© 2019. Annliya Shaijan. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use,
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Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: A
Arts & Humanities - Psychology
Volume 19 Issue 4 Version 1.0 Year 2019
Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal
Publisher: Global Journals
Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X
Goblin Mythology: A Brief Study of the Archetype, Tracing the
Explications in English Literature
By Annliya Shaijan
University of Calicut
Abstract- Folktales refer to the narrative prose literature of the oral tradition. They include various types of
stories like myths, legends, parables, allegories, fairy tales, ghost stories and so on. Folktales generally
have religious connotations and have mythical and imaginary elements. According to Thompson, “the
teller of stories has everywhere and always found eager listeners.” Goblins, the myth that originated in
literature around the fourteenth century, have become one of the common characters of attraction for the
writers that they survived through the fictional world over the centuries and are commonly cited figures in
the contemporary works of art. This paper is a brief study on the depiction of goblins in literature. A Goblin
is a mythical character that though does not exist in the real world, becomes a recurring character of the
imagined real world of the authors as well as of the folktales. The fictional world regards goblins as
mischievous, and demon- like and it used them as synonyms for other negative types of fairies of
malicious and evil connotations. The belief in such stories was known as “nursery goblinism.” The
recurring nature of the myth in literature is the proved depiction of the obsession of humans towards evil
and good.
Keywords: goblin, hobgoblin, archetype, myths, kobolds, folktales, nursery goblinism, asian goblin tales,
and european versions.
GJHSS-A Classification: FOR Code:
GoblinMythologyABriefStudyoftheArchetypeTracingtheExplicationsinEnglishLiterature
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