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| Fanart of Marak Deviant Art |
Goblins are really interesting creatures. Most times they come in packs or hordes (although you find the occasional story of a lone goblin versus a quick witted farmer boy or miller's daughter) and usually live under ground, just like the the Goblins in The Hobbit by Tolkein. Goblins are shadows, they vary in darkness from slight mischief to straight up sinister, sometimes they're invisible, they're quick, hard to spot and they're not always where you expect them to be. Usually goblins are short and ugly, they may be wrinkled, fat, angular or look like a mix of human and animal traits. Once in a blue moon a goblin might actually be pretty as in the case of King Jareth from Labyrinth and Marak Sixfinger in Claire B. Dunkle's Hollow Kingdom trilogy.
Goblins are notorious for stealing away children, especially the naughty ones. In Labyrinth, the kidnapping of Sarah's baby brother is the crux of a bildungsroman plot and in Dunkle's Hollow Kingdom Trilogy the goblins kidnap brides in order to prevent inbreeding and preserve their race.
In classic poetry, however, goblins are more sinister, shadowy devices that teach moral lessons to the reader such as The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, a cautionary tale of two girls tempted to eat the goblin fruit. One my mother used to read to me and that I relished with a terrified glee reserved for childhood ghost stories was Little Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley. I loved staring at the goblins in the illustration that looked monstrous and ghost like yet one held a rose to give to a little girl goblin that it was chasing.Goblins themselves have been prone to poetry as well, although their version of beauty may differ from our own ever so slightly.
See, Goblins are just looking for a good bit of sport, It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, then it's hilarious! They're even fond of song! Rumplestilstkin (sometimes described as a "Goblin") sings about how he will soon take the Queens child, in The Hobbit (both book and movie depictions), Goblins sing about going Down, down, down to Goblin Town and the Funny Little Things. And who can forget that goblin classic Dance Baby Dance?
According to Merriam-Webster the first known use of the term "Goblin" was in the 14th Century (1300s), from the Middle English gobelin but "ultimately from Greek kobalos rogue".
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| Shh! Shut up! She's going to say the words! |
Officially:
"an ugly or grotesque sprite that is usually mischievous and sometimes evil and malicious"
So says Merriam-Webster...
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| Golden Book of Poetry Little Orphant Annie |
An' little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue,
An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!
An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,
An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parunts, an' yer teachurs fond an' dear,
An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,
An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
Resources:
Dunkle, Claire B. The Hollow Kingdom. New York:Henry Holt and Co., 2006. Print.
Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm. Rumplestiltskin.
Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm. Rumplestiltskin.
Labyrinth. Jim Henson, 1986. Film.
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