Rumpelstiltskin: Fact or Fiction?By Faley GoyetteFeb. 28, 2019

Just as Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold, an exhibit at the University of Texas at Austin attempted to spin the fairy tale character into real life as he first appeared 4,000 years ago.

But a skeptical audience questioned whether Rumpelstiltskin was really more than a myth.

On display, running from Jan. 24-Feb. 25 at UT’s Fine Arts Library, the exhibit, “Rumpelstiltskin: 500 Years of Devious Dealings,” presented artifacts that proposed the fictional man was indeed real.

That was the goal of exhibit curator, Zoe Andersen, a fine arts graduate student in scenic design. She wanted to see if she could convince people that Rumpelstiltskin was a real person.

“I drew the basic story structure from the Rumpelstiltskin tales but I made up the whole thing,” Andersen said.

The exhibit is Andersen’s MFA thesis project, but she didn’t want it to be presented as student work. The advertising for the exhibit was intentionally framed as if artifacts were recently discovered in Texas and the information presented was true.

Entirely created by her—the artifacts, the narrative, the staged photographs— were all a part of Andersen’s interest in seeing how far she could take an illusion.

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“I was wanting this to be more about the creation of illusion and the manipulation of belief and let it be more of a creative exploration and less an academic exploration,” Andersen said.

Every aspect of creating a credible exhibit was intentional, including the location. Andersen said she chose the Fine Arts Library for its similar institutional value to that of a museum.

“How many times do you walk into a historical museum and you question the authenticity of the artifacts and the information presented?” Andersen said.

“Even art museums have that institutional value to them that I think even before somebody walks in they have this preconception that what they’re about to see is going to be true,” Andersen said. “They will believe what they see until that information is presented otherwise.”

Nick Flores, a UT biology senior, said a real-life Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t sound realistic. He recalled bits and pieces of the fairy tale from when he was younger, but said his memory was vague on the details. Although, after being presented with some information from the exhibit, he said it left him second-guessing if Rumpelstiltskin was a real person.

“What I love about [this story] is that most people get him confused with other tales. They vaguely remember Rumpelstiltskin. Choosing a fairy tale with a recognizable name was kind of my hook,” Andersen said.

The crafting of the exhibit began about a year ago. Andersen wanted to combine entertainment and museum exhibit design with her love for fairytales.

“I think the vagueness [of fairy tales] allows people to build some of the story themselves,” Andersen said.The display took visitors through a history of Rumpelstiltskin’s past, leaving many wondering if the fairy tale was actually based on real life.

The artifacts on display were said to have been excavated in 2016 at Colorado Bend State Park, about two hours northwest of Austin.

Among those featured were wooden spindles, a medieval shoe and fool’s gold. But the gold rocks weren’t fooling one eighth grade visitor from Manor New Tech middle school.

“I began to question the authenticity when I saw the rocks,” the eighth grader said. “Some of my friends thought the objects were real and some of them thought they were fake.”

Her friends weren’t the only ones questioning the authenticity of the artifacts on display. In the exhibit’s comment basket, other visitors shared their experiences.

One wrote, “That’s really funny, [because] I really thought all of that was real.”

Another said, “I grew up with folk tales and I love Rumpelstiltskin. I just have one question: is this real? I can’t tell.”

“I was hoping people would be interested because a lot of people like folk tales and fairy tales and would attend my exhibit and hopefully maybe, or maybe not, walk away believing that Rumpelstiltskin was true,” Andersen said.

“Folk tales as a genre are not meant to be believed as true,” Rachel González- Martin, who holds a doctorate in folklore and ethnomusicology, said.

Folklore genres draw on lived experiences, González-Martin said, and these stories express ideas that are accepted as true in communities.

Although folk tales draw from the work of living people, González-Martin said, “[Folk tales] are fiction, and are set in non-real words, with characters not linked to living people.”

Andersen’s goal, she said, was to convince people that Rumpelstiltskin was a real, living person. She believes the exhibit was successful in that people were questioning its truth.

Rumpelstiltskin was an old tale about a man who spun straw into gold, but Andersen brought it back to life with her exhibit.

“I know people love fairy tales,” Andersen said. “There’s something in the magic aspect of them that still attracts us and I’m not sure what it is.”

“Maybe it’s a mythology that we’re losing these days.”