1. Remember the words "three's a crowd"? With the three little pigs, the three bears, three brothers, the figures become "anonymous". Take any three brothers in a typical story: They are not a specfic family, like the Miller-brothers or the Smith-brothers, but just "three brothers". They stand symbolic for any family, and families with fewer or more siblings, as well.
Maybe a theory that prehistoric people were able to count only "one, two, many" explains it better. (Don't ask what I think about that theory! But that is off-topic anyway.) Still, I think this "counting" conveys my meaning: the "three" in that context means "typical, average brothers", and it is not important who they are, because they could be exchanged for any other typical, average brothers.
2. If you have the same incident in the story three times, this is done for rythm. And again, it is not a single occurence, or just happening twice by coincidence: It happens three times, there is a pattern. Of course, if you go on and on, the story would grow tedious and boring. But three conveys a message: It is a pattern that is showing, but it happening three times is sufficient to show this to us.
3. (!) The number three is something that dates back a LONG way... In almost every religion, it is a special, and holy number: in Christian faith you have the holy trinity. The ancient Greek and Romans had the three graces, the vikings the three Norns. In Shakespeare you have the three witches. And so on and on. I was running a search on www.britannica.com with "three" to find some more ideas and got loads of other "triplets". Try it!
The "three" is a symbol, and one used in many cultures and religions over the times. It is, I think, still so ingrained in our "symbolic alphabet" that we recognize its meaning in the fairy tale "by instinct". When we are told "Once upon a time there were three little pigs", we do not aks: "Which little pigs? Where did they live?" unless we are very, very young children who have not yet learned that symbolism. We know that the storyteller is not relating to any specific pigs, but to an anonymous three who stand there as representatives.
'Your Choice' // Fairytales
