Rumpelstiltskin vs Miller

She'd tell him that the elf had only made the gold for her, not for him and that only she could get the elf to make more gold. On the other hand she'd explain to the elf that he needed her to bargain for him and that they could work together to get the king to give justice to the elves and others in return for gold.

The Queen realized that dealing with her bullying husband and the odd little elf wouldn't be easy. The one would fly into rages and the other would be stubborn. But they'd both have to understand the facts of life and that they both needed her. Wouldn't that be great? The real winner in the battle between those two would be herself.

Such thoughts cheered Millicent no end. She'd never felt such confidence in her ability. Never before had she been able to think and plan like she was doing now. She felt like a whole new world was opening up before her. In fact that was only partly true.

The Queen had already displayed considerable resourcefulness and the ability to get things done and this particular episode really was just another example of her acting upon the "can do" attitude she'd taken about her queenly duties. Still she had never shown such capacity for problem solving under the pressure of a crisis and for that Millicent had reason to commend herself and look with confidence towards the future.

Naturally she looked forward to seeing the elf again and sure enough he came by at noon the next day. What he saw astounded him. The Queen's demeanor had completely changed. Yesterday she was nervous and then in tears, today she was calm and composed throughout his visit. Yesterday she was unprepared but today he listened to her methodically reading Elfin names from a paper. How he had underestimated this woman! What mistaken gallantry on his part to give her another chance! Now she'd taken advantage of her position as Queen to find herself an Elfin speaker who had given her a list of common Elfin names. But as she read he happily noticed that these were common names. No doubt her human expert hadn't given a thought to his uncommon name and sure enough he had the pleasure of answering, "No, that is not my name", to all of the Queens queries. And so he left Schinradh Castle in great relief certain that he had withstood the best the Queen had to offer and utterly unaware of Moe the Mountaineer and Kochben stealthily following him.

Millicent was disappointed that this was necessary. When she noticed the elf' s initial astonishment at her list, she was sure it was a sign that his name was on it. But Now despite this setback Millicent, the new Millicent was not going to panic or cry. At last at peace with herself she simply philosophized that a little more had to be done to find the elf's name. Surely her eavesdropping bodyguards would hear the elf's name.

But the Queen was again to be disappointed. When the elf arrived the next day at noon neither More and Kochben nor Joab and Debael had his name. Moe and Joab explained that he lived like a hermit. His little hut in the forest was completely isolated from any settlement or from any neighbor or friend who might call upon the elf and speak his name. Step 2 of the plan---spying and eavesdropping---wasn't working. Instead time was running out and worst of all Millicent had no more Elfin names for the second day's guesses.