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Museum-Quality Matte Paper Print available in two sizes:
12" x 16" (30cm x 40cm): $35.00
24" x 32" (60cm x 80cm): $48.00
 
Did J.R.R. Tolkien hide an Easter egg in Sam Gamgee's family tree in naming his second golden-haired daughter Goldilocks? Welcome to my supposal that "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" was originally a hobbit story about a hobbit lass. In fact, a famous hobbit lass - daughter of Samwise the Stouthearted, Hero of the Third Age of Men.
 
J.R.R. Tolkien's highly-developed and wonderfully strong views on the ancientry and power of fairy-tales can be read in his extraordinary essay, "On Fairy-stories". In this account, he explains how many of the folk-tales we know today have extremely old origins within what he calls "the cauldron of story". Please pop over to my illustrated blog to read my entire theory about Goldilocks Gamgee and the Three Dancing Bears on the basis of the fact that Professor Tolkien never chose a name for any character without much thought. In brief, here are my theories:
 
Around S.R. 1438, imagine that Sam Gamgee took his family on a picnic to the Woody End in the Shire; while his children were playing hide-and-seek, his daughter Goldilocks came upon what she thought was a kind of hobbit hole.
Going inside, she found three large bowls of porridge, chairs, and beds; most of the story we know today as "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is occupied by her finding which of these objects is "just right". I suggest that this is the prime hobbit priority of "comfort", hiding in plain sight in the middle of this well-known tale.
Next, suppose that the three bears came dancing back into the cave, and that their home features human-like furnishings because these are the descendants of the dancing bears of Númenor, who once lived alongside men before the island fell - perhaps some of the bears escaped in the ships of the Faithful to Middle-earth.
Finally, as Goldilocks Gamgee ran back to her family with this funny tale, it became, at first, a local yarn. Then, because of the famousness of her father, Goldilocks' story spread across the Shire and to Bree, where the Big Folk heard it from the Little Folk. The story may eventually have been told in Minas Tirith when Goldilocks grew up and married the son of Thain Peregrin, who had special ties to Gondor.
 
So, perhaps the Goldilocks story we know today was originally part of the hobbits' own cauldron of story, and perhaps there are even other fairy-tales you can think of that might have had a hobbit origin. By hanging a museum-quality print of this original, hand-done painting in your home, you can spark imagination and be a part of the great fairy-story tradition.