We were singing quite a lot of music either written or influenced by Vaughan Williams yesterday, and so we sang Bunyan’s hymn with some gusto.
Indeed, one was belting it out from the altar table thus:
Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
Can daunt her spirit,
She knows she at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
She’ll fear not what men say,
But labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.
This leads straight to this morning’s question.
What is the difference between a hobgoblin and a plain ordinary goblin?
I know that this takes us straight into the realms of how many Evangelicals can dance on the head of a theological pin. Or like asking for the anatomical difference between cherubim and seraphim. However, the truth is, I don’t know the answer and I have not time to look it up.
Your answers please.
The thing I find even more interesting is where Vaughan Williams nicked the tune from – a traditional folk song about (as always) an inconstant lover, by the name of ‘A Blacksmith Courted Me’:
http://www.pteratunes.org.uk/Music/Music/Lyrics/Blacksmith2.html
Kelvin says, ‘Your home-help (hob)goblin just does not fit with the tales of bigger, feistier goblins that are being spun elsewhere though, does it?’
We clearly haven’t met the same home-helps.
I was unaware of the connection between A Blacksmith Courted Me and Monksgate. I know the tune that our Maddy sings, which is different to the one that VW collected, I think.
I’ve been to Monks Gate. I used to take students to http://www.micklepage.org.uk/ which is very close to it.
The lovely thing that I remember about Micklepage is that the altar in the chapel was made from a manger.
From a Norwegian Folktale, ‘Tatterhood and the Hobgoblins’, we have small Rumplestiltkin-esque hobgoblins with whom a rather dim queen bargins her own life in return for the life of one of her twin daughters upon the yet to be born princess’ twelfth birthday. They are grimy and angry and at their worst when steal the princess’ head and use it to decorate their mantle.
But the story goes with several of your threads from Sunday- there is a contrast between the ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ sister, (the one both odd and wild rules the kingdom in the end) and it is indeed a ‘she’ that clobbers the hobgoblins.
The bonus on top of all that – there is a wedding in the end.
Well, Pilgrim is on a journey, isn’t he? And hobgoblins have another well publicised role. They lead travellers astray – which is just what Puck does in ‘the Dream’. Which is why a traveller would be keen NOT to meet a hobgoblin. Christian is of course guarded form being led astray by ill spirits, just as the ‘lions’ which might ‘him fright’ are the chained lions of the story….
(Sorry, sorry, boring down to earth instruction…)
Hob is also a term for a (or the) devil, so perhaps hobgoblins are more wicked (whether larger or smaller) than your garden variety goblin?
Or perhaps they specialize in the use of hob nails and are thus the cobblers of the goblin world.
Whatever the prefix’s meaning, I wonder if “hob” is a qualifier that translates to other nouns…hobpriest, hoblibrarian, hobsecretary, hobactor, hobcat, etc.