Rumpelstiltskin: The Tragic Hero
Back in 2017 I wrote an article on Rumpelstiltskin. It was part of a collection (that is slowly ongoing) about how fairy tales are the original horror stories. In that article I called the manikin an “unheralded villain” and wrote about how he tore himself in half in rage when the queen guessed his name. But here is the question: Is Rumpelstiltskin truly evil? Is he a villain? Should he be reviled and cursed? I know that it is easy to villain-ise a little man-troll who threatens to steal children; I know that it is easy to make him a gold-mongering charlatan like in the show ‘Once Upon a Time’ (and Robert Carlyle does an amazing job); I know (as I explained in my other article) that his name is shares etymology with the word poltergeist and it’s hard to put that in a good light; I know it’s easy to fall victim to the motif of a princess always
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