In “Rumpelstiltskin,” the queen must guess his name to save her child. The supernatural helper agrees to surrender his claim if she can identify him within the allotted time.
The Brothers Grimm included the tale in Children’s and Household Tales as KHM 55. In the story, a miller’s daughter is forced to spin straw into gold, and the mysterious little man helps her in exchange for jewelry and eventually a promise of her firstborn child. After she becomes queen, he returns to collect the baby.
The queen’s servants search for the stranger’s identity, but the crucial clue comes when someone overhears him singing his own name in the forest. She correctly says “Rumpelstiltskin,” breaking his power. The plot reflects a widespread folklore idea that discovering a being’s true name grants power over it. The story is classified as ATU 500, “The Name of the Supernatural Helper.”