- "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 goblin leader of the Misty Mountains in Middle-earth during the Third Age.
Biography
The Great Goblin was a goblin chieftain of the Misty Mountains. He was a very large creature with a huge head. He was the chief of a group of goblins who lived in Goblin-town near the High Pass. They preyed on travellers who used another, easier pass near the main gate of Goblin-town until people started avoiding that route over the mountains. The goblins then made another gate opening into a cave they called the "Front Porch", at the top of the High Pass. The Great Goblin sometimes ordered his goblins to catch fish for him in Gollum's Lake, and these goblins were sometimes killed by Gollum.
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 cave, 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. (He seems less hostile in this passage than the Orcs are during the later War of the Ring, as his questioning seems to imply that he has not decided beforehand whether he will order the party killed, make them slaves, or even let them go, but that he will decide according to their answers. It is also possible he was just toying with the group and would kill them afterwards.)
When it was revealed that Thorin carried the Elvish sword Orcrist - which the Orcs fear 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 goblins, 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 Goblin and killing him.
The death of the Great Goblin angered the goblins of the Misty Mountains. A great army of goblins and Wargs was amassed by Bolg, whose father Azog had been killed by the dwarf Dáin II Ironfoot. Bolg's forces tracked Thorin and Company to the Lonely Mountain where they fought in the Battle of the Five Armies against the Dwarves, Elves, and Lakemen.[2][3]
Portrayal in adaptations
The Great Goblin greeting Thorin and company in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Rankin/Bass version
In the 1977 Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit, the Great Goblin was voiced by John Stephenson. (The Hobbit)
The Hobbit film trilogy
- "Well, well, well! Look who it is; Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, "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
- "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
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.
The Great Goblin in front of the captured Dwarves
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) | Gaetano Varcasia |
| French (France) | Paul Borne |
| Czech | Karel Gult |
| Slovak | Ivan Laca |
| Polish | Michał Piela |
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 | Store Bjergtrold |
| Dutch | Grote Aardman |
| Esperanto | Granda Koboldo |
| Estonian | Suur Paharet |
| Finnish | Iso Hiisi |
| French | Roi Gobelin or Grand Gobelin |
| Frisian | Grutte Goblin |
| 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 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 |
| Malay | Jembalang Besar |
| Manx | Glashtin Mooar |
| Marathi | महान भूत |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Иx Гоблин |
| Nepalese | ठूलो लुटेरा |
| Norwegian | Stortussen |
| Pashto | ګرېات ګوبلین ? |
| Persian | جن بزرگ |
| Polish | Wielki Goblin |
| Portuguese | Grande Goblin (Portugal)
Grão-Orc (Brazilian Portuguese) |
| 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 | Veľký škriatok |
| 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"