The Enid Blyton Society

Was there meant to be any difference between Pixies, Elves, Brownies, Goblins and Gnomes. I always got the impression that Goblins and Gnomes were meant to be bad - although there could be exceptions. Brownies were more mischievous such as Winks and Mr Grim's School for Bad Brownies. But what about Pixies and Elves? Two examples of Pixies were Chinky and Mr Meddle - but they were absolutely nothing alike, except perhaps both a bit stubborn. But I'd often forget that Meddle wasn't actually a human in the first place.

My friend is a big sci-fi, fantasy reader, but has never read Blyton

I asked him his take on it, and I'd have to agree with some of his interpretations of how these creatures are in the sci-fi books in comparison to Blyton.

What do you think?

Pixies--generally good, sometimes troublesome, smart
Brownies--similar to Pixies, generally good, more mischievious,more selfish
Elves--good, smarter than Pixies, smarter than Humans, stand offish
Goblins--usually bad, usually stupid (but not in Harry Potter??)
Gnomes--not really bad, tinkers, good inventers, but inventions don't work

My friend also thinks that alot of writers take their ideas on Gnomes etc. from JR Tolkien, but alot of Blyton's books are before him. I wonder where she got her ideas of elves, gnomes, or if alot are original? I wonder if Tolkien got ideas from Blyton I sure think JK Rowling did!!

A lot of the Folklore surrounding the *little people* or *fairy folk* goes back thousands of years into Mythology,the Celtic mythology is especially rich. Many many authors seem to follow the *conventions* when dealing with Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes etc, fantasy fiction especially, for example, the Elves are tall, have a dislike of men because of their actions, are warlike, very beautiful, long lived, have *good* and *bad* tribes etc etc.
It's not so obvious in childrens books where even the baddies aren't *so* bad but most authors still follow the general pattern to a greater or lesser degree.

Merged with an older topic.


Rumble and Chuff. Chuff is a pixie man.

Enid Blyton writes many stories featuring these curious characters.
What exactly are they and how do they interact and differ from each other?

This interesting blog attempts to explain:

GNOMES, PIXIES, ELVES, GOBLINS, BROWNIES, DWARFS AND TROLLS. WOODLAND FOLK...
Enid Blyton included Brownies, Pixies, Elves, Goblins and Fairies in her books...

http://www.vintagecobweb.com/2012/08/gn ... wnies.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Of course we mustn't forget the Imps either!!





The Eighteen Naughty Imps

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... liday+Book" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Judging from the photo, they look like Button Elves.

By the way, why Button Elves title is written as Little Button Elves in The Cave? There is no word o"Little" in the actual title.

Without looking at the link, all my knowledge of Pixies, Elves, Gnomes etc, comes from reading Enid Blyton all my life! However, sometimes, she mixes them up, so occasionally a 'Gnome' for example might be good or bad!

I know that Pixies are usually good, along with Fairies, and Elves - they are all good forces.

then there are Brownies, which sometimes can be bad, but are usually wise and helpful. They are usually the Head of the fairy world, once they are old and have long flowing beards - but conversely in The Wishing Chair Again there is Mr Grim's School for Bad Brownies - so maybe some can be badly behaved!

Gnomes are sometimes bad...and Goblins are always bad in Enid Blyton books - and that's why, in The Adventures of the Wishing Chair, when the children meet 'the polite goblin' they should be very wary! The worse goblins of all have to be the Red Goblins who destroy the Faraway Tree.

Imps are usually tricky and full of mischief.

I like the articles on all these beings that you can find on the website http://www.tvtropes.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. They do a good job of saying "What was this being like in genuine folklore? How is it portrayed in modern pop culture?" And then "What are the similarities and differences between the way different modern authors use these names."

Remember that J.R.R. Tolkien was a very popular writer who used some of these beings. And then many other "fantasy" writers pretty much just copied from Tolkien instead of returning to the original folklore. Thus, you find that "Dwarves" almost always are identical to the way Tolkien imagined them.

And then in the seventies a fellow named Gary Gygax invented a game called "Dungeons and Dragons". He was partly inspired by Tolkien, but also from folklore and his own imagination. But a lot of later games just copied Dungeons and Dragons instead of going back to the folklore. And this included computer games. And then these games influenced modern fantasy authors.

And remember that in the "olden days" people did genuinely believe in all these beings. They weren't just characters in children's stories, adults believed in them as well. There are still people today who believe.

sixret wrote:Judging from the photo, they look like Button Elves.

By the way, why Button Elves title is written as Little Button Elves in The Cave? There is no word o"Little" in the actual title.

In bibliographies the title of the book should always be taken from the title page, which is not always the same as the cover. If you open up your copy of The Button Elves Old Thatch book you will see that on the title page it has The Little Button Elves. So just for once the Cave is right!

Another less obvious example is Adventures of the Wishing-Chair. There is no hyphen on the cover, but there is a hyphen on the title page.

KEVP wrote: Thus, you find that "Dwarves" almost always are identical to the way Tolkien imagined them.

Interesting point - although my main reference-point would be Snow-white and the Seven Dwarfs - both Disney and the original, which doesn't have much influence from Tolkien.

Rob Houghton wrote:Goblins are always bad in Enid Blyton books - and that's why, in The Adventures of the Wishing Chair, when the children meet 'the polite goblin' they should be very wary! The worse goblins of all have to be the Red Goblins who destroy the Faraway Tree.

I remember the Red Goblins taking over the Faraway Tree, but do they try to destroy it? I know that trolls almost kill the tree in Folk of the Faraway Tree by damaging the roots while digging for jewels (which actually makes them sound like dwarfs). The fact that they're trolls has always stuck in my mind because trolls are rarely mentioned in Blyton books. She usually writes about pixies, brownies, goblins, elves and fairies - and sometimes imps, dwarfs and gnomes.

I don't think Enid Blyton sticks slavishly to the descriptions from folklore but she does incorporate certain traditional elements - e.g. her trolls live underground, the king and queen of the fairies are named as Oberon and Titania in The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies, her giants (I suppose they're Big Folk rather than Little Folk!) are often stupid, and Yamen puts down a saucer of cream for the brownie in her kitchen in The Secret of Killimooin.

Anita Bensoussane wrote: I remember the Red Goblins taking over the Faraway Tree, but do they try to destroy it? I know that trolls almost kill the tree in Folk of the Faraway Tree by damaging the roots while digging for jewels (which actually makes them sound like dwarfs).

Yes - you're quite right, I mixed the two stories up - I was thinking of the Red Goblins who take over the tree.

It's interesting that Enid uses Trolls as the creatures digging for jewels, as I too think that sounds more like dwarfs. I always think of Trolls being bigger, and living under bridges as in the Three Billy Goats Gruff - especially that very scary Troll depicted in the Ladybird book! It used to scare me so much as a small child that I often skipped the pages with the Troll pictured on them!

I had that Ladybird book as a youngster too (and still have it!) The troll was scary but it was still one of my favourite books!

Mine too! I just remember being almost too scared to turn the page, lol! But it was a delicious fear!

I know what you mean! I felt the same about the ogre in the Ladybird version of Jack and the Beanstalk. Rumpelstiltskin in the Ladybird book of that title also looked horrifically creepy. I wouldn't have welcomed tamer incarnations though - I enjoyed being "safely" frightened!

I agree! And these are the illustrations our generation grew up with - no wonder I have a problem with the new stick figure covers of The Famous Five etc! ladybird illustrations were top class!