A girl paying goblins for fruit by cutting off a lock of her blonde hair, illustrating the line “Buy from us with a golden curl” from Christina Rossetti’s 1859 poem The Goblin Market, drawn by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti
29 October 2020
A goblin is a malevolent, gnome-like creature of folklore and fantasy. The word’s etymology is rather straightforward. It comes from the Old French gobelin, which is attested to once in the twelfth century and then becomes more common in the sixteenth century. The French presumably got it from the unattested Latin *gobalus, which in turn is from the Greek κόβαλος (kobalos), meaning rogue or knave, and its plural κόβαλοι (kobaloi), which can carry the meaning of mischievous sprites.
Goblin first appears in English in the first half of the fourteenth century in the poem “Of Rybaudȝ,” which appears in the manuscript London, British Library, MS Harley 2253. Harley 2253 is an anthology of poetry that contains a large number of early Middle English poetic works. The lines in question are:
The harlotes bueth horlynges ant haunteth the plawe,
The gedelynges bueth glotouns ant drynketh er hit dawe,
Sathanas, huere syre, seyde on is sawe:
“Gobelyn made is gerner of gromene mawe.”(The scoundrels are fornicators and pursue pleasure;
The bastards are gluttons and drink until dawn.
Satan, their sire, said in his proverb:
“A goblin sets his storehouse in a young man’s stomach.”)
A hobgoblin is pretty much the same creature. The hob- element comes from a familiar form of the name Robin or Robert. This hypocoristic form of the name also appears first in Harley 2253, this time in the poem “Lystneth, lordynges!,” which mocks King Robert the Bruce of Scotland:
Nou Kyng Hobbe in the mures yongeth;
Forte come to toune nout him ne longeth.
The barouns of Engelond, myhte hue him gripe,
He him wolde techen on Englysshe to pype
Thourh streynthe.
Ne be he ner so stout,
Yet he bith ysoht out
O brede ant o leynthe(Now King Hob walks on the moors;
For to come to town doesn’t suit him
The barons of England, if they might seize him,
Would teach him to pipe in English
By Force,
Though he be never so brave,
Yet he is sought out
Far and wide.)
In the late fifteenth century, the name Robin or Robert, and the associated Hob, become associated with elves or sprites, most famously in the name of Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cf. hobbit ). But the first appearance of hob as a noun meaning such a sprite is in the second Towneley play, the “Murder of Abel.” The plays appear in the manuscript San Marino, Huntington Library, MS HM 1, which was copied sometime between 1475–1500 C.E. In the passage in question, Cain refers to God as a hob:
Deus. Cam, whi art thou so rebell
Agans thi brother Abell?
Thar thou nowther flyte ne chyde.
If thou tend right thou gettys thi mede;
And be thou sekir, if thou teynd fals,
Thou bese alowed therafter als.
Caym. Whi, who is that hob ouer the wall?
We? who was that piped so small?
Com, go we hens, for parels all—
God is out of hys wit!
Com furth, Abell, and let vs weynd
Me thynk that God is not my freynd.
(God Cain, why are you so rebellious
Against your brother Abel?
There you should neither scold nor argue.
If you do right, you will get your reward,And you will be safe, but if you tend false,
You will be likewise compensated thereafter.Cain Why, who is that hob over the wall?
We? Who was that who chirped so faintly?
Come, let us go hence, for it is dangerous to all—
God is out of his wits!
Come forth, Abel, and let us go
I think that God is not my friend.)
The first known appearance of hobgoblin is in a glossary in John Palsgrave’s 1530 French grammar:
Hobgoblyng gobelin s ma. mavffe s te.
And a fuller context can be gleaned from its use in Thomas Drant’s 1567 translation of Horace’s Ars poetica (The Poetic Art):
The things thats fainde for pleasure sake be nexte to true in place.
No commodie can hope to haue all credit in eche case.
To bringe in as a trim deuise an ould wyfes chat, or tale
Of wiches buggs, and hobgoblings, such trashe is noughte to sayle.
Unprofitable Poesies, the sage sorte will not heare
And austere woorkes, the youthfull sorte will ouerlooke them cleare.
(The things that are desired for pleasure’s sake should be near to the truth.
No comedy can hope to be believed in every case.
To bring in as a pretty device an old wives’ prattle or tale
Of witches bugs and hobgoblins, such trash is not to be circulated.
Unprofitable poetry the wise sort will not hear,
And austere works the young sort will clearly despise.)
Sources:
American Heritage Dictionary, fifth edition, 2020, s.v. goblin, n.
Horace. Horace His Art of Poesie. Thomas Drant, trans. London: Thomas Marshe, 1567, B.3–B.4. Early English Books Online (EEBO).
“Lystneth, lordynges! A newe song Ichulle bigynne / The Execution of Sir Simon Fraser.” The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, vol. 2. Susanna Greer Fein, ed. TEAMS Middle English Text Series. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2014.
Middle English Dictionary, 2019, s.v. gobelin, n.
“Of Rybauds Y Ryme ant Red o My Rolle.” The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, vol. 3. Susanna Greer Fein, ed. TEAMS Middle English Text Series. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2015.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, December 2016, s.v. goblin, n.1; second edition, 1989, s.v. hobgoblin, n. (and adj.), Hob, n.1.
Palsgrave, John. Lesclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse. London: Richard Pynson and John Hawkins, 1530, fol. 40r. Early English Books Online (EEBO).
Robbins, Rossell Hope. Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Centuries. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959, 28, 216. HathTrust Digital Archive.
Stevens, Martin and A.C. Cawley, eds. The Towneley Plays, vol 1 of 2. Early English Text Society, S.S. 13. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, 20. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Image credit: Dante G. Rossetti, frontispiece from Rossetti, Christina. Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1862.