Kiera Vaclavik
190
clear undertones of Persephone and her abduction by Hades in this
text, since the goblin population live in the subterranean caverns beneath the princess’s castle.
9 The opening chapter of the text is almost
entirely devoted to the nature of the goblins and the reasons for their
underground existence: according to local legend, the goblins used to
live “above ground, and were very like other people” but, in response
to what they perceived as unjust treatment by the king, moved below
ground, the caverns explicitly serving as a “refuge”.
10 However, longterm subterranean existence has had dramatic consequences for both
the physical and moral condition of the goblins: “they had greatly
changed in the course of generations; and no wonder, seeing they
lived away from the sun, in cold and wet and dark places” (p. 4). They
have gained strength and, it seems, longevity – a father goblin says to
his child at one point: “Your knowledge is not quite universal yet […]
You were only fifty last month. Mind you see to the bed and bedding”
(p. 55). But as a result of living underground they have also “sunk”
towards their animal companions (p. 101). Stunted, with hard heads,
tender, toe-less feet, nail-less hands and mole eyes no longer able to
tolerate sunlight, they are “not ordinarily ugly, but either absolutely
hideous, or ludicrously grotesque both in face and form” (p. 4). Their
physical degeneration is accompanied by moral and spiritual disease:
they have grown cleverer in the underground, but their knowledge
takes the form of “cunning” rather than wisdom (p. 4). Their time is
spent devising ways in which to torment the residents of the surface
and they revel in the misfortune of others, even that of other goblins
(“for a few moments the others continued to express their enjoyment
of [the goblin prince’s] discomfiture”(p. 135)). They consider themselves to be vastly superior to their opponents on the surface, who,
tellingly, regard the goblins as a “degraded” race (p. 67).
11 Focalized
___________________________
9 The presence of the abduction narrative in the text is discussed by Joseph Sigman,
“The Diamond in the Ashes: A Jungian Reading of the Princess Books”, in For the
Childlike: George MacDonald’s Fantasies For Children, ed. by Roderick McGillis
(Metuchen/London: The Children’s Literature Association and The Scarecrow Press,
1992), pp. 183-94.
10 George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (London: Puffin, 1996), pp. 2, 4.
Subsequent references are to this edition and are given after quotations in the main
body of the text.
11 Sigman regards the goblins, with their hard heads, aversion to poetry and sense of
superiority as “images of the sceptical and materialistic tendencies in Victorian society” (p. 188). In other words, the goblins are Philistines, and thus, according to this
190
clear undertones of Persephone and her abduction by Hades in this
text, since the goblin population live in the subterranean caverns beneath the princess’s castle.
9 The opening chapter of the text is almost
entirely devoted to the nature of the goblins and the reasons for their
underground existence: according to local legend, the goblins used to
live “above ground, and were very like other people” but, in response
to what they perceived as unjust treatment by the king, moved below
ground, the caverns explicitly serving as a “refuge”.
10 However, longterm subterranean existence has had dramatic consequences for both
the physical and moral condition of the goblins: “they had greatly
changed in the course of generations; and no wonder, seeing they
lived away from the sun, in cold and wet and dark places” (p. 4). They
have gained strength and, it seems, longevity – a father goblin says to
his child at one point: “Your knowledge is not quite universal yet […]
You were only fifty last month. Mind you see to the bed and bedding”
(p. 55). But as a result of living underground they have also “sunk”
towards their animal companions (p. 101). Stunted, with hard heads,
tender, toe-less feet, nail-less hands and mole eyes no longer able to
tolerate sunlight, they are “not ordinarily ugly, but either absolutely
hideous, or ludicrously grotesque both in face and form” (p. 4). Their
physical degeneration is accompanied by moral and spiritual disease:
they have grown cleverer in the underground, but their knowledge
takes the form of “cunning” rather than wisdom (p. 4). Their time is
spent devising ways in which to torment the residents of the surface
and they revel in the misfortune of others, even that of other goblins
(“for a few moments the others continued to express their enjoyment
of [the goblin prince’s] discomfiture”(p. 135)). They consider themselves to be vastly superior to their opponents on the surface, who,
tellingly, regard the goblins as a “degraded” race (p. 67).
11 Focalized
___________________________
9 The presence of the abduction narrative in the text is discussed by Joseph Sigman,
“The Diamond in the Ashes: A Jungian Reading of the Princess Books”, in For the
Childlike: George MacDonald’s Fantasies For Children, ed. by Roderick McGillis
(Metuchen/London: The Children’s Literature Association and The Scarecrow Press,
1992), pp. 183-94.
10 George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (London: Puffin, 1996), pp. 2, 4.
Subsequent references are to this edition and are given after quotations in the main
body of the text.
11 Sigman regards the goblins, with their hard heads, aversion to poetry and sense of
superiority as “images of the sceptical and materialistic tendencies in Victorian society” (p. 188). In other words, the goblins are Philistines, and thus, according to this