My name is not Legomuttonchop

Once you’ve learned somebody’s real name, you’ve got complete power over that creature. That’s an old principle of magic — and here’s a new but unmodern free translation of Rumpelstilzchen (who comes out as Rumpelstiltskin in English) from the Brothers Grimm’s collection, courtesy of A.C.Douglas. This is one of the Grimm tales I refer to when someone says Russsian folk tales are “weird.” I suspect there were a few more stories in this taste in the brothers’ basket but their literary and moral preferences kept the weird stuff hoarded.

Anyway, my daughter did not find Rumpelstilzchen odd at four; at what age will she change her mind?

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