Welcome, dear readers, as always.

Villains with ambitious plans for world conquest need armies.

Emperor Palpatine

initially employs droids by the million to face the Republic’s clone armies, and not just ordinary foot soldier droids—

but super battle droids

and even commando battle droids

before, in his complex plan, he turns the Republic’s clones against his real target, the Jedi, in Order 66.

On a lighter level, Gru,

of Despicable Me, has masses of Minions to work his will (sort of)—

It’s clear that Sauron has similar plans—and similar armies—orcs—along with masses of humans.

(Alan Lee)

Orcs, we’re told, are a kind of distortion of actual living creatures—

“But Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves.”  (The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter 4, “Treebeard”)

Orcs began, however, as something more traditional and, for Tolkien, begin with the works of George MacDonald (1824-1905),

and, in particular, with one of his fantasy novels, The Princess and the Goblin, 1870-2.

(First US edition, 1871)

For our purposes, the princess, although an heroic figure, can be removed, as we’re interested in those goblins.

(Arthur Hughes)

Later in life, Tolkien became disenchanted with MacDonald’s work, failing to complete a proposed preface for his The Golden Key, a short story from MacDonald’s Dealings with the Fairies, 1867—you can read it here:  https://archive.org/details/dealingswithfair00macd_0/page/n5/mode/2up

and you can read about his disenchantment in Carpenter’s J.R.R. Tolkien, page 244.).  Earlier, however, he had acknowledged MacDonald’s influence, writing to the editor of The Observer about The Hobbit:

“As for the rest of the tale it is, as the Habit [the pen name of a commentator on the book] suggests, derived from (previously digested) epic, mythology, and fairy-story—not, however, Victorian in authorship, as a rule to which George Macdonald [sic] is the chief exception.” (letter to the editior, February, 1938, Letters, 40-41)

Tolkien refers to this influence again in a much later letter to Hugh Brogan:

“Your preference of goblins to orcs involves a large question and a matter of taste, and perhaps historical pedantry on my part.  I personally prefer Orcs (since these creatures are not ‘goblins’, not even the goblins of George MacDonald, which they do to some extent resemble).”  (letter to Hugh Brogan, 18 September, 1954, Letters, 278)

And a little earlier, in a letter to Naomi Mitchison:

“They are not based on direct experience of mine [an interesting remark—did JRRT have supernatural experiences which he doesn’t discuss?]; but owe, I suppose, a good deal to the goblin tradition (goblin is used as a translation in The Hobbit, where orc only occurs once, I think), especially as it appears in George MacDonald, except for the soft feet which I never believed in.”  (letter to Naomi Mitchison, 25 April, 1954, Letters, 267)

Those soft feet turn out to be the Achilles’ heel (sorry!) of the goblins as we overhear in a conversation between a goblin father and son:

” ‘You say so, dad. I think myself I’m all right. But I could carry ten times as much if it wasn’t for my feet.’

‘That is your weak point, I confess, my boy.’

 ‘Ain’t it yours, too, father?’

‘Well, to be honest, it is a goblin-weakness. Why they come so soft, I declare I haven’t an idea.’  (The Princess and the Goblin, Chapter VIII, “The Goblins”  You can read more here:   https://archive.org/details/princessgoblin00macd/mode/2up  And you can read more about the author here:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_MacDonald )

Recently, however, I’ve met another goblin, to whom I was introduced by a dear friend.  This is Book Goblin.

Unlike the clones and droids and Minions and orcs, who only exist to do their master’s bidding, Book Goblin lives for books, stacking shelves full, longing for the mailman to bring more, even believing in “Bookhalla”, which is, basically, an immense library, where those who are gathered there read books all day and hold book clubs all night.  You can see and hear Book Goblin describing it here:  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vkjErlwUA2A   Only brave readers are allowed to go there, including those who read “without bookmarks”!

Book Goblin is, in fact, the creation of the fantasy author Elizabeth Wheatley

and you can read more about her and her work here:  https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/elisabeth-wheatley/   And YouTube has many short features in which Book Goblin discusses likes and dislikes and often seems like the Id of all passionate readers, which is why I bring her to your attention.  Unlike droids, clones, Minions, and orcs, however, she is one of kind and, as for world conquest—I suspect that it would interfere with her reading.

Thanks for your reading, as always,

Stay well,

If you’re like me, you probably aren’t brave enough to read without a bookmark, so I guess no Bookhalla, sadly,

But remember that, as always, there’s

MTCIDC

O