The goblin is a legendary, anthropomorphic and small creature from medieval European folklore.
Goblins were later popularized as evil imaginary people in J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit, the main source of inspiration for representations of these creatures in many works related to the medieval-fantasy subgenre of fantasy: role-playing games, literature of the imaginary and video games.
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Name | Goblin |
| Alternative names | Gobelinus (Medieval Latin), Gobellin (16th century), Goublin (Cotentin) |
| Group | European folklore |
| Close | Kobold, Hobgoblin |
| Region | France, Europe |
| First mention | 1141: Du Cange, Orderic Vital 1195: Estoire de la guerre sainte, Ambroise |
Etymology of goblin
The word goblin is attested around 1195 in Estoire de la guerre sainte by Ambroise, Norman trouvère, that is to say in an early and isolated way. Before 1141, in medieval Latin in the form gobelinus, the vulgar name of a demon that haunted the surroundings of Evreux in Normandy, at Orderic Vital. It appears in the form gobellin in the early sixteenth century. The term dates back to the Christian Latin *gobalus (“domestic genius”), hypothetical borrowing from the Greek κοβαλος / kobalos (“goblin, evil genius”).
The French word would come from a cross between the Latin word *gobalus (unattested term) and the Germanic word Kobel, followed by the suffix -in. The German Kobold (“elf”), is based on the Germanic root kov- — Middle High German Kobe (“refuge, cavity”), German Koben (“pig stable”), South German Kobel (“stable, squirrel’s nest”); English cove (“refuge, reduced”), then “cove”; Norwegian kov (“reduced”) — which originally refers to a cavity in the earth.
The radicals gob- and kob- can be compared to the Norman dialectal term gobe applying to caves dug into the limestone cliffs of the Seine valley and the Cauchois coast, especially in Dieppe, including the derivative gobier, “inhabitant of a gobe“. Gobiers, troglodyte inhabitants, were generally indigent and poorly regarded, hence by extension the meaning of “fool, benet, niais” taken by this word in Cauchois patois. The English name Goblin comes from French.
Folklore
Origin of goblin
Goblins are originally legendary creatures, from European folklore and Germanic mythology, then crossed with the tradition of goblins and geniuses that takes root in different cultures (Latin, Greek, Celtic …). The goblin is often related to the kobold of German folklore and the hobgoblin of English folklore. Attitudes, appearances and cultures depend on the legend or even the book.
It is however present in many regions, especially in Normandy for France, perhaps because of the Norse influence, under the name of goublin in the Cotentin.
Goblin description
Descriptions of goblins are quite protean. Albert Doppagne brings them closer to the bogeyman (under the name of boublin) and assigns them as the habitat of the caves. This link to the land is also highlighted by Karl Grün. According to Pierre Dubois, goblins are forty to sixty centimeters high and are rather ugly. Their head would be shaped like an egg, their ears are large and pointed. They also possess rabbit teeth. They can be beneficial or evil in the stories about them: Dom Lucae very clearly sees him as a demonic being, while Rossetti and Scheffel compare him to fairies and angels. They are also among the few creatures of the common people that can be associated with modern technology (along with gremlins and kobolds).
In the English Channel, they are famous for haunting the marshes of Carentan and houses. Hippolyte Sauvage, a historian of the nineteenth century from Mortainais in the department of Manche, tells in his legends that goblins would live in Mortain, not far from the waterfalls. It is also said that a goblin takes the appearance of a cat at the abbey of Mortemer in the Norman Vexin, under the name of cat goublin.
A song by Alfred Rossel (originally from the North Cotentin) entitled Les goublins, pays tribute to them. It concludes as follows:
Sewy of the goublins, beware of the goblins who prowl the sai in the q’mins (Beware of goblins that prowl the paths in the evening).
Literature
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
A reference to goblins appears in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, part 4, book 2, chapter 3: “Apparition to Father Mabeuf”. The latter then read only two books including Sur les Diables de Vauvert and les gobelins de la Bièvre by Mutor de la Rubaudière when he saw what he believed to be a spectre, actually Éponine. His appearance (ragged and spectral) inspires him this question: “It is very similar to what the Rubaudière says about goblins. Could it be a goblin?”
Éponine comes to help him extract information and tells him that he is the devil. Victor Hugo indicates that his character is particularly interested in goblins since his garden is a place that these spirits would have haunted. For information, we know in the novel that Father Mabeuf lived at that time in a house located in the village of Austerlitz. This village was then located in an area corresponding today to the space covered by the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital and the Austerlitz station (13th arrondissement of Paris). The neighboring district of Gobelins in Paris does not owe its name to the creatures, but to the family of upholsterers who settled there and whose surname it was.
On the other hand, everything indicates that the writer was inspired by Norman legends since at the time he lived in exile in the Channel Island of Guernsey, in addition, the very surname of Mabeuf, and not Mabœuf, recalls the Norman surnames in -beuf, from toponyms in -beuf, such as Marbeuf, Elbeuf or Daubeuf.
J.R.R. Tolkien and goblins
In Bilbo the Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien used the word “goblin” to refer to evil creatures living beneath the Misty Mountains; in The Lord of the Rings, he renamed them orcs to distinguish them from legendary creatures. Subsequently, these Tolkienian creatures were used in role-playing games, notably in Dungeons & Dragons — note however that in Dungeons & Dragons, goblins are distinct from orcs and kobolds. They have inspired other creatures, such as the gloks (giaks) of Lone Wolf or the chafouins of Dragon Dream.
In Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the Snaga are less powerful creatures than the Uruk. They usually live in groups in caves. They are found in large numbers in Moria. We learn in the first film of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring), that Saruman has, by an odious process, crossed orcs and goblins to create the terrifying Uruk-hai; not to be confused with the Uruks of Mordor.
J.K. Rowling
In the Harry Potter series of novels, goblins are bipedal and anthropomorphic creatures. Intelligent, they cultivate their own magical knowledge, thus arousing the animosity of human sorcerers who consider them as servile beings, like house elves, supposedly unworthy to carry a magic wand. However, unlike elves, goblins have rebelled several times over the centuries to claim their rights. They run Gringotts, the wizards’ official bank.
Joseph Delaney
In the series The Scarecrow, goblins contrast with their meaning in modern culture. They are invisible creatures, moving along magical roads, the leys. There are several categories, more or less dangerous, such as stone throwers, striking spirits or, the most dangerous, rippers.
However, some may be friendlier. Thus, John Gregory, the scarecrow, managed to domesticate one, who takes care of his summer home, cooking, and defending the house against intruders.
Role-playing games
Dungeons & Dragons
In role-playing Dungeons & Dragons, goblins are small humanoid creatures of about 1.20 meters. The color of their skin varies from yellow to green always remaining in dull and bland hues, and their eyes range from red to lemon yellow. Their life expectancy generally does not exceed fifty years. Nyctalopes, they live in underground caves but do not hate daylight. In fact, some live near the hot plains where they patrol to make sure no one enters their underground. They have a tribal organization, and hate dwarves and gnomes. They domesticate the Wargs (giant wolves) that serve as their war mounts.
Because of their weakness, goblins are often considered easy prey by player characters in D&D. This trait is caricatured in the comic strip Les Aventures de Kroc le Bô by Chevalier et Ségur.
Warhammer
A hostile realm swept by winds of pure magic, the Desolations of Chaos in the world of Warhammer are arguably the most tortured lands in the Old World. Barbarians with strong builds, carved by frequent fighting and the extreme conditions of the north, live there. Whenever the gods call for war against the peoples of the south, they join the armies of Chaos; they were then known as Marauders. This region is also populated by infamous creatures like goblinoids, mutants of chaos, trolls, chimeras and other creatures of chaos…
Palladium
Goblins are descendants of a fairy people who have lost their powers, with the exception of cobblers. They are small and puny humanoids (about 1 meter for 40 kg) with slender limbs, a wide chest, a thick neck and large pointed ears. They have brown or red hair and dark eyes. They live an average of 80 years and some reach 150 years. They can see in the dark up to 30 meters and are not bothered by daylight.
They are enemies of humans, kobolds, dwarves, gnomes, changelings and fairy peoples, and enjoy the company of hobgoblins, orcs, trolls and ogres.
They live in tribes of a few hundred individuals in shallow tunnels (less than thirty meters) and relatively short (extending within a radius of the order of a kilometer). Many tribes deserted the tunnels to live in the ruins of destroyed cities or in huts. Their relationships are based on the law of the strongest.
Initially a people of miners, they turn to activities of theft and looting. Many of them were conscripted by brigands, sorcerers, evil priests or demons to form an army.
Warcraft
Goblins are small, green-skinned humanoid creatures. In addition to commonalities found in Goblins in most other heroic-fantasy universes, they are known to be particularly ingenious in the same way as their rivals the Gnomes. Inventors of objects whose efficiency is matched only by the ability to explode, Goblins have a characteristic laugh that easily reveals their greed or even their rapacity. Indeed, these creatures are strongly attracted to trade, more or less honestly. They participated in the creation or founded cities (Gadgetzan, Long-Guet, Baie-du-Butin…) that belong to the Cartel Gentepression, a community that includes Goblins in majority. Some Goblins are friends with Orcs or other races of the Horde. That’s why they gladly offer their help for zeppelins. But some others preferred to join the Alliance. In the World of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion, the Goblins of the Kezan Cartel are a playable race of the Horde.
Goblin in Comics
In the Spider-Man comics, one of the main enemies of the arachnean superhero is Norman Osborn, an industrialist victim of a scientific experiment.
As a “supervillain”, he adopts the pseudonym Green Goblin in reference to the legendary creature that inspired his costume. But “the French adaptation does not really evoke this ancestry by clumsily naming him the Green Goblin, a name that would rather encourage us to list, wrongly, this character in the category of ridiculous antics,” observes Jérôme Dorvidal in the Dictionary of Myths of the fantastic.
Popular culture
In the trading card game Magic: The Assembly, goblin-like creatures appear regularly. Although often described as little green men, their appearance can vary depending on the plans (worlds) visited. They have already been seen with a shell, or exacerbated facial hair.
References (sources)
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