gobelin

Old French gobelin appeared in the twelfth century, and its origin is debated. One theory traces it to Gobelinus, a demon said to haunt the region of Évreux in Normandy, mentioned by the chronicler Orderic Vitalis around 1141. Another theory connects it to German Kobold (a household spirit), from which we also get the element cobalt (miners blamed kobolde for the poisonous ores that contaminated silver). A third theory links it to Greek kóbalos (a mischievous sprite). None has been definitively proven. The goblin, like its nature, refuses to be pinned down.

Goblins in European folklore are small, ugly, and malicious — they steal, trick, and frighten. They are distinct from fairies (who can be beautiful and dangerous), dwarves (who are craftsmen), and trolls (who are large and stupid). The goblin's defining trait is petty malice. It does not try to kill you. It tries to ruin your day. The scale of the threat is domestic: spoiled milk, lost keys, nightmares. Goblins are the folklore of everyday annoyance.

The Gobelin family of dyers in Paris — whose workshop, established in the fifteenth century, became the famous Gobelins Manufactory producing tapestries for Louis XIV — took their name from the same word or gave it. Whether the family was named for the demon or the demon for the family is unclear. The Gobelins tapestry factory still operates. The demon is forgotten. The family name and the monster name are the same word, and Parisian tapestries are woven at the site where either a demon or a family of dyers once worked.

Tolkien's goblins in The Hobbit (1937) are interchangeable with his orcs — he used both words for the same creatures in early writings and later tried to separate them. Modern fantasy inherited both words and spent decades arguing about whether goblins and orcs are the same thing. Dungeons & Dragons treats them as separate species. World of Warcraft makes goblins merchant-tricksters. The Old French word for a Norman demon is now a game-design decision.