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SOME FICTIONAL TALES ABOUT THE GOBLINS AND WIZARDS OF EAST LOTHIAN
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No record in history books?
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As we said earlier on in "What Is A Wizard?” goblins are not very well known creatures which is why the only recording of them being in East Lothian, is when Sir Hugo de Gifford got them to build his dungeon for him (which you can read about in "Yester Castle - The Haunted Home"). Although goblins tunnel they are not known to migrate. This means the goblins of East Lothian probably lived high up in the hills somewhere quiet. They did not disturb anyone and so no one knew they were there. This is why we have not got any recordings to recount to you about goblins. That won't stop us though. All the stories in this section are not true but they are based on the facts known about the goblin way of life, so are very realistic. We hope you enjoy them. The stories about wizards however are all true.
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The Story of Grumble the Goblin!
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Many years ago in a small village called Gifford, Grumble the goblin lived.
He had a tunnel under the village hall and was helping with the Yester Castle project.
Grumble was a short stumpy goblin with fat fingers, small feet, pointed teeth and a lot of long black hair. He was very proud of his hair and brushed it every day before going to work.
One day he walked up to Yester Castle with a few of his friends. They were called Spanner and Tonk.Spanner was a tall goblin (unlike Grumble) and had long thin fingers, big flat feet, black teeth and no hair at Allston was a short and ugly goblin with bony fingers, long feet and had little bald patches on his head.
They had arrived at Yester Castle and dug down until they reached the building site. Grumble's job was making the entrance hall and as Tonk and Spanner went off to do their jobs the big boss came in. Sir Hugo himself! The goblins flung themselves on the floor and the boss looked at their handiwork.
The boss spent a long time looking at the hall then he finally said, "Who is responsible for this rubbish?” Grumble stepped forward, I am very angry with you goblin. You will be punished. And with that he swept out of the hall. Grumble was more scared than he had ever been in his life before when the boss was angry, people died.
It was three hours later and some of the boss's slaves came and grabbed Grumble and took him up to the castle. The boss had a huge sword and Grumble gave up hope, but the boss only grabbed him and cut off his hair! That (in Grumble's own words) was worse than death. He was like spanner now! When his friends saw him they laughed and laughed. Grumble was so ashamed that he hid in his tunnel and was never seen again!
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The Three Wise Goblins!
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Many years ago land called East Lothian, a young boy was climbing Berwick Law.
He had climbed it many times before and knew it well. It was very big and it was easy to get lost but he was an experienced climber. And then a huge shape smashed through the rock in front of him, he screamed but it was to late the thing grabbed him and ran of to see the three wise goblins! The three wise goblins were called Vaerluth, Skralang and Zeth.Skralang saw all evil. Zeth heard all evil and Vaerluth spoke only evil. When the thing dropped the boy Skralang saw him a once. Vaerluth rushed up to the boy and started yelling insults at him.
"Now now" said Zeth." We don't want our little friend getting hurt" Vaerluth reluctantly let go of him. The boy spoke in a scared voice.
"Please good sirs, what do you want with me?"
"Well" said Zeth "I think we should smash him on the rocks"
"But I think we should throw him off a cliff" said Skralang
"I want to tie him to a cannon and drop him in the sea" said Vaerluth
"Why don't we let him go?" said the boy
"Good idea" said the three stupid goblins
"Go away boy" said Zeth
The boy ran away down the hill laughing. They really were stupid!
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THE FOLISH LADY OF PENCAET
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It was a cold , wet , bleak night, and a beggar knocked on the door of Pencaet Castle. He was banished by order of the Lady of Pencaet who had accidently sealed her doom. Little did she know that the beggar that she had banished was none other than Alexander Hamilton - the wizard! He cursed her and her family to live in fear for one day they would perish in a most painful fashion of which he did not state.
Alexander Hamilton was supposedly a most notorious wizard. He had familiars ( his link to the devil ) , three of them to be precise - a cat, a dog and a crow. He was said to meet the devil in Saltoun Wood and Monkrig to recive his evil tasks. After many years of cursing people and living in hiding, he was burned upon Castlehill at Edinburgh after being found guilty of doing witchcraft.
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MAGIC, POTIONS AND REASONS
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Wizards were generally thought to be criminals who caused all the bad things to happen. If something went wrong ( crop failure, illness etc. ) wizards were often blamed and burned. Normal folk were scared of the wizards' powers and so they would be hunted out and burned at the stake. The people who might have chased the wizards would have been theologians, priests or other church assosiated folk who all believed that these men had been possessd by the devil and were so dangerous that they had to be killed. They may have been right in some cases but not all the men they burned were really wizards.
Magic, black witchcraft and sorcery were all the powers wizards were said to have. These were the so called powers of evil. Spells, charms, rituals, curses, spoken verses, incantations, potions, fire, poison and special objects were all common for wizards to use. Wizards had extremely powerful talents ; it was said that their curses were stronger than swords. Pressuming that wizards were chosen by the devil, some of them wished to be able to have an ability to contact him at any time - this is where familiar magic kicks in.
Familiar magic is when a wizard gives certain powers to an animal of their choice ( cats were often chosen ) . Through this creature the wizard could contact the devil at any time. The animal would be immortal because the devil would always be linked to it. Animals were not the only things used in bad magic although they were used in riuals and incantations when they were dead as well as dead human bodies! Models of people were used as a manner of torture. They were made from a certain type of magic clay, then layed on the fire to cause the person to perish. Sometimes the wizard would stick pins into the model to cause pain to the person represented by the model. Elfshots are arrow heads too small to be made by human hands so they were thought to be made by the faries and elves. Wizards would cut their victim and a few days later the person would suffer from sometimes fatal illnesses. If a normal person found an elfshot, many would use them as amulets so that if ever an elfshot was used against them they would not be harmed.
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HOMEPAGE 
Goblins and Wizards 
The Haunted Home 
A Few Goblin and Wizard Stories