The Story of The Three Bears - Origins

Origins

In 1837 Robert Southey published "The Story of the Three Bears" in a collection of essays and miscellanea called The Doctor. The tale was not an original creation by Southey, but was a retelling of a story that had long been in circulation. Southey had been telling the story to others as early as September 1813, and in 1831 Eleanor Mure versified the tale and presented it to her nephew Horace Broke as a birthday gift.

Southey and Mure differ in details. Southey's bears have porridge but Mure's have milk; Southey's old woman has no motive for entering the house but Mure's old woman is piqued when her courtesy visit is rebuffed; Southey's old woman runs away when discovered, but Mure's old woman is impaled on the steeple of St Paul's Cathedral.

Southey probably learned the tale as a child from his uncle William Tyler. Tyler may have told a version with a vixen as intruder, and Southey later confused vixen with a common appellation for a crafty old woman. P.M. Zall writes in "The Gothic Voice of Father Bear" (1974) that "It was no trick for Southey, a consummate technician, to recreate the improvisational tone of an Uncle William through rhythmical reiteration, artful alliteration ('they walked into the woods, while'), even bardic interpolation ('She could not have been a good, honest Old Woman')". Ultimately, it is uncertain where Southey or his uncle learned the tale.

The same year Southey's tale was published, the story was versified by George Nicol who acknowledged the anonymous author of The Doctor as "the great, original concocter" of the tale. Southey was delighted with Nicol's effort to bring more exposure to the tale, concerned children might overlook it in The Doctor. Nicol's version was illustrated with engravings by B. Hart (after "C.J."), and was reissued in 1848 with Southey identified as the story's author.

Folklorists Iona and Peter Opie point out in The Classic Fairy Tales (1999) that the tale has a "partial analogue" in "Snow White": the lost princess enters the dwarves' house, tastes their food, and falls asleep in one of their beds. In a manner similar to the three bears, the dwarves cry, "Who's been sitting on my stool?", "Who's been eating off my plate?", and "Who's been lying in my bed?". The Opies also point to similarities in a Norwegian tale about a princess who takes refuge in a cave inhabited by three Russian princes dressed in bearskins. She eats their food and hides under a bed.

In 1865 Charles Dickens referenced a similar tale in Our Mutual Friend, but there the house belongs to hobgoblins rather than bears. Dickens' reference however suggests a yet to be discovered analogue or source. Hunting rituals and ceremonies have been suggested and dismissed as possible origins.

In 1894, the illustrator John D. Batten reported a variant of the tale at least 40 years old. In this version, the three bears live in a castle in the woods and are visited by a fox called Scrapefoot who drinks their milk, sits in their chairs, and rests in their beds. This version belongs to the early Fox and Bear tale-cycle.