Rumplestiltskin

Rumplestiltskin is true name of the old gnome who posed a riddle to Graham. Ifnkovhgroghprm is another name the gnome goes by. This is Rumplestiltskin spelled using a backwards alphabet, i.e. (A=Z, B=Y, C=X, etc.). . He also has been known to go by the name Nikstlitselpmur. He likes helping adventurers and posing puzzles. The gnome is old and bent under the weight of years, but a playful wisdom brightens his eyes.

Early days
Earlier in his life he was a little man who appeared before the miller's daughter in a kingdom and told her he could do the chore of turning straw into gold for the king--if she would give him a gift. He took her necklace, turned all of the straw into gold, and then disappeared. The king demanded she turn even more straw into gold, and if she did she would become his queen..

This time, she had nothing to give the little man, so he demanded she give him her firstborn child in return for saving her life. She agreed, but she planned never to have a child. The queen did have a child, however, and one night the little man came to claim it as his own. In tears the queen offered the man anything if he would not take her child. He replied that he would not, but only if she could guess his name within three days. For two days she guessed, but she was always wrong. One servant had discovered the man dancing and laughing by a fire and learned his name. He called himself Rumplestiltskin.

When he came back that night to claim the child, the queen pretended still not to know the proper name. Reaching for the baby, the little man gave her one final guess. He was so mad when she told him "Rumplestiltskin" that he stomped his foot hard enough to send him right through the floor, and he was never seen again in those parts.

Life in Daventry
He later had moved to the  Kingdom of Daventry. The old wizened Gnome became the only resident of the Gnome's Isle. He received few visitors due to the troll (or family of trolls) that guarded and lived under the bridges to the island. He was the same Rumplestiltskin from legend who would ask passers by whether they knew his name. He would reward whoever knew it. He claimed to be from a backwards part of the realm, so he asked that his name be spelled backwards usually using a backwards alphabet, and wouldn't accept anything else (probably because stories of his past had spread so far, and most already knew it).

When Graham met him, the gnome asked him to answer the riddle of his name and would give him something that would be very useful to him on his quest. Graham guessed his name correctly (or rather the ones he had assumed) with help of a mysterious note he discovered in the Gingerbread House (it is rather unclear how the witch came across that note). At least when Graham got the answer right, the gnome was a more gracious loser. As a reward the gnome gave Graham the Magic Beans and seeded the Magic Beanstalk. The gnome knew of Graham's mission to retrieve the missing treasures of Daventry, would have aided him even he had guessed wrong. , by giving him the key to open the Door into Mountain that lead to the Land of the Clouds. Following the adventure, the Gnome became a good friend of the realm and advisor.

During the time of peace following Graham's coronation, Daventry town grew and prospered, rebuilt over what had once been the Gnome's Isle, and other areas nearby the Raging River. Rumplestiltkin moved west of the isle into the dusty remains of what had once been the Raging River, where he built a new Gnome's House just outside of the town, just south of Castle Daventry.

Alexander later encountered the gnome during his quest to save his sister; at the time the wizened one's house had become a disheveled shack. Being an old friend of the royal family of Daventry, and magical as well, he knew Alexander's true identity and explained what had gone on in kingdom since prince's disappearance, and what the boy had to do to save the kingdom. He sent the young prince into the ruined Door into Mountain, and explained that a three-headed dragon that had moved into the kingdom and taken over the Land of the Clouds, and that his twin sister was about to be sacrificed to it. Alexander was told he had to somehow defeat the beast, save his sister, and save the kingdom.

Alexander succeeded and he and his sister made the long climb back down the mountain, and soon met up with the gnome. Rumplestiltskin congratulated Alexander for his noble deed, and said he would go on ahead and announce Alexander's return to his parents.

After Graham had been saved by Rosella after her trip to Tamir, the Gnome, the wise old fellow continued to spend hours in Daventry enjoying conversing with the king and others who came to visit him, and those the king introduced to him.

Encounter in Serenia
It is rumored he later moved Serenia, the following year. Graham met the gnome there (or at least a close relative), playing with his grandson. He was able to return the magic spindle (Rumplestiltskin's one-of-a-kind heirloom) to the family. While there is no doubt that the gnome who helped Graham in his quest for the throne of Daventry was Rumplestiltskin, there is much confusion as to the identity of the gnome he met in Serenia. He was an old gnome to be sure, and while he looked familiar to Graham, he acted as if he had never seen the monarch before in his life. However, the spinning wheel which Graham returned to him could turn straw to gold and this could only belong to one gnome. Perhaps the years had clouded both Graham and Rumplestiltskin's memories and they merely didn't recognize each other.

This is possible, but the king is fabled for his memory. Was it then that the gnome did not want to be recognized and had cast a mild befuddlement spell over Graham? Finally, mayhaps the gnome was the son (or even the grandson) of Rumplestiltskin himself; The spinning wheel having been handed down to him. Gnomes are known to live ancient lives and it does not stretch possibility too far for this to be the case. Family resemblance alone might account Graham's sense of familiarity with the gnome.

Another possibility is that some form of time warp must be considered in this matter because anything seems possible in that magical land. In that case, Graham's second meeting with the gnome could very well have been the gnome's first meeting with Graham. This is a paradox of a high order.

Whatever the case, it is a mystery still in wait of a solution.

Titles

 * The Gnome

Behind the scenes
The gnome is based on the fairy tale Rumplestiltskin. A gnome that spun straw into gold for a queen to give to her husband, in exchange for her first born child. When her first child was born, Rumplestiltskin returned to the take the child, but gave the queen the chance to keep the child if she could guess his name in three tries. Discovering his name, Rumplestiltskin, she answered correctly answered on the third try, causing the gnome to leave angrily. She kept the gold that was spun for the king, as well as her child.

The gnome of Daventry quite a bit friendlier and nicer than the gnome of the original fairy tale, and considered one of the "Good Guys" in King's Quest 1, according to original KQ1AGI Hintbook.

In fact in the King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, this story is told as part of Rumplestiltskin's backstory (before the time Graham met him in Daventry), and its suggested that Rumplestiltskin was a bit more gracious with Graham, than he had been with the miller's daughter. Could it be that Coignice, the miller's daughter is the same person who encountered Rumplestiltskin so many years before, and that Valanice was that child?

The gnome in KQ3 is the same gnome from King's Quest I, "This is your old friend, the gnome, from the original King's Quest game. You will find him friendly. He will tell you what's been happening in Daventry, and what you have to do."-Roberta Williams This is also confirmed in the An Encyclopedia of Daventry in the King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition.

Note: the gnome wants you to spell his name backwards. Rumplestiltskin is spelled backward Nikstlitselpmur. When you spell the alphabet backwards and pick the original places of the letters in the original alphabet, you will get ifnkovhgroghprm. King's Questions and The King's Quest Companion 2nd edition confirms that he is Rumplestiltskin.

In the hintbooks for KQ1, KQ2, and KQ3, this character is just known as the 'Gnome' or 'Old Gnome'. It is sometimes described as the 'old gnome' in the game and other sources. In all three games he is generally described as the 'old gnome'.

Old Gnome (unofficial)
The old gnome appears in fan fiction, including fan games, see Old Gnome (unofficial).