Goldilocks and the Three Bears

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Goldilocks redirects here. For other uses see Goldilocks (disambiguation)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a popular children's story from England. Though often considered an anonymous fairy tale, the story actually first saw print in 1837 in the poet Robert Southey's book, the otherwise unreadable The Doctor. Possibly based on an even older story (though this is by no means certain), the story became widely known after being published by Southey, and was so often retold, that it has lost connection to its author. George Nicol quickly retold Southey's story in verse. Southey's story included the three bears, but the visitor to the bear's home was "an old woman"; later versions of the story replaced the old woman with a girl named Silver-hair. Goldilocks first appeared in 1904 in Old Nursery Stories and Rhymes.

1 Plot
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

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Plot

The story tells of three anthropomorphic bears and their encounter with a young girl called Goldilocks (after her golden hair).

A family of three bears (a mother, a father, and a baby) live in a quite civilized house in the woods. One day, waiting for their porridge to cool, they leave the house unlocked as they go for a walk in the woods. While they are out, Goldilocks comes to the house. Curious, she enters and meddles with the bears' belongings, sampling their porridge (eating all of the baby's one), sitting on their chairs (breaking the baby's one), and then trying out their beds (falling asleep in the baby's one). Every member of the bear family has their own unique chair, porridge, and bed, which have unique characteristics. The exact adjectives differ from story to story, but generally the mother and father's beds and chairs are "too hard" and "too soft" and their porridges are "too hot" and "too cold", with the baby bear's porridge, chair, and bed being "just right".

Goldilocks is still asleep in the baby's bed when the bears return home. They wake her up, and depending on the brutality of the story-teller, either kill her or scare her away. The moral of the story can differ as well, a general theme is that the privacy of others should be respected.

There are more happy endings to this story. One is that thereafter, Goldilocks comes and visits the bears often and plays with the baby bear. In one ending, Goldilocks has kids of her own who play with the bear family.

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References

Abrams, MH, et al. Norton Anthology of English Literature (3rd ed). NY: Norton, 1974.
Ober, Warren. The Story of the Three Bears. Scholars Facsimilies & Reprint, September 2000 ISBN 082011362X

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