The Latent Goblin Space of ritual

A goblin lullaby—if you can call it that—repeats the word for ritual seven times before falling silent. Goblin infants apparently find this soothing.

Goblin children, taught about ritual in their pre-school years, are encouraged to mispronounce it in three different ways before lunchtime. This is, the educators explain, 'good for the keyword and good for the child.'

The trickster Manifestation

trickster pairs naturally with goblin culture the way certain wines pair with certain cheeses: not because of an inherent harmony, but because somebody, sometime, decided they go together, and now nobody can imagine them apart.

Marginalia: catalog

Goblin children, when introduced to catalog, exhibit a characteristic behavior: they grow very still, look slightly to the side, and then resume what they were doing. Goblin developmental theorists consider this a normal and healthy response.

The Goblin Verdict on ritual

The goblin record-keeper, asked to file the final findings on ritual, looked at the page, looked at the inkwell, looked at us, and very slowly wrote down a different word. The substitution stands.