Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain There were once numerous statues of a goose-footed queen, “Reine Pédauque,” throughout France, with Bertrada being a potential candidate for the woman who was depicted, but they were all destroyed during the French Revolution.Ī 19th-century cast of a 13th-century statue of Bertrada of Laon. Her association with large feet is documented as far back as Adenes Le Roi’s 13th-century Li Rouman de Berte aus grans piés ( The Romance of Bertha of the big feet), but others added to her legend-including giving her a webbed foot like a goose. The phrase when Queen Bertha was spinning became used in the same vein as once upon a time, and the conflation of this storytelling phrase with the legendary Queen Goose may have led to the creation of Mother Goose.Īn even earlier Queen Bertha who may be linked to Mother Goose is Bertrada of Laon, mother of Charlemagne, the First King of the Franks. A myth spread about Bertha having one foot that resembled a goose’s webbed feet, leading to her becoming known as “Goose-footed Bertha” and “Queen Goose.”Ī little over a decade after Bertha’s death in 1010, Egbert of Liège published Fecunda Ratis ( The Well-Laden Ship), which includes the line “ Hoc quoque cum multis abiit, quod Bertheca nevit,” which in English reads “This, too, has passed away with many things, this when Bertha has spun.” This is likely a reference to stories of Bertha’s supposed penchant for spinning (yarn, not tales). One such suggestion is Bertha of Burgundy, Queen of King Robert II, who ruled at the turn of the 11th century. Given that the earliest known reference to Mother Goose is from France, it’s reasonable to think the character may have been based on a French woman. Another Mother Goose pantomime hit the stage in 1902, with the title role being played by renowned comedian Dan Leno, who popularized the cross-dressing Dame character. This show starred famed clown Joseph Grimaldi and was itself probably inspired by Aesop’s ancient Greek fable “ The Goose with the Golden Eggs” (which lacks a Mother Goose character).

The rhyme “ Old Mother Goose and the Golden Egg” was published around 1820 and likely took inspiration from Thomas Dibdin’s 1806 pantomime Harlequin and Mother Goose or, The Golden Egg. Hulton Archive/GettyImagesĪlthough Mother Goose usually receives billing as the so-called author of children’s tales, she does make a few appearances in stories herself.

A caricature of Mother Goose based on Dan Leno.

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