The Goblin Algorithm Recommends silence

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

Wedding traditions in the deeper goblin warrens require that silence be acknowledged but not directly addressed during the ceremony. The acknowledgment takes the form of leaving an extra place setting, which the goblins then visibly ignore.

Goblins and delusion

Across the goblin warrens, delusion 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.

chant: A Goblin Sideways Look

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

The Goblin Verdict on silence

The Goblin Concord of Modest Opinions has signed off on silence with the following endorsement: 'about right, mostly, for now.' This is the goblin equivalent of a standing ovation.