Goblins

A goblin is a small-size fairy creature, described as a grotesquely evil and somewhat related to the brownie and gnome.

Aka : Hobgobs, Gobelins, Hob-thrush, Blobins, Bogles, Bogies, Brags, Boggarts, …

The word goblin is derived from the French gobelin, rendered as Middle Latin gobelinus, itself a loan from a Germanic term cognate to German kobold. Another root is the Greek kobalos meaning rogue.

The term goblin can apply either to the ugliest members of the fae, or to certain sub-races. Those fae numbered among the goblin subraces, include the Scottish Trows, English Spriggans, Welsh Knockers, Cornish Knockers, German Kobolds and Wichtlein, the Irish Phooka and even Shakespeare’s infamous Puck .

Origin : France, Brittain

Element : Earth, associated with Death

Description

In  The Goblin Field  (Moldova), Goblins were described as 2-3 feet tall (30 cm), thin and brown. Most were bald and "if there were females among the group they could not be distinguished from the males".

Friends/Foes

Often portrayed as the vilains and troublemakers of faerie, Goblins are not truly completely evil. Though they seem to have no moral code of their own, they are happy to enforce the one of their human hosts. The miserly and lazy are apt to feel their pinch or find their rooms and possessions in disarray. Goblins were fiercely loyal and allied with particular sorcerer or witch tribes, whom they protected and served as an equally allied tribe rather than servants or slaves. "This perception might seem a bit strange to any not accustomed to the goblin outlook" because the goblins often did what might be considered slave work for very little in return.

Tricks

Goblins are pranksters, and are known for rearranging items in the house, tangling horses, banging pots and pans, removing the clothes from sleeping humans, knocking on doors and walls and even digging up the graves to scatter the bones around. Mine goblins make knocking noises by stricking pickaxes and hammers against the stones. Some miners take the resulting sounds as a sign of good luck, believing they indicate the presence of rich deposits of ore. Other believe that they (Kobolds and Wichtlein) just imitate the miners to fool them. As a death companion he is sometimes accused to cause underground fires or warn for the coming deaths. To avoid the Knockers’ wrath, a pastie (traditional miner meal) should be left for them.

Lore

The English Hobgoblin loves to live in homes where he makes much trouble for the people who live there. Some other reside in mines where they search for treasure/trouble. Still others of the family prefer grottos, often residing in the same one for their entire life.