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"He wields the Foe-hammer! The Beater, bright as daylight!"
The Great Goblin upon seeing Gandalf's sword, Glamdring

The Great Goblin was a large Orc chieftain of the Misty Mountains in Middle-earth during the Third Age.

Biography[]

The Great Goblin was a very large creature with a huge head, ruling a group of Northern Orcs living in the caves of Goblin-town near the High Pass. They preyed on travelers who used another, easier pass near the main gate of Goblin-town, until such people began avoiding the route. The Orcs then made another gate opening into a cave they called the Front Porch, at the top of the High Pass. On occasion, the Great Goblin ordered his Orcs to catch fish for him in the dark lake near Goblin-town, below the Mountains, and these Orcs were sometimes killed by Gollum.

GreatGoblinJustinGerard

The Great Goblin, by Justin Gerard

In the summer of TA 2941, the Dwarves of Thorin and Company, along with Bilbo Baggins, were captured on the Front Porch and were brought before the Great Goblin in his great hall, where he was seated on a flat stone and surrounded by armed guards. The Great Goblin demanded to know what the Dwarves were doing in the mountains.

When it was revealed that Thorin carried the Elvish sword Orcrist - which the Orcs feared and which they called "Biter" - the Great Goblin was enraged and at once leapt to attack Thorin. Immediately, all the torches in the cave were extinguished and a glowing sword "bright as blue flame" appeared. It was Glamdring, called "Beater" by the Orcs, and now wielded by Gandalf. As the Dwarves were escaping, the Great Goblin leapt down in front of them, and attacked Gandalf who was at the head of the party. Gandalf then fought back, stabbing the great lord of the cave, killing him.

The death of the Great Goblin angered the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. A great army of Orcs and Wargs was amassed by Bolg, whose father Azog had been killed by the Dwarf Dáin II. Bolg's forces tracked Thorin and Company to the Lonely Mountain, where they fought in the Battle of Five Armies against the Dwarves, Elves, and Lake-men.[2][3]

In adaptations[]

Rankin-Bass' Great Goblin

The Great Goblin (1977)

Rankin/Bass version[]

In the 1977 Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit, the Great Goblin was voiced by John Stephenson.

The Hobbit film trilogy[]

"Well, well, well! Look who it is; Thorin, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, "King under the Mountain". Oh, but I'm forgetting; you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king, which makes you... nobody, really."
The Great Goblin, taunting Thorin Oakenshield
The Great Goblin 3

The Great Goblin greeting Thorin and company in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

"Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung! You'll be beaten and battered, from racks you'll be hung! You will die down here and never be found! Down in the deep of Goblin-Town!"
The Great Goblin's song in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
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The Great Goblin in front of the captured Dwarves

In Peter Jackson's film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), Barry Humphries, who is more commonly known for his alter ego Dame Edna Everage, is the voice and motion-capture performer of the Great Goblin, an entirely computer-generated character. He appears as a giant, obese, bloated goblin (more akin to a troll) with lots of warts, lumps, and scars, and carries a large staff decorated with an animal skull, closely resembling a ram, adorned with shrunken heads. 

His death is portrayed quite differently than in the book. He is knocked off a cliff by Thorin when Gandalf saves the company, and is killed after the fight through Goblin-town when Gandalf slashes his abdomen and cuts his throat.

Voice dubbing actors[]

Foreign Language Voice dubbing artist
Spanish (Latin America) Humberto Vélez
Spanish (Spain) Francesc Belda
Portuguese (Brazil) (Television/DVD) Sérgio Fortuna
German Hartmut Neugebauer
Italian (Italy) Massimiliano Plinio
French (France) Paul Borne
Czech Karel Gult
Slovak Ivan Laca
Polish Michał Piela
Hungarian Faragó András

Radio[]

  • Denis McCarthy voiced the character in the 1968 BBC Radio radio adaptation of The Hobbit.
  • Joe Hughes voiced the character in the 1979 The Mind's Eye radio adaptations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
  • Heinz Theo Branding voiced the character in the 1980 German radio serial adaptation of The Hobbit.[4]
  • Karol Čálik seems to have voiced the character in the 1989 Slovak two-episode radio miniseries adaptation of The Hobbit, though he is not directly credited. [5]

Gallery[]

Rankin-Bass' Great Goblin
The Great Goblin as portrayed in the 1977 film.
Picture1
The Great Goblin talking to his royal scribe.
Thegreatgoblinhobbit
The Great Goblin after being slashed across his stomach by Gandalf
Lego the goblin king
Concept for the LEGO Goblin-king
GreatGoblin
The Great Goblin in Guardians of Middle-earth
The Great Goblin - LOTR The Card Game
The Great Goblin in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Expansion

Translations[]

Foreign Language Translated name
Afrikaans Groot Kabouter
Albanian Goblin i Madh
Amharic ታላቅ ጎብሊን
Arabic عفريت كبير
Armenian Գրեատ Գոբլին
Azerbaijani Böyük Süpürgəsaqqal
Basque Goblin Handi
Belarusian Cyrillic вялікі гоблін
Bengali মহান অপদেবতা
Bosnian Veliki Gobelin
Bulgarian Cyrillic Великият гоблин
Cambodian អស្ចារ្យ ក្មេងរប៉ិលរប៉ូច
Catalan El gran Gòblin
Cebuano Dakung Goblin
Chichewa Goblin Chachikulu
Chinese 泡菜里克
Cornish Bocka Bryntin
Croatian Veliki Goblin
Czech Velký Skřet
Danish Den Store Goblin / Store Bjergtrold
Dutch Grote Aardman
Esperanto Granda Koboldo
Estonian Suur Paharet
Finnish Iso Hiisi
French Roi Gobelin or Grand Gobelin
Frisian Grutte Eardske (Western)
Georgian დიდი გობლინი
German Großer Ork
Greek Ανώτερο Γκόμπλιν
Gujarati મહાન ગોબ્લિન
Haitian Creole Gwo Goblin
Hawaiian Nui Goblin
Hebrew הגובלין גדול
Hindi महान भूत ?
Hungarian Nagy Kobold
Hmong Yawm Goblin
Icelandic Mikill Púki
Indonesian Goblin Besar
Irish Gaelic Goblin Iontach
Italian Grande Orco or Grande Goblin
Japanese 大ゴブリン
Kannada ದೊಡ್ಡ ತುಂಟ
Kazakh Басты Гоблин (Cyrillic) Bastı Goblïn (Latin)
Korean 고블린 큰
Latin Goblin Magna
Latvian Liels Goblinu
Lithuanian Puikus Goblin
Luxembourgish Grousse Gwblyn ?
Macedonian голема гоблин
Maltese Goblin Kbir
Malaysian Jembalang Besar
Manx Glashtin Mooar
Marathi महान भूत
Mongolian Cyrillic Иx Гоблин
Nepalese ठूलो लुटेरा
Norwegian Stortussen
Pashto ګرېات ګوبلین ?
Persian گابلین اعظم
Polish Wielki Goblin
Portuguese Grande Goblin (Portugal) Grão-Orc (Brazil)
Romanian Mare Goblin
Romansh Gronda Goblin
Russian великий гоблин
Sanskrit ङ्रेअत् ङोब्लिन्
Slovenian Veliko Goblin
Scottish Gaelic Mòr Goblin
Serbian Велики гоблин (Cyrillic) Veliki goblin (Latin)
Sesotho Goblin Leholo
Slovak Veľkoškrat
Somalian Goblin Weyn
Spanish (Spain and Latin America) Gran Trasgo
Swahili Goblin Kubwa
Swedish Storvätten
Tajik Cyrillic Греат Гоблин
Tamil பெரிய பூதம்
Telugu గొప్ప గోబ్లిన్
Thai ผีที่ดี ?
Turkish Büyük Cin \ Goblin Kralı
Turkmen Beýik ?
Ukrainian Cyrillic Верховний Гоблін
Urdu عظیم پریت
Uzbek Греат Гоблин (Cyrillic) Buyuk Goblin (Latin)
Vietnamese Vĩ đại Goblin ?
Welsh Goblin Mawr
Yiddish גרויס גאַבלין
Yoruba Nla Goblin

References[]

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