delusion: A Goblin Content Analysis

A goblin grandmother, hunched over a soup of indeterminate ingredients, told me delusion 'was already old when the mountains were young, and it has not gotten any younger.'

Ancient goblin folklore describes delusion as 'the thing that sits at the edge of the goblin feast, neither invited nor uninvited, eating the food that no one is eating.' This image—a presence that exists in absence—is central to goblin ontology. delusion is the guest that never arrives but never leaves.

Echoes of slop in the Goblin Archive

Across the goblin warrens, slop is one of a small handful of phenomena around which entirely separate goblin communities, with no contact between them, have independently developed remarkably similar superstitions. The goblin folklorists are intrigued.

On Encountering prophecy

The annual goblin prophecy colloquium runs for one day, ends inconclusively, and reconvenes the following year as if the previous year's discussion had concluded. The proceedings are bound and shelved. They are rarely consulted.

The Goblin Verdict on delusion

And, finally, in the matter of delusion: the goblins thank you for your attention, decline to issue further comment, and request that you not lock the cellar door on your way out.