The story The Three Little Pigs originated in England, technically during the 1840s, though it was most likely a tale that had been told orally long before it was written down.

It was likely influenced by an earlier fable called The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats.

In the 1890s, a man named Joseph Jacobs published a version of the story that became more like the classic version most people know today.

Some early versions of the tale were significantly darker. For example, in one version, the third pig eats the wolf, or the wolf is boiled alive in a pot by the pig.

The Big Bad Wolf likely was inspired by the same kind of wolf in the fable Little Red Riding Hood.

The classic version of The Three Little Pigs includes houses made of straw, sticks, and bricks, but other versions have featured houses made of ice, mud, or even metal.

The story has been retold all over the world, with some adaptations replacing the pigs with goats, frogs, or rabbits, and the Big Bad Wolf with a fox, tiger, or hyena.