Prevod

Once upon a time there was a miller who was poor, but he had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he came to speak with the king, and, to make himself seem important, he said to him, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold." The king said to the miller, "That is a skill much to my liking. If your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to my castle tomorrow, and I will put her to the test."

When the girl was brought before him, he led her into a room filled with straw, gave her a spinning wheel and a reel, and said, "Now set to work. If you have not spun all this straw into gold by tomorrow morning, you must die." Then he locked the room himself, leaving her alone inside. There sat the poor miller's daughter, not knowing how to save her life: she had no idea how to spin straw into gold, and her fear grew so great that at last she began to weep. Suddenly the door opened, and a little man stepped inside and said, "Good evening, Mistress Miller. Why are you weeping so bitterly?"

"Oh," answered the girl, "I am supposed to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how." The little man said, "What will you give me if I spin it for you?" — "My necklace," said the girl. The little man took the necklace, sat down at the spinning wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the bobbin was full. Then he put on another, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the second was full too. So it went on until morning, when all the straw had been spun and all the bobbins were full of gold.

The king arrived at sunrise, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but his heart grew only greedier. He had the miller's daughter taken to another room full of straw, much larger than the first, and ordered her to spin that too in a single night, if she valued her life. The girl did not know what to do and began to weep. Then the door opened once more, and the little man appeared and said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw into gold for you?"

"The ring on my finger," answered the girl. The little man took the ring, set the wheel whirring again, and by morning had spun all the straw into gleaming gold. The king was delighted beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not had his fill of gold. He had the miller's daughter taken to an even larger room full of straw and said, "You must spin this tonight as well. But if you succeed, you shall become my wife." — "Though she is only a miller's daughter," he thought, "I shall not find a richer wife in all the world." When the girl was alone, the little man came back for the third time and said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw for you once more?" — "I have nothing left to give," answered the girl. "Then promise me your first child when you become queen." — "Who knows what may happen before then?" thought the miller's daughter, and in her distress she could see no other way out. So she promised the little man what he asked, and in return he spun the straw into gold once more. When the king came in the morning and found everything just as he had wished, he married her, and the beautiful miller's daughter became a queen.

A year later she brought a beautiful child into the world and had quite forgotten the little man. Then suddenly he stepped into her room and said, "Now give me what you promised." The queen was terrified and offered the little man all the riches of the kingdom if only he would let her keep her child. But the little man said, "No, something living is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world." Then the queen began to lament and weep so bitterly that the little man took pity on her. "I will give you three days," he said. "If by then you know my name, you may keep your child."

The queen spent the whole night calling to mind every name she had ever heard, and sent a messenger out through the countryside to inquire far and wide what other names there might be. When the little man came the next day, she began with Kaspar, Melchior, Balzer, and recited every name she knew, one after another. But at each one the little man said, "That is not my name." On the second day she had inquiries made throughout the neighbourhood about what people there were called, and tried the most unusual and peculiar names on the little man. "Might your name be Rippenbiest, or Hammelswade, or Schnürbein?" But he always answered, "That is not my name."

On the third day the messenger returned and said, "I have not been able to find a single new name. But as I rounded a corner of the woods beside a high mountain, far away where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, I saw a little house. In front of the house a fire was burning, and round the fire a most ridiculous little man was dancing, hopping on one leg and crying:

"Today I bake, tomorrow I brew, the next day I fetch the queen's own child; oh, how glad I am that no one knows that Rumpelstilzchen is my name!"

You can imagine how happy the queen was when she heard the name. Soon afterwards the little man came in and asked, "Well, Your Majesty, what is my name?" First she asked, "Is your name Kunz?" — "No." — "Is your name Heinz?" — "No." — "Could your name be Rumpelstilzchen?"

"The devil told you that! The devil told you that!" screamed the little man, and in his rage he stamped his right foot so deep into the earth that he sank in up to his waist. Then, in his fury, he seized his left foot with both hands and tore himself in two.