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212 months ago

Jutta Wappel (a guest user) asked this question:

Language pair:	German > English
Subject:	Other
Level of diffculty:	Easy / medium
Word or term in question:	Goblin: "he" or "it"?
Context:	Referring to a goblin, would you say"he" or "it"? (children's story)
Keywords:	children' s story

 

The answer of    was rated best

Depends on whether they have feeling and thought - always difficult

My comment:

I think I remember that Tolkien's orks (spelled with a 'k' in the early editions) definitely were a "he", back then. "It" is very impersonal indeed, and implies a reduction of the capability to feel and think. This is similar to the way animals are referred to as "it" because they seem to be lacking feeling and thought. If, in your story, the goblins are rather devoid of personality and feeling, and do not exhibit any individual traits, then "it" is fine. If, however, your goblins are cunning little evildoers and possibly main characters in your story, then default to "he", is my advice. I'd always translate the Pumuckl-like "kobold" as "he", because Pumuckl definitely isn't an "it".

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