In mythology Western Europe goblins are called mischievous people ugly creatures living underground, in caves that cannot tolerate sunlight leading an active nightlife. The origin of the word goblin seems to be connected with the spirit Gobelinus, which lived in the lands of Evreux and is mentioned in manuscripts of the 13th century. IN German goblin - kobold, French version - goubelin.

The goblin people are described in sufficient detail by the English writer George MacDonald. MacDonald reports the following about the origin of this people. They once lived on the surface of the earth and were very similar to other people. But the king, the lord of those lands, for some reason began to treat them with excessive severity and one day all the goblins disappeared.

But, instead of leaving for another country, the goblins found refuge in underground caves, from where they emerged only at night, so as not to be seen by people. Living away from the sun, in cold, damp and dark caves for generations, the goblins have changed significantly. Although they remained completely anthropomorphic, their appearance became bizarre and even grotesque. They are short and disproportionately built, even the tallest of them is a little over a meter tall. Their fingers are short and thick, without nails. Most of them have no toes on their feet. Those of them who have toes are ashamed of this and try in every possible way to hide this fact. Their feet are very soft, tender and vulnerable, but despite this they do not wear shoes, considering it unfashionable. Only the queen, as a sign of her dignity, wears heavy granite shoes, shaped like French clogs (in fact, she needs them to hide her ugliness - she has six toes on her feet). Macdonald's goblin faces are as ugly as their bodies. This can be judged from the description of the queen’s appearance: the nose is thick at the end, the eyes are located asymmetrically, the mouth is small, but when she smiles, it stretches from ear to ear, and the ears are located near the cheeks. Having adapted to life underground, representatives of this people became very hardy creatures. They could go without food for a whole week and still not lose strength. They also managed to significantly develop their knowledge and skills, became cunning and inventive and learned to create things that no mortal had the opportunity to do.

They knew how to use fire, burned fires and illuminated caves with torches, were engaged in mining, dug and drilled tunnels, and also mined stones and metals, although they never traded them. They always worked only at night, so as not to accidentally run into people. During the day they slept. In their caves, goblins kept a variety of animals, the ancestors of which were some domestic animals, as well as foxes, wolves and small bears. The goblins took their sheep out at night to graze in the open air, but only in the least visited and most inaccessible parts of the mountains. The goblins apparently ate mainly meat, but sometimes they managed to get cream and cheese from nearby human farms, which were considered delicacies.

Other famous English writer Tolkien in his “Mythology of England” gave the term “goblin” a fairly important place. In his drafts for the Quenya Lexicon, he deciphers the word "noldo" as "goblin", and the term "noldomar" respectively as "land of goblins", thus goblins were originally the name for those creatures known to us as the elves of the Noldor. And only later, instead of the term “goblin”, Tolkien began to use the word “gnome”, and began to call other creatures “goblins”. In the texts of the Book of Lost Tales, goblins are presented as evil creatures, otherwise called orcs. Together with other evil spirits (dwarves, ogres and giants), they were created by Melko and carried out his will and the will of his closest servants.

In English folk demonology, the goblin plays a uniquely harmful role. Even for fairies and elves, the company of goblins is a burden, and for people, the tricks of goblins are simply intolerable. It is believed that goblins love to cause minor mischief to people - giving them nightmares, annoying them with noise, breaking dishes with milk, crushing chicken eggs, blowing soot from the stove into a clean house, releasing flies, mosquitoes and wasps on people, blowing out candles and spoiling milk.

Dmitry Yuryevich Puchkov (known under the pseudonym Goblin) is a writer, publicist, translator of foreign films, TV series and cartoons. In the past, he tried many working professions, was a policeman, a senior detective in a penitentiary institution.

Starting with commentaries on video games, he created, in addition to traditional translations, humorous versions of famous blockbusters (in particular, “The Fellowship and the Ring”, “The Two Torn Towers”, “The Return of the Homeless” - interpretations of “The Lord of the Rings”).

Childhood and youth of Dmitry Puchkov

A parody translator was born in the Ukrainian SSR in the city of Kirovograd on August 2, 1961 in the family of a military man and a teacher. His father is a “Russian German”, his mother is Ukrainian. Dmitry has an older brother and sister. She taught him to read and write before school.

In 1969, when he was in 2nd grade, his father was transferred to Leningrad for military service. They lived in Kupchino. Until the 5th grade, Dima was an excellent student, attending school No. 32. From fifth to eighth grade he studied at a boarding school.


Exact sciences were always difficult for him, but he loved literature and reading fairy tales. English language Puchkov began teaching because of his passion for such bands as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. To buy records, the young businessman printed and sold photographs of foreign musicians.

After the 8th grade, in the summer he worked at the Bummash plant in the Komsomol metalworking brigade. With the money he earned (80 rubles) he bought a bicycle. In those years, Dmitry dreamed of becoming a diver.

He graduated from school near Berlin, in Wünsdorf, where they moved to his military father’s next duty station. Dmitry's attempt to enter college before the army ended in failure; his low knowledge of mathematics let him down.


The young man received driver license at the DOSAAF driving school and went to work as a driver. At first he transported milk to a GAZ-51, then he was transferred to a bakery.

Labor activity of Dmitry Puchkov

Dmitry served as a driver in the army. After being demobilized in 1982, he repaired cars and was a dump truck driver. Then, together with his wife and little son, he moved to the south of the country, to Uzbekistan, due to the child’s poor health.

At his new place of residence, he worked as a taxi driver, library employee, blacksmith, plumber, and driller. And, judging by the full number of professions, Puchkov changed his place of work almost every year.


In 1992, he returned to the Northern capital and joined the civil service in the police. After studying at a police school, he held a position in a prison unit. There he received his nickname, which became a literary pseudonym - Goblin. The word was borrowed from a newspaper article “Goblins in Gray Overcoats” about careless law enforcement officers.

In 1998, he retired from service with the rank of first lieutenant. By this time his wife had her own store. And Dmitry, according to him, considered it unethical to combine his occupation with commercial activities spouses.

Translations from Dmitry Puchkov

Puchkov began working in the literary field in 1997, publishing articles about video games on one of the Internet sites. Then specialized magazines began publishing his opuses - “Navigator of the Gaming World”, “Land of Games”.

Dmitry Puchkov voiced the video game

In 1998, the web forum “Goblin’s Dead End” was opened, and a year later the author’s website of the same name was launched. The resource is still quite popular - the number of daily visitors reaches about 70 thousand people. Dmitry translated such games as “Gorky-18”, “Serious Sam: The Second Coming”, “Hooligans”.


At the same time, he unofficially translated foreign films, the number of which reached 80. Goblin released the film " Mad Dogs", "Khan to everyone!", "Adrenaline-2", "Like a cool security guard" and others. Working with the TV3 channel, he translated the television series “The Soprano Family”, for REN TV - the animated series “Robot Chicken”, “King of the Hill”, for the 2x2 channel - “Tom Goes to the Mayor”.

The film translator’s parody translations (“Shmatrix”, “ star Wars: a storm in a teacup"). In them, he ridiculed the incorrect approach to translation, which can distort and bring the meaning of the text to the point of absurdity.


At the request of the STV channel, he also made a similar translation of the film “Boomer” called “Anti-Boomer”.

In 2005, the translator participated in the dubbing of the film “The Last Weekend”, the game “Vivisector”, and began filming the film “Zombies in a Bloody Frenzy”. In 2006, he released the game "Dungeon Nurses", recognized as the best Russian work and awarded a number of prizes (Gameland, KRI). In 2006, he voiced “Hottabych” and “translated” Stubbs the Zombie.

Dmitry Puchkov (Goblin) about computer games

In 2008, he released the video game “The Truth about the 9th Company” and a film telling about the actual circumstances of the battle, unreliably recreated in “9th Company” by Fyodor Bondarchuk. He also presented to the readers his literary work“It’s a shame for the state. Questions and answers about the USSR,” translated the painting “Rock and Roll Man.”

Personal life of Dmitry Puchkov

When asked by one of the journalists what family means to him, the writer replied: “Practically, the meaning of life.” Puchkov acquired it early, in April 1980 at the age of 18. Moreover, he never regretted the choice of his life partner, who is three years older than him.


Dmitry did not mention the name of his beloved wife, who is half Jewish and half Korean, in any of the interviews. Not much is known about her occupation either - only that she is engaged in commerce.

The wife is critical of films created by her husband, but the son does not ignore his father’s creations, he watches them. True, he did not continue his business, but works general director construction organization. The young man did not serve in the army due to vision problems.


Dmitry has visited many places - Scandinavia, Iceland, Paris, Saigon, New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, the Maldives and Canary Islands. He usually takes a vacation twice a year, once devoting it to relaxing on the beach and doing nothing, the second to getting acquainted with interesting places. In the first case, Dmitry often travels to Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia, in the second - to Europe, with a backpack and a camera.

Dmitry loves photography, filmmaking, reading, and writing scripts. He has a very good memory– he can supposedly remember and speak about a hundred words, and then repeat them in reverse order. Dmitry Puchkov Goblin translated many films

In 2014, a book was published in the city on the Neva, combining comments from Puchkov’s author’s website, “Ukraine is Russia.”

While visiting the radio in September 2015 TVNZ", the film translator expressed the opinion on the need for forced drug testing of schoolchildren without parental permission, following the example of the United States. He considers it appropriate to oblige employees to undergo this procedure as well. law enforcement, military, drivers public transport, airplane pilots.

Dmitry “Goblin” Puchkov about raising children

The work of a writer and translator who does not have a philological education is assessed ambiguously by critics and professionals. Recognizing his abilities and presence of a sense of humor, experts accuse Dmitry of excessive self-confidence and targeting an indiscriminate and undemanding public.

In our world there are a wide variety of creatures that are not like people, but have intelligence. In most cases, their attitude towards a person is sharply negative. They do various dirty tricks to him - from small to large. This audience also includes goblins. According to myths and legends, these creatures were once human. They lived on the lands of England and were no different from other tribes. But in one beautiful time a cruel king ascended the throne. He disliked these people and began to systematically destroy them. And then they went underground and established their life there. That's who goblins are - underground inhabitants.

A long stay underground radically changed their appearance and characters. They have become evil and are very happy when they deceive people. They live in underground caves, tunnels, and sometimes settle in the basements of residential buildings and tree hollows. They can also be found under bridges, but only stone ones. Over many centuries, their eyes have become completely unaccustomed to light. And therefore during the day they try to stay in the dark, but if they go out into the light sun rays place, then they pull the caps over their heads right up to the eyes.

Their average height is only 1 meter. But there are also tall individuals up to 1.8 meters. The arms are long and hang below the knees. The heads are large and hard as stone. The ears are extremely long, and the fingers end in claws rather than nails. The eyes resemble those of a cat, because these creatures must see well in the dark. Skin color may be yellow, green or reddish. Most often, artists depict them with green skin. Goblins have flat faces, wide noses, and a mouth filled with small and sharp teeth.

Underground creatures live in tribal groups. Communicate with each other in short phrases. Their voices are high and unpleasant to hear. Used for attack and defense short swords, clubs and spears. The bodies are protected by leather armor. But the leaders put on chain mail and armor.

Speaking about who goblins are, it must be said that they are extremely cowardly. And therefore they avoid fighting face to face with the enemy. Their favorite military tactics- ambush attack. If the attackers are given a worthy rebuff, they immediately run away and hide in caves and underground houses.

This is how goblins are portrayed in Hollywood.

Their homes are gloomy and damp. Among goblins, it is not customary to remove and clean them. Therefore, in underground houses there is always a persistent fetid odor. It would seem that in such unsanitary conditions infections should constantly break out. But nothing like this has ever been observed. The fact is that these underground creatures are extremely resistant to disease.

Everyone lives together, without separate houses and rooms. Only chiefs are allowed to own separate dwellings. But no one has personal property, and everyone carries what they have with them. Any property is considered common. It includes a lot of things and valuables stolen from people.

Each breeding group consists of 40-200 adult males. At the head of such a social formation is a leader with 2-3 assistants. Tribal groups unite into a tribe. At the head of the tribe is a leader or king with his entourage, who are different time happens from 12 to 15.

There are no sorcerers among the goblins, since each of them is a sorcerer himself, and quite a powerful one at that. Women and children have limited rights compared to men. They get the worst cuts at meals and have no say in meetings. An iron hierarchy reigns in the tribe. Everyone clearly knows who should obey and who can be ordered. It happens that men grab their short swords and engage in battle to prove their superiority and move up the hierarchical ladder.

All goblins are sorcerers

The lifespan of goblins is on average 50 years. They eat mainly animal food. They do not disdain snakes, rats, mice, and human flesh. They can even eat carrion if they are hungry. They destroy all living creatures around their lair and pollute nature. Numerous and long tunnels can be quickly dug underground.

Arguing from who goblins are, it must be said that when they capture people, gnomes, and elves, they make them slaves. They are shackled in chains and forced to do all the hardest and most difficult tasks. dirty work. Everyone hates these underground creatures. But it is difficult to fight them, since in case of danger they immediately hide in the underground labyrinths, which are their home.

Goblins - who are they? According to European mythology (England, Italy, Germany), this is the name given to creatures with a disgusting appearance and similar to humans. They live in caves underground and cannot tolerate sunlight. They have supernatural abilities. We will tell you more about the meaning of the word “goblin” in the article.

Some general information

Goblins are creatures with height reports ranging from one foot (0.348 m) to two meters. They have the ability to turn into people. However, there are three elements of them appearance, which never change are:

  • Very long ears.
  • Scary eyes, somewhat similar to a cat's.
  • Long claws on hands.

These creatures hide their ears under a hat, and their claws in gloves. And since you can’t hide your eyes, it’s by them that you can recognize them.

George MacDonald, an English storyteller, puts forward the version that in ancient times goblins lived on earth's surface and were not much different from people. But for some reason the then reigning king did not like them very much, and they were forced to hide from him. For many centuries they had to exist underground, they changed a lot, and they were called goblins.

From the books about Harry Potter it is known that the place where goblins live and work is the Gringotts magical bank. And also these creatures are integral characters in the works of J. Tolkien, where they perform many different functions.

Other descriptions

As already said, distinctive feature Goblins are a terrifying appearance. Her description often frightened small children. They have gnarled arms, short crooked legs and a huge hump on their back. Modern filmmakers often depict them with green skin. However, according to folklore descriptions, their skin was dark.

The goblin's head is also incredibly ugly. Huge ears are overgrown with tufts of hair sticking out of them in different directions. The eyes of goblins glow in the dark, their nose is huge and has a hump, their teeth are unnaturally yellow, and an unbearable stench emanates from their mouths.

Types of activities

Goblin behavior is based on instinct. That is, they think little about what they are doing. Goblins are evil and vengeful creatures, characterized by laziness and cowardice.

These freaks, on top of everything else, are also distinguished by their boundless laziness. But since great importance Goblins give wealth, to obtain treasures they keep slaves and mercilessly exploit them.

Slaves in search precious stones they dig deep mines, and the owners accumulate and store them. Goblins also love to hunt, not only wild animals, but also people if they encounter hunters lost in the forest.

Brownies on the contrary

As mentioned above, goblins live underground - in caves and tunnels. But there are also “pet” goblins. They can be found in attics and tree holes.

According to English myths, one of the favorite habitats of goblins is the space under bridges. To avoid being blinded by the sun's rays, they wear a cloth blindfold over their eyes.

Goblins living in houses are antagonists of brownies. In contrast, they do not protect the peace in the house, but, on the contrary, try to disturb it as much as possible. They incite people to family quarrels, smash dishes at night, kill pets.

About hygiene

Goblin clothing is ugly and sloppy. As a rule, they do not sew it, but remove it from killed people during a hunt, and then wear it to the holes. Although their feet are sensitive, they do not have shoes. As for any hygiene procedures, this concept does not exist for goblins. They never even wash their face. Their habitats are filled with a musty smell and terrible dirt.

Females can steal babies from people, replacing them with their own children. Since goblins are constantly hungry, sometimes they are not above cannibalism. For them, eating one of their fellow tribesmen is no more difficult than a human being.

Goblins and magic

These creatures are not alien to certain religious ideas, albeit rather primitive ones. For example, they worship natural elements, especially lightning. In the goblin tribe there is a shaman whose duties include deciphering the signs received from various phenomena nature, and prediction of natural disasters.

The shaman can also heal diseases. Goblins have ideas about magic. Using the powers given by the earth, they can transform into wild animals or people. With the help of fire, they are able to send nightmares to people and scary dreams, as well as manage swarms of bumblebees, flies and wasps.

Nicknamed "Goblin"

These include a number of characters presented in comics. famous publishing house Marvel Comics. The most famous and powerful of those who bear the nickname “Goblin” is businessman Norman Osborn, who is better known as the Green Goblin.

Industrialist Osborn, having failed with the OZ substance, nevertheless acquired superhuman abilities. But, unfortunately, his mind was seriously damaged in the process. This substance gave him extraordinary strength, with which he could lift 40 tons, and he also became resilient and dexterous.

But one “beautiful” day he went crazy. Osborn donned a goblin costume and came up with the name Green Goblin. Thanks to his developments, other goblins appeared, although he himself did not want to create imitators.