MrShineyhead's Travels:
Deaf Dog in the Park | State Fair | MrWildWildWest | Gone Fishin' | The Pirate | Me Here!

Tales in The Dark:
The Mountain Lion | Ice Lake | Civil War | Lorelei | The Goblins

With a special ASL translation of:
The Star-Spangled Banner

The Goblins

Once upon a time, long long ago there was a village in Europe. Every year, the village held a large festival which consisted of displays, different foods, performances, dancing and festive clothing.

One year, as the time of the annual festival approached, the village experienced an extreme heat wave. The sun beat down on the little village and it was extremely hot and dry. 

The villagers convened a meeting to discuss final plans for the festival which would be happening the next day.

Each person was assigned a task.  One man was asked to make the sausages for the festivities, and he agreed.  Another man who was famous for his delicious fresh bread agreed to bake all the bread needed for the festival, and finally, another man agreed to design and make all of the special clothing for the next day’s events.  All the villagers left to complete their various tasks.

The first man ran to his shop and began to prepare to make the festival sausages.  He gathered the various ingredients, chopped and mixed them into sausage filling and set about stuffing the sausage casings full.  The man labored for hours and hours knowing that he had much to do before he was finished, but as the sweat ran down his face in the extreme heat, the man swayed dizzily and finally to the floor asleep.

The second man gathered the ingredients he needed to make his delicious bread: wheat, butter, and nuts, and began to knead the dough.  He mixed up the dough, formed the loaves of bread and set them in pans to rise.  But after working for several hours, he too became exhausted by the extreme heat, and fell to the floor asleep.

The third man, worked hard to design the festival clothing, taking measurements and fitting the cloth to the sewing mannequin in preparation for completion. As he struggled to make accurate measurements, his vision blurred as the extreme heat took its toll and he, too, fell to the floor, asleep.

Unbeknownst to the villagers, beneath their little community lived another community of tiny individuals:  the goblins. These creatures had large elf-like ears, long, skinny faces, tiny lips like bows, and big saucer-like eyes.  There were hundreds of the goblins living in their own subterranean goblin land beneath the village.

These goblins never came above ground while the sun was out.  They only appeared in the open after dark.  If a goblin was ever exposed to sunlight, he would immediately disintegrate and turn to dust. 

The goblins waited patiently for the sun to set, and once darkness had fallen, they would make their appearances above ground.  The goblins LOVED to work!! They were very skillful and efficient.

As the sun set and darkness fell, the goblins realized that all the villagers had fallen asleep due to the extreme heat wave, and hadn’t finished preparing for the annual festival which was to take place the very next day.  What would they do?

The goblins popped out of their underground hideaway, and looked around at each other.  Hundreds of goblins appeared, and all of them wondered where to start first.  The first thing they noticed, through a nearby window, was the unfinished pile of sausages.  This they decided to tackle first.

As they approached the first man’s door, they realized that it would be difficult to open the giant door.  How would they do it?  The goblins made a “goblin tower” by sitting on one another’s shoulders until they were able to reach the doorknob. The tower teetered as they moved closer and closer to the door in order to reach the knob. With his arms outstretched wide to grip the huge doorknob, the topmost goblin turned the knob and the door swung open.  They were inside!  Everyone jumped down off the tower and scampered into the first man’s shop. 

Once inside, the goblins were confronted with an equally huge table on top of which the sausages rested.  Once again, the goblins formed two towers and climbed up onto the table to begin their work. 

The goblins worked quickly, mixing the sausage ingredients, stuffing the casings and tying off the finished sausages.  They repeated this process numerous times until all the sausages were completed.  Then they threw the sausages onto the hooks hanging from the ceiling and their task was complete.  Cheering, the goblins jumped down from the table and left the first man’s shop. Noticing that the door was still ajar, the goblins returned to the door, formed another tower and shut the door behind them.

They toppled to the ground and upon further observation noticed that there was a window open nearby revealing the bread that had not been finished.  Once again, the goblins managed to open the door to the second man’s house, and scale the table to reach the unfinished bread.

The goblins combined the butter, wheat and other ingredients for the bread and set about mixing them.  They formed the bread into many loaves, and then started the baking process.

One of the goblins warned the rest about the dangers of a very hot oven. Wondering how they were to open such a hot oven, two goblins quickly donned human-sized oven mitts over their entire bodies, which they used to help them open the piping hot oven.  The rest of the goblins then loaded the oven with the loaves of bread, and the goblins wearing the oven mitts shut the oven.

The two goblins removed the oven mitts and wiped their foreheads, and everyone sat down to wait for the bread to bake.  Finally, after a while, the bread was ready.  The two goblins put on the oven mitts again, opened the oven, and the rest of the goblins removed the freshly baked bread.  The oven mitts were removed again and the goblins admired the beautiful loaves of fresh bread emitting a delicious aroma.

The goblins then jumped from the table and left the second man’s shop, returning to close the door once again.

As the goblins continued on through the village, they noticed the unfinished festival clothing through the third man’s open window.  They approached the door and went through the familiar routine of getting it open and entering the third man’s shop.

As they walked into the man’s house, they noticed the seamstress mannequin standing armless and headless in the middle of the room.  Noticing the pieces of cloth on the mannequin, one goblin decided that they needed to see the pattern and design that the man had been trying to make so they would know how to proceed.

The goblin climbed up onto the table and located the drawing of the festival costume.  He showed the rest of the goblins the picture and they took note of the style and measurements that would be necessary in order to make the costume.

The goblins scaled the mannequin and began to sew the festival clothing:  a ruffled collar and cuffs, puffy sleeves, a fitted bodice and shiny buttons were used to create the special garb.  The outfit was absolutely beautiful.

The goblins left the third man’s shop and closed the door behind them as they had the previous times.

Suddenly, the sun began to rise and the goblins ran to their underground homes and dove into their subterranean world just in time! 

As the sun came up, the goblins hid below the ground congratulating themselves on a job well done and wiping off their sweaty brows.

Meanwhile, the villagers began waking up.  The first man, upon waking, panicked, realizing he had not finished the sausages that he had promised to make.  But as he turned to begin work, he saw all of the completed sausages hanging before him.  He tasted one and it was delicious! He couldn’t believe it!

The second man arose to a wonderful aroma. He knew that he was forgetting something –that there was something he was supposed to have done, and then he remembered the bread he had promised to make for the festival.  Oh no! However, as he rushed into the kitchen, he was shocked at what he saw:  hundreds of loaves of bread all freshly baked and ready!  He sampled a bite, and was elated at how delicious it was. What a relief!

Finally, the third man awakened and remembered that he had a lot of sewing left to do.  He went into the room with the mannequin and couldn’t believe the beautiful garment he saw finished and ready for him.  He was so stunned he fell back and wondered whether or not he was dreaming.

The third man called his wife in to see the wonderful garment that had materialized over night.  She asked him who had made it, for the skill shown by the creator far surpassed that of her husband.  Her husband maintained that he had made the garment, though. However, his wife knew that her husband was lying and wondered who had really made such a beautiful costume.

The villagers reveled at the festival and the mayor was presented with the beautiful garment made by the tailor.  He was very impressed and declared it was the finest he’d ever had.  He then sampled both the sausages and the bread and declared that they too were the best he had ever eaten! He loudly praised the three men for their accomplishments, the likes of which hadn’t been seen for more than 50 years! He then awarded each of them medals for their outstanding work!

The crowd cheered the three men, while the tailor’s wife stood by scowling. She still wanted to know who was REALLY responsible for the beautiful garment the master was wearing.

Suddenly, the tailor’s wife had an idea.  Many years later, the small village was hit by another record heat wave. That year, the same three men were asked to make the sausages, bread, and festival garments for the annual festival.  Each man accepted these responsibilities gladly.

The tailor’s wife recalled several years earlier what had happened during the heat wave, and expected something similar might happen again. Soon, the sun went down and night fell.

The tailor’s wife stood at the top of the stairs and pulled from her apron pocket a handful of hard, dried peas. She tossed them down the stairs where they scattered on the staircase and the floor below. Her plan was to trip up whoever had been doing all of these good deeds and catch them before they got away!

The goblins once again made their rounds in the village, excited to once again be helping the villagers prepare for their annual festival.  They helped the butcher make the sausages. They helped the baker make the festival bread. Then, they formed a tower, turned the knob and entered the home of the tailor.

Little did the goblins know that the tailor’s wife was hiding behind the front door.  She quickly extinguished the lantern she was holding and waited.

The goblins smelled a faint odor of lantern smoke on the air, but proceeded into the room. In seconds, there was the sound of thumping, bumping and screaming as the goblins fell to the ground, slipping on the dried peas. They had bumps and bruises and other injuries from their falls.

The tailor’s wife struggled to light her lantern and as it glowed, she jumped out from behind the door ready to see who she had caught.

To her dismay, the room was empty! The goblins had vanished without a trace and she had never seen who had entered her husband’s shop.

The next morning the sun rose, and the festival was set to begin.  The mayor called the villagers together, ready to enjoy the festival treats!  He asked the butcher to bring him a sausage but the butcher said he hadn’t finished them yet.  The mayor asked the baker to bring him some bread, but the baker said he hadn’t finished baking it yet.  Finally, the master asked the tailor if he could bring him his new garment.  The tailor did so, but the garment was very poorly made, gapping at the seams and very unflattering to the master. The festival was not a success that year.

The goblins never made another appearance to help the villagers. They remained underground, afraid that someone might try to hurt them again. The tailor’s wife felt horrible about this for the rest of her life.

Translation done by: Tammera J. Richards, BS, CI & CT; SC:L; NAD IV