Story Time - Goldilocks and the Three Bears

07/03/21 • 7 min

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (originally titled "The Story of the Three Bears") is a 19th-century British fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of a badly-behaved old woman who enters the forest home of three bachelor bears while they are away. She sits in their chairs, eats some of their porridge, and sleeps in one of their beds. When the bears return and discover her, she wakes up, jumps out of the window, and is never seen again. The second version replaced the old woman with a little girl named Goldilocks, and the third and by far best-known version replaced the original bear trio with Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear (who is not actually an infant, but rather a small cub).

What was originally a frightening oral tale became a cozy family story with only a hint of menace. The story has elicited various interpretations and has been adapted to film, opera, and other media. "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is one of the most popular fairy tales in the English language.

If you'd like to purchase a copy of this story, Amazon and The Book Depository have you covered.

"Our Story Begins" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

If you'd like to purchase a copy of this story, Amazon and The Book Depository have you covered.

"Our Story Begins" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Previous Episode

Story Time - The Gingerbread Man

This is a variation of the well known story "The Gingerbread Man", with the usual characters of the cook, the cat, and the dog however this version has no fox, but a jumpy monkey called Jocko instead.

If you'd like to read this version of the story, you can find it here, alternatively Amazon and The Book Depository have plenty of options as well.

"Our Story Begins" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Next Episode

Story Time - The Billygoats Gruff

"Three Billy Goats Gruff" is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr, first published between 1841 and 1844. It has an "eat-me-when-I'm-fatter" type plot. The first version of the story in English appeared in George Webbe Dasent's translation of some of the Norske Folkeeventyr, published as Popular Tales from the Norse in 1859. The heroes of the tale are three male goats who need to outsmart a ravenous troll to cross the bridge to their feeding ground.

Amazon and The Book Depository both have a number of re-tellings of this story available if you'd like to add this to your home library.

"Our Story Begins" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/