Spinning Fairy Tales Anew (Spinning Silver book review)

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

I wanted to speak to the references to Rumpelstiltskin in this book. Even the title itself, Spinning Silver, is a play on the original tale, but this time Novik chooses to have the characters spinning silver instead of straw.

I got into this book and my mind immediately thought of two old tales to compare to our assigned book. The first was the ancient Greek tale of Midas who everything he touched turned to gold. This made sense with Miryam being able to turn both her wares and coins into gold, and was only reaffirmed when she could literally turn the crown and coins to gold with her touch. But as I read on, I quickly decided that it was based more on the second of my thoughts, Rumpelstiltskin.

There are many versions of the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, but the most well known of them is by The Brothers Grimm. In many versions, the common details that appear are: a girl from a poor family (general a millers daughter) and a wealthy man wedding her because of a lie someone told about her accomplishing great feats (generally spinning straw or skeins). Then the imp or demon aiding her  and the repetition of the number three (three times she must sew gold, three times she tries to guess the creatures name), and then the creature (Rumpelstiltskin) gloating and revealing his name so he loses his bargain. The Brother Grimm version can be found here if you want to read it, it is very short: https://www.pookpress.co.uk/rumpelstiltskin-brothers-grimm/

This plays in greatly to the importance of deals within the book, because the point of the story is the girl accomplishing a deal their parents made or else they are killed, then making deals with Rumpelstiltskin himself and eventually getting out of them. This could be why the Staryk king is so firm about no debts. It also explains why Miryam and Irina make deals in many different forms because the heroine in the original tale is forced into one deal for marriage vs death, then the next giving away her belongings and children vs no gold, and then finally names vs her child. The girls are all different forms of the heroine from the story in my mind, all different parts of her time. Wanda being the millers girl who is hungry and eats pies from the version of the story called Tim Tit Tom, Irina being the girl forced into a marriage she didn’t ask for, and Miryam trying to not lose what she holds dear (her self respect etc).

But I wouldn’t categorize this book as a retelling of the story of Rumpelstiltskin. Some books I’ve read would be, such as ones that take off from where the fairytale left off like in Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Others keep the main elements of the tale but put it in a new context, such as changing the culture of the story etc. But this book doesn’t do that. We get the millers daughter in Wanda, but she is not the one who can turn things to gold. We get the deal with the imp aka the Staryk king, but instead of the heroine getting out of the deal by learning his name to keep her firstborn child, the Staryk king himself is the one trying to protect those he cares about by nobly trying to keep his people from melting.

The book is a wonderful version of what I ideally would like to accomplish with my work. References to classic folktales and myths without being predictable recreations.

A must read.