PART ONE

Once there was a miller who was not only poor, but a bit stupid as well. He had a beautiful daughter, who was cleverer than her father but, being clever hadn’t done her much good, so far. Now it happened that the miller had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to the king, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold."

The king said to the miller, "Ooh! That’s nice, I happen to have a lot of straw! If your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to-morrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test."

The miller’s daughter, furious with her stupid father for putting her in this predicament, was brought to the king and he took her into a room which was full of straw, with only enough room to spare for the girl to sit down at a spinning wheel. "Now set to work,” said the king, “and if by to-morrow morning, early, you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die." That’s not very nice, you must be thinking, and you’re right, it isn’t.

The king himself locked up the room, and left the poor girl in it, alone. So, there she sat, and for the life of her she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold. She grew more and more frightened, thinking of having her head cut off in the morning, until at last she began to weep.

Then, incredibly, the door magically opened, in came a little man, a goblin, and he said, "Good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying?"

"Alas," answered the girl, "I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do it. I mean, who does know how to spin straw into gold?"

"I do!” Said the goblin. “What will you give me, if I do it for you?"

"My necklace," said the girl.

The goblin took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another reel on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.

By daybreak, the little man had gone. When the king arrived and saw the room full of gold, he was astonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller's daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that straw into gold, also in one night - if she valued her life. What a rotten person he was!