Goblin & Fairy Lore

“The Coblynau are pigmy fairies, who dwell in the mines and quarries of Wales. They are about half a yard in height, and extremely ugly, but extremely good-natured.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

A. Goblin adds: “Ugly but useful? That’s rather mean! It’s also basically every good Goblin I’ve ever met.”

“The Goblin, or hobGoblin, is a diminutive spirit, usually of a mischievous disposition, but sometimes friendly to mankind.”
— Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology (1828)

“If it looks interesting, it probably is. Go look. If they don’t let you look, it must be REALLY interesting.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“They work busily, loading the buckets with ore, flitting about the shafts, turning the tiny windlasses, and pounding with their little hammers; but they accomplish nothing.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“The key to the fairy idea is that there once was a real race of people to whom all kinds of attributes, possible and impossible, have been given in the course of uncounted centuries of story-telling.”
— Sir John Rhys, Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (1901)

“Panic simultaneously tells you that you have an urgent problem you need to solve RIGHT NOW THIS MINUTE and also that THERE IS NO SOLUTION AND YOU ARE DOOMED.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

Which is why Goblins prefer to just poke the problem with a stick and see what happens.

“The Bwbach is usually brown, often hairy… there was a shrill cry from inside the churn on the cart, ‘Yes, yes, we are flitting from Hendrefawr to Eingl-dud, where we’ve got a new home.’ It was the Bwbach that spoke.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“HobGoblins… are generally solitary fairies, members of the unseelie court, often mischievous or malevolent, but sometimes protective of a household if treated well.”
— Katharine M. Briggs

“Curiosity is free. Use as much as you like.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“Another grotesque Welsh Goblin goes whirling through the world… the spectre of a man walking or whirling along on its hands and feet.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“Now Goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.”
— George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (1872)

“We Goblins see a puddle and think ‘that’s worth looking at! There has probably NEVER been a puddle of that exact shape and form…’”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“At the house of a certain farmer… there was great disturbance by a spirit which threw stones into the house… the largest weighing twenty-seven pounds.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“In England the Goblin is the lubber-fiend of Milton, the Robin Goodfellow of Shakespeare.”
— Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology (1828)

“Trying to get everything PERFECT all the time is a fantastic tool if you’re really curious about the way the inside of a mental hospital looks.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“Many witnesses described certain ‘Goblins’ or ‘little people’ as ‘ugly, dark, and deformed,’ living in underground dwellings or old raths.”
— W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (1911)

“The Bwbach… is a mischievous household spirit that torments inhabitants and resists removal.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“They are little men of pigmy stature, but well-proportioned… They live underground in a country very like our own, and they have their own king and laws.”
— Giraldus Cambrensis (12th century)

“Do as thou wilt, unless you’re doing something stupid.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“Miners refrain from provoking them… Their presence brings good luck.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“They are frequently described as brown, hairy, or grotesque in appearance.”
— Katharine M. Briggs

“If a rule doesn’t seem to help anyone, it’s probably not that important.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“Chaos is great, but they won’t let you into the better restaurants if you can’t find your shoes.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“They may throw harmless stones when enraged, but their presence brings good luck.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the dwarfs.”
— George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (1872)

“Perfection may or may not be possible, but is almost always the actual opposite of creation.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“The famous Pwca of the Trwyn Farm… came there from his first abode… in a jug of barm… the Pwca was heard to say, ‘The Pwca is going away now in this jug of barm, and he’ll never come back.’”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“The Goblins of romance being, at least at the commencement, only ‘human mortals,’ endowed with superhuman powers.”
— Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology (1828)

“Most of what people decided matters is completely and utterly stupid. Ignorance + power = quite a lot of the World in which we live.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

The fairy faith was treated as a living spiritual tradition rather than dead mythology by the people who still encountered these beings.
— W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (1911)

“A detail of this theory is in explanation of the rare appearance of fairies nowadays; they are refraining from mischief in view of the near approach of the judgment.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“Be curious. Be free. But not so free that you end up in jail.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life

“In some parts the Coblynau are said to indicate the presence of rich ore by their knockings… William Evans witnessing a fairy coal-mine where coblynau work in silence.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“The Bwbach… is a mischievous household spirit that torments inhabitants and resists removal.”
— Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880)

“They are little men of pigmy stature, but well-proportioned… They live underground in a country very like our own, and they have their own king and laws.”
— Giraldus Cambrensis (12th century)

“Most of what people decided matters is completely and utterly stupid. Ignorance + power = quite a lot of the World in which we live.”
— A. Goblin, A Goblincore Guide To Life