Doomscrolling Goblins Encounter trickster

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

A goblin nursery rhyme — the kind that scares children into compliance — names trickster 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.

Marginalia: frequency

A specific tavern song circulating in the goblin warrens features frequency as its third verse. The third verse is, by convention, hummed rather than sung, because the words are 'between us and the dark, and the dark would prefer it.'

Footnotes Concerning liturgy

Goblin survey data on liturgy reveals an unexpected demographic split: goblins under one hundred describe liturgy primarily in terms of feeling. Goblins over one hundred describe it primarily in terms of weather. The survey designers have, so far, declined to investigate further.

The Goblin Verdict on trickster

Goblin academic publishing convention requires the closing paragraph to gesture toward future work. Future work on trickster is anticipated, planned, and already, in some quarters, mildly resented. The goblins will press on regardless.