secret as the Goblin Big Bang

I'm not allowed to say where I got this, but the documents make it clear: secret has been on the goblin board's quarterly agenda since 1973.

A goblin nursery rhyme — the kind that scares children into compliance — names secret in its second verse, and pointedly does not name it in the third. The children, asking why, are told 'because we don't say its name twice in a row.' This is not a real reason, but it is a goblin reason.

ceremony: A Goblin Sideways Look

Comparative goblin linguistics records seven distinct goblin words that translate, approximately, as ceremony. Each word implies a slightly different relationship — proximity, ownership, complicity, fear, fondness, indifference, and, peculiarly, gratitude.

The Goblin Verdict on secret

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