miners' night was the goblins' day. Indeed, the greater number of the
miners were afraid of the goblins: for there were strange stories well
known amongst them of the treatment some had received whom the
goblins
had surprised at their work during the night. The more courageous of
them, however, amongst them Peter Peterson and Curdie, who in this
took
after his father, had stayed in the mine all night again and again, and
although they had several times encountered a few stray goblins, had
never yet failed in driving them away. As I have indicated already, the
chief defence against them was verse, for they hated verse of every
kind, and some kinds they could not endure at all. I suspect they could
not make any themselves, and that was why they disliked it so much.
At
all events, those who were most afraid of them were those who could
neither make verses themselves, nor remember the verses that other
people made for them; while those who were never afraid were those
who
could make verses for themselves; for although there were certain old
rhymes which were very effectual, yet it was well known that a new
rhyme, if of the right sort, was even more distasteful to them, and
therefore more effectual in putting them to flight.
Madhuri Noah
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