19 Aug, 2009
The hobgoblin
What is a hobgoblin? It is a mythological or magical sprite (an elf or fairy) that is smaller than a goblin but far more mischievous. (It is a common mistake to think that a hobgoblin is larger than a goblin.) The goblin, apparently, originated in France, as a Gobelin, a particular sprite haunting parts of Normandy. In England the native woodland sprite was known as Robin Goodfellow. The name Robin (and Robert) was often used to denote a country fellow and the familiar form of this was hob. So the hobgoblin is a merging of the native Robin (hob) Goodfellow sprite with the Norman French goblin to create the local British sprite.
Another contraction of Robin is dobbin or dob, that gave dobbie, which is the name given to household sprites (although only as late as the nineteenth century). There is also a character so named in the Harry Potter series. It appears that a dobbie is the household cousin of the woodland hobgoblin.
The hobgoblin is also related to the more modern gremlin, a term that came into usage during the Second World War to describe the sprites responsible for electrical and mechanical faults.
According to Michael Aislabie Denham, a nineteenth century folklorist, every village had its apparition and, among the almost two-hundred he listed, many began with the hob form: hob-and-lanthorns, hob-headlesses, hob-thrushes, hob-thrusts, hobbits, hobby-lanthorns, hobgoblins, and hobhoulards. Denham has recently been attributed with the first use of hobbit from this passage of list.
Where I first met the hobgoblin
While I was living in Tewkesbury, a Gloucestershire town in the west country of England, I became acquainted with hobgoblins in rather unusual ways. Firstly I became quite fond of Hobgoblin, a strong, dark ale. It is brewed at the Wychwood Brewery in west Oxfordshire, not far away in the next county. Their branding is very distinctive with colourful labels, to evoke the folklore links with the medieval Wych Wood Forest, from which the brewery has taken it name.
Tewkesbury has its own Hilton Hotel, Puckrup Hall. It is located between the Avon and Severn Rivers. Puckrup means place of the hobgoblins: puck is another name for a hobgoblin. There are many such place names in England.
Alias Puck
The most famous of all English hobgoblins is Shakespeare’s Puck (also known as Robin Goodfellow). Shakespeare was born and schooled at Stratford-upon-Avon, only 35 miles (55 kilometres) north of Puckrup Hall, and it is most likely that his Puck character comes from the same local folklore.
Puck is the mischievous and central character of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is introduced when a fairy recognizes him in the woods:
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?
Note that Shakespeare’s hobgoblin can make “the drink bear no barm”, that is to take the head from a beer, so Wychwood was brave when it gave its beer this name. The beer does not seem to have suffered from it, though.
Lager’s hobgoblin
In England there is an ongoing campaign to defend traditional English beers against the terrible import, lager. Its members are stereotyped as middle-aged men with beards who go to beer festivals (lager drinkers as young metrosexuals or soccer hooligans).
Wychwood ran a great advertising campaign at Halloween that featured the hobgoblin saying:
Afraid of the dark, Lagerboy?
These five words conjured up Halloween, the generation gap, the superior dark flavour and challenged you to try the beer. It was wonderful copywriting!
There was an unsuccessful complaint about the ad campaign to the Advertising Standards Authority. The complainant was referred to only as “a lager drinker”.
14 Aug, 2009
The news was announced today that the London Olympics has proposed two new sports: women’s boxing and Rugby sevens. Now although I am impartial to boxing I am very pleased to see the rugby included, it is a great sport with a potential champion from Fiji.
However, as an Anglophile I am disappointed that the opportunity has not been taken to include some real British sports, some with wide international appeal.
1.   Morris dancing – ageing men dance around in silly costumes with bells on their ankles and silly smiles – essentially the terrestrial version of synchronised swimming but with a greater participation rate.
2.   Welly wanging – is a soft rubber version of discus throwing using a wellington boot (gumboot). It requires less space than discus and relies more on technique than strength.
3.   Caber tossing – is one for the ladymen but requires strength and manliness. Wearing a kilt while tossing the caber makes it a post-modern sport.
4.   Darts – this is the indoor version of javelin. It offers the advantage that a keen eye and a firm resolve will win over brawn and healthy lifestyle.
5.   Ferret legging – an indoor sport similar to the equestrian jumping; a ferret is required to negotiate barriers between the belt and the end of the trouser leg in the longest amount of time. No penalties are given for bites.
6.   Queuing – this is a team sport at which the English are certain gold medallists. The English have been known to queue for blocks simply to undertake minor transactions. There will no doubt be large queues at many of the London venues in tribute to this tradition.
7.   Gurning – its loss to these games is perhaps the most keenly felt. When are we ever going to have a greater opportunity to showcase the Northern English sport of gurning, or face-pulling.
8.   Boat-racing – this is a companion sport to rugby and does not involve water but beer – it is a beer drinking relay.
9.   Cheese-rolling – this Gloucestershire tradition may seem like a very eccentric sport but it attracts international competitors in a cross between downhill skiing and stair-diving (another less common companion sport to rugby) while controlling a giant cheese ball.
10. Pheasant shooting – clay pigeons tend to have predictable trajectories and are inedible.
11. Fox-hunting – politically incorrect but now that the foxes are becoming more annoying time for reconsideration. Alternatively combine the event with the steeplechase.
12. Sheep-dogging – the equestrian sports involve a rider persuading a horse to jump fences or to walk around an arena in figure-eights. Sheep dogging, where a handler persuades a dog to bring sheep through a series of obstacles using a whistle, is real beauty.
13. Cricket – based on the performance of the English team at Headingly last week this is no longer an English sport but has been included for politeness.
13 Aug, 2009
I am heading into the city to have a couple of beers with my friend David. Reading the Sydney Morning Herald on the train I come across the sentence:
A debate continues to ferment in the market over whether Westfield group will launch a big equity raising fairly soon.
Now surely the debate is fomenting not fermenting I think.
By the time I get to James Squires Brewery on the King Street Wharf (in Sydney) my mind has concerned itself more with fermentation than fomentation. There is a selection of real ales and beers to choose from and I choose a nice golden-coloured ale to start.
His first question to me is about our responses to an online debate in which we both had been participating. So my mind shoots back to the question of whether a debate ferments or foments and I show him the article.
Surely it is foment, I say.
I don’t know the word, says David, that’s your business.
Foment is about stirring up, inciting, … I say.
Perhaps it depends on whether it is intransitive or transitive, says David.
There is a pregnant pause – this is upping the ante too much. I change the subject.Do you know the difference between lager and ale, I ask. Lager is bottom-fermented and ale top-fermented?
When I get home I check out the foment/ferment situation. As it turns out David is correct: you can ferment unrest and you can foment unrest: this is the transitive form, having the subject (you), verb (ferment/foment), and the object (unrest). However, you can ferment but you can’t foment: this being the intransitive form without the object. You need something to stir up.
So going back to the original article, I have to admit that Jamie Freed, its editor is correct. I return to my beer relieved that it is fermented but worried about the future of foment.
11 Aug, 2009
The ten funniest clips on Youtube. My selection with a little help from my friends on Facebook. Rude, politically incorrect but all very funny in their unique ways. Any others for next month?
1. Rowan Atkinson The Devil
2. Monty Python What have the Romans ever done for us
3. Blue Collar Comedy Big Deck
4. David Armand Torn
5. Dead Ringers Maximus (Russel Crowe Skit)
6. Potter Puppet Pals The Mysterious Ticking Noise
7. Badgers
8. Spitting Image I’ve never met a nice South African
9. Ronnie Johns half hour -Â Chopper Reid Heimlich Manoeuvre
10. Peter Sellers Does your dog bite?
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