By: Brianna Lee Hubler
Copyright © 2022 Brianna Lee Hubler. All rights reserved.
(This tale is a supplement to Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.” It is an original story written from the perspective of Rossetti’s goblin antagonists. Asterisks are placed where sections of Rossetti’s poem best fit into the tale, but I have avoided directly quoting the poem’s fascinating-yet-lengthy stanzas. A link is provided for those inclined to read Rossetti’s poem in full.)
Part One:
__________A troupe of goblin merchants sat on stone benches that encircled a crackling bonfire. The party totaled six. Each was known to the others by a name that echoed his most prominent feature: Tomcat, Shrill, Rodentia, Snail, Fuzzball, and Badger. They sat together—peering at one another through the flames—reminiscing through boastful tales told of the tricks they had played on maidens unaware, each goblin gaining his turn to speak when a spark sputtered towards him.
__________Snail spoke first, his voice dragging in the manner characteristic of his footpace, “Remember Jeanie? We caught her just in time.”
__________“In time?” Rodentia, the youngest of them all, inquired.
__________“Ah, that’s right, you wasn’t old enough to go out with us then. You was still scurryin’ after Mistress Mother. Tell ‘im the details, Snail,” Fuzzball urged.
__________“We found her in the moonlight and swept her away, away even from her fiancé. Had we been but a day late, they would have been married, and we would not have been able to snatch her soul for our shaman queen,” Snail continued, “But, she liked our fruit, liked it even more than her fiancé. She liked it to her own detriment. Just like they all do. Just like Daemon said. He cursed the ground, you know? Where they buried her, nothing will grow.”
__________Rodentia, confused by Snail’s rambling, piped another question, “What’s it matter if she’s married?”
__________The party laughed at Rodentia’s naiveté. “Bah!” Fuzzball scolded, “You ain’t payin’ ‘nough attention to y’ur less’ns.”
__________Rodentia slumped, downcast from Fuzzball’s scolding.
__________Snail ignored the change of mood and proceeded to answer Rodentia’s question. “The magic only works on maidens. Daemon finds the purest souls tastiest. He’s a picky eater, and he’s the one Mistress Mother contracted with. Their agreement—youth and beauty for maiden souls—is written into the spell Daemon concocted. We’re using his magic to please Mistress Mother, so we have to play by his rules,” Snail explained.
__________A bell chimed elsewhere in their cavern home. The sound echoed down tunneled halls until it met the ears of the goblin troupe. Badger glanced at Tomcat, then towards the sound, and then back.
__________“It’s your turn!” Tomcat hissed.
__________Badger growled in a deep, threatening tone.
__________Tomcat stood up. He raised his arms and then dropped them back down in a surrendering gesture. “Fine, fine!” Tomcat hissed, “I’ll go see what her ladyship wants.”
__________Tomcat slinked down the hall after the source of the bell. The rest of the party continued chatting amongst themselves until Tomcat returned, rousing them all from their seats.
__________“There are a couple of ladies by the brookside that Daemon’s drooling after,” Tomcat explained, “Mistress Mother likes the look of them too, so get dressed to sell.”
__________The goblin troupe scrambled about the cavern, gathering platters, bowls, and fruit. They dressed themselves in flamboyant, formal attire. They exited the cavern as a group and carried their wares to the brookside.
* * *
Part Two:
__________The goblins returned to the cavern in joyous uproar. Rodentia waved a lock of curly, golden hair over his head like a trophy banner. The party cheered and skipped and jumped. They bumbled down one of the cavern tunnels like drunken entertainers. They entered a room with a huge, black cauldron. Within the cauldron, a liquid solution swirled with streams of red, pink, and orange. Rodentia threw the golden lock into the cauldron. The liquid sizzled, roared, and steamed.
__________Shrill shrieked and the others cheered. “Another success!” Shrill announced.
__________“Sweet, trusting, foolish Laura! She’ll be feeling it now—unquenchable hunger and thirst. She’ll call for us and cry for us, but we won’t answer,” Tomcat chuckled.
__________“Daemon is feeding on her now. In three days, he’ll have her soul gobbled up. And, Mistress Mother will have a full head of gorgeous, golden curls,” Snail added.
__________“Mistress Mother will be so happy!” Rodentia exclaimed, “She’ll be so proud of us!”
__________“We still have another target,” Badger reminded, “The next one might not be so easy. She is more chaste than Laura, so be prepared.”
__________Badger exited as his words sobered his companions. Each hushed goblin tramped out the cauldron room in silence, down the hall, to the cavern bedchambers. They rested and they waited until their queen called them back to the brookside.
* * *
Part Three:
__________After the hunt of Laura’s sister, Lizzie, the goblins returned to the cavern in a clamor of fear and pain. They had been scrambled and separated, rejoined and recovered only as they met before the entrance to their cavern home. Their wares—squished, broken, and leaking upon the platters and bowls that held them—revealed that their prey had outmatched them. Within the cavern they heard the hysterical shrieking of Mistress Mother.
__________“What’s going to happen to us?” Rodentia despaired, “Mistress Mother, is she going to punish us? She sounds so angry… or maybe hurt?”
__________“She ain’t gonna tolerate our failin’ ‘er,” Fuzzball said, “That’s f’r sure.”
__________“We are all going to die,” Badger announced with a calm certainty that irked Fuzzball.
__________“Don’t be scarin’ the kid, y’u cynic!” Fuzzball said, “Mistress Mother ain’t that cruel.”
__________Snail gulped. “No, Badger is being honest. We are probably going to die, but it isn’t Mistress Mother we need to be worried about; it’s Daemon,” he explained.
__________“Time to face our fate,” squawked Shrill, “No way out of it.”
__________The goblin troupe marched into the cavern, through its tunnels, until they came to Mistress Mother’s sanctum. The atmosphere of the sanctum was flooded with a dark and raging presence. The goblin troupe arrived just in time to see the ethereal image of Daemon vomiting Laura’s soul. The soul flew from Daemon’s maw and out the cavern in search of its original host. Mistress Mother shivered as she prostrated at Daemon’s feet and pleaded for mercy. The queen of goblins now looked as a shriveled corpse, the stolen beauty of maidens having left her body as Laura’s soul had left Daemon’s stomach.
__________“I know not mercy!” the sickened Daemon thundered, “You and your pets shall slake the upset of my appetite!”
__________Daemon’s ethereal presence washed over Mistress Mother and her goblin troupe, snuffing out the torchlight and firelight of the cavern halls as he devoured them. When Daemon’s presence left the cavern, he left it dark, empty, and barren. No longer can any living soul pass by the cavern without feeling an instinctual dread, and never again did maidens of the brookside tangle with goblin men.
Works Cited
Rossetti, Christina G. “Goblin Market,” Poetry Foundation, 2022.
Endlesslore 