Rumolt, the chief cook of Prince Günther of Burgundy.—Nibelungen Lied, 800 (1210).
Rumpelstilzchen [Rumple.stiltz.skin], an irritable, deformed dwarf. He aided a miller’s daughter, who had been enjoined by the king to spin straw into gold; and the condition he made with her for this service, was that she should give him for wife her first daughter. The miller’s daughter married the king, and when her first daughter was born, the mother grieved so bitterly that the dwarf consented to absolve her of her promise, if, within three days she could find out his name. The first day passed, but the secret was not discovered; the second passed with no better success; but on the third day, some of the queen’s servants heard a strange voice singing:
Little dreams my dainty dame
Rumpelstilzchen is my name.
The queen, being told thereof, saved her child, and the dwarf killed himself from rage.—German Popular Stories.
Runa, the dog of Argon and Ruro, sons of Annir, king of Inis-Thona, an island of Scandinavia.—Ossian, The War of Inis-Thorna.
Runners.
1. Iphiclês, son of Phylakos and Klymĕnê. Hesiod says he could run over ears of corn without bending the stems; and Demarātos says he could run on the surface of the sea.—Argonauts, i. 60.
2. Camilla, queen of the Volsci, was so swift of foot that she could run over standing corn, without bending the ears, and over the sea without wetting her feet.—Virgil, Æneid, vii. 303; xi. 433.
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o’er th’ unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Pope.