(Although, as with all things Grimm, there were darker connotations.) The legend of Bertha la fileuse was associated with children, geese, and spinning or weaving. Jacob Grimm, of Grimm’s Fairytales, noted that these stories are related to the German figure Perchta or Bertha.

Other notable scholars have written how Charlemagne’s mother, Bertrada of Laon, was known as the “goose-foot queen.” Some sources trace Mother Goose’s origin back to the biblical Queen of Sheba.Īnd stories of Bertha, who had a strange foot, exist in many languages, including old German, French, Latin, and Italian. Katherine Elwes-Thomas noted in the 20th century that the image and name Mother Goose might be based upon ancient legends of the wife of King Robert II of France, known then as Bertha the Spinner or even “Goose-Footed Bertha,” who was described as coming up with imaginative stories that enraptured children. So, it’s easy to associate a maternal figure, and one who sits with small kids, with these sorts of winged creatures. Of course, it’s worth mentioning here, that mother geese often rest on nests, warming and then hatching their eggs, which beget their little chicks.

A remark by Loret, “comme un conte de la Mère Oye,” which means “like a Mother Goose story,” shows that the term was known even then. Fairy tales had also been attributed to Mother Burn, which was the pseudonym of Madame d’Aulnoy in the 1690s.Īn early nod to the figure also appears in an aside in a versified French chronicle of weekly events from Jean Loret, known as La Muse Historique, which was collected in 1650. Prior to Mother Goose, readers in the 18th century were likely familiar with Mother Hubbard, a commonly-known figure in Edmund Spenser’s Mother Hubberd’s Tale in 1590. What was once believed to have been published by John Newbery in London in the 1760s, was later believed to be published in 1780 by Thomas Carnan, Newbery’s stepson. Later, another collection of nursery rhymes known as Mother Goose’s Melody or Sonnets for the Cradle continued the popularity of the fictional figure, meaning fairy tales now had a mascot. The first known appearance of Mother Goose, in English, dates back to the early 1700s when the fairy tale collection from Charles Perrault, Contes de ma Mère l’Oye, was translated from French to English as Tales of My Mother Goose.

Mother Goose has been known historically as the fantastical author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, both in French and English.

Unknown mother goose