Today I want to test a new format on Gobblin.net – the “Gobblin Gab” post. In these posts, I’ll set up a topic for discussion related to Labyrinth the film or manga where readers can share their thoughts as a freeform conversation. In this way, we can keep the Labyrinth discussions alive without having a single thread grow ever more unwieldy, plus, by having a rotating topic, we can keep the discussions fresh. It will also help me to post more about Labyrinth without getting into volume 4 teasing too early or often. What do you think?
For the first installment of Gobblin Gab, let’s talk about the unsung heroes of the Labyrinth–the Goblins! While it is undoubtedly Jareth and Sarah who stir the most passions in Labyrinth fandom, there’s no doubt that the Goblin King wouldn’t be nearly as interesting without his subjects. I have three editions of the Goblins of Labyrinth art book/guide, which matches Terry Jones’ witty prose with Brian Froud’s gorgeous concept art, and while I don’t treat them as story bibles for Return to Labyrinth, they certain serve as inspiration for all things goblinesque. What wonderful creatures of illogic and grotesquerie goblins are! (And a little creepy at times, I must confess — especially the way their lower lips flap!)
To get the discussion started, I am curious, how to readers relate the Goblins of Labyrinth art books to the film? Do you consider Jones’ goblin history to be canon, or just a silly supplement with no real bearing on how you view the film? And when it comes to goblins, which ones are people’s favorites from the movie, manga or art book? Discuss!
Stumble Upon
Del.icio.us
Buzz
Loading ...
This is a great topic. I have a collection of Brian Froud’s books. In fact the 2006 edition of Goblins of Labyrinth is sitting on my very disheveled bed right now. I was looking at it earlier. My mother passed away in early November of 2006. I am a book collector and the very last book she ever bought for me was the 2006 reprint of Goblins of Labyrinth. (Part of why it upsets me so much that an unpleasant aunt of mine won’t let her kids watch Labyrinth and other relatives don’t believe me when I say my mother had thought her kids would love it. I have a not-so-nice extended family that I don’t often like talking about but I just wanted to vent that)…
I have two versions of Goblins of Labyrinth. I have the 2006 version and the 1996 edition which was retitled The Goblin Companion: A field guide to Goblins. This version is more compact and resembles a Harry Potter style school book. The cover is also kind of sponge-like in material. This printing is also missing quite a few pages of art work that is in the full Goblins of Labyrinth. I think the most complete edition of Goblins of Labyrinth is the 2006 edition because it has all the content of the 1986 version but with an afterward that talks about David Bowie as Jareth and other interesting tidbits about the film. I do not own the original 1986 edition. It tends to go a little pricey and I know the 2006 edition has the same content with a few bonuses.
I adore Brian Froud’s artwork. And yes, I do take it as canon. I have referenced content from Goblins of Labyrinth / Goblin Companion when portraying Jareth in online role playing games and in writing fan fiction. There are certain things I do play around with because considering Jareth’s alternate form is that of a barn barn owl I sincerely doubt he’s too pleased with the existance of such drinks as ‘Owl Wine.’
My favourite movie goblin has to be Jareth (if he counts
) If not I’ll say Hoggle. Considering Jareth rules over him I figure he has to be the unfortunate off-spring of a drunk dwarf and a goblin. His image does appear in Goblins of Labyrinth even if there’s no specific passage for him.
Wait, as I write that I think maybe Sir Didymous. He’s got that cute Don Quixote as a goblin thing going on. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized how much he was like Don Quixote and how fitting is that? A subconscious nod to ‘Dream the impossible dream.’
I love them both.
In the manga, of course Scub is a great goblin. The cutest. I thought he’d be annoying but he’s kind of cute. And I hated Spittledrum at first but now I’m starting to care about him.
My favourite Froud Goblin isn’t even one from Goblins of Labyrinth. He’s in the book Goblins! (from 2005). Gargle. He’s the editor of Goblins! And he’s just so cute.
Correction. Goblins! is from 2004 not 2005.
I think for a little while you could get plush dolls of these goblins at F. A. O. Shwartz but I could never afford them.
I actually just got Goblins of Labyrinth recently, and I haven’t completely devoured it yet. I consider it canon. After all, we need names for those in the film, don’t we?
My favorite movie gobbies have to be Alph and Ralph/Jim and Tim (the puzzle guards). I didn’t know their names until I got a hold of a copy of the novelization a while back. I love logic puzzles, so it makes sense that I would like these guys. (There’s an episode of Powerpuff Girls that has the same puzzle, and when I was little I thought they stole it from Labyrinth).
In the manga, my favorite goblin is a faerie.
I guess after a while I’ll develop a favorite goblin, but I just like them equally at this point. (Except Candlewick- he’s not in the favorites)
I have the 1996 edition of “A field Guide to Goblins: The Goblin Companion” and “Goblins!” both of which are two of my favorite books. I found the first by chance in an old bookstore, but I’ve yet to find the 2006 edition of it, which is what I really want.
Anyway, I take these books to be canon. I mean, they were written by the very people who had a hand in creating Labyrinth; what’s more canon than that? I hope to see more of them, too. I just love anything and everything that has to do with my favorite fandom!
A favorite goblin? Oh, dear… I don’t think Jareth is really a goblin. Perhaps a Fae or something of the sort? Neh. But I’d have to say that as far as true gobby-gobs go, I like Blewsabella (found in Goblins! ). She’s cool. No pun intended, for those of you who know who I’m talking about.
The books are on my list, unfortunately I don’t have ‘em yet. A goal for this summer! However, I do especially like one of the goblins in the book I had seen on an example sheet– Skeeb, or something. He was sitting on a pencil.
Kendra, I believe the 2006 version of Goblins of Labyrinth can still be found on amazon. It was only three years ago after all. The link to it’s amazon page is attached to my name if you click on it.
I think Jareth is a type of Faerie not unlike the ‘third race’ in Disney’s Gargoyles. He physically resembles Brian Froud’s faeries. If you notice some of the faeries of Good Faeries / Bad Faeries are able to create enticing orbs not unlike Jareth’s. Jareth may have been mortal once (or maybe raised to think he was mortal until it was time for him to take the crown) but he’s certainly not human now.
I don’t think he ages. He’s ruled The Labyrinth for 1,300 years and can turn into a Barn Owl at will. He can summon crystal orbs for scrying. These aren’t typical human powers.
He can’t be a mere sorcerer (though Mizumi seemed to imply this in Return to Labyrinth Volume 2). I doubt he’s a type of goblin unless you count the Japanese Tengu as a goblin (If you have ever seen the anime or rread the manga Tactics, you know what I’m talking about.) Tengu are creatures of Japanese that seem human like (in lore they have long noses but not in modern incarnations like the anime Tactics). They resemble humans but they have unusual magical powers and are associated with birds of prey. (Notice Jareth’s kinship with owls). In the English version of Tactics the word Tengu is translated into Goblin.
Tengu is the only type of goblin Jareth could possibly be but I doubt Jim Henson and Brian Froud were thinking of Japanese folklore. Jareth is a Westernized creature so I’m leaning toward Faery similar to the kind you see in Disney’s Gargoyles, Shakespeare’s a Midsummer Night’s dream and many other faery tales. Not the tiny pixie kind with the wings for fluttering around. More the human sized Sidhe or Changeling (usually formerly human) like the changeling child that Titania and Oberon were fighting over in Shakespeare.
In some lore Puck (the trickster) is actually Oberon’s half-mortal son. When he was six he was endowed with faery magick and immortality. Some people call Puck a Hobgoblin. If he uses that title than Puck is my favourite Goblin of all time outside of a certain Goblin King (who is more likely a faery). Puck is very much a faery though I do have that loophole to count him as a goblin.
I believe Jareth is a Faery. The powers and appearance match up. It only makes sense.
I should get that Froud book. I saw the original at a used bookstore for $50, but that was too much. I didn’t know a reprint existed! (Thanks for pointing that out, Mandy.)
Last fall I was lucky enough to visit NYC (I’m from the Midwest) and at FAO Schwartz, they had an entire series of (non-Labyrinth) Brian Froud goblin plushes! See some here:
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/brian-froud-plush-goblin-pickle-fao-schwarz
I really wanted one, but they were both expensive and a bit too big for the plane ride home. Has anyone taken a close look at these? They come with a wonderful backstory on their tags!
I feel so stupid reading your comments some of it I didn’t understand…:( Especially Mandy’s last post I want to know what characters you’re referring to and what book(s) you read about them from so I can be smart too! But I’m amazed at the depth of your knowledge it’s inspiring
. And I’m sorry about your extended family Mandy and your mom that’s so sad…
I haven’t read the Goblins of Labyrinth either or anything like that, but next time I’m at Barnes and Noble I’m going to take a look and see if it’s worth 30 bucks. The most I’ve seen is some “concept art” on the second DVD of Labyrinth and my favorite in there is the goblin with the scythe and playing cards falling around her. Also a Goblin with one eye that was amusing.
My favorite favorite very favorite goblin of them all though is the guy at the part where Sarah’s about to wish Toby away and he says 2 times I think “Did she say it?” and everyone tells him to shut up XD. He looks like a bull it makes me so happy! Then my next favorite is Hoggle of course I relate to him love him
. Skub’s probably next he’s adorable! The next favorite is probably the goblin Hoggle kicks out of the giant guard of the Goblin city gates. He looks like a fly, but has a human quality about him and he has wings!
I disagree with the general opinion of the bad goblins they’re interesting characters to me. I really like the way Candlewic looks, but I don’t like his attitude much. It could be the facial hair I like good facial hair. How’d he get to be so tall? His story seems fascinating to me many possibilities. Cob’s story also fascinates me as to how he had the gall to stand up to Jareth, why he got cast out, etc. Also he’s got the face of a psychopath crazy person and that really stands out even though he looks sorta like Hoggle. I wonder if they were brothers or something.
There’s my two cents I suppose. The goblins are awesome creatures all around though! Um I dunno if I’m allowed to ask a semi-divergent topic in here, but I was wondering what you guys think of the ball scene. My opinion is those are really goblins, but since it’s a dream they’re portrayed as humans right? So I was thinking since the Goblin King steals babies and turns them into goblins that the ball scene portrays the goblins as they would look as an adult if they didn’t get kidnapped and turned into goblins. Which brings me to another question: will Toby steal babies once he defeats Mizumi? I may be completely off I need to read that Goblin guide soon.
Alison, I’m a Sir-Toe-Fried Goblinologist. I studied at the Labyrinthine Institute of Goblinology in Mid-Town Goblin City. Of course the institute is little more than a half empty garbage can but the goblins count that as university.
Anyway, that’s an interesting theory about the masqueraders of the ball room. They could be anything from illusions created by Jareth to courtiers from neighbouring Kingdom. I don’t think they’re goblins though. If you read the Labyrinth novelization it’s heavily implied that until Sarah came along no one had been wished away in possibly centuries. Since the goblins appear to have limited life spans (they actually age in the manga whereas Jareth does not age) it seems unlikely that any goblin created by Jareth from a human is even still alive.
However… Are we even sure that when Goblin takes a baby it turns into one of those type of goblins? Jareth says ‘Before your baby brother becomes one of us forever.’ He says ‘one of us’ meaning he’s counting himself in there. Jareth is not a typical goblin. I suspect the transformation he’s speaking of would have been making Toby something like himself (Toby would have been by definition a Changeling). And in a way, with Return to Labyrinth, he’s kind of succeeded in making Toby what he is sort of. Even in the Labyrinth novelization it mentions that he was tired of his crown and wanted an heir.
Faeries in folklore had a habit of taking children and turning them into their own kind.
Examples of this can be found in
The Stolen Child by William Butler Yeats.
The Ballad of True Thomas.
The Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti (in which a young girl is thrown into a thrall by eating goblin fruit).
Rumplestiltskin (The magical imp wants the princess’s baby).
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare in which the subplot deals with King Oberon and his wife Queen Titania arguing over a ‘blue boy’ changeling.
According to the seventeenth century Ballads of Robin Goodfellow Puck (Oberon’s servant) is actually the result of Oberon having disguised himself as a mortal and sleeping with a country maiden. When Puck was six he was claimed by the faeries.
And more contemporary:
The episode of Torchwood called Little Worlds in which faeries are out to obtain a little girl to make into one of them.
There’s an episode of the new BBC / NBC series Merlin in which two exiled faeries plan to offer up the soul of Prince Arthur to pay for having killed a fellow faery.
The two part episode of Gargoyles The Gathering in which Oberon (king of the faeries) wants Xanatos’s son.
I used to think Jareth took children and turned them into literal goblins because of what Sarah said ‘and turn it into a goblin.’ And it is likely that he used to do that when children were wished away more often in the dark ages (as implied in the novelization) but I get the impression that children hadn’t been wished away in a long time. And I don’t think Jareth ever had any real intention of turning Toby into a literal goblin. The original novelization had Jareth wanting to use Toby as an heir (as he does in the Return to Labyrinth manga). And Jareth did treat Toby very well. ‘A lively little chap. I think I’ll call him Jareth. He’s got my eyes.’ Why call him Jareth if he means to turn him into something so foul? Why treat him so kindly and play with him and cuddle him? Jareth was a better babysitter than Sarah.
Maybe Jareth had gone soft in falling in love with Sarah. He couldn’t bring himself to turn Toby into a literal goblin. Maybe his love for her began to kindle a long repressed conscience. Or being out of practice for so long in having not had a wished away child in centuries Jareth had no interest left in making new goblins out of babies.
And now a classic piece of poetry…
The Stolen Child
(By William Butler Yeats)
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
Away with us he’s going,
The solemn-eyed:
He’ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than he can understand.
That’s a beautiful poem. I can’t believe I haven’t seen it before!
I’ve been studying faery folklore for the past year and a half, but I don’t know near as much as you do, Mandy. Even so, I agree that Jareth is most likely a Faery of some sort. A sidhe, most likely; his wily ways more than account for that.
By the by, I’ve started watching Gargoyles. I couldn’t wait for it to come via the mail, so I started watching it on youtube. So far I’m on episode eight. It’s great so far! It’s funny– I think this cartoon was made for me. Two of my obsessions have made ‘appearances’ in it so far. “Don’t tell me this is where Dracula shows up,” made me laugh because he’s one of my muses, and then there was a statue of Alice of Wonderland at the the mad tea party in central park. I don’t know if that’s a real statue or not, but it was pretty cool either way.
That poem The Stolen Child by William Butler Yeats was adapted inot a very pretty song if you can find it. I can’t recall who sings it but I think there are a few covers of it on playlist(dot)com that you can hear of the site if you register with them.
I’ll have to check the Gargoyles episodes to see which statue you’re talking about. I haven’t been to New York City in a few years but I’m pretty sure there really is an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party statue, it’s either real or internal Disney nod. Almost every landmark you see in Gargoyles is a real New York City location (except for Xanatos’s skyscraper with the castle on top). some cartoons when set in new York City pretty much make it look like a generic city but Gargoyles and Real Ghostbusters both did great work sprinkling real New York landmarks throughout the show. I like watching a cartoon and going ‘Oh, I’ve been there!’ which I’ve been able to do a few times with Gargoyles. For the first twenty-four (two weeks shy of twenty five) years of my life I lived in North Bellmore on Long Island (a Suburb of New York City). I’m twenty seven now. Currently I’m in the Adirondack Mountains in the middle of no where (Painfully boring) but hopefully in a year or so I’ll move on somewhere else. I was going to move to New Jersey last month with some friends but those plans fell through.
God, I miss New York City.
I’m glad you’re enjoying Gargoyles. My personal favourite episodes are the two parter The Gathering in Season 2 and The Mirror (episode 5 of Season 2). Both those episodes involve Puck and a few other faeries.
I love Faery Folklore. I have several books on the subject.
The Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and other supernatural creatures.
The Great Encyclpedia of Faeries
Faery Magick
A Witch’s guide to Faery Folk
The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shapeshifting beings
And of course the Brian Froud books:
Goblins!
Goblins of Labyrinth
The Goblin Companion: A field guide to goblins
Runes of Elfland
Faeries
Good faeries / Bad faeries
World of Faerie
Aggh, that’s what I get for trying to type and eat ice cream at the same time. My post is full of typos.
Let me correct the first paragraph here…
That poem The Stolen Child by William Butler Yeats was adapted into a very pretty song if you can find it. I can’t recall who sings it but I think there are a few covers of it on playlist(dot)com that you can hear off the site if you register with them.
Now for a little Goblin Social Studies because I’m bored.
According to The Goblin Almanack in the book Goblins! by Brian Froud and Ari Berk we are now in the goblin month of FELLAGASH (there’s a goblin name for every month. Apparently the only month we share with them is MARCH). The meaning of the month FELLAGASH roughly translates to ‘Pull my Claw.’ It’s the stinkiest month of the Goblin year. They have Farter’s day instead of Father’s day. And on the 23rd (my own half-brother’s Birthday) is the Goblin holiday of BUMPSPLOTCH DAY. On this day goblins slide across mortal kitchen floors.
The only Goblin reference book I have is Goblins of the Labyrinth, and I truly love the artwork and stories of the ancients, but what had me was the intro referring to the mouse traps. I can’t help but laugh every time I think about it!
I think my favorite goblin had to be Hoggle. My second would be the Goblin Prime Minister Roem Baaba ( please forgive the absence of accent marks), he is the one shown during Sarah’s monologue about wishing Toby away and everyone is telling him to shut up.
“Did she say it?”
“SHUT UP!”
The feast that Skub refers to in the manga reminds me a lot of the Eve of All Owls’ Night, when the Goblin Armies feasted and drank Owl Wine.
Sure the classic look of the puppet was inventive and creative, and there will be a connection there that fans will always treasure, but with the artwork of the manga has a different tone to it, more familiar and funny tone. I can only imagine this is because of the new circumstances regarding the Labyrinth.
I also wonder if maybe the goblins changed along with Jareth. Spittledrum seems to have a bit of a heart, and Hoggle will always be the lovable Hoggle we all remember.
And I know I’ve probably asked this a hundred times, but does anyone know who the girl on the cover and within “The Goblins of Labyrinth” is?
(Sigh) I have the Goblins! and The Goblins of the Labyrinth in my wishlist on Amazon, but sadly I must pay the bills first before I splurge. We need a goblin lore education board here.
brightlotus, if you are patient sometimes you can find third party sellers with them on amazon for very cheap.
Maggie, I’m not sure but I think that girl in Goblins of Labyrinth is meant to be an early concept version of Sarah. She seems to be meandering through The Labyrinth and there’s one picture where it looks like she’s with Hoggle.
I really really need to read the novel based off the movie! I will definitely sometime! I feel such a fool now XD. That makes sense about Jareth not intending to change the baby yet then why did he allow himself to be defeated he could’ve just gave it to her. Maybe he was really hoping for an heir I guess. Nuts I kinda liked my theory…but oh well. Jareth does sound like a Faery, but what’s a Sidhe?
And thanks for the reference list Mandy now I can be as smart as you should I desire it!
I do, but I have other stuff to buy first sigh… I wish smart people could do that more often and that is list where they got their knowledge.
Yes that’s his name Baaba! I love him he’s my second favorite!!! Oh and I also love that Goblin that turns over Sarah’s lipstick marks lol XD. “Your mother looks like an aardvark!” haha.
That’s interesting I never thought of them having a calendar haha. And that is a really cool poem I agree the world is full of weeping.
I used to love Gargoyles when it was on as a kid I watched it all the time. Then they stopped playing it like several other cartoons I used to watch and it made me sad. I had no clue you could learn Faery lore from it XD.
Alison, a Sidhe (pronounced as “Shee”) is an Irish Faery that is usually very cunning and less-than-helpful. There are some evil Sidhe, but for the most part, they’re just mischievous from what I can tell.
I would also like to read the novelization, but to buy a copy is so expensive! I know that you can read it online, too, but I’d much rather have my own copy and thus contribute to the Jim Henson company. Any ideas as to how we can get copies for less than $50-$80?
A sidhe (pronounced Shee) is just a particular type of Faery of Irish and Scottish (and some parts of England) folklore. Usually humanoid and human sized and without wings. The faeries of Shakespeare’s a Midsummer Night’s Dream and Disney’s Gargoyles could be counted as Sidhe. The Sidhe also appear in the urban fantasy book series The Dresden Files. In some (but not all) versions of the legends about them they cannot lie so they find new and more clever ways to trick mortals without actually lying. Such as a faery seeing two people bound and asking ‘Do you want to be separated?’ Well, when the people say yes, suddenly they find themselves lost in two separate points in a swamp, that sort of thing.
Sidhe, like most faeries of Western lore, are vulnerable to iron. Iron can be used to forge weapons against them or restraints made from iron can bind them.
The Labyrinth novelization did imply that Jareth has taken unwanted babies before but it has been years since anyone was wished away. I like your theory, as dark as it is, about the ball room dancers being the human form some goblins would have had if they had remained human. If not for the implication that it’s been so long since anyone’s been wished away I’d be for it.
Years ago I figured some goblins were born goblin (since there’s a little bit about Goblin mating in Goblins of Labyrinth) and others were transformed wished away children. But now that we have evidence of goblins aging it seems likely that any former-human goblins would have died away by now. And then there’s the issue of did he turn them into those types of goblins or something like himself?
By the way, in the picture Jake chose, is it just me or does the goblin to the right resemble Agnes (The junk Lady). I wonder if they’re related.
Also the link to the novelization is here in my name.
Alison, that is EEERIE! We started our posts with almost exactly the same writing. I had left mine unfinished for over an hour because I was doing other things and when I finally posted it yours was up before mine. Weird.
Sorry, meant to say Kendra there. Kendra, your post begins almost the same as mine. We were both replying to Alison and I left mine unfinished and it looks like when I finally posted it you beat me to it and our posts begin with nearly the same wording. That is freaky!
Our minds are becoming one! Jake is turning us into goblins!!!
Kendra, some Sidhe are helpful but they are all crafty. Some good, some evil. In a way they’re exactly like people in that they’re the most dangerous and manipulative of the faeries. But they have some of humanity’s good qualities too.
The Labyrinth novelization has been out of print since 1986. I understand wanting your own copy of the book but considering it was only printed for a short span of one year it’s a little hard to come by. Also The Henson company does not see a dime of it when anyone buys a copy of the novel because every copy sold now is from a third party seller, meaning it’s a used copy to some degree or another. It’s like buying a book at a garage sell. The original publisher and author see none of it because the person you’re buying it from already paid them for it years ago.
Sometimes you get lucky if you watch ebay or the ‘buy used’ option on amazon. alibris(dot)com when it was still Bibliosity is where I found a mint copy in 1997 or so.
I have Goblins of the Labyrinth, but I don’t take it as canon. This is probably because I got the book so much later in life. I appreciate the humor, but to me the goblins have always been weird and scary rather than goofy…I guess my seven-year-old impressions of the film carried into my adult life. The artwork is gorgeous, though. I love the painting of the girl sitting with her knees drawn up holding a mask. And I love the way he painted her expression– plus the little things like the detailing on her feet.
If anything, the sections about goblins in the book Faeries had more of an impact on what I thought (or think) of the goblins in Labyrinth, along with a book called Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak. Has anyone read this?? The plot is very similar to Labyrinth, and I believe you can see it on Sarah’s “Hoggle” bookshelf at the beginning of the film. Very trippy and weirdly sexual (and the “goblins” end up being human-looking babies who hatch from eggs!).
I dunno…girls on the verge of womanhood having to rescue babies kidnapped by little half-men…Jung would have something to say about that!
I think the Goblins of Labyrinth come in shades of whimsical mischief to dark and dangerous such as Agnes, the film’s junk lady goblin, (as there are a few of them and we see a different one in Moppet’s flash back) wanting to make Sarah like herself. The script was by Terry Jones so the humour was always meant to be there. Also notice how none of the goblins harm Toby during Magic Dance. They’re entertaining him and themselves more than anything.
The books I noticed in Sarah’s room were Where the Wild Things are, The WIzard of Oz and Alice’s adventures in Wonderland.
If you like gobiln stories with sexual innuendos I recommend the poem The Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti. It’s about two sisters, one gets seduced into trying fruit of goblin men and falls under their spell. So her sister goes to the goblins and they try to force her to eat the goblin fruit. She refuses. And they try to force feed her. She goes home and her sister tastes the juices of the goblin fruit from off her sister’s face and it breaks the spell that would have destroyed her.
I’ve attached a link to the poem in this post.
I wonder if Agnes is meant to be the breed of goblin those junk lady goblins are or if it’s the name of one particular one. I’m leaning toward it being the name of one particular one as I think about it.
Mandy, I’ve always assumed that Agnes is her name, though I could be wrong.
And I take the Goblins of Labyrinth as canon, and I wouldn’t mind a few references to the book pop up in the last volume (”Seek the old man of Ngorongoro crater!”). My favorite creature in the book are the grasshopper-esque men on pages 70-71 (I think my copy is the reprint, so I’m not sure if the pages are different).
@Dorcas: I’ve been looking for a copy of ‘Outside Over There’ ever since I learned of it’s relation to Labyrinth. I know it’s easy as heck to order a copy online, but I want to take a look inside the book to see what it’s like. Would you recommend it?
Allison, click on my name and it will take you to a link where someone has transcribed the novel online. Normally I don’t condone something like this, but since the book is not really available to anyone except people with disposable income, I’m turning the otherway.
All rights reserved to A.C.H. Smith and what ever publishing house that owns the book.
Kristi, I think you’re right about Agnes.
THERE IS NO TO OFTEN LABYRINTH >: o
??? Seirin…? Uh, where did that come from…?
Alison,
I totally forgot about that little goblin! I always laugh when that comes up. My friend and I from school joke about that because when I showed her the movie, that was the only part she seemed to enjoy.
I also like the goblin militants during the battle scene. Especially the ones that get hit straight on by a huge boulder.
“Steady men! Steady men, hold your ground!”
SMASH!!
“I take it back. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!”
Is Sir Didymus considered a goblin? He just seems like a chivalrous talking dog to me.
Re: Kristi O.
YES! I love it. Beautiful, lush illustrations. The story itself is minimal (a few lines on each page) but it’s really good.
Re: Mandy:
I have read Goblin Market! I had a grand scheme to illustrate it at one point, but ended up doing one panel (click on my name to see it). And yes, watching the movie now I can see the goblins are pretty benign and goofy, but when I first saw the movie at age seven I was terrified. Especially the scene when they’re all hiding in the bedroom and Jareth first appears.
Yes, Sir Didymous counts as a goblin. He’s a knight of the goblin kigndom after all. There’s an illustration of him in Goblins of Layrinth (even though there’s no description of him). Most the goblins resemble some animal of some sort. I believe the commentary on the new two disc version of Labyrinth has Brian Froud refer to him as a Fox-terrier goblin.’ I only watched it with the commentary once so don’t quote me on that.
Dorcas, that is a beautiful illustration of the sisters. You should do the rest. There are some nice illustrated versions of the poem out there.
I have a copy of Goblins of the Labyrinth that was autographed by Brian Froud and I’m very proud of it. He came to the Elf Fantasy Faire here in the Netherlands in 2007. He’s a very very nice man and he gave a really nice talk about faeries and did a Q&A re: Labyrinth and Dark Crystal stuff. I had him autograph 2 books, one of Faeries (which was a gift for a friend as I already had a copy) and Goblins of the Labyrinth. He did a little doodle in it too. I love it <3
Re: The Stolen Child
The most common rendition that I know of this wonderful poem was done by Loreena McKennitt:” “Stolen Child” originally on her album “Elemental” (1985) and from her recording from her concert “Nights from the Alhambra” (2006/2007). It is absolutely one of my favorite pieces. There may be more interpretations, but I have not done close research as McKennitt’s suits me well.
Re: Goblin canon
Personally, I do not own any of the Brian Froud Goblin books, although like many that have responded, they are on my “to purchase list”. I think you can safely use the books as “canon” as it has been pointed out that some of the chief creators of the Labyrinth world we know and love so well, shared with us more of their visions. Even if the particiular goblins in the books do not appear in our favorite movie(!), one can safely assume or imagine that these lads and lasses could exist in the Labyrinth.
One of my favorite goblins (besides the obvious choices of Hoggle or Sir Didymous) would have to be The Wiseman. I cannot help but giggle like a school girl when he argues with the bird-like creature on his head! A side note – it was very refreshing to see the appearance of the bird creatures in the first volume of “Return to Labyrinth” trying to attach to Toby’s head, French accents included!
U know an Immortal is still an Immortal no matter what Species it is or was
What ironically started my love of Labyrinth was when I found a copy of the labyrinth book that my mom had picked up from a garage sale for ten cents. She later sold it for 90$!!!! Afterwards, I was so disappointed about losing it I could have cried. To think I could have owned such a remarkable piece of Labyrinth history. It was first edition and everything, and in good shape.
By the way, just an interesting fact about the Sidhe, since I studied Gaelic and researched the history of the sidhe and the little people in depth, the Gaelic word for woman is bean, pronounced “bahn”, and sidhe is pronounced “shee”. So, when you put them together, it’s “banshee”, which means fairy woman. Although the banshee’s reputation has been warped a little to represent a foreboder of death, originally her wailings were though to have been a good omen.
Sierra, funny you should mention that about the Banshee.
There are actually multiple versions of the Banshee legend. A long time ago the words started to twist in meaning and various other creatures with sidhe at the end became different faeries from their original sources.
Daoine Sidhe, Lhinannan-she, and even the Pooka (now Puck) all began as a type of faery and now partain to one particular individuals of faerie origin. Puck used to be a reference to a particular type of faery but then came ‘The Puck’ who soon became personified as one creature sometimes known as Robin Goodfellow (My favourite individual Faery of traditional lore who appears in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Similiar things happened with Lhinannan-shee whom has evolved so far from the original source material (as being a particular type of Faerie to becoming an individual faery) that she’s now the not so great Faery God Mother of the wizard Harry Dresden in The Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher.
There are multiple versions of the Banshee legend. In more contemporary retellings the Irish version hearing her wail (song) means someone you know is going to die. Hearing her and seeing her means you, yourself, are going to die. My mother had once told me an eerie story of a relative (possibly my grandmother) whom just before they passed away was crying in bed because they claimed to have seen the Banshee and knew that meant they would die.
The Scottish version of the Banshee isn’t quite as bad. This incarnation isn’t malevolent but tragically trying to be helpful. She’s trying to warn you of an impending tragedy.
The Banshee was often the excuse for the unexplained noises of the wind howling in the moors which could take on an eerie, human-like quality.
One version of the Banshee Legend (The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and spirits) depicts the Banshee as possibly spirits of women who died during child birth. They’re often seen washing the bloody laundry of the child birth.
Another version of the Banshee is called Ban-nighe. Like the bloody laundry version described above she’s washing bloodied clothes but this time of people who are about to die, she’s often seen near running water or small bodies of water. This one has a positive trait. If you see her before she sees you and you obscure her path to water she’ll grant you three wishes and answer three questions but in return she’ll ask you three questions and you have to answer them honestly. The legend goes on to say if you are bold enough to suckle her breast and proclaim to be her foster child she will be favourable to you. However if you interrupt her while she is already washing her linen she will strike at you with the wet material and this will result in the loss of the use of your limbs (either quadriplegices or paraplegicses ). These too are depicted as women who died in child birth and they must wash the bloodied clothes until the time of when they would have died if they had not died in child birth (as the death was not meant to happen at that time in their life). (An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, brownies, bogies, and other supernatural creatures).
Some versions of the Banshee story make her like the Greek siren in that her song can put you in her thrall (The Real Ghostbusters animated seres does this).
There are multiple beings in lore like the modern banshee such as the Native American Wendigo (story can be found in The Scary Stories to tell in the dark treasury) and the Navajo Skin-Walker (whom appears in The Dresden Files TV episode Birds of a Feather and later the elventh Dresden Files novel, Turn Coat).
The first time I saw Labyrinth all the way through was on television back when the Disney channel had no commercials. I missed out on seeing Labyrinth in the theatre, myself (I was four when it came out). I saw it at age twelve on The Disney Channel. My mother and I were watching TV together and flipping through the channels. We came to Labyrinth (Bog of Eternal Stench scene). When my mother noticed that David Bowie was in it (via cable box show description display). The next time it was on I taped it for someone very close to me at the time who I knew was a Bowie fan and as I was taping it I realized I really liked it. I loved the music, I loved Jareth (a lot like Lestat, another fictional character I was getting into at the time), and I loved the puppetry. I had always loved folklore and puppetry. When i was nine I had wanted to be a ventriloquist. So Labyrinth had a little of everything I loved, including the surreal fantasy which was a type of story I was fond of. I already knew who Bowie was but I was not a fan yet (I wouldn’t count myself as a fan until I would later hear the Ziggy Stardust album while visiting Vermont. It just blew my mind). On the second viewing of Labyrinth I realized I remembered the helping hands. My kindergarten class had seen part of the movie during one rainy recess in the school auditorium. I vaguely recalled the helping hands. And some Labyrinth clips used in Muppet Babies (though when I was little I had never realized the spoof).
This was the early-mid nineties so Labyrinth was almost impossible to find on official video but I eventually managed to find an old rental copy (without it’s original box) and later a Neison reprint VHS (the audio was horrible on it). Thanks to David Bowie the soundtrack never went out of print and in 1997 I found the soundtrack on CD. Finally in September 1999 (the year I founded an AOL Labyrinth Role playing game and wrote a LOT of Labyrinth fan fiction) Labyrinth was released to DVD for the first time and re-released to VHS but that VHS is HORRIBLE, they reformatted it to be full screen except on the opening and ending credits and the new full screen VHS transfer was worse than the original full screen transfer. The angles were off (most noticeable in the Escher Room and Sarah’s bed room) and the ball room scene had been ‘cleared’ where it had once deliberately looked faded and dream-like. It had the making of footage as a bonus but that was cut down to a fifteen minute version so a lot was missing. The audio was far better than the 1991 Nelson reprint but that was the only good point besides the nice new box. The DVD transfer was a far better treatment.
When my mother and I went to go see Corpse Bride in 2005 (a year before she passed away) we were in Hot Topic and she bought me (without my knowing it) two Labyrinth post cards with Jareth on them. I don’t know why I’m thinking of that now.
One day I wish they would do an ultimate Labyrinth DVD. The current two disc version does not have the original trailer yet the older versions of the DVD do and no Labyrinth DVD release has Bowie’s music videos for Underground or As the World Falls down (Though Bowie, himself, has released them on his Best of Bowie tow disc DVD set (not the version with the CD) and his VHS tape of The Bowie Video Collection (1993). Would it really cost so much to lease the videos from David Bowie to have them on a DVD of Labyrinth?
Strange…
I used to think there were just three editions of Goblins of Labyrinth.
1986 version
1996 abridged version (retitled A field guide to goblins: The Goblin Companion)
And the 2006 reprint (restored full version with a new afterward by Brian Froud).
Now I realize there are actually four.
About a week or so ago I saw a very cheap copy of A field guide to goblins: The Goblin companion on amazon. The first copy of this printing I bought was forty dollars a few years ago. This one I just found was only ten dollars. Though I prefer the full restored version of the book from 2006 I bought this new copy of the shortened 1996 edition (It has several pages of art work removed from it that are in the 1986 version and 2006 version, making it the most abridged of the two whereas the longest version is the 2006 edition). Now when this new copy of the abridged version arrived I noticed something very odd. It was a much larger printing than the copy I already had of it.
The first copy of A field guide to goblins I had was a small book just an inch and a half or so wider and taller than the Labyrinth novelization, about a quarter of the size of a typical Brian Froud book. This one that arrived today had the same cover art as that small edition but much larger printing. This one is about equal size and width as Brian Froud’s Good faeries / Bad faeries and is therefor a much bigger printed book to the first copy of A field Guide to Goblins that I already had. The internal content is the same. The cover art is the same. The material the cover art is made of is the same. But it’s just a far larger book and text size than the version I first purchased.
I had no idea there WERE two editions of A field guide to Goblins published. I had thought my hand held copy was the only edition published in 1996. I didn’t know there was a larger version with the same content.
To anyone else who has A field Guide to Goblins which version do you have?
Happy BUMPSPLOTCH DAY!
From the book GOBLINS! by Brian Froud and Ari Berk this is a Goblin Holiday in which goblins slide across mortal kitchen floors.
According to the book GOBLINS! by Brian Froud and Ari Berk today is the first day of the Goblin month CANKERMOOT.