The Story of the Three Bears

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 first version of the tale tells of an old woman who enters the forest home of three bears while they are away. The second version replaced the old woman with a little girl named Goldilocks, and the third version replaced the original bear trio with Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.

The story was recorded by English writer and poet Robert Southey (1774 -1843), and first published in 1837. It could be that R. Southey possibly heard an animal story starring an old cunning fox "Silverlocks", and confused the "vixen" with a synonym for an unpleasant malicious old woman.

The story 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.