The term ‘Material Culture’ is what we would refer to these objects as, by definition ‘Material Culture’ refers to an aspect of culture that places importance on the materials, crafting, usage and creation of objects that have a significant importance within traditional customs, stories and rituals - while folk tales have always been an oral tradition in a way these are a companion to folk tales; much like the illustrations in a book they are deeply connected and visually rooted in a culture.
Similar to the ivory carvings to retell these old stories the characters and creatures of fairy tales and folk tales, the characters from these tales have found their way into the real world. Inspired by stories they have been told, people have recreated and re-imagined the image of these characters and creatures by carving them into the land as if they were always meant to be there.
One of the most prominent examples of this is the depiction of Trolls; across several countries their images have been formed out of stone and many forests, paths, caves and rock formations are named after Trolls such as ‘Trollstigen’,‘Trolltunga’, ‘Trollfjorden’ and ‘Trollskogen’ just to name a few. While some folk tales suggest Trolls where born from stone and when they would rest they return to this form what most folk tales tell us It is believed that when Trolls came out in the sunlight they would turn to stone meaning they could only travel at night; the origins of Trolls are heavily connected to nature, being reclusive they’re always out roaming in the wilderness.
Researching this form of material culture I wanted to ask what sort of folklore do we have in England, more specifically in the North? Which is when I came across this stone carving.
At first glance the figure is rather difficult to see among the foliage, he is a fairly small figure covered in moss and rests by a small wooden bridge that will take you deeper into the Avenham Park woodland. So far I have not been able to collect any information about this stone figure and it leaves me with so many questions such as ‘Who made it?’, ‘Why is it here?’, ‘Why was it made out of stone?’,’What is the folklore behind it?.
The only sort of information I could find was its name and a brief description -
“Goblin Log, a tree stump shaped stone that has been carved into a goblin”
Goblin Log description, unknown writer
With the initial aim of this project I wanted to create concept art for a game based on an unknown folk tale so i want to make this goblin stone carving the focus of my research as i believe this could lead me to discovering a fairy tale or folk tale that i can concept into a game.
Research Reference:
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0085.xml
https://www.litcharts.com/how-to-guides/folklore-research-resources
https://folklorethursday.com/folktales/brief-history-trolls/
https://scandification.com/exploring-the-mystery-of-scandinavian-trolls/
https://guidetoiceland.is/history-culture/folklore-in-iceland
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