- "He wields the Foe-hammer! The Beater, bright as daylight!"
- —The Great Goblin upon seeing Gandalf's sword, Glamdring
The Great Goblin was a large Orc chieftain of the Misty Mountains in Middle-earth during the Third Age.
Biography[]
The Great Goblin was a very large creature with a huge head, ruling a group of Northern Orcs living in the caves of Goblin-town near the High Pass. They preyed on travelers who used another, easier pass near the main gate of Goblin-town, until such people began avoiding the route. The Orcs then made another gate opening into a cave they called the Front Porch, at the top of the High Pass. On occasion, the Great Goblin ordered his Orcs to catch fish for him in the dark lake near Goblin-town, below the Mountains, and these Orcs were sometimes killed by Gollum.
The Great Goblin, by Justin Gerard
In the summer of TA 2941, the Dwarves of Thorin and Company, along with Bilbo Baggins, were captured on the Front Porch and were brought before the Great Goblin in his great hall, where he was seated on a flat stone and surrounded by armed guards. The Great Goblin demanded to know what the Dwarves were doing in the mountains.
When it was revealed that Thorin carried the Elvish sword Orcrist - which the Orcs feared and which they called "Biter" - the Great Goblin was enraged and at once leapt to attack Thorin. Immediately, all the torches in the cave were extinguished and a glowing sword "bright as blue flame" appeared. It was Glamdring, called "Beater" by the Orcs, and now wielded by Gandalf. As the Dwarves were escaping, the Great Goblin leapt down in front of them, and attacked Gandalf who was at the head of the party. Gandalf then fought back, stabbing the great lord of the cave, killing him.
The death of the Great Goblin angered the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. A great army of Orcs and Wargs was amassed by Bolg, whose father Azog had been killed by the Dwarf Dáin II. Bolg's forces tracked Thorin and Company to the Lonely Mountain, where they fought in the Battle of Five Armies against the Dwarves, Elves, and Lake-men.[2][3]
In adaptations[]
The Great Goblin (1977)
Rankin/Bass version[]
In the 1977 Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit, the Great Goblin was voiced by John Stephenson.
The Hobbit film trilogy[]
- "Well, well, well! Look who it is; Thorin, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, "King under the Mountain". Oh, but I'm forgetting; you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king, which makes you... nobody, really."
- —The Great Goblin, taunting Thorin Oakenshield
The Great Goblin greeting Thorin and company in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- "Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung! You'll be beaten and battered, from racks you'll be hung! You will die down here and never be found! Down in the deep of Goblin-Town!"
- —The Great Goblin's song in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Great Goblin in front of the captured Dwarves
In Peter Jackson's film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), Barry Humphries, who is more commonly known for his alter ego Dame Edna Everage, is the voice and motion-capture performer of the Great Goblin, an entirely computer-generated character. He appears as a giant, obese, bloated goblin (more akin to a troll) with lots of warts, lumps, and scars, and carries a large staff decorated with an animal skull, closely resembling a ram, adorned with shrunken heads.
His death is portrayed quite differently than in the book. He is knocked off a cliff by Thorin when Gandalf saves the company, and is killed after the fight through Goblin-town when Gandalf slashes his abdomen and cuts his throat.
Voice dubbing actors[]
| Foreign Language | Voice dubbing artist |
|---|---|
| Spanish (Latin America) | Humberto Vélez |
| Spanish (Spain) | Francesc Belda |
| Portuguese (Brazil) (Television/DVD) | Sérgio Fortuna |
| German | Hartmut Neugebauer |
| Italian (Italy) | Massimiliano Plinio |
| French (France) | Paul Borne |
| Czech | Karel Gult |
| Slovak | Ivan Laca |
| Polish | Michał Piela |
| Hungarian | Faragó András |
Radio[]
- Denis McCarthy voiced the character in the 1968 BBC Radio radio adaptation of The Hobbit.
- Joe Hughes voiced the character in the 1979 The Mind's Eye radio adaptations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
- Heinz Theo Branding voiced the character in the 1980 German radio serial adaptation of The Hobbit.[4]
- Karol Čálik seems to have voiced the character in the 1989 Slovak two-episode radio miniseries adaptation of The Hobbit, though he is not directly credited.[5]
Gallery[]
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Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | Groot Kabouter |
| Albanian | Goblin i Madh |
| Amharic | ታላቅ ጎብሊን |
| Arabic | عفريت كبير |
| Armenian | Գրեատ Գոբլին |
| Azerbaijani | Böyük Süpürgəsaqqal |
| Basque | Goblin Handi |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | вялікі гоблін |
| Bengali | মহান অপদেবতা |
| Bosnian | Veliki Gobelin |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Великият гоблин |
| Cambodian | អស្ចារ្យ ក្មេងរប៉ិលរប៉ូច |
| Catalan | El gran Gòblin |
| Cebuano | Dakung Goblin |
| Chichewa | Goblin Chachikulu |
| Chinese | 泡菜里克 |
| Cornish | Bocka Bryntin |
| Croatian | Veliki Goblin |
| Czech | Velký Skřet |
| Danish | Den Store Goblin / Store Bjergtrold |
| Dutch | Grote Aardman |
| Esperanto | Granda Koboldo |
| Estonian | Suur Paharet |
| Finnish | Iso Hiisi |
| French | Roi Gobelin or Grand Gobelin |
| Frisian | Grutte Eardske (Western) |
| Georgian | დიდი გობლინი |
| German | Großer Ork |
| Greek | Ανώτερο Γκόμπλιν |
| Gujarati | મહાન ગોબ્લિન |
| Haitian Creole | Gwo Goblin |
| Hawaiian | Nui Goblin |
| Hebrew | הגובלין גדול |
| Hindi | महान भूत ? |
| Hungarian | Nagy Kobold |
| Hmong | Yawm Goblin |
| Icelandic | Mikill Púki |
| Indonesian | Goblin Besar |
| Irish Gaelic | Goblin Iontach |
| Italian | Grande Orco or Grande Goblin |
| Japanese | 大ゴブリン |
| Kannada | ದೊಡ್ಡ ತುಂಟ |
| Kazakh | Басты Гоблин (Cyrillic) Bastı Goblïn (Latin) |
| Korean | 고블린 큰 |
| Latin | Goblin Magna |
| Latvian | Liels Goblinu |
| Lithuanian | Puikus Goblin |
| Luxembourgish | Grousse Gwblyn ? |
| Macedonian | голема гоблин |
| Maltese | Goblin Kbir |
| Malaysian | Jembalang Besar |
| Manx | Glashtin Mooar |
| Marathi | महान भूत |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Иx Гоблин |
| Nepalese | ठूलो लुटेरा |
| Norwegian | Stortussen |
| Pashto | ګرېات ګوبلین ? |
| Persian | گابلین اعظم |
| Polish | Wielki Goblin |
| Portuguese | Grande Goblin (Portugal) Grão-Orc (Brazil) |
| Romanian | Mare Goblin |
| Romansh | Gronda Goblin |
| Russian | великий гоблин |
| Sanskrit | ङ्रेअत् ङोब्लिन् |
| Slovenian | Veliko Goblin |
| Scottish Gaelic | Mòr Goblin |
| Serbian | Велики гоблин (Cyrillic) Veliki goblin (Latin) |
| Sesotho | Goblin Leholo |
| Slovak | Veľkoškrat |
| Somalian | Goblin Weyn |
| Spanish (Spain and Latin America) | Gran Trasgo |
| Swahili | Goblin Kubwa |
| Swedish | Storvätten |
| Tajik Cyrillic | Греат Гоблин |
| Tamil | பெரிய பூதம் |
| Telugu | గొప్ప గోబ్లిన్ |
| Thai | ผีที่ดี ? |
| Turkish | Büyük Cin \ Goblin Kralı |
| Turkmen | Beýik ? |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Верховний Гоблін |
| Urdu | عظیم پریت |
| Uzbek | Греат Гоблин (Cyrillic) Buyuk Goblin (Latin) |
| Vietnamese | Vĩ đại Goblin ? |
| Welsh | Goblin Mawr |
| Yiddish | גרויס גאַבלין |
| Yoruba | Nla Goblin |
References[]
- ↑ The Atlas of Middle-earth, The Hobbit, "Introduction"
- ↑ The Hobbit, Chapter IV: "Over Hill and Under Hill"
- ↑ The Atlas of Middle-earth, The Hobbit, "Over Hill and Under Hill: Goblin-town"
- ↑ Der Hobbit (hörspiel). (German: "The Hobbit (radio play)". Ardapedia.org (German-language wiki of Tolkien's Legendarium). Retrieved/cited 30 May 2021.
- ↑ Hobit. (Slovak: "The Hobbit") Slovak 1989 radio play. Tolkien Gateway.net (English-language wiki of Tolkien's Legendarium). Retrieved/cited 30 May 2021.