Goldilocks and the Three Bears

:"Someone's been eating my porridge, and they've eaten it all up!"

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Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a popular children's fairy tale from England. The earliest known written account dates from 1831; the most influential is Robert Southey's from 1837, though in this version the antagonist is a vagrant old woman rather than a mischievous girl.

Related Topics:
Fairy tale - England - 1831 - Robert Southey - 1837 - Antagonist - Vagrant

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

Related Topics:
Anthropomorphic - Bear - Golden hair

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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 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 bears' porridge, chair, and bed being "just right."

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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.

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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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