The
folkloric nature of goblin is so amorphous as to be impossible to pin down.
This is because people began to use it in a fairly general way, to mean one of
many different possible fairy creatures, but despite the often-frustrating ways
which the English language often mixes words around there does seem to be a
group of beings from which many of the ideas of ‘goblins’ sprang. These are tutelary
deities, that is fairies of the household, which have been driven from their
home, and or wild fairies that people tried and failed to domesticate.
Etymologically
the word has two possible origins, one was used to describe traitors and
demonic spirits, the second was used to describe household spirits, protectors
of rooms and perhaps especially the bed chambers. In this one of the goblin’s
folkloric ancestors, the kobold, is well known for its wild and raucous laugh.
More than this they were also well known for stealing treasure from neighboring
households.
William
Sayer’s in their article on the origins of goblins states that:
An Old English protector of rooms can
then have been evicted from the home to the wilderness, burdened with a
derogatory foreign name…. An Old English protector of rooms can have been both
evicted from the home to the wilderness and burdened with a derogatory foreign
name. There the goblin survived but surely with an irreversible darkening of
mood.
While
I state that goblins were likely former domesticated fairies, it is important
to keep in mind that household and forest beings were often intermixed, such
that forest fairies often became house fairies and vice versa, what’s more it
wasn’t always clear which one was dealing with. Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, who dwells
within the woods, also dwelt within the home and helped with the cleaning.
Pixies were at once a fairy of the moorlands and of the farms, who helped with
the threshing and rewarded those who kept their homes clean.
There
are perhaps five types of household spirits of interest here.
First
are ancestral spirits who continue to live within a house and or with a family.
The
second are tutelary spirits that are either connected to the house or the land
it is on. That is, the soul of the house, the spirit who owned the land before
a house was built, etc. One child, for example, was attacked by the spirit of a
tree which had been cut down to make a house.
The
third type is the fairy from the wilderness who is invited into the home to
become a house fairy.
Third
are the fairies which live near the home and help with domestic tasks but are
still, essentially wild such as the pixies of Dartmoor.
Finally
there are the deities of domestic things, such as the fairies of weaving, or
which are involved in churning butter, caring for cows, etc. Even Zeus falls
into this category, as he would take the form of a snake to protect homes and
so might be found dwelling by a person’s fireplace.
These
are, of course, likely intermixed with unrelated fairies such as the zwerg and
knockers of mines.
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Loki
and the goblins
One
of the easiest ways to understand ‘domestic goblins’ is to examine Loki as
there is so much written about him. Loki in folklore was a house fairy, seemingly
very different from the mythological portrayal of him. As Eldar Heide put it: “It
seems there were two Lokis. One was a vatte 'domestic spirit' living under or
by the fireplace, helping farmers with the farm work and attracting wealth to
the farm. The other, the mythical character, was very different but still
derived from the vatte.”
Eldar
Heide has an engaging article explaining the connection between Loki, the
Nordic house fairy or Vatte, and the trickster character of folklore known as
the Ash Lad. These Ash Lads and the Vatte would upset the natural order of
things, aiding the peasants against the wealthy and kings. This would explain
why the mythology we have, which was told and penned down by the wealthy
disliked a figure like Loki, after all, robbing from the rich as Robinhood did,
or overthrowing the judge as Loki did, might be all well and good for a peasant
but it is an evil act in the mind of the nobility.
The
ash lad is a dirty boy from a poor family who seems lazy, small, and weak. A
dreamer who thinks in unusual ways he prefers to stay at home by the fire, but
when forced to go out into the world he turns out to be extremely clever and
able to trick powerful beings in order to get what he wants. They also, inexplicably,
end up in the court of a King where traditionally they would seem to have no
business being, just as Loki found himself in Odin’s court, despite being an
outsider. More than this he became Odin’s blood brother.
The
king in folklore promises the Ash Lad half the kingdom in return for his help,
but then when the ash lad completes the quest the king tries to backpedal on
his word, before finally having to give in. "It is understandable that the
king is unwilling to accept as his son-in-law and successor on the throne a
dirty, ragged, poor low-born boy who is comfortable with effeminacy and
humiliation and who is supported by oddballs and hags, and animals from the
wilderness. Accepting the Ash Lad amounts to a revolution."
Everyone
assumes the Ash Lad will fail because they are so odd and don’t exhibit what
would be thought of as heroic traits, but instead they succeed because of their
oddness and non-heroic character. He succeeds because he negates the hierarchy
and the snobbish establishment. The otherworld is an inversion of the human
world, and so while the Ash Lad has trouble navigating or understanding the
human world, they are the only ones who can succeed in getting treasures or
rescuing someone from the other world.
Many
kings would attempt to negotiate with these magical and spiritual outsiders in
Germanic lore. Indeed, Odin became blood brothers with Loki, perhaps as a way
of getting Loki to help maintain Odin’s vision of the world and his power. Loki
in this case being primordial force or spirit that Odin sought to domesticate
to obtain power, the way many will seek to domesticate and sometimes forcibly tame
fairies to serve as house fairies. This worked for a while, Loki saved the gods
on many occasions, helping them out of serious jams and aiding them in obtaining
great treasures the way helping spirits often aided shamans. But as is so often
the case the trying to tame wild spirits can backfire, and so it was the Loki
would inevitably betray and destroy Odin once he failed to keep up his end of
the bargain (Warner).
Just
as Loki was an outside spiritual force brought into the home of Odin, house
fairies were often spiritual forces brought into the home. Just as Loki often
went on adventures with Odin’s son Thor, so too did house fairies often
adventure with the children of the house, but this often turned out bad for
them, as Loki often suffered in adventures.
House
fairies and Ash Lads like Loki used cleverness and cunning and wit to obtain
treasures for the house. Yet like Odin their family would eventually betray
them by acting immorally
(notice Loki’s criticism of the Gods), by acting too self-centered and certain
(notice his attack on the judge), or by not feeding them properly.
Loki
can be thought of as a lesson on how to treat and avoid mistreating a house fairy,
for fear that they should become a goblin. For make no mistake, while some house
fairies were ancestral spirits, many if not most were still wild beings that
had entered people’s homes, more than this they were spiritual beings and such
beings are very ambiguous.
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Spiritual
Beings are Ambiguous Beings
Household
fairies in Germanic lore were often thieves who stole from the neighbors, and
in Slavic lore they were often dangerous to the neighbors. It is possible that
their thieving nature originated as a desire to steal from one’s wealthier
neighbors and as fear that someone’s neighbors would steal from them. Fairies,
as Perkiss points out, are often a reflection of our dark desires and sins. That
is, we accuse them of that which we wrongfully did or want to do. So, people
loved their house fairies but often feared the fairies of others. There are
numerous stories of these fairies stealing from neighbors, trying to smother
house guests, etc.
Fairies
and ancient deities were ambiguous figures in general. That is, they could act
in ways that were both good or bad depending on their mood and relation to the
person they were encountering. We must first recall that Zeus would protect
people as a domestic deity, but in many stories, he would also assault them.
Consider
also Sylvanus, the god of farms and woodlands in Roman lore, who was so beloved
that he was one of the most venerated deities in Rome, however, people also had
to keep him away from women giving birth for he would harm them and the child. Or
Hermes, the god of shepherds who would come down the chimney to snatch children
away. Fairies and deities in lore have always been associated with both danger
and wealth. What else could we expect from nature which gives us food and predators?
As
I have pointed out in the past fairies and deities are frequently their own opposites,
having multiple souls that can be both kindly and dangerous and we certainly
see that with house fairies. In one Welsh Story, a bwca (house fairy) was
insulted by a servant he’d thought was his friend, he attacked her then turned
into a bogle, a monstrous goblin fairy, haunting houses and causing trouble for
years before finally finding a new friend who could help him settle, then when
their new friend died, they turned back into a destructive bogle.
Household
fairies were often capricious, in part, because they existed in a precarious world
in general, torn between humanity and fairyland. We see the danger of this in
the story of “Puss in Boots”. After inheriting nothing but his father’s cat a
young man says; “but for my part, when I have eaten up my cat, and made me a
muff of his skin, I must die of hunger."
Jacob
Grimm presumed that the cat in question was a house fairy, and this makes sense
for a number of reasons, and this moment certainly shows the precarious situation
house fairies could find themselves in. Although eating them likely didn’t happen
often in lore, there are certainly stories of them being threatened with knives
or beaten and banished from homes in tears.
Peeves,
Dobby, and the Goblins - It is interesting to note that goblins can often be
thought of as poltergeists or the house fairies from the borderlands between
Scotland and England called dobies. That is, they are the spirits of a building,
place, or ancestral spirits who grow troublesome, or house fairies that are
troublesome.
The
Underground Others – It
is likely that there were fairies who dwelt underground and loved shiny things or
were associated with treasure for longer than people have cared about gold. Whether
the zwerg (dwarves) of Germany, the Shirte of the Nenets in Northern Asia, who
have beautiful beaded objects and silver and lived underground, or the little
people of Yupik lore in Alaska.
These
little peoples most often lived underground and could be associated with industry
and mining, or among hunter-gatherers with hunting luck and food. Yet they were
also tricky and would put people under their spells, deceive people, and of
course steal from people’s food stores. They often had animal features or twisted
features that appeared ugly to human eyes, although some could be beautiful,
they were all strange.
These
others, or underground people, don’t have to have a common origin per say,
although they might. They could, also however, come from the fact that they tap
into something that many cultures, from Africa through Asia and the Americas
find engaging. They are one of our most important and oldest pieces of folk
religion and folklore, because they have emotional and psychological value,
because they offer us truths.
As
has always happened people spin false tales about the goblins specifically and
fantasy in general. These new tales are as damaging as any spun by the nobility
and kings of old. Rulers who clung to power by claiming that the others of lore
were demonic figures, were against the heavens, represented something people of
their and our day despised. Those in power have always disliked goblins and the
underground people, perhaps because they refuse to be controlled.
This
isn’t to say that goblins aren’t dangerous, or that they are safe and good. Goblins
are of value because they aren’t safe. They warn us of mistreating those who
are helpful, they give us symbols of rebellion, they poke fun at the status
quo, they offer us the psychological and emotional benefits of horror stories,
and so much more.
Still
Wild
House
fairies aren’t tame, they are supernatural and often wild entities. Say a curse
word around one and it might just burn down the home in revenge. Get in a loud
argument and it might just give you a disease out of spite.
So,
what are goblins? Well, in this iteration they are fairies and deities when
they are acting destructively as part of their ambitious nature. Or they are
house fairies who have been wronged and turned destructive, or they are wild
beings which someone attempted but failed to tame. Rather than a species of
being then, they can be thought of as an aspect of spirits.
However, Goblins are also Trickster Beings. Something I will explore more in future articles, along with their more violent and funny natures.
Get
Early Access to all my articles on my Patreon
+Download
the ebook for Understanding Fairy Mythology.
Wanner, K. J. (2009). Cunning
Intelligence in Norse Myth: Loki, Óðinn, and the Limits of Sovereignty. History
of Religions, 48(3), 211–246. https://doi.org/10.1086/598231
Heide, E. (2011). Loki, the “Vätte”,
and the Ash Lad: A Study Combining Old Scandinavian and Late Material. Viking
and Medieval Scandinavia, 7, 63–106.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/45019150
Sayers,
William. “The Dispossessed House-Spirit: The Etymology of goblin and Some
Thoughts on its Early History”
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