The Goublin of Cotentin
May 1, 2025
The Cotentin Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest of Normandy. This magnificent region on the edge of the English Channel has had a unique history, which undoubtedly explains the importance of folklore relating to the common people. It should be added that the geographical isolation of this outgrowth was reinforced by the presence of marshes in the center of this territory. Only a narrow strip of land was passable, which transformed it, in practice, into a quasi-island. Until these marshes were drained in the 18th and 19th centuries. But let’s first go back further in time to understand the specificity of the Cotentin Peninsula, and of Normandy.
The Cotentin has experienced significant Nordic settlement
From the end of the 8th century, the region was devastated by the Vikings, some of these Scandinavian warriors ended up settling in this province in 911, this is the creation of the Duchy of Normandy (Normans = Nords Men). In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy invaded England, he is the genealogical ancestor of the current British royal family. A brutal invasion, which was also linguistic, the goublin/goblin is a testimony to this. (The English language has about 25,000 words of French origin, the French language has about 500 words of English origin.)
Now let’s leave history aside and concentrate on the folklore of Normandy, which we can therefore, without taking great risks, directly link to Scandinavian culture.
Elves/Nisse/Tomte from Scandinavian tradition
We have discussed this folklore from the peoples of northern Europe through this article and this interview . In the Cotentin, the goublin/goubelain/goblin, in the French version, is completely part of the local culture, it is apart from the Alps, the French region where its folklore is undoubtedly the most consistent. (The island of Guernsey is very close to the Cotentin, in a recent article Florent exhumed the thick file of the Arragousets , fierce little island people.)
Goublin is the name especially given in Normandy to the familiar elf who haunts the house, who takes part in small domestic chores and who strives to invent the pranks of which the inhabitants of the house will be victims. The origin of the word goblin is mysterious, but its first appearance in a text takes place in Normandy, mentioned for the first time in a Latinized form: gobelinus . Between 1123 and 1141, in his Ecclesiastical History, Orderic Vital relates an act accomplished by Saint Taurin, first bishop of Evreux, who came from Rome to evangelize a local people. This saint delivered his flock from a horrible demon who manifested himself in the temple of Diana.
Dæmon enim, quem de Dianæ fano expulit [Taurinus] adhuc in eadem urbe degit, et in variis frequenter formis apparens, neminem lædit. Hunc vulgus gobelinum appellat, et per merita sancti Taurini ab humana læsione coercitum usque hodie affirmat.
“Indeed, the demon that [Saint Taurinus] drove out of the temple of Diana so that he would not harm anyone has lived in this city to this day, appearing frequently in various forms. The people call him a goblin, and affirm that the power of Saint Taurinus has prevented him from doing the slightest harm to humans until now.”
The word then appears briefly in Old French as gobelin around 1195, then does not resurface in texts until the early 16th century. It is thought to have originated as a diminutive in -inus from the Latin gobalus “domestic genius”, a late borrowing from the Greek ϰόβαλος kóbalos “rascal, rogue”, then “imp, evil genius”. The connection with the German Kobold is also possible.
But, having obeyed the orders of the holy bishop who ordered him to break his own statues, this demon was not immediately plunged back into hell. For many years, obliged to helplessly witness the salvation of the men he had so long sought to destroy, he manifested his presence in the city by playing a thousand tricks on the inhabitants, without however possessing the means to actually harm them.
In 1883, Jean Fleury, in his work Oral Literature of Lower Normandy, devoted an important chapter to the goublins. Most of these stories were collected either in the hamlet of Fleury in Gréville, or in Omonville-la-Rogue, in the Pouppeville family.
“Until a time not so far removed from us, there was no castle, no important house that did not have its goublin or familiar demon. Goublins, no more than fairies, do not fit into the Christian system. The religion of Jesus assigns no place to these wanderers, inferior to man in some respects, superior to him in others. There is in these beliefs a remnant of the ancient religions that has persisted through the new. The goublin is found everywhere in Europe, domovoi in Russia, troll in Germany and Norway, poulpiquet in Brittany; it has two names in the north of the department of Manche. Near the tip of La Hague, in Auderville, it is called drôle, a name which is none other than troll pronounced in the French way, and, in the rest of the province, goublin, a word identical to the English “goblin.” In southern Europe, the goublin is an elf.
The goublin isn’t mean, he’s mischievous. During the day, he takes all sorts of forms. He’s a big dog that comes to warm himself by the fire, he’s a shod hare that walks across a bridge, he’s a white horse that appears in the meadow, he’s a big black tomcat that purrs near the fire and sometimes lets itself be stroked.
Gréville-Hague, today
The goublin of Val-Ferrand, in Gréville, usually appeared in the form of a familiar hare. He came to warm himself by the fire while the pot of potatoes was being cooked in the evening. He assisted in the making of bread, and each time it was baked, a cake was made for him and placed outside the window. If he was forgotten, there would be a two-week commotion in the house. At the Fleury family in Jobourg, the goublin usually took the form of a familiar hare that allowed itself to be stroked like a cat. This happened about sixty years ago. (between 1800 and 1850)
Omonville-la-Rogue today
As Jean Fleury points out, the goublin is therefore a “shape-changer.” One of its favorite appearances is that of large animals, notably the horse.
Born in 1815 and died in 1904, the pioneering folklorist Amélie Bosquet wrote in 1845, “La Normandie romanesque et merveilleuse”, a huge compilation of the most characteristic legendary stories of Normandy.
“…our Goblin often transforms himself into a horse, and is then called the Bayard horse . But he is a diabolical animal who reckons on playing a thousand tricks. He goes off, fully saddled and bridled, to meet some poor peasant weary of a long journey, who is struggling to return home. Sometimes, tempted by the good appearance of the mount, the credulous traveler ventures to mount the so-called horse; it is then an agility of pirouettes, leaps and jumps, caracoles, and backfires that would put the best squire to bay! Even then, one does not have the chance to leave this cursed mount at will: one must, willingly or unwillingly, wait until the Goblin sees fit to end the joke and get rid of his rider himself; which he does by throwing it nimbly into the middle of a pool or a ditch of muddy water.
In The Goblin Pony , a traditional French tale transcribed by Scottish poet Andre Lang in The Grey Fairy Book , a goblin disguised as a pony entices children to ride him before throwing himself into the sea to drown them.
Did the name Cheval Bayard derive from the adjective bai, which means red/ginger? It is possible because elf, sprite, or goblin, whatever name he bears, this mischievous little creature has a predilection for red. All red is his little cap. Does he become a will-o’-the-wisp? He is red. Horse? Red again. Moreover, the imagination of the people of the Pays de Caux (north of Normandy) nicknamed him the “Nain Rouge”; in this region, his physiognomy is severe, his mood vindictive and capricious and his susceptibility very picky.
Illustration of Brownie, by Alice B. Woodward (1862-1951).
” Défious, défiou des goublins, qui rôlent l’sai dans les q’mins”, “Beware of the goblins who prowl the paths” , lyrics written by the songwriter from Cotentin, Alfred Rossel, at the end of the 19th century, in Normandy and still sung by folklore lovers. More here and the delicious lyrics of the song translated here .
However, red is not the only color associated with it, white is also.
This is how the mysterious apparitions that shook the inhabitants of a small town in the Cotentin are described, as recounted in 1932 by Abbot Charles Lepeley , taken up by a Cotentin magazine, Vikland : a cross between Barfleur and Cherbourg made the headlines. Every winter night, a very improbable herd of albino horses and bulls would gather there. They would torment everyone who passed by. No one was hurt, but everyone was frightened. And everyone knew who these terrifying mounts were: the goublins. After hiding in their homes, the inhabitants chose to confront these “damn goublins”. Strong men armed with sturdy sticks gathered together and saw six enormous white horses, a terrifying sight, emerging from Quémanville at the stroke of midnight. At the end of an epic struggle, marked by supernatural phenomena, the herd fled. And the next day, several ill-reputed inhabitants of these hamlets showed strange signs of struggle.
But the goublin, like other creatures of the common people like the Leprechaun , is also responsible for watching over treasures. In fact, his presence is a clue; it generally indicates the vicinity of a treasure. Any treasure forgotten for a hundred years is placed under the surveillance of a goublin. In a pasture near the hamlet of Fleury, in Gréville, near one of those stone columns that are placed in the middle of fields so that cattle can rub against it when they are itchy, one often saw a beautiful, shining copper jug, which disappeared when one came near it. At a nearby crossroads, one saw a woman sitting spinning. When one approached, the spinning wheel would burst into flames, then disappear, and the woman too. In a house in Gréville, a woman who was lying in bed suddenly saw a young lady appear at one of her windows, cross the room, and exit through the opposite window silently and without breaking anything. Other times, this same woman, waking up in the night, would see a little man sitting spinning in the middle of the room; if she sat up in bed and spoke to him, the spinner and the spinning wheel would disappear. All this indicated that a treasure was hidden in the house. They searched for it for a long time, but they could not find it.
In some goubliées houses, one is awakened in the middle of the night by a terrible racket; doors open and close violently, one hears heavy bodies tumbling down the stairs. Pots, pans, copper jugs violently clash. In the kitchen, one hears the sound of plates and glasses breaking. The next morning, one goes to see that everything is in place, nothing has moved.
Generally, goublins are silent; but there are some who speak. There was one in the hamlet of Fleury, in Gréville, who had the gift of speech. They named him Gabriet and he knew his name very well. He took various forms; he was by turns a dog, a cat, a calf. They were not afraid of him. They spoke to him; he understood, he even answered sometimes; but he never spoke familiarly.
One night, he woke the mistress of the house. He had lifted the hearthstone: “Here’s some money,” he said, “come and take it.” She would have liked to go and see, but fear won out; she stayed in bed. It was a good thing for her. Gabriet later told her: “You did well not to come. I was going to put you under the stone.”
He wasn’t always wrong. One of the sons of the house was named Desmonts. One night, he heard himself called: Desmonts, Desmonts, your cider is leaking.
Desmonts recognized Gabriet’s voice; he feared a trap and did not move; he regretted it: the next day, when he entered the cellar, he found one of his barrels almost empty, because the weeping scuttle had not been properly closed.
When the goublins no longer stick to simple mischief, it is because they are bored with guarding the treasure entrusted to them, they want it to be discovered and delivered, but they do not have the right to reveal the precise location where it is. This explains why searches are often fruitless. The treasure guarded by Gabriet was searched for for a long time in vain because it was not in the house, but in one of its outbuildings, in a barn that was not being used. The Fleurys rented this barn to the Polidors. They found the treasure in a wall, but they did not boast about it. Once the treasure was “raised,” Gabriet disappeared.
Once the treasure has been discovered, there are still certain conditions to be met in order to seize it safely. First, it must be surrounded by a trench so that the goublin is not tempted to take it elsewhere; then, the earth surrounding it must be carefully removed, and finally, someone must be found to “lift the treasure.” This person is condemned to die within the year. For this purpose, an old, out-of-service horse is usually taken, and the sacrifice is readily made. A lady Henry, from Gréville, who had discovered in a hole in her staircase an old earthenware pot containing a sum of fifteen hundred francs and had pulled it out herself, died within the year. This was in 1770. No more treasure has been heard of since.
Megalithic monuments, dolmens, menhirs, and covered galleries are said to contain treasures. It is said in Beaumont that some Cherbourg residents who had come to the moorland in search of a supposed treasure worked for a long time and found nothing. As they were returning, they saw a man in a tree, “no bigger than a rat,” who mocked them and shouted: Fouah! Fouah!
It is also interesting to note that, in certain cases, the popular belief in the presence of a treasure in a given place is based on a true fact, but one that has fallen into oblivion; thus, in 1828, a treasure of Gallic origin was found in the moor of Lessay (district of Coutances); now Gerville pointed out that there existed, from time immemorial, in Lessay, a tradition relating to a treasure, to goubelins, and relating to the precise place where the find was made (Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, t. IV, 1829, p. 291).
The Goblin Market, Hilda Koe, 1895
To conclude with a happier description of the interactions between humans and the domestic genius that is the goublin, we find the folklorist Jean Fleury:
The elf of the fort of Omonville-la-Rogue was even more familiar, but he was also more mischievous. Sometimes he was a white sheep; other times a little dog who lay down on the skirt of the young girl of the house and was dragged along. At night, he could be heard turning the spinning wheel, washing the dishes. In the courtyard, it was often a calf that one saw appear unexpectedly. Other times, it was a hare that amused itself by suddenly galloping off with a fire under its belly. Sometimes it was a big black dog, which made its rounds in the evening, growling. The young girl had taken a liking to him; he amused himself by playing all sorts of
pleasant tricks on her. She would see a ball of thread on the ground, for example, and she would pick it up, reproaching herself for her negligence; suddenly the ball of thread would burst out laughing in her hands and jump to the ground.
It was the goublin who was frolicking
A France Journalist who has interested in Cryptozoology