[13. dec.] Bag lågen en flok gobliner

I dag gemmer julekalenderen et uddrag af Hobbitten. Har du set filmen, kan du nok genkende scenen, men noget jeg gerne vil vægte, er goblinernes (for jeg køber ikke oversættelsen ‘bjergtrold’) evner udi håndværk:

There in the shadows on a large flat stone sat a tremendous goblin with a huge head, and armed goblins were standing round him carrying the axes and the bent swords that they use. Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light. It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far. They did not hate dwarves especially, no more than they hated everybody and everything, and particularly the orderly and prosperous; in some parts wicked dwarves had even made alliances with them.

(Mine fremhævelser)

Så det er et fint belæg for i filmen, at goblinhulerne er lige så imponerende og omfangsrige, som dværgeriget er, omend langt grimmere og mere fæl i sin udformning.