SOURCE: The Princess and the Goblin (1872) by George MacDonald
The Princess and Curdie (1882)

DESCRIPTION: "Now in these subterranean caverns lived a strange race of beings, called by some gnomes, by some kobolds, by some goblins.  There was a legend current in the country that at one time they lived above ground, and were very like other people.  But for some reason or other, concerning which there were different legendary theories, the king had laid what they thought too severe taxes upon them, or had required observances of them they did not like, or had begun to treat them with more severity, in some way or other, and impose stricter laws; and the consequence was that they had all disappeared from the face of the country.  According to the legend, however, instead of going to some other country, they had all taken refuge in the subterranean caverns, whence they never came out but at night, and then seldom showed themselves in any numbers, and never to many people at once.  It was only in the least frequented and most difficult parts of the mountains that they were said to gather even at night in the open air.  Those who had caught sight of any of them said that they had greatly altered in the course of generations; and no wonder, seeing they lived away from the sun, in cold and wet and dark places.  They were now, not ordinarily ugly, but either absolutely hideous, or ludicrously grotesque both in face and form.  There was no invention, they said, of the most lawless imagination expressed by pen or pencil, that could surpass the extravagance of their appearance.  But I suspect those who said so had mistaken some of their animal companions for the goblins themselves - of which more by and by.  The goblins themselves were not so far removed from the human as such a description would imply.  And as they grew misshapen in body they had grown in knowledge and cleverness, and now were able to do things no mortal could see the possibility of.  But as they grew in cunning, they grew in mischief, and their great delight was in every way they could think of to annoy the people who lived in the open-air storey above them.  They had enough of affection left for each other to preserve them from being absolutely cruel for cruelty's sake to those that came in their way; but still they so heartily cherished the ancestral grudge against those who occupied their former possessions and especially against the descendants of the king who had caused their expulsion, that they sought every opportunity of tormenting them in ways that were as odd as their inventors; and although dwarfed and misshapen, they had strength equal to their cunning." (The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald)

Jessie Wilcox Smith's Goblins

NOTES: The goblins are a race of men who chose to go underground rather than put up with unjust laws. Living underground changed them physical so that they no longer liked the sun, having "mole eyes". They can not see in the dark but require only very little light from torches. The goblins' bodies changed so that their heads were large and invulnerable, their bodies squat and their feet toeless. The goblins' only weakness is their feet which are quite sensitive. The queen of the goblins is an indestructible warrior because she wears shoes of stone. The other goblins will not wear shoes because only humans wear shoes. The goblins also hate verse which annoys them. (And if MacDonald had been the poet that Tolkien was this may not have happened.) This being said, the goblins can be killed by usual means. Curdie kills many with his knife in a battle and the rest drowned in the cellar during the flood. The goblins are not evil, only mischievous, holding a grudge against "the sun-people" as they call the surface dwellers. They are not cannibals but will feed human flesh to their weird deformed animals. The goblins talk of taking over the surface but never really try. Instead their plan is to kidnap the Princess Irene and marry her to the goblin heir apparent named Harelip. With Irene as hostage the sun-people would be at their mercy for at least a hundred years. Failing this, they plan to flood the mine and drowned all the miners. Both plans fail. The princess is rescued by Curdie and her great-great-grandmother. The flood does not fill the mine since Curdie warns them and they build a wall to protect it. The water rushes into the tunnel they built to capture the princess and floods the castle. Curdie saves everyone there too. This flood drowns most of the goblins since the water fills up their underground tunnels. The goblins who survived either moved away or became friendly like the Scottish Brownies. The miners and the goblins became good friends but the miners kill any of their weird animals they happened to find.

HISTORY: Professor Michael Drout points out the importance of The Princess and the Goblin is not that it introduced goblins to Fantasy (certainly they have been part of stories for centuries) but that it created a situation in which there was an enemy for the hero and heroine to fight (and kill). We take goblin armies for granted in this day and age of Post-Tolkien and Magic cards. But this was an innovation in 1872. Tolkien certainly wouldn't have had the goblins in The Hobbit without MacDonald. The number of goblins in fantasy fiction can all be traced back to this novel. The novel has never really had much luck with Hollywood. A poor cartoon was produced in 1992. Perhaps more famous in their day were the illustrations for the story by Jessie Wilcox Smith in 1921. Brian Froud has done a lot for goblins in recent years but nothing specifically for MacDonald.

1992 cartoon, Rank & Bass version of Tolkien's Goblins, Spiderwick Goblin and Brian Froud's Labyrinth Goblins