The Goblins will getchya...

Fanart of Marak uRuMi Deviant Art

I've been meaning to do a post about Goblins for quite a while now.  Lots of cultures have goblin like creatures with their own stories and it is very difficult to figure out where exactly goblins come from.  I found a few sources that claim goblins originated from the mountains in France but that's as far as I could get as far as an origin and that's only for Western cultures.

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".

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...

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. 

Labyrinth. Jim Henson, 1986. Film.

 

Legend. Universal Pictures, 1986. Film. 

 

Merriam-Webster Online. 12 Feb. 2015. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/goblin. 

 

Riley, James Whitcomb. Little Orphant Annie. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/little_orphant_annie.html. 

 

Rossetti, Christina. The Goblin Market. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174262. 

 

Tolkein, J.R.R. The Hobbit.  Random House, 1982. pages 60-61. Web. Googlebooks. 12 Feb. 2015.

The Legend of La Gargouille

Once upon a time in the 7th century (around the 600s), in the town of Rouen, there was a terrible dragon known as La Gargouille.  La Gargouille was a most formidable creature with a long neck, great bat wings, and reptilian jaws that sounded like the guillotine when they snapped shut.  He made his home in a cave by the River Seine (located in France).  La Gargouille could breathe fire and water.  He often torched the nearby village and caused floods.  He also liked to munch on the ships that were so unlucky as to cross his path.  The villagers of Rouen were so terrified by La Gargouille that they would offer him a sacrifice every year. Although La Gargouille, like most dragons, preferred young maidens the frugal towns people usually brought forth a convict (who was most likely sentenced to die anyway).
Enter Saint Romanus (a.k.a. Romain), who agreed to get rid of the dragon if all the towns people would be baptized and build a church in his name.  The people were willing, so with a cross and the annual convict in tow Saint Romanus set out to defeat La Gargouille.  Using the sign of the cross Saint Romanus was able to conquer the beast.  He returned with the convict and the now docile dragon to Rouen.  There La Gargouille although tamed, was burned at the steak.  Curiously, the head and neck of La Gargouille would not burn seeing as they had been tempered by the dragon's own fiery breath.  Saint Romanus nailed the head and neck of La Gargouille upon his new church, where it became a water spout forever more.
I like to think that La Gargouille, being a magical creature, could still have talked had he anything to say to the town's people and no water issuing from his mouth.  Instead, I imagine that he simply grimaced and frowned upon them from above as Gargoyle's still do today.  I've read that there are different versions, differing particularly in how exactly Romanus subdued the dragon and who was (or wasn't) with him.  I find this legend quite charming and fascinating and I hope that you've enjoyed my retelling of it as much as I've enjoyed reading it.

Technically a gargoyle is only a gargoyle when it is a water spout in the shape of animals and people,  like La gargouille which descended from the Latin word gargula which means "gullet" or "throat", gargle, gargle, gargle.  I love seeing how words can be traced back to their roots in Latin.  The proper term for "gargoyles" that are not water spouts are "Grotesques" or "Chimeras" or even "Hunky Punk"!  "Hunky Punk" is from the somerset dialect (somerset being in the west country of England).  And I think it's an awesome name because it's so fun to say!  It is thought that Grotesques and Hunky Punks, since they don't serve a functional purpose, might have been put on churches to guard them and ward away evil spirits.  It is also supposed that these formidable images were also put on churches to depict moral stories to people in a time when most people were illiterate.  Now gargoyles and Hunky Punks are mainly used as interesting decorations such as the gargoyles on Washington Cathedral.

What I was really interested in trying to find out in my research on gargoyles is when did they start coming to life?  I remembered from the animated series from Disney that gargoyles were stone all day and came to life at night. I found a charming children's book called Night of the Gargoyles by Eve Bunting that also shows gargoyles coming to life at night to make mischief.  The t.v. show and book are both from the 90's, however.  This is all I can find on Gargoyles coming to life!  I wonder if this idea is a modern fabrication...

Resources:
Wikipedia / Wikipedia Gargouille
The Gargoyle
Benton, Janetta Rebold. Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings. New York: Abbeville Press, 1997. Print.
Haldane, Suzanne. Faces on Places. New York: The Viking Press, 1980. Print.