In this medieval history video essay, we discuss a tale about a friendly goblin who made some mischief in a town within the realm of Charlemagne. The video is based on our earlier article, The Bizarre Tale Of A Goblin That Gave Away Free Drinks In The Reign Of Charlemagne, but the work has been edited and rewritten here for a video format. The transcript of the narration is provided under the embedded video.
Notker the Stammerer, a monk and scholar from the 9th century, recorded a bizarre tale about a mischievous goblin that appeared in a medieval French city during the reign of Charlemagne, who ruled the Frankish Carolingian Empire between 768 and 814. Notker was one of two major contemporary biographers of Charlemagne. The first was Einhard, an intellectual from Charlemagne’s court, who wrote the earliest biography about the great king, completing it sometime during the 820s. For the religious time in which it was written, Einhard’s text was remarkably secular, focusing on the actions and demeanor of Charlemagne rather than the state of Christendom in Charlemagne’s empire. Several decades later, Notker the Stammerer decided to publish his own commentary about the great king’s reign, completing his work in the 880s. As a monk, Notker strove to give the church a more significant position in his account of Charlemagne’s life. In fact, he filled nearly the entire first book of his text, The Deeds of Charlemagne, with odd tales that occurred between the great king and his local bishops. These bizarre stories, told to Notker by a certain cleric named Werinbert, were unfortunately often left devoid of names and dates, so it is difficult to assign any historical validity to Notker’s first book. Nevertheless, the strange tales are immensely entertaining and can give a window of insight into what some 9th-century people believed. It is in this curious first book of Notker’s Deeds of Charlemagne that the amusing tale of the Goblin can be found.
Notker’s Goblin tale took place in a region of France that was suffering from a drought. During that troubled time, there was a greedy bishop (whose name was left anonymous) who used the opportunity to make money by exploiting the thirst of the public. The bishop opened up his warehouse to those under his care, but charged unfair prices for his provisions. The greed of the bishop and the desperation of the townspeople apparently caught the attention of a supernatural being. According to Notker, a mischievous goblin or hobgoblin entered the area to tempt the bishop’s neglected flock.
As the story goes, the goblin announced its presence by launching a campaign of home invasions throughout the town. It broke into houses and workshops to play with peoples’ belongings. In particular, the creature had a fondness for the shops of the town’s blacksmiths, where it spent nights noisily drumming upon the anvils. As sightings of the goblin became more numerous, word spread around the town that the creature could be banished by simply making the sign of the cross. One day, a certain haunted homeowner (who was likely a blacksmith) decided to try this method to banish the goblin from his home, but, before the sign could be completed, the creature made an interesting counter-offer. The goblin promised that, if he was allowed to stay, he would fill whatever container was left to him (no matter the size) with an alcoholic beverage on a nightly basis. On this, Notker the Stammerer wrote, “Then a demon or hobgoblin whose function was to spend time on games and in deceiving men had the habit of coming to the house of a blacksmith and spending the night playing with his hammers and anvils. When the master of the house tried to protect himself and his possessions with the sign of the holy Cross, the hairy creature replied: ‘If you don’t stop me playing in your shop, mate, bring your tankard here and you will find it full every day’” (Notker the Stammerer, The Deeds of Charlemagne, 1.23). The offer was especially tempting because of the drought that was plaguing the town. Therefore, the homeowner agreed to the proposal and handed over to the goblin the largest tankard or flask that he possessed.
As the goblin promised, each morning the tankard was filled with wine. For several days this went on; while the rest of the town paid outrageous prices to the bishop for supplies, the unnamed homeowner received free wine from the goblin. Nevertheless, all good things must end. After an unknown amount of time, the tankard disappeared and the goblin was nowhere to be seen. That same day, the bishop announced that he had caught a demon in his wine cellar. According to Notker, the bishop had discovered that barrels of wine from his cellar had been cracked open and spilled on the floor each night. After the thefts kept occurring, the bishop eventually suspected that a foul spirit was the culprit. With this in mind, the bishop made a trap by setting up crosses and sprinkling holy water around the wine cellar. In the end, the unsuspecting goblin somehow found himself cornered in the bishop’s wine vault and was apprehended by the local authorities the next morning.
According to Notker, the so-called goblin or demon looked fairly human when it was caught, albeit a bit hairy. Interestingly enough, the supernatural being was apparently flogged for its crime of thievery. In a wholesome scene at the end of the story, when the goblin was being led away for punishment, he expressed sadness and remorse for losing the tankard that was entrusted to him by the homeowner, whom the goblin considered to be a friend. Notker wrote, “He was led before the people as a thief and publicly flogged. As he was beaten he said: ’Woe is me, woe is me, for I have lost my mate’s tankard’” (Notker the Stammerer, The Deeds of Charlemagne, 1.23). So ended tale of the curiously endearing goblin, who ironically came across as a much more likable character than the bishop.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Sources:
- Two Lives of Charlemagne, by Einhard and Notker the Stammer, translated by David Ganz. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008.
Art & stock video
All of the artworks and stock clips used in the video were labeled as Public Domain or free use at the time of the video’s creation.
Music
Folk Round by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100357
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
