Ogres and Goblins and Trolls, Oh My! - Part 2

I've been looking forward to this all week. It's Goblin time!!! Down Down to Goblin Town!

I have had this song stuck in my head all week, ever since I finished writing about ogres and knew that goblins were next! Because The Hobbit is, like, my absolute favorite book, I kinda love goblins. In that special sort of way you can love toothy, big-mouthed nasty monsters who live beneath a mountain in the pitch dark and will most certainly want to eat you if they find you lost and wondering in their tunnels! I mean, you know you're up against something wicked-awesome when playing Riddles in the Dark with Gollum is preferable. Unless of course you have Orcrist the Goblin-Cleaver in your hand! In that case - have at 'em!

By the way, I just love the goblins' creepy song. What a great move by Tolkien to have the goblins singing, and it totally works in the movie too. That 1977 The Hobbit cartoon totally withstands the test of time!

OK, here are the lyrics:

Clap! Snap! the black crack! Grip, grab! Pinch, nab! And down down to Goblin-town     You go, my lad!

Clash, crash! Crush, smash! Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs! Pound, pound, far underground!      Ho, ho! my lad!

Swish, smack! Whip crack! Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat! Work, work! Nor dare to shirk, While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh, Round and round far underground      Below, my lad!

If you are writing a fantasy novel, I totally recommend considering some songs or poems; it's a classic move. And don't limit it to elves, keep your mind open.

OK, so let's see if there is anything else to know about Goblins that I didn't learn from the Hobbit.

Goblin females are called goblette. Huh, never heard that before! The word 'goblin' was first seen in the 14th century. It probably came from the Anglo-Norman, 'gobelin', which most certainly came from Old French, 'gobelin' (yes, same word) - this Old French term was seen in the late 12th century. In the early 12 century, 'gobelinus' was seen in a Medieval Latin piece (yup, that totally looks Latin to me!) and the term referred to the daemons haunting the Normandy countryside. In any case, not quite as ancient as ogres (see my blog, Part 1).

Goblins are usually described as rather small, and can range from being a bit mischievous to being the epitome of nasty-evil! They are often described as greedy, wanting gold and various treasures (who doesn't?!). And across the board they are ugly fellas, grotesque even. They also have historically had magical powers, like daemons or fairies. Huh. I think it is definitely a cool idea to write in some sorcerer goblins! I really like that concept. If anybody knows of a good fantasy story with a sorcerer goblin, please let me know! If not, I will have to write one soon.

So, remember how ogres are very similar to giants? (see my blog, Part 1!) Well, goblins have some relatives on the fantasy evolutionary tree as well! A ton of relatives. Dwarfs is one, which I think is insulting to dwarfs, but there it is. Also: brownies, gnomes, imps, kobolds, and duende. The duende is one I haven't heard about before. Duende are from folklore originating in Latin America, the Philippines, and Iberia (parts of Spain/Portugal). Um, aren't these places far apart? Hmmmm. Makes me think, the fact that these duende are known across the world in all these separate places, well, it kinda provides some credence. Just sayin'.

Let's do a side paragraph for duende. So, in Iberia, they - get this - wear big hats and sing magical songs to lure little children into the forest. There's a lesson for you kiddos! Don't go wandering into the forest! I just love all the creepy, threatening children's stories from back in the day. In Latin America, duende are a bit kinder, but still live in the forest. They actually might help you get unlost from the forest. Soooo, does that mean the Latin Americans are encouraging their children to go into the forest alone? Hmmm. Oh, and important detail - these helpful duende have no thumbs; yeah, that's important to know for some reason. In Mexico and the American Southwest, the duende are known to - get this - live inside the walls of children's bedrooms! Ahhhh!!! Unkempt children who don't clip their toenails will have their toenails clipped by these duende in the walls, while they sleep. Ahhhh!! And sometimes, these clumsy duende accidentally clip off a toe. Whoops! I prefer the thumb-less duende to these toe-collecting duende! In the Philippines, the duende dwell in caves or trees, or in the dark recesses of your house! So, sort of like bats. They may also live in anthills or termite mounds (and if you step on their mounded homes, they will curse you!). These are some flexible duende; they'll live almost anywhere. They may be good (the white-skinned ones) or evil (the black-skinned ones). These Filipino duende like to play with children, who are the only ones who can see them. At the Mariana Islands (east of the Philippines), the duende like to hide and then, like, leap out and steal little children! They hide in the remote areas of the jungle, and you have to ask their permission to go in. And they can be pretty nasty if you don't respect nature. So, these environmental activist duende, I can get behind them, well, apart from them stealing the children.

Back to goblins! So, there is a pretty famous variety of goblin called hobgoblin. They were originally created as the helpful, nice, sweet versions of goblins. Though, some have messed around with that over time (as we do!). Puck from a Midsummer Night's Dream was a hobgoblin. The 'hob' part is another way to say 'elf', so these are like, elf-like goblins. And 'hob' can also be a word that implies a sort of rustic goblin, like, a goblin that lives in the countryside. These hairy little human-like sprites like to do house chores while people sleep! Great! I want one! So when you hear that 'Dobby' is actually a synonym for hobgoblin, you will all be immediately thinking of - Harry Potter! So, Dobby's name is really the term for his species. It would be like a person's name being 'Human'. Poor Dobby. Hobgoblin is a term you will also find in Marvel comic books. The Hobgoblin was first created in 1983 as a villain in The Amazing Spider-Man (#238). I should of course then also mention that the Green Goblin is the original archenemy of Spider Man and also first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man (#14), but back in 1964!

So, the main folktales that involve goblins were not familiar to me, whereas a bunch of ogre folktales were. So, I thought, let's at least look into one of these. As a nod to my sister-in-law Inga, I will choose to research King Gobb! King Gobb is from Moldovan Gypsy folklore! *much time passing* Um, actually, I sadly can't find any details, oh no! Inga, do you know? I'm not sure how much time you may have spent as a child, swapping stories with the gypsies around their campfires.

Well, instead of telling you who King Gobb is (which now I really want to know!), I will mention the Anglo-Scottish folklore about redcaps, which are murderous goblins who dye their hats red with human blood! Ok, now we're moving into horror genre. Still, if you need a good villain in your fantasy book, you might want to go this way. Redcaps live in castle ruins, which is very cool. I'm thinking, maybe these redcap goblins should be sorcerers. Wizard types like good hats after all, and I think they also like to live in old castle towers, so it all fits together. Oooor, castle dungeons. I always picture goblins down in the dark.

Anybody here love The Hobbit cartoon? Do people like the nicer Dobby-like hobgoblins better than the creepy goblin hoard types? Did anybody already know about duende? Do you think you will start telling your children to stay out of the forest and clip your toenails - or else?