ABSTRACT
Rumpelstiltskin’s derisive stature, his ill-treatment and humiliating banishment, could commemorate the lingering memory of an otherwise forgotten non-Indo-European race. Though multi-talented, Rumpelstiltskin quintessentially performs as a fiber-worker and textile expertise supplies the story’s essence. Rumpelstiltskin may enduringly depict failed or troubled sexuality. Analyzing the roots of the English term Rumpelstiltskin compels more than intuition as even the Grimms’ German name Rumpelstilzchen contains the necessary Indo-European roots to derive the meaning: flaccid penis. If Rumpelstiltskin’s shortness memorializes the non-Indo-European speakers encountered by the agricultural settlers who flooded westward in prehistory, then his odd name and his diminutive stature memorializes a suppressed native population. Rumpelstiltskin’s main physical attribute seems to be that he appears a runt from his first entrance when he’s described as “a tiny man” who entered the girl’s cell. Finding a word-root for his name, a word that corresponds to his physique, suggests that Rumpelstiltskin hails from Indo-European stock.
