Spinning Straw into Gold: Where did THAT come from?

Sorry I'm starting another thread already, but while editing I got stuck on this chapter and feel I can't go on edting until I figure this out.

So, I have a reference to Rumpelstiltskin. A servant girl in the royal palace claims that she can spin straw into gold. The princess overhears this, gets excited about it, and wants to see it in action. The servant can't say no to her, and is trapped because she can't really spin straw into gold.

But how and why could she say that?

My original version of the situtation is iffy: The servant girl is a changeling and living within walls of a high castle far from her real home makes her delirious every now and then, and she would say things without even remembering. So in the middle of the night she sings about spinning straw into gold, without even knowing she is, and is completely unaware that the princess is secretly staying up late, too.

It seems so random, that the girl would sing "I can spin straw into gold!" and sounds kind of like a forced fairy tale reference to me.

I'm still keeping the fact that she's a changeling and can act out of place every now and then. But I need a better situation for her to make this claim, and where the heck did she get the idea of straw into gold from? Also, she's never even heard of spinning wheels. They've been banned from the kingdom since before she was born. How can she know anything about them?

just because spinning wheels are banned that doesn't mean that people don't talk about them, in fact some of the older folks would probably get nostalgic about them, forbidden fruit and all that. She might only know that spinning wheels were used to change one thing into something very different. She might not know that it was used to spin natural fibres into thread so she could assume it was some sort of dangerous magical device and in an effort to make herself look cool and mysterious, she could say, 'yea, I've seen a spinning wheel, I've even used one. I can totally spin straw into gold.'

There are also drop spindles. Just because spinning wheels are banned doesn't mean drop spindles are too; if all spinning tools were banned they'd have a problem because they'd have to import all their cloth, which would get expensive very quickly.

Maybe the princess mishears the conversation.

Maybe "spinning straw into gold" has stuck as a saying long after spinning wheels are banned, like how we still refer to buying a "pig in a poke" when few people buy live animals at market. (Or maybe the saying is something she remembers from before she was "changed," a ragtag bit of infant memory that marks her as strange.) So the serving girl is being ordered to do impossible work -maybe being bullied by a superior, or by other serving girls who take advantage of her changeling awkwardness to pick on her - and she finally snaps back "Certainly, and then I'll spin straw into gold!" The princess, being greedy (and more than a bit foolish) overhears just the latter declaration and can't contain her excitement. And, of course, when a princess has her mind set on something, no mere serving girl could possibly contradict her.

You've got a combo fairy tale thing going on here, am I right? So, maybe the serving girl has a pet mini-dragon that she keeps hidden in her room, or a cricket, or some other kind of micro-critter. And maybe she's having a conversation with it about her embroidery work. "The golden thread is coming out and I can't fix it if I have more." And maybe the pet replies with "why don't you just spin some straw into gold?" And she says, "I don't know how to do that. And there aren't any spinning wheels anyway." So the pet says, "It's easy, I can show you how to do it, but it's a secret and you can never tell anyone else or it will ruin the economy. I never should have showed that idiot Midas. They guy went crazy overboard. But you're pretty responsible, so I'll tell you how it works if you do something for me." So the girl says, "what would you want in return?" And the pet says, "I'd like three eggs over easy. They've got to be golden eggs though, and there's only one place you can get them." So she asks where, and the pet responds, "I know a guy. His name is Jack. He lives down the lane. He's got this goose, if he hasn't cooked it yet. If you can get the goose and fry me the eggs, I'll tell you now to spin straw into gold. Oh, and I can also give you the schematics for a spinning wheel, but you'll need the parts to construct it. Or you can just use the old one that's been secreted away by the evil witch, but I don't recommend it."

Thanks for the great suggestions and thoughts, guys!

roruna wrote:
She might not know that it was used to spin natural fibres into thread so she could assume it was some sort of dangerous magical device and in an effort to make herself look cool and mysterious, she could say, 'yea, I've seen a spinning wheel, I've even used one. I can totally spin straw into gold.'

Brightdreamer wrote:
(Or maybe the saying is something she remembers from before she was "changed," a ragtag bit of infant memory that marks her as strange.) So the serving girl is being ordered to do impossible work -maybe being bullied by a superior, or by other serving girls who take advantage of her changeling awkwardness to pick on her - and she finally snaps back "Certainly, and then I'll spin straw into gold!" The princess, being greedy (and more than a bit foolish) overhears just the latter declaration and can't contain her excitement. And, of course, when a princess has her mind set on something, no mere serving girl could possibly contradict her.

Ahh I really like both reasonings! roruna, yours makes sense as how the children would gossip and make rumors of things that happened before they were born, so I'm sure some talk of spinning wheels would get their attention. It also kind of ties in with the original fairy tale more with the consequences of exaggerating to get attention. BrightDreamer, yours makes sense with adding to the whole changeling oddities part, and it works so much better than my rough draft changeling quirk. It really helps to add to the changelings' strangeness. Maybe I can combine the ideas.

CalicoRain, well, she's not much of the liar type, but still what you said about what makes a good liar is really true, and I'll keep that in mind because it fits in with another character I have. :)

Itzika: Hm, good point. Thanks for reminding me- the kingdom still has to get their clothing from somewhere. Maybe it should be a magical source...cuz if they fear the princess pricking her finger on a spindle, I think they'd take away drop spindles, too.

Kambooli: Wow! Nice, I like how you incorporated a handful of fairy tales in it right there! Unfortunately, it's not going to work for my novel because I've got the guy playing the Rumpelstiltskin role already plotted and it's important to the rest of the story. But nevertheless, thanks for all the thought you put into it! :) Hopefully it can work for someone else to write, because I love fairy tale twist/spins/crossovers.

I was thinking that perhaps when your main character was an infant or young child, perhaps her mother or a caretaker or an old witch had sung her rhymes about spinning straw into gold and the riches it brought. That way, she'll always be singing that re-occuring song about spinning straw into gold without knowing how that idea got into her head. Just a thought.... I wish you the best of luck with your story!!!