ida continues to nurture and feed Rump at every opportunity, Balthilda is quietly kind, and Hadel remains as wary of the boy as ever. His aunts let Rump assist with minor tasks in their magical weaving, such as organizing different yarns and suggesting colors for tapestries. Ida shares Rump’s love for rhymes, and they compose many poems together, including one that warns, “witches’ riches [c]ause glitches” (187).

Rump hasn’t grown in years, so he’s thrilled and astonished when he realizes that he’s a few inches taller than he was when he arrived at the Wool Witches’ home. This development fills him with the hope that other aspects of his life can change too. That hope is dashed when Ida says that the new queen is with child. Rump decides that the only way to stop the curse from forcing him to take the baby is to go far away from other people so no news of the child’s birth will reach him.

Rump decides that he can spend the autumn and winter with his aunts because it will take several months for the queen’s child to be born. One day, Rump awakens a swarm of hibernating pixies, and he tells Hadel the truth about his name. She realizes that he’s spun straw into gold, but she doesn’t know of anything besides a stiltskin that can undo the curse. That night, while his aunts are sleeping, Rump attempts to spin straw and wool without working magic, but both materials transform into golden thread despite his best efforts. Rump feels more certain than ever that his mother named him Rumpel because he feels “[t]rapped. Tangled. Ensnared” by his fate (197).

Winter arrives, and Rump hasn’t heard anything from Red since he came to live with his aunts. He considers telling her about the rumpel and his fear that he’ll have to take Opal’s baby. Instead, he sends her a cheerful message about living with his three aunts in Yonder, his recent growth spurt, and his alias. A few weeks later, Red’s ominous reply arrives. “Lord Greedy-Fatty-Miller-Oswald” is cheating the villagers of their rations worse than ever (199), and King Bartholomew, who has realized that Opal can’t spin straw into gold, is wrathfully demanding more gold from the Mountain although there is none to be found. Rump tries to cheer Red up by sending her a poem about the miller getting flattened by the Mountain. Over a month later, another message from Red warns Rump that the miller is asking about him and advises that they stop exchanging messages. The postscript adds, “As always, Granny says watch your step” (201). Rump fears that his aunts will be in danger if the miller comes looking for him and decides that he must leave.