Hob

Hob, or hobthrust, is the general name for a hobgoblin, a kindly but mischievous type of fey. The brownie is a kind of hob. Usually found in the North Country or northern Midlands of England, hobs can be more sinister. One tale related by William Henderson in Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties says there was one called Hob Headless haunting the road between Hurworth and Neasham. 

However, more often than not, hobs appear to be benevolent, as in the case of one attached to Sturfit Hall in Yorkshire; he churned milk, stoked fires, and performed other brownie-type tasks until he was offered clothing, and vanished. The reason hobs disappear when offered clothing varies on the tale. The hob attached to Sturfit Hall seemed to have been so satisfied with this payment that he decided he need work no more; however, another hob, who worked at a farm in Danby, was insulted by the quality of the clothes he was given. Of course, if the regular payment of food was ever forgotten, the hob would also leave. 

Bibliography: An Encyclopedia of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs. Image courtesy of Google Images: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=600&q=hobgoblin&oq=hobgoblin&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1577.3776.0.4880.9.4.0.5.5.0.88.304.4.4.0....0...1ac.1.25.img..0.9.327.D8Vb_1UOxo4#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=e8cc0832f633dba3&hl=en&q=robin+goodfellow&sa=1&tbm=isch&imgdii=_.  

Hobgoblins

According to Katharine Briggs' An Encyclopedia of Fairies, hobgoblins are friendly folk related to brownies. From the Puritans on, the word was used to refer to wicked goblins, but in Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' Puck is referred to as a hobgoblin and does not protest. 

One type of hobgoblin is the Will O' the Wisp. Briggs says that hobgoblins are generally good-humoured, though they do love practical jokes, and must not be crossed. Wikipedia says they're small, hairy men who do small, odd jobs round the house just as a brownie would. In return, they expect food; but offer them clothing, and they will depart. They can, if Puck is to be believed, shape shift. 

In JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, the Uruks or Uruk-hai were originally written as hobgoblins, back before Tolkien realised hobgoblins were of small stature. Perhaps following this mistake, the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) uses hobgoblins as a larger, more menacing type of goblin. Other role-playing games have also followed suit. 

For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobgoblin.

Image from Google Images: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=600&q=hobgoblin&oq=hobgoblin&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1577.3776.0.4880.9.4.0.5.5.0.88.304.4.4.0....0...1ac.1.25.img..0.9.327.D8Vb_1UOxo4#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=d750b992d784f8&hl=en&q=Puck&sa=1&tbm=isch&facrc=0%3Bpuck%20midsummer%20night's%20dream%20drawing&imgdii=_&imgrc=_.

The Gruagach

We first were introduced to the gruagach (GROO-ghee) when we read C.J. Cherryh's fantastic The Dreaming Tree. In that book, we discovered gruagachs were a type of hairy brownie who attached themselves to farms (the gruagach is pictured on the left) and traditionally helped with chores. 

We found information on the gruagach in Katharine Briggs' An Encyclopedia of Fairies, C.J. Cherryh's The Dreaming Tree, and a book we inherited from our father, Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic to English Dictionary, compiled by Edward Dwelly, in which gruagach or gruagaich refers to a brownie or a man with long hair.    

The gruagach is a Highland creature. In the Highlands, they were also called grogans or grogachs; in northern Ireland, they were known as grogans. In the Highlands, male gruagachs were sometimes handsome, slender youths, and richly dressed in green and red, but more often they were naked and shaggy. In Ulster, they were also naked and hairy, and about four feet tall. 

In the Highlands, gruagachs often had golden hair and watched over cattle; the females were faeries with long, golden hair, dressed in green. Sometimes they were beautiful, other times pale and haggard. They, too, watched over cattle; they were connected with water, and travelled extensively. However, it has been suggested that this type of gruagach is actually a glaistig, and that the term gruagach is an epithet attached to her. Offerings of milk were made to both the female and the male gruagachs. In The Dreaming Tree, food was also given as an offering to keep the gruagach happy. 

Just for a change of pace, the gruagach in southern Ireland was actually a supernatural wizard, often a giant.