by Nora Carver

Created on: March 01, 2010

Believed to have originated from the Germanic sprite the Kobolt, in more modern times their origin appears to be somewhere in Britain where they migrated from England to France and then throughout the rest of medieval Europe. Nomads by nature, goblins have no real homes, traveling from country to country making temporary homes out of natural caves, crags and other impermanent natural shelters. One tradition relates goblins to the king of the gnomes, found throughout pre medieval and medieval Scandinavia and northern Europe.

Goblin seems to be a universal generic term for many different small and mischievous creatures. Depending on the country of origin, goblins can be friendly but mischievous or malicious and evil. Their description also varies from region to region, ranging in size from near human stature to tiny imps no more than a foot high. While they vary widely in physical characteristics, they almost all have predominately large slanted ears. Some are grotesquely ugly while others are merely strange looking.

The most widely known representation of a goblin describes them as being able to grow as tall as three feet, and having a thick pelt of course, black, wiry hair covering their entire body.  They normally are found wearing dark or grey clothing and wearing a cap. The cap is believed to represent their servitude to the gnome king.  They are depicted as having large, thick yellowish and crooked teeth.  The goblin is a race which is perpetual of itself having both male and female variants. The women are described as extremely ugly hags, sometimes having unkept gray mops of hair on their heads, usually filled with lice and other various unsavory pests.

Goblin culture is represented as being the opposite of human society. All rituals and activities are done in a perverse manner, representing the worst of human nature. Goblin children are abused and mistreated by their elders in order to keep them rough and mean. they have their own strange form of religion the details of which are a mystery to men, though the rituals are strikingly vulgar and tainted with evil when rarely observed by the unfortunate traveler in the wilds. While goblins do have the capability to create fire, they prefer to eat their meat raw, straight off the bone, and usually from a live victim. They do not wash their clothes, nor take baths and seem to be abhorrent of water for any reason.

In fairy lore, goblins are members of the Unseelie court, the anti fairy groups of

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