This week when I went to the library I found so many books I wanted to read, that I couldn’t get them all out! I have already finished the first, Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen. It is a re-telling of the story of Rumpelstiltskin that is both humanizing and a little magical too.

Rumpelstiltskin is the tale of a young peasant girl, a millers daughter who spins fine yarn. So fine that her father is always boasting of her. One day he goes too far and boasts that she could spin straw in to gold, the king hears of this and commands the young girl spin a whole room full of straw in to gold for him, or she will die. A little dwarf comes to her in the night and promises to spin the straw in to gold if she will give him something, this happens for three consecutive nights. First she gives him her necklace, then her ring and finally she promises him her firstborn child. When the king decides to marry her and they have a child they do not want to give it up, so the dwarf sets one final task - to guess his name, which is of course, Rumpelstiltskin.

In Spinners there is no little dwarf, wicked and cruel, but a man. The Spinner lost the one he loved and was crippled in the process of trying to win her. In the end he just longs for human love and companionship. The young girl, who’s father boasts of her amazing talent, is still a victim of the story but she is resourceful and intelligent and kind. I was quite inspired by how she deals with all the hardships presented to her. It really is a beautiful retelling, though it makes for a sad story. Apparantly the author learnt to spin herself, so that she could make the tale as real as possible. I would love to read some of her other fairy tales too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 9:16 am and is filed under Inspirations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.