Rumpelstiltskin

While in Singapore I perused The Science Of Diskworld II which was incredible.

However there was this one paticular part which I am sure you all will enjoy.
So here it is:

Rumpelstiltskin was an interesting sexual parable, too, a tale to programme the idea that female masturbation leads to sterility. Remember the tale? The miller's daughter, put in the barn to 'spin staw into gold', virginally sits on a little stick that becomes a little man...
The denouement has the little man, when his name is finally identified, jumping in to 'plug' the lady very intimately, and the assembled soldiers can't pull him out. In the modern bowdlerised version, this survives vestigially as the little man pushing his foot through the floor and not being able to pull it out, a total non sequitur. So none of those concerned, king, miller or queen, can procreate (the stolen first child has been killed by the soilders), and it all ends in tears. If you doubt this interpretation, enjoy the indirection: 'What is his name? What is his name?' recurs in the story. What is his name? What is a stilt with rumpled skin? Whoops. The name has an equivalent derivation in many languages too.


Yeah, you know it's true.