Rumpelstiltskin vs Miller

Why should we fight over my boy? Why can't we just get along?"

But the elf was unmoved by this impassioned plea and stubbornly answered, "I did not come here to talk politics. I am here for the boy."

The finality of this answer devastated Millicent and she could no longer hold back her tears. She completely broke down and cried uncontrollably. Another misfortune in her life, another example of a family curse. First her father had hoped for fame and glory only to be humbled and now it was her turn. Everything she'd worked and planned for was all for naught. The elf had made her and now was going to break her. And the strange thing was that it had started with the birth of her beloved son. Now she didn't know for sure what was going to happen, just that it would be bad. She'd lose her son and queenship and be returned to her life of poverty. She had never felt so miserable and so she continued to weep.

It was a pathetic sight that even softened the hard heart of the old elf. Was he being too hard on her? Or was just the trick of a woman's tears? He distrusted humans and yet he realized that he needed to find some friendly ones for his purposes. Yes he'd heard stories about this one, the beautiful Queen who was the first one to receive and help petitioners who were of the Forest Peoples. Was he serving their cause by breaking a sympathetic human? Surely she was an innocent and not to blame for established bigotry. Then he remembered he' d never told the Queen his unusual name and decided to give her a second chance based on that.

"Ma'am", and Millicent looked at him, "I will give you one last chance. I will come here the next three days and if during those visits you can tell me what my name is, I will give up my claim to the boy. You can have as much as 20 minutes guessing names each day. If you guess mine I will admit it, without proof on your part. If you can not you must admit the rightness of my claim. You can see that I've been more than fair for I have given you three days to devote to guessing my name and to prepare to give up the child if necessary.

Millicent was too shaken to do more than nod affirmatively and then the elf left. She sat motionless for some time until she finally began to think. "I have three more days to have my child, three days to guess the elf's name, three days to solve this crisis and put my life back together." And as she pondered her situation, Millicent finally understood what she must do and in that moment reached a climactic stage in her life when she made the final step in her development into an independent woman.

"Yes", she continued thinking, "I have three days to pull myself together. It's time to stop being a weeping girl and act like a woman, mother and Queen." And knowing herself to be Queen she began to analyze her problem like one (indeed better than most kings) and worked out a four part plan to use such resources she had at her command to solve her problem.

She then summoned her two leading bodyguards Moe the Mountaineer and Joab.

She told them the whole story of herself, the elf, what he did to make her Queen, their bargain and swore them to secrecy.