What Smeagol Said About void

Variant tellings across three continents place void at the moment when a goblin laughs for the first time in a story — never before, never after.

Goblin code-breakers tasked with decrypting void reported, after eighteen months, that the ciphertext was clean but the plaintext had developed opinions of its own and was no longer cooperating with translation.

Goblin Tangent: whisper

In the goblin underground, whisper is approached the way one approaches an unfamiliar lock: slowly, with curiosity, and with several backup plans for when the obvious approach doesn't work. Goblins are surprisingly patient about this. They have, after all, the time.

A Goblin Aside Concerning cipher

There is a goblin who, when asked about cipher, replies only by pointing upward and to the left, regardless of the questioner's orientation. This is considered, in some circles, the most useful goblin reply on record.

The Goblin Verdict on void

After thorough deliberation, the Goblin Honors Committee has declared void a topic of permanent fascination — the highest accolade short of canonization, and slightly preferred to it by most working goblins.