The Messed Up Origins of Rumpelstiltskin | Fables Explained - Jon Solo

[Music] what's up Solo cups my name is John solo and welcome to fables explain dry breakdown the messed up origins behind some of your favorite childhood stories so far we've covered Humpty Dumpty Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood and while all of those have been fantastic I think today's subject is my favorite so far we're covering the history of Rumplestiltskin the Magic Man known for turning straw into gold and having a name you would never guess on your own what I love about these fables is everyone has a different experience with them in Rumplestiltskin is no exception you might be like me and remember him from the timeless tales cartoon or maybe if you're a younger viewers Shrek Forever After in my opinion the best portrayal of the character was by Robert Carlyle on Once Upon a Time if you're a Disney fan I highly recommend you check out the series the entire thing is on Netflix the one thing that all of these versions have in common is they were inspired by the Brothers Grimm version of the character which is no doubt the best-known story about him it's the one that inspired each of the examples I just gave and many more after we go over the Grimm rendition which is plenty weird in its own right we'll also be breaking down a few similar stories about mysterious helpers from around the world as always don't forget to smash that like button with all your heart so we can reach our goal of 10,000 likes and keep the solo fam growing strong also subscribe and ring that bell to join the solo fam and get notified about new messed-up content coming to your sub box every week so the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale comes from Germany as do the Grimm brothers they collected the story in 1812 and included it in their collection children's and household tales but at that time the magic man's name was still German if I'd over the following decades the story went through at least two more revisions at the hands of the Grimm brothers but they were probably more than that now these weren't major at it's being made plot wise the version they published in 1812 is mostly the same as the one in 1857 but it did go through substantial stylistic revisions the formatting was changed and details were added to flush the story out and it's for that reason that we're covering the 1857 edit and the earlier drafts it's the most refined version the Grimm's Row and probably the one they'd want us reading anyways it opens by introducing us to a Miller who was poor but had a beautiful daughter somehow he ends up talking to the King and like anyone would when talking to a man of royalty who can order your head to be removed if he doesn't like you he tried to make a good first impression but he ends up putting his foot in his mouth by lying about the talents of his daughter claiming that she can use a spinning wheel to turn straw into gold interestingly depending on the version you're reading the Millers brag might go down differently in some versions he's just a liar trying to impress the King but in others he's just carelessly bragging about how his daughters strawberry blonde hair looks like gold when the Sun shines on it and the King totally misinterprets what he sang now personally I've never met a father who would brag about something like that but I'm sure they're out there naturally the King responds to the Millers claim saying that he's a big fan of gold and would love to test out the daughters abilities himself the next day when the daughter was brought to him he took her to a room filled with straw and told her to work her magic and transform it into gold or he'd execute her in the morning quite the pickle her dad got her into right and the cherry on top is he's never even mentioned for the rest of the story so he doesn't have to deal with any of the fallout from his brag after the King left the girl took a deep breath looked around the room assess her situation and proceeded to fall to the ground and cry because what else would you do then suddenly the door in front of her opened and in walked an ugly little man he asked her why she was crying so she explained her situation and he offered to spin the straw for her in exchange for her necklace the little man took the necklace sat down before the spinning wheel and whirr whirr worth three times pulled and the spool was full then he put another one on and where we're worth three times polled and the second one was full as well so it went until morning and then all the straw was spun and all the spools were filled with gold do you ever notice how three is always the magic number like in video games and fairy tales specifically this is actually a writing principle called the rule of three it suggests that a trio of events or characters is more humorous satisfying or effective than other numbers and execution of the story and engaging the reader making them more likely to remember the information conveyed I might do a video on that concept sometime in the few because I think you guys would really appreciate how often that rule has been used throughout creative history in the meantime keep an eye out for how often the number three appears in this story alone so the ugly man turns all the straw into gold and when the King comes back in the morning he's ecstatic and he rewards the girl by taking her into another room filled with straw this one even bigger than the last again as soon as the King left the girl broke down and cried and again the little man entered the room this time she gave him her ring and once again he worked his magic turning the straw to gold the next morning when the king came back he was even more thrilled but he still hadn't had his fill of gold he brought her to a third even larger room filled with straw and said if she turns all that into gold he'll marry her what's funny is we get to hear his logic behind his crazy decision to marry a commoner she may have only been a miller's daughter but he wasn't going to find a richer more useful wife anywhere else besides you don't marry for love you marry for money right well this time when the ugly man showed up the girl didn't have anything left to pay him with so he said that if she becomes queen because of his help she owes him her first child it's not exactly a good deal but the girl thinks screw it I don't know what's gonna happen in the morning so what other choice do I have in the morning the King returned saw the gold and he and the miller's daughter were married by the end of the day about a year goes by and at this point she's completely forgotten about the ugly man that is until the day she gives birth to her first child and he appears in front of her only a few moments later demanding that she give it up obviously she does not want to do this she offers him all the riches in the kingdom in exchange for her baby but he turns it down saying that living things are more valuable to him than all the riches in the world kind of creepy but the dude can spin straw into gold so I see where he's coming from the girl starts crying because that's gotten her out of all of her troubles so far so why not try it again and the ugly man agrees that if she can guess his name within three days she can keep the baby she spent all night thinking of every name she knew and sent a messenger into town to learn more when the ugly man showed up the next day she guessed Caspar Melchior Balzer and more but those were obviously wrong the second day she sends even more messengers into town to learn her citizens names and when the little man returns she guesses the most outlandish ones they found beasts rib mutton calf and leg string to name a few I know those sound like medieval deli options but they're supposed to be names though I wouldn't be surprised if one of the messengers took a lunch break and just copy down the menu to pad his les regardless none of them were right and she was left with one more day to guess the ugly man's name on the third day her messenger returned from field research and said my queen there's just no more names left in the kingdom but on my way back I took a walk through the mountains and I saw a crazy little man singing and dancing by a fire today I'll bake tomorrow I'll brew then I'll fetch the Queen's new child it is good that no one knows Rumpelstiltskin is my name I never said he was singing a good song in fact you'll notice in these upcoming stories that none of these magical freaks have any lyrical ability whatsoever it is possible that's a result of their translations from the original languages but I'm what's called monolingual and can't say for sure the point is the girl knows his name now Rumpelstiltskin the little man entered the room only a few moments later and said nana what's my name apparently he's a big Rihanna fan who knew at first the girl teased him and purposely gets the wrong names of Coons and Heinz to get his hopes up that's another similarity that most of these stories have when the hero figures out the helpers name they intentionally don't guess it right away it was on her third guest that she said Rumpelstiltskin and the little man started spazzing out screaming the devil told you that over and over and over and over he stops his right foot into the ground so hard that he sinks in up to his waist and he grabbed his left foot and ripped himself right up the middle and - I would love to draw you a visual demonstration but I'm pretty sure that would get me demonetized so hopefully I described it well enough up the middle into does that make sense and that's actually where the story ends no happily ever after nothing just an ugly little man wrapping himself into Mortal Kombat style outside of that left turn ending it's not necessarily the most messed-up of the Grimm brothers stories but don't worry we're just getting started if you've been watching messed-up origins for a while now you probably know that I like to dissect these stories to find out what lessons they're trying to teach to me it's just interesting to see what values and morals people throughout history and other cultures had in the unique ways they passed them on what's unique about the story we just covered is from where I'm standing the Brothers Grimm didn't include a more you've got a girl who gets put in a terrifying situation through no fault of her own gets out of that situation by crying and driving a total stranger and then when it's time for that stranger to collect on his final payment she gets lucky with the messenger she sent out and he just so happened to hear rumple's name which was a 100 percent off promo code for his services if anything we can learn from rumple's mistakes if you have valuable information keep your mouth shut loose lips sink ships and the grim rendition isn't the only one like this as far as I can tell none of the German versions have a clear-cut lesson in double Turk the poor girl gets put into an arranged marriage with an ugly dwarf after he bribes her father with money and land but again she gets out of it when she learns his name from someone who overheard him singing it when she says his name is double Turk the dwarf gets mad but instead of ripping himself in two he just disappears in COO girl a young lady is bored by a steer when a helpful dwarf shows up and offers to save her life if she agrees to marry yet what's funny about this one is the dwarf is actually a local celebrity he goes around town helping the citizens with their chores when they get sick etc the trade-off is he insists on walking around in public without pants on literally just a shirt in no bottoms it annoys everyone but he gets away with it because he's a nice guy as usual though by the end she learns his name because someone else heard him singing it and told it to her then you have Meghan du mer and zerk sir yes these are ridiculous names but what'd you expect in these German stories the protagonist is a girl who's supposed to spend a certain amount of yarn every day but she's either not skilled enough to get it done in time or lazy in naegen du mer she just doesn't have the skills so a man offers to spend her flex for her if she can guess his name at first she could but after he left he turned himself into a bird and started flying around in the air singing his own name as one does a nearby Shepherd overheard this and told the girl when the magic man comes back he makes the same offer but this time she guesses his name which is naegen du mer he gets mad and shouts a bad person told you that but he keeps his promise and spends her flax every day in zerk cirque the girl is lazy and her husband always shames her for not accomplishing anything so to create the impression that she finally got her act together she recruits a magic dwarf for help as you can expect she bites off more than she can chew and promises the dwarf her baby avenge we she has to come clean to her husband who coincidentally had just overheard a crazy little dwarf singing his name on a recent walk through the mountains when the dwarf comes back to collect she tells him his name is Dirk circ and bada-bing bada-boom she lives happily ever after [Music] so at this point you've probably noticed a few commonalities in each of these stories a hero or heroine is put into a difficult situation a mysterious helper comes to their aid the hero then has to defeat the helper by guessing their name and they never discover the name themselves it's always a random third party bringing them that information at the last second each of these elements can be found in the majority of folk tales of type 500 you may not have known this but folklore scholars use a classification system called the arm tops and tail type index it helps them organize fables from all around the world by the motifs they have in common which in turn helps them trace the revolution a few categories are a tu 328 the boy steals the ogres treasure a TU 311 rescue by sister and a tu 425 Beauty and the Beast a tu 500 is called the name of the helper and that's what all of today's stories belong in but Germany wasn't the only country to utilize this story structure according to researchers this format is found in stories over 4000 years old in countries like Austria Hungary Italy Sweden England Wales and Ireland to name a few unfortunately we don't have time to go through all of those today but there are two that I want to touch on briefly because they're different from the last view and very interesting ways the first is from Ireland and is called the rival Kemper's it follows two girls named Biddy and Sally as they compete in a spinning competition for the heart of Sean a local fella who is apparently quite the stud and a gentleman to boot the word campers refers to girls who spin in Kemps is what they're spinning competitions were called in this story Biddy is assisted by a witch who tells her that if she can guess her name she'll win the competition and Sean's heart but if not she's destined to lose of course she can't guess the name so during the competition one of her spinning tools breaks and her younger brother who is spectating has to find someone who can fix it on his way to the repairman he runs into the same which his sister talked to earlier and you can probably guess what happens from here when he finds the witch she's singing her name out out for some reason and she ends up fixing the spinning tool for him when he tells her that biddy is his sister he brings the tools back to biddy as well as the name of the witch who fixed them even trot so she goes on to win the competition and live happily ever after so after five nearly identical stories we finally have one that's a little bit different admittedly it plays out exactly the same as the rest but for once we weren't following a totally helpless or lazy girl as she gets rewarded for doing nothing in the rival campers Biddy and Sally are the best spinners in the land but their skills are so evenly matched that Biddy needs some magical assistance to get ahead is it kind of unfair to Sally that she worked so hard and got cheated in the end absolutely but in the witches defense she met both competitors and thought biddy was the kinder and more understanding of the two so maybe she deserved a win moving on to our final story of the day Duffy and the devil a story based on a popular Cornish play from the 19th century or instead of Rumpelstiltskin coming to the heroes aid it's the devil this time the story follows a young girl who oversold her own spinning abilities and landed herself a job knitting for a squire that she was not qualified for that's right people were lying in job interviews back then - well in order to actually fulfill the false promises she made Duffy has to make a deal with the devil who's described as a little man with something uncommon Lee knowing in the twist of his mouth and his curved nose had an air of curious intelligence he was dressed in black and moved towards Duffy with a jaunty air knocking something against the floor at every step he took spoiler alert that something is his tale the devil agrees to do all of Duffy spinning for her but in three years she must join him in Hell unless she can guess his name yeah the stakes are high this time around it turns out the devil is a top notch spinner and it's not long before Duffy's become famous across the country for her incredible knitting ability says Ford almost three years in the squire and Duffy have gotten married because he had to lock down such a useful babe Duffy is getting nervous because that three year agreement she made is almost over but her friend old bet who just so happens to be a witch has an ace in the hole and agrees to use it the night before the devil collects is due bet picks a bottle of beer from the Squires cellar and brings it into the forest a few hours later the squire is hunting in that same forest when his dogs catch sight of a rabbit and chase it dragging him deep into the woods the rabbit who we later find out is old bet in disguise leads them right to the edge of a campsite it's there the squire sees a giant group of witches dancing in a circle around a campfire chanting all scary life they end up summoning the devil who comes out of that blazing fire like a true showman and they all start partying the squire sees old that continuously giving the devil his bottle of beer to drink and it's not long before he's singing his own name out loud like mysterious strangers are known to do Duffy my lady you'll never know that my name is Terry table Terry table the squire returns home and tells Duffy all about his crazy hunting adventure including the song the devil was singing now Duffy knows the devil's name and when he comes to collect the next day she decides to mess with him a little bit at first she asks if his name is Lucifer and he's downright insulted saying he wouldn't even talk to Lucifer in public next she guesses bezel bub and he responds that bub is no more than a distant cousin when she finally says Terry top unlike the last few helpers the devil ain't even mad because according to him the pleasure of Duffy's company is merely postponed so he basically tells her she's going to hell and then disappears into thin air like a boss things go pretty off the rails from here everything that Terry Top knitted over the past three years turns to ash forcing Duffy to come clean about everything to the squire and ruining their relationship forever the end fellas and females we just covered six stories from around the world that inspired and weren't inspired by the Rumpelstiltskin story by the Grimm brothers you may have noticed this time around I didn't focus nearly as much on the exact publication dates of these stories like I normally do and that's because frankly they were really hard to trace some of them were shared orally some were books some were plays and back in those days they didn't keep the best documentation so it's hard to say for certain which versions came first and who influenced too so I'd rather just deer clear of that topic than spread potentially false information that I couldn't confirm myself regardless they're all uniquely strange tales in their own special ways and I'm very excited to read your guys's thoughts and the comments down below if you liked this episode and learned yourself a little something do the solo family and smash that like button with all your heart and for new messed up content delivered to your sub box every week subscribe and ring that bell while as always I've got the handles to my social medias right here in the links down below if you want to stay updated on messed up origins news offer some suggestions or just say what's up give me a follow I'll be seeing you all very soon with even more messed-up content until then my name is John solo and remember John shot first [Music]

Channel: Jon Solo

Views: 1,177,747

Rating: 4.9562163 out of 5

Keywords: Messed Up Origins, Messed Up Origins of Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin story, Rumpelstiltskin brothers grimm, Rumplestiltskin, Once Upon a time, Fables Explained, Jon Solo, Brothers Grimm, Disney Explained, Crypt Fables Explained, Red Riding Hood, goldilocks and the three bears, humpty dumpty, origin story, disturbing true story, Fables, timeless tales, timeless tales rumpelstiltskin, Shrek Forever After, Rumple, Mr Gold, Three Little Pigs, Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Id: 4Y3H-w367jw

Length: 17min 53sec (1073 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 03 2018