Rumpelstiltskin

Skin rumples that’s held tight by stilts, stilts of bones that may have known better days, mobile maybe agile but somehow awkward and disjointed. Rumpelstiltskin describes Rumpelstiltskin. Rumble of thunder, stilts of lightning, skeins of sky. Etymology aside, the name sparks at nerve ends, reverberates a hundred active verbs for danger. Though etymology is never simply an aside, as a name radiates its own extraordinary connotations. Room pelt style scan. Ruin pulse tilt skint. Rumpole Skilton. Always more than the sum of its parts. Germans know no such thing as suffix-skin, skin a diminutive as we say munchkin. Literally, as far as they’re concerned, rumpel rattle stilz post chen little being something someone somehow makes noises with in the house, earth tremor shakes, bumps in the night. The manikin of our undivided attention is a small rattle, for a German, woodenly ringing the changes of those he chances upon. His name is a child’s toy, he who would take a first-born child from its mother’s care. A mother who would name her child more mellifluously than Romp Bump Hell Stale Skimpy. What were his parents thinking? Throw the child a rattle! That will keep him quiet, not. Keep him entertained for hours. Unforgettable his name, actually, for a secret name no one’s supposed to know. Unforgettable once you know the name, by which time its power has vanished, now you are left with only the name, he having vanished into the earth. Again. Like a bedtime story, once again. Like you, the child will live to tell the tale. Tell the tale of the imp in all its simplicity. The imp with a limp, a chip on his shoulder, a chimp of chance, a simple solitary alchemist. And how come he ended up like that? Centuries later, still making trouble due to a lack of care? Reepelsteeltje if you are Dutch, Rumplchimprcampr if you are Bohemian, Rompeltisquillo if you happen to be Spanish, Europeans being as keen as anyone else to turn dry grass into solid gold, fearful as anyone else to lose their child. Fearful of being found out, fearful of things all falling apart. Ramble Steep Scorn. Well, tell the bedside story again and overcome the fear. Great François Rabelais (pseudonym, Alcofribas Nasier) invented the name, but who invented the story? In Urdu they call him Tees Mar Khan and in Hebrew, Ootz-li Gootz-li, the tiny terror who turns time’s turf to timeless treasure and teases the tormented with tragedy tee-hee. She will live and learn, she will be herself, she will trust to what’s best, she will trick him at his own game, his fall will be fast. His name will be a by-word, it will go up in lights, the movie of the book, the musical of the hit single, the author will be signing copies during the launch. It will be a sensible name on that flyleaf, with a joke anagram to help things along. Emit Skull Prints.  Kismet Runt Spill. Lust Prism Tinkle.