Dealings of Gold
I was minding my own business one day, as I always do, and
then I heard the saddest noise. It was a girl crying so I followed the sound to
the castle. There I found the most beautiful woman. She told me of the
predicament she found herself in. It seems that there was a misunderstanding
between her and her mother.
It all
began with a slip of a few words, which led her to believe she could eat the
five pies her mother had just baked. It was a simple confusion, but of course,
her mother was angry. To taunt her about the mistake she began to sing a song
about it, but it also so happen that the king was walking by that day and heard
the mother’s song. The mother was embarrassed that her daughter had been so
thoughtless and ate all five pies, so when asked about the song, the mother
said that it was about her daughter sewing five gold strings. The king was so
impressed that he married the mother on the condition that once a year the
daughter would sew five gold strings a day, for the whole month, or she was to
die.
The
daughter was obviously left out of this decision because she did not know how
to sew gold string at all, let alone five in one day. The king had come to her
that morning and taken her to a room to spin the gold and she did not know what
to do to avoid death. Being the kind soul that I am, I told her I would do it
for her. She asked what I wanted in return, and I said that I was doing it out
of the good of my heart and the promise that she would marry me if she couldn’t
guess my name by the end of the month.
So every
night for the month, I would return with her gold strings and she would guess
some dumb name that was not mine. As the month came to an end, she continued to
be wrong and I became excited for my coming marriage. You see, I am not the most
handsome man, and I was lonely. I was obviously kind and a hard worker having
done all this for the woman the whole month, but still no wife. The last night
came and I returned the gold strings and asked my name, and she responded with
my Tom, which was indeed my name. I was distraught but a deal was a deal. I
said goodbye and left her. It is such a shame that next year she will die
because she never asked me how to make the gold strings.
Author’s Note: The original story that this is based on is a
version of Rumplestilskin. In the original, it is told more from the daughter’s
perspective, but I decided to switch it to the creature/man who was working for
her. In the version, his name is Tom Tit Tot and I thought it would be
interesting to see his side of the story.
Photo Info: Gold String, Wikimedia Commons
Bibliography: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).
Hi Kennedie! I'll put this in the Week 12 story group since that is when the English fairy tales come up in class; see the emails from this morning for more information about that. I like the idea of telling it from Tom's point of view!
ReplyDeleteAnd a quick note about bibliography: you need the name of the story there, and it really helps to have a link to the story. That makes it easy for people to take a look for themselves: Tom Tit Tot. :-)
Hi Kennedie, I really enjoyed reading your story! I like how you changed the perspective of the story from the daughter’s to Tom’s. I think this creates a cool dynamic and adds space to include humor, which you did! The story was pretty easy to follow and kept my attention. Although the ending is unfortunate, I like how you included an aspect of humor. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Kennedie!
ReplyDeleteI like how you decided to change up your story from the original story of Rumplestilskin. It was super creative how you did that! The story was easy to read and understand. It also had a good ending and although it was a little sad, it was a great way to end your story!
Hi Kennedie,
ReplyDeleteI like your choice of changing this story. I have not personally read the story of Rumplestiltskin, but I am a big fan of the perspective swaps in stories. It brings to life a new perspective of the story, both literally and figuratively. In some cases it also can provide for new experiences that were not previously known to the reader! Good job!
Hi Kennedie. I grew up reading this story and therefore I have heard it from different perspectives. However, I have never heard it from Tom's perspective, so I found that a very interesting take. The only thing that kinda stuck out as weirrd to me is that his name is Tom, that is such an easy and common name that I find it likely that she would have guessed it earlier.
ReplyDelete- Anna Margret
Hey Kennedie! Rumpelstiltskin is a very weird man and an even weirder story, so it’s really interesting that you decided to tell it from his perspective. You almost feel sorry for him at the ending, and I guess that is your point. Although it is a tad sad, you did a great job changing the story up to make it different than the original!
ReplyDelete