On Ruplestiltskin, I don't get that either. But why not read it for yourself and decide.

I would disagree that any old Brother's Grim fairy tale has a well "hidden" meaning or is very metaphorical. Keep in mind these were to be simple tales with meanings and warnings spelled out in clear "action and consequence" stories for a mass public.

I am not saying teh people passing these stories were stupid, but they were unsophisticated. These are not Chancer's Tales and wirtten for the elite and introspective, these were stories to be told to family members and children.

Just think about his name veeeery carefully, as would.

I just read about the female infertility interpretation somewhere, but I guess you're right, it's just one interpretation among many. If the name doesn't mean what it sounds like in German, well....man that's unfortunate.

I have no idea what the name really means and i did not get anywhere by googling.

So a layman analysis. In German the name is Rumpelstilzchen (changes due to phonec translation into english). Its clearly a diminutive so The base is Rumpelstilz-.

It's pretty clearly composed so we have Rumpel-stilz-.

Rumpeln in contemorary german means something like shaking, sprcifically how a car shakes on a bad road.

I am a bit at a loss at Stilz-.
My theories are that it could come from Stiel (shaft,stem, helve,peduncle) since Stielchen sounds akward, and there is Stelze (stilt, knuckle of pork).

(Sidenote: For reason i don't get in translations of fiction that use stalk in the name (as in Deathstalker) sometimes stalker is translated as Stelzer. Don't know where that comes from and if that has any relevance to Rumpelstilzchen)

Finally i see the story mainly as highlighting the dangers of a dark past. The daughter ended up as queen due to lies (though she personally is innocent) and later someone who knows how she got where she is blackmails her.

Rumplestilskin is actually a very troubling story in that it has a couple different versions with slight differences that leave it open to widley different interpretations, and is a fairly unsettling story anyway.

The most plausible interpretation I've heard of it is that Rumplestilskin was a jew. The reason I say it's the most plausible is that a great deal of what's unsettling makes sense when looking at it as a tale from an anti-semitic society in which the cheated/villian is a jew.

Does anybody else suspect that the witch in Hansel and Gretel was their step-mother? I'll make a case for it if you like.