When I was a kid, I used to tell my little sister so many versions of Rumpelstiltskin off the top of my head as bedtime stories.I just remembered one version I came up with that certainly wasn't incredible by any standard, but which I really enjoyed telling at the time. I don't remember every single detail, but here's the best I can remember with some cobbling to hold it together:
The king's son, much more kindhearted than his father, has always had a hidden talent for turning things into gold. So when he hears that the king has brought a miller's daughter back to the castle to test her ability to spin straw into gold, threatening death if she fails, he jumps in to help. He disguises himself in strange clothes with a low hood, and hunches over, and offers to help the girl spin straw into gold. Turns out that she's very lovely to talk to - they have a wonderful time getting to know each other through the night as they work. But the prince knows he's in disguise and cannot act on his attraction, so he merely asks for her for something to remember the evening by, and she gives her necklace. He helps her the same way the next night, and she gives him a ring, without his even asking for it, and blushes prettily as she does so.
The third day, the king says that if she can spin the straw into gold a third night, she will marry his son. Though the prince has been falling in love with her, he of course protests that his father cannot force her to marry anyone. But he gets shut down. That night when he comes to help her, he plans to tell her his true identity, but this time guards are in the room, as the king suspects some trick. She weeps, for she has no more jewellery to give him - in fact her only hope at this point would be to barter away her first born child like in a fairy tale. He's aghast, and waves it away, saying he'll certainly help her, but she thinks that he understood it to mean she WAS promising her firstborn. But she's afraid to unsay it, fearing he won't help her. He keeps trying to find a moment to confess the truth, but something always happens to prevent it. They finish spinning the straw into gold with hardly a moment for the prince to slip away and change into his own clothes.
In the morning, the king arrives at the door of the room full of straw, with a priest to marry them on one hand, and an executioner with axe in hand on the other. He is delighted to see there is gold after all, even with the guards watching, and calls for the wedding. The girl is willing enough to wed a prince - I mean, he's a prince but there's also something gentle and kind, and almost as if she *knows* him, though she doesn't see how she could.
The wedding is rushed through, and it's not till the bride and groom are left alone that both of them try to burst out with a terrible confession to make. She manages to gasp hers out - that she's happy to marry the prince, and she'll be as faithful and true as he could wish, but there's something terrible she must tell him. She was helped in spinning the gold, by a strange man with a hooded face, and... she may have accidentally bargained their firstborn child for his help.
The prince pauses, and says something like, "But isn't it true that with these magical sorts, knowing their name frees you from their power? If you could guess his real name, perhaps it would solve everything!"
She despairs - with all the names in the world, how could she possibly guess it?
He smiles and encourages her to try to guess.
"But what's the good of guessing now? How am I to know if I guessed it or not until he comes back for what I owe him? And then it will be too late!"
"Are you sure you can't guess his name, my love?"
And he takes out the necklace and the ring.
And joy, and laughter, and all's well that ends well, and even more rejoicing when she gives him their firstborn a year later.
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