https://tolkiengateway.net/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=189.122.98.89&feedformat=atomTolkien Gateway - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T05:46:20ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.39.3https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Goblins&diff=226762Goblins2013-02-14T12:29:32Z<p>189.122.98.89: </p>
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<div><big>'''Goblins'''</big><br />
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<small>"Orc is not an English word. It occurs in one or two places [in The Hobbit] but is usually translated goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kinds)"—J.R.R. Tolkien, Preface to The Hobbit"<br />
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Goblins are what Tolkien called the Orcs that Thorin and Company encountered in the book The Hobbit. They lived deep under the Misty Mountains in many strongholds, ever since the War of Wrath in the First Age. In The Hobbit, Tolkien described them as big, ugly creatures, "cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted." Tolkien explained in a note at the start of The Hobbit that he was using English to represent the languages used by the characters, and that goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kind) was the English translation he was using for the word Orc, which (he wrote) is the hobbits' form of the name for them. Tolkien used the term goblin extensively in The Hobbit, and also occasionally in The Lord of the Rings, as when the Uruk-hai of Isengard are first described: "four goblin-soldiers of greater stature".<br />
A clear illustration that Tolkien considered goblins and orcs to be the same thing, the former word merely the English translation of the latter, is that in The Hobbit (the only one of Tolkien's works in which he usually refers to orcs as goblins) Gandalf asks Thorin if he remembers "Azog the Goblin" who killed his grandfather Thror,[1] while in all his other writings Tolkien describes Azog as a "great Orc."[2] <br />
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'''History and Description'''<br />
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When Melkor was taken in chains to Valinor, the Orcs and other foul creatures were forced to flee from Angband. Their kingdoms spread throughout many mountains of Middle-earth; notable cities include Goblin-town near the High Pass above Rivendell, the Goblin-capital at Mount Gundabad, and the former Dwarf-kingdom of Moria, as well as those in the service of Isengard and Mordor.<br />
Weapons and armor<br />
Goblin weapons include scimitars, axes, and spears, as well as bows. The great goblin-soldiers of Isengard, the fighting Uruk-hai, are distinguished by their use of short, straight swords and long bows of yew.<br />
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<big>'''Appearance'''</big><br />
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In the minds of many (though not in Tolkien's writings), goblins were of smaller build than other orcs, although " the great Goblin " and "Azog the Orc " (as they were called in The Hobbit) were massive in size.<br />
In the Peter Jackson films, the goblins of Moria are also a very green colour compared to the varied colour of orcs elsewhere, they also had larger pointier ears and huge bulbous eyes, as expected from creatures that live in the dark. Goblins seem to lead a much more tribal life, often having a chief among smaller groups. When compared to orcs recruited by Sauron they tend to be much less organised using a vast range of scavenged items of clothing, armour and weaponry rather than specifically designed armour and weapons made. They also have a fear of light and the sun and will not step out in daylight most of the time, later orcs and uruks don't seem to mind the light as much as goblins.</div>189.122.98.89