| Goldilocks | |
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 | |
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Other Names |
Silver Hair, Silver-Locks, Silverhair, Golden Hair, Silver-Hair, Goldenlocks, Little Golden-Hair, Goldilocks |
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First Appearance |
Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children (November 1849) |
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Created by |
Joseph Cundall |
Origin[]
Goldilocks is the antagonist of the fairy tale story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
In the story, a family of three bears live together in a house in the woods. Each of these the bears has their own porridge bowl, chair, and bed. One day they take a walk in the woods while their porridge cools.
Goldilocks, a pretty young girl, approaches the bears' house. She looks through a window, peeps through the keyhole, and lifts the latch. Assured that no one is home, she walks in. The girl eats the Baby Bear's porridge, then settles into his chair and breaks it. Prowling about, she finds the bears' beds and falls asleep in Baby Bear's bed. The climax of the tale is reached when the bears return. Baby Bear finds the girl in his bed and cries, "Somebody has been lying in my bed, – and here she is!"
Goldilocks's fate varies in the many retellings: in some versions, she runs into the forest, in some she is almost eaten by the bears but her mother rescues her, in some she vows to be a good child, and in some she returns home.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Goldilocks from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Literary Appearances[]
- 'Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children' (1849)
- 'Harlequin and the Three Bears, or, Little Silver Hair and the Fairies' by John Baldwin Buckstone (1853)
- 'Favourite Fairy Tales' (1861)
- 'The Three Bears' by Walter Crane (1876)
- 'Golden Hair and Her Knight of the Beanstalk in the Enchanted Forest' by N. G. Clarke (1887)
- 'The Old, Old Fairy Tales' (1889?)
- 'More English Fairy Tales' (1894)
- 'Stepping Stones to Literature' by Sarah Louise Arnold and Charles B. Gilbert (1897)
- 'Denslow’s Three Bears' by W. W. Denslow (1903)
- 'The Three Bears' by Mara L. Pratt‐Chadwick (1905)
- 'The Three Bears' by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (1906)
- 'The Story Reader for the Second Year at School' by J. A. Bowen (1907)
- 'The Progressive Road to Reading by Georgine Burchill, William L. Ettinger, and Edgar Dubs Shimer (1909)
- 'Baby Bear’s Party' by Frances Margaret Fox (7 Nov. 1912)
- 'The Three Bears of Porcupine Ridge' by Jean M. Thompson (1913)
- 'How Mother Bear Saved Her Baby' by Frances Margaret Fox (18 Jan. 1913)
- 'When Mother Bear Made Pickles' by Frances Margaret Fox (12 Apr. 1913)
- 'How Little Bear Went to a Picnic' by Frances Margaret Fox (July 1913)
- 'Little Bear’s Adventure' by Frances M. Fox (3 July 1913)
- 'Little Bear’s Bee‐Tree' by Frances Margaret Fox (16 Oct. 1913)
- 'Grandfather Grizzly' by Frances Margaret Fox (30 July 1914)
- 'Three Bears in the Enchanted Land' by Frances Margaret Fox (12 Nov. 1914)
- 'The Three Bears/Les trois ours' by Caroline Wasson Thomason (1921)
- 'A Party in Mother Goose Land' by Effa E. Preston (1922)
- 'Guilty Looks Enter Tree Beers' by Howard L. Chace (1956)
Animated Appearances[]
- Goldie Locks and the Three Bears (original silent version, 1922)
- The Three Bears (1935)
- The Three Bears (1939)