The Origins

The Stories in Billy Goats Gruff & Other Tales

A Tale As Old As Time…

Walter Crane, “At last he turned to her and said, ‘Am I so very ugly?’,” 1875

People have been entertained, educated, and fascinated with fairy tales throughout the world and for much of our modern history. Exactly how old these tales were has also been debated for hundreds of years, with some believing they were written first in the 16th and 17th centuries, and then passed down through oral storytelling. Others, such as the Brothers Grimm, believed fairy tales originated hundreds, or even thousands, of years earlier within the Indo-European language families thousands of years earlier. In 2016, a study using phylogenetic methods came down firmly on the side of the Brothers Grimm, determining these tales had origins as the Bronze Age and the Proto-Indo-European language.1 Typically applied to the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms, phylogeny in anthropology investigates the relationships between population histories and cultural phenomena, such as languages, marriage practices, political institutions, material culture and music.2

Christmas Fireside Stories; Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales

Evidence concluded that the oldest tale, called “The Smith and the Devil,” could be traced back to 6000 B.C. There still exists some debate amongst folklorists on these findings, but the researchers remain confident in their evidence.3 Even familiar tales such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Rumpelstiltskin” showing language-story pairings that date back between 3,000-4,000 years ago.

Fairy tales are also deeply connected to folk tales and similar themes, messages, and elements can be found across cultures, languages, and geography. While they may have existed as oral traditions for thousands of years, the written versions of these stories have specific markers in the history of fairy tales. Charles Perrault’s Tales of Mother Goose is the earliest example of published fairy tales. There would be other examples of tales published and popularized by authors through the 18th Century, one notable example being Beauty and the Beast. As noted, this story has routes going back thousands of years, but the story was penned by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve in 1740, with a shortened and more successful version adapted by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont published in 1757 in the Children’s Magazine: A Wise Governess’s Dialogue with her Charges. Thirty years later, The Fairy Cabinet would be compiled by Chevalier de Mayer. Then in 1812, the Brothers Grimm would publish Grimm’s Fairy Tales (originally known as The Children’s and Household Tales), an anthology of oral folklore, gathered in the countryside.4 These fairy tales have been adapted over and over within popular culture throughout history, with Disney’s use of the stories being the strongest modern example in the 20th and 21st centuries.

What is a Fairy Tale?

That humans have been storytellers since our time in the caves is no secret. However, the classification of stories is an art within itself. One of the biggest questions is, what makes a fairy tale different from other storytelling traditions?

Common Elements of Fairy Tales5

Do NOT need to include fairies.
Set in the past—usually significantly long ago. May be presented as historical fact from the past.
Include fantasy, supernatural or make-believe aspects.
Typically incorporate clearly defined good characters and evil characters.
Involves magic elements, which may be magical people, animals, or objects. Magic may be positive or negative.
May include objects, people, or events in threes.
Focus the plot on a problem or conflict that needs to be solved.
Often have happy endings, based on the resolution of the conflict or problem.
Usually teach a lesson or demonstrate values important to the culture.

Old Fashioned Fairy Tales illustrated by Margaret Ely Webb.

The Stories in Billy Goats Gruff & Other Tales

Model by Kate Church, Photo by Brianna Dykeman

by Ingri d’Aulaire (Illustrator), Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (Illustrator), 1938

Title Page, English Fairy Tales, by Flora Annie Steel, 1918

The Three Little Pigs

No matter your interest in literary works, you will have heard the phrase ‘not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin.’ The Three Little Pigs is a fable about three pigs who each build a house, all using different materials. A Big Bad Wolf then blows down the first two houses made of straw and sticks. However, he is unable to blow down the final house, which is made of bricks.

The Three Little Pigs Origins

Unlike the previous fairy tales we have examined, which are predominantly Germanic in origin, the Three Little Pigs are a little more English. The story was included in the Nursery Rhymes of England, published by James Halliwell-Phillipps in 1886. However, the tale, in its best-known form, appeared in the English fairy tale by Joseph Jacobs.6

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

The Three Billy Goats gruff is a Norwegian folktale, and probably the most famous Norwegian folktale in the English language. It’s a classic tale of three billy goats crossing a bridge and outsmarting a hungry troll.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff Origin

The Three Billy Goats Gruff was originally published as part of a collection in a book called Norwegian Folk Tales by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe in 1842. The Three Billy Goats Gruff was first translated into English in 1859 in the book Popular Tales from the Norse.7

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

This story saw multiple adaptations throughout the 19th century. The core idea of the story centered on a human entering the dwelling of talking animals and eating their food or disturbing their home also has multiple origins across cultures and languages. However, the version as it is commonly known today comes from Flora Annie Steel’s English Fairy Tales published in 1918. A young girl named Goldilocks wandering the forest comes upon a cottage. She discovers three bowls of porridge, and eats up the third bowl belonging to the baby bear, describing its temperature as just right. She sits in three chairs, breaking the baby bear’s chair. Then she discovers three beds, deciding to sleep in the baby bear’s bed because it is also just right. The bears return, discover Goldilocks and she runs out of the house.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Origin

The first published version came in 1831 by Eleanor Mure in her handmade book titled The Story of the Three Bears. However, this version focused on an angry, old woman drinking milk belonging to three bears. In 1837, Robert Southey published a similar tale in The Doctor, Vol. IV, which still had an old woman but included porridge instead of milk. It also includes the description that the third bowl is “neither too hot, nor too cold, but just right.” The bears are all male and they are described as small, medium, and large. The next to publish was George Nicol would retell it soon afterwards with illustrations. It was in 1850 that the main character was made a little girl with silver hair in Joseph Cundall’s 1850 A Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children. By 1860, the three bears had been made a father, mother, and child. In 1864, a literacy lesson book changed the hair to gold and called her Golden Hair.8

1https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-353584872 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogenetics3 https://www.sciencenews.org/article/no-fairy-tale-origins-some-famous-stories-go-back-thousands-years4 https://fantasy.bnf.fr/en/understand/aristocracy-playground-short-history-fairy-tales/5 https://www.readwritethink.org/sites/default/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson42/RWT027-4.pdf6 https://www.centreofexcellence.com/fairy-tales-their-origins/7 https://story.monsonproductions.com/origin/the-origin-of-the-three-billy-goats-gruff/8 https://www.mentalfloss.com/literature/goldilocks-and-the-three-bears-fairy-tale

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