Re: Fairytales - Rumpelstielzchen

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 08:42:25 +0100, usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(Catja Pafort) wrote:

>Apologies if I misremember, but my mind has filed a conversation
>occurring here wondering about the origins of the tale of
>Rumpelstielzchen; the dwarf that spun straw into gold for the king's
>daughter.
>
>
>My box set of Alan Garder contains a slim volume called 'A bag of
>Moonshine', which contains a story titled Mollyndroat. It's a retelling,
>set on the isle of Man, and it has many of the elements - the spinning
>(only here it's wool, and the woman needs to spin because she's so lazy
>that her husband's clothes are falling off his back, he needs wool.)
>
>The being she makes the deal with is a Foawr - I'm not entirely certain
>what they are; the bargain is somewhat simpler (tell me my name or I'll
>keep the wool and may eat you), the list of names rather outlandish, and
>the Foawr runs off in disgust at the end.


Iirc the terms to search for would be +Ashliman +"Name of the Helper". That
should bring up Ashliman's site with a lot of tales of that type.


>Ah yes, Garner. I also read the Owl Service, and why I could understand
>much of it - it's a very _Welsh_ book, it was also most unsatisfactory
>- it combined two plot strands, but resolved only one.

I found it interesting but unsatisfactory. It almost seemed to switch
stories in the middle, or at least to switch protagonists.


R.L.
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