Betty Kamer

Snørgl The Forest Goblin

The Liberation of the Goblin

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Titel

An ‚important‘ hello

Lucky kids

My new tree apartment

My dear neighbor

The gathering of the Goblins

A kidnapping

Travel arrangements

The farewell

A first meeting

We need a ship

Off to the magical bird rock

All on board

Little messenger with a big heart

The Lofoten

Two new companions

A castle in the clouds

Unexpected help

Neither lock nor key

Mysterious

The magic Mirror

Goblin cages

Free at last

Back on Board

The Kemijoki River

A special encounter

Back home

Dreamtrip

Magical Sayings

Impressum neobooks

An ‚important‘ hello

Snørgl

The Goblin

Part I

Liberation of the Goblins

for children from 8 years and young-at-heart adults

About my writer line

She was born in 1965 in Berlin (a.B.), where she successfully completed an apprenticeship as a lawyer's and notary's assistant after graduating from a comprehensive school.

While still at school, she discovered her love for the written word, but as a working mother of three children, this passion lay dormant for a long time.

She first thought of me over 25 years ago, and so it was only a matter of time before she had me and my friends go on exciting dream journeys and breathed life into us in her books.

German first publication May 2020

Copyright © of the original edition Betty Kamer

Imprint:

Betty Kamer

c/o Author Service

Benninger Str. 26

87700 Memmingen

kontakt@betty-kamer-schriftstellerin.com

Illustration & cover design: Betty Kamer

Printing: epubli, a service of

Neopubli GmbH, Berlin

Printed in Germany

This work, including its parts and the cover, is protected by copyright. Any exploitation is prohibited without the consent of the author. This applies in particular to electronic or other reproduction, distribution, and making available to the public.

Dedication

I really want everyone to know that my scribe line named the lucky children in this first installment after their grandchildren. A very nice gesture, in my opinion.

To you, dear Raphael, my writer line and I say a heartfelt thank you for your test reading ...

When my writer line had the idea for me more than 25 years ago, it was still her own children who became little heroes in her book. Today it is her grandchildren. For a long, long time, my story lay in a cardboard box and I am delighted with all my heart that she is finally sending my friends and me on a journey.

That’s me… Snørgl the Goblin

The characters in this story:

The head goblins:

Vegard (the clever one), Dellingur (the shiny one), and Dagbjartur (the daylight one)

The forest goblins:

Snørgl (pronounced Snörgl in our country, the reading one), Djarfur (the brave one), Galdur (the wild one), Vökull (the watchful one), Tamin (the tailor), Pokki (the cook and baker), Pegjandi (who knows all the flowers), Styggur (the thoughtful), Stubbur (the doctor), Reifur (the creative), Léttféti (the climber), Svipdapur (the poet), Gulltoppur (the painter) and Gosi (the craftsman)

The elves:

Lýsa (the shining one), Elin (the radiant one), and Sóla (the sunny one)

The animals:

Kibuz the owl, the firefly, Pauri the puffin, Mink the marten, Halia and Sami the sea eagles, Jola the reindeer, Tuula the owl

The banished forest sprites:

Böggvir (one who causes damage), Amur (the big one) and Allsvartur (who loves the color black)

The lucky children in this book:

Kai, Sonja, Ben, Maja, Leon and Emily

One thing you should know before we embark on our first dream journey with my friends and the lucky kids:

Each child's name is entered into the 'Great Directory' by an elf at birth.

What?

You say one elf alone can't even enter all the babies in the directory? You're right, and I'd like to take this opportunity to briefly tell you how:

Hundreds of years ago, the head elves handwrote their areas of responsibility on a map. However, as time went on, the area in which the Goblin and elves operated grew larger and larger, so the forests had to be divided into more and more areas, and the map grew larger and larger. At some point, all the head Goblin and elves of the land called together to think about how to proceed, because by now there was quite a mess. And so it came about that the map was divided by the head sprites into four equal parts. For each section there were always three head sprites, who also had a part of the map in their care, different numbers of forest sprites (all of whom also lived in the trees in this section) and at least one elf.

The head sprites Vegard, Dellingur and Dagbjartur from the forest where I live also received a part of this large map. They have been assigned the elf Sóla, who lives in the Valley of Butterflies together with her sisters Lýsa and Elin.

The main task of the forest elves has always been to take dream trips with a child assigned to them.

Oh my goodness, you probably can't even imagine what children I'm talking about.

Look, there are children who are sad or unhappy from time to time. For example, parents may decide to move to live with their children in another city or country. Then sometimes friends have to part, which can make you very unhappy.

Maybe a child also had to say goodbye to their pet because it was very sick and couldn't stay with them anymore. I also know of some children who were very worried about someone in the family because of an illness or because the grandparents lived too far away. Still another child was very sad about having had a fight with his brother or sister.

We Goblin learn about these children through the elves.

But how do the elves know about these children, you ask?

I will gladly tell you: they find out from the fireflies that travel at night on their behalf and shine their light in the windows of the children's rooms. They see the sadness or the tears of the children and tell the elves about them. The name of the child is then given by one of the elves to the head elves, who distribute the orders to us elves during the elf meeting. Sometimes there are very few orders over a long period of time, but unfortunately it happens every now and then that we forest sprites have to go on a dream journey with our 'lucky' children. You know, dream trip is called because the goblin in charge takes the child on a trip in his dreams to make them forget their worries.

But just like with humans, there were always Goblin who didn't want to be bossed around anymore. I guess that's what they called it. These were the ones who were always envious of others, always knew everything better and wanted to own what others owned. They constantly quarreled and brought great unrest into the quiet and peaceful coexistence of the Goblin. They were also lazy, did not keep order in their tree dwellings, did not enjoy playing games together and there was always trouble with them. And just imagine: there were even Goblin who didn't like children. Yes, really!

One day Dagbjartur caught the forest sprites Böggvir, Amur and Allsvartur trying to steal the map. Just in time he was able to take it back and that same night the three head woodland sprites and the elf Lýsa took the map to a hiding place. None of us forest sprites learned where this secret place was. But today I know that in this secret hiding place there is also a copy of each of the other three parts of the map.

What we all didn't know at that time: on one of these old maps something is drawn in, which has great importance for goblins. But we all learn more about this as time goes on.

The goblins Böggvir, Amur and Allsvartur, however, were banished and had to leave their tree dwellings and the forest immediately.

And peace and quiet returned to our forest.

During a meeting of the Goblin a few weeks ago, we asked the head Goblin to allow all the Goblin to go on a dream journey together. The head Goblin had nothing against it. But we still had to find a way to make it possible.

Our adventure began when the elf Sóla told us that something terrible had happened: she had learned that Goblin living very far from our forest had been kidnapped and urgently needed help.

I immediately suspected Böggvir, one of the banished sprites, but I had no certainty.

Probably even Allsvartur and Amur helped him to kidnap the goblins.

I wonder how they managed to do that.

But whoever it was: they didn't count on me and my friends ...

But before we start this adventure together, my scribe line has asked me to confess something to you: I'm talkative. Very much so. I like to talk a lot. So please don't be too surprised.

Lucky kids

Since time immemorial, our fireflies have been on the road for the elves to tell them about the children in their rooms. About happy and laughing children, but also about sad children. But I already told you that.

The first visit to the children is not really a visit, because the firefly shows us where the child lives, but we only bring them a book of fairy tales. We do not have personal contact with them at this point.

You're wondering what kind of book this is?

I'm happy to tell you: it's a book about forest sprites, dream journeys, elves and adventures, written by the head sprites a long time ago. Such a book is then put to the respective child in the garden, on the balcony or in front of the front door. And like little observers, the firefly then stays near the apartments or houses to see how the child reacts to the book. If it has no interest and does not believe in us Goblin and the elves, then it is not very useful to visit them to take a dream trip with them.

However, if the firefly sees that the child is reading the book and thus shows that he or she is interested in us, then it is also possible for us to accompany them in their dreams.

In the case of such a child, I then sit down on the window sill in front of their nursery the next evening, or rather the next dusk, and wait patiently together with the firefly until my 'lucky child' becomes aware of me. Usually they see the light of the firefly first and become curious. Then when the window is opened for me, I introduce myself and we can talk, since I am no longer a stranger. After all, you're not supposed to talk to strangers, and you're not supposed to walk along with them. You know, since the child has already read about me in the book, he kind of already knows me. Then we talk about family, friends and so I also find out what makes her sad. We also talk about hobbies and what books they like to read. So the moment comes for me, which is so important: we talk about THE BOOK. Our book of stories. And I talk about the journeys we can take together in the dreams and the adventures to be had. In most cases, I also find out what the child would most like to experience or where he or she would like to go.

Then it's time to go on a dream journey... wherever that child would like to travel, whatever he or she wishes to experience, whatever longing he or she has. For through the magical powder of the elves, we can experience this dream journey together.

When I got my first assignment many years ago, I was very surprised because I had never really paid attention to the fireflies before. I actually thought that they fly around with little lights and that's why you can see their light. But of course that's not true.

You see, fireflies have a rare ability in the animal kingdom: they produce light through a chemical reaction - something called bioluminescence. (I couldn't read the word correctly the first time, much less pronounce it. If you feel the same way, please ask someone in your family).

Yes, I know it's a hard word. But it really is, and it means that fireflies are able to produce light. They do that by triggering a chemical reaction through an energy component - which they produce in their body - and oxygen. Maybe you think that the light of fireflies is certainly warm and yellowish. At least, that's what I thought until Elin the elf explained it to me. Because in fact, the light is quite bright and cold.

What do I mean about it being cold?

Why don't you ask around your house and see if you still have any old light bulbs? You know, when a light bulb broke, you had to let it cool down before you could replace it. The light from those bulbs wasn't as bright, but the bulb itself got very hot. And with the fireflies, it's the other way around: the light is super bright, but in return it doesn't give off any heat. So it uses all the energy to shine brightly and not to give off heat.

The glow is mainly for the animals to communicate. Some flash very quickly one after the other and then again for a long time continuously. I have often wondered what they are talking about - but I have never asked.

They live very safely in our forests now, as birds and spiders used to love to eat them. You don't have to be scared, because it's natural. But since the elves had explained to all the animals in the forest how important the fireflies are for us and how much we depend on their cooperation, the animals leave them alone and respect them.

It is especially common to see this beautiful sight of flying light on dry summer nights: Suddenly, the darkness is teeming with tiny points of light. These are fireflies that, depending on the species, either glow continuously or flash at short intervals. This also distinguishes the females from the males when they glow.

Yes, what else is there to tell? Ah yes: the female fireflies can't fly and mostly crawl around on trees and most male fireflies fly about a meter above the ground. Of course, there are exceptions, like with 'our' firefly. Well, and actually they are not 'worms', but beetles.

See, now you know why sometimes you can see little lights floating in the dark.

Let me think for a moment... yes, now I have told you all about the lucky children and also about the fireflies, at least I think so.

Firefly

My new tree apartment

"I can't get this darn knot undone. Wizened and sewn shut."

Oh dear, I recognize that voice among a hundred other voices. It's Galdur for sure, once again annoyed at something. But most of all about himself, when he doesn't get something right.

I have a very special friendship with Galdur. We have known each other for a long time and have experienced many things together. He is my best friend. It was he who found me as a young wretch at the edge of the forest, near the big rocks. I must have fallen, hitting my head. That was probably the reason I couldn't remember anything that had happened before the fall. I could remember a voice that sounded good to me and a feeling as if I were floating. It has remained that way to this day. I will probably never know what happened then. It was Galdur who - after he had found me - ran to the head sprites to get help. They brought me back to the forest and nursed me back to health with the help of the elves.

But now I'd better go and see why he scolded me so. Galdur lives in the same tree as I do. We are neighbors, even though the entrance to his apartment is on the other side of the trunk. But first let me tell you what the trees are all about:

Well, we Goblin have been living together with animals in mixed forests for a very long time. You see, these are forests where there are many deciduous trees, such as beech, birch, maple, oak, and also conifers like fir, larch and spruce.

In the forests, all the inhabitants stick together very tightly because we can help each other.

Friendship is very important not only for Goblin, but also for people. I think whoever is without friends must be very lonely and even if you don't see each other every day or talk to each other, it is important to always think of each other and be there for each other. Vegard, one of the head Goblin, claims that the word 'important' comes from gnome. Funny, isn't it?

So the Goblin have always maintained a very thick friendship with the birds, which also live in these forests. Some of them even have their nesting places actually in the trees and not in a nest on a branch. Really. These are real great caves inside the tree trunks. These birds are called 'cavity breeders'.

For example, that's the titmouse, the starling, the great spotted woodpecker, the great tit, and the tawny owl, just to name you a few birds.

I'm talking, I'm talking, I'm talking. I actually wanted to tell you something else. - You see, that's what my scribe line meant when she asked me to tell you that I'm talkative. She's probably right about that.

But I still have to tell you something:

Well, we Goblin used to live in small, somewhat warped houses at the bottom of the forest. However, it used to happen that people would walk their dogs in the woods and let them off the leash. Irresponsible, if you ask me. They were constantly sniffing the forest floor with their wet noses, digging holes in the ground and often even destroying our houses. And I tell you, it happened not only once that we had to hide from the adult humans who were looking for their four-legged friends. They are not allowed to see us at all!

You ask why?

Well, some of the adult people have no imagination anymore and do not believe that we really exist. And when they discover us, we lose our abilities for a few days and can't go on dream journeys during that time. Why this is so none of us knows.

So we Goblin consulted with the animals of the forest and the perfect solution was found for us: with the help of the starlings, the spotted woodpeckers, the robins and the tawny owls, we built our dwellings exactly as the cave-breeders build their nests. Only not high up in the trees, but at the very bottom in the trunks. And we even got little windows and doors.

But back to what I wanted to tell you: Wait a minute, siblings one more time. What was that again? Oh yeah, now I remember:

So ... up until the moment Dellingur offered me a move to this tree apartment of the banished wretch, I was living with Tamin the tailor. It was really nice with him, but I was very happy to have my own place. Not that we didn't get along. On the contrary, I always found it exciting to talk to him about all sorts of things while he sewed something for the rest of us wretches. A little shirt here, a pair of pants there. He dyes the fabrics for it in the most beautiful colors, which Gulltoppur mixes especially for him. However, his fabrics, the sewing machine and the large table on which he cut the fabrics, needed more and more space over time and I had to store my books - you must know, I am an absolute reading gnome - even under the bed. That's when Dellingur's offer came in handy.

After the banishment of Böggvir, Amur and Allsvartur, two tree apartments had become free.

What do you ask? Why only two apartments, when there were three wretches?

You know, it's because Böggvir and Amur had also shared a tree apartment. So did Tamin and I. Their apartment was very big, so we decided in a meeting that after their banishment Gosi should set up his workshop there. I tell you, if we didn't have Gosi, we would probably all be sitting on the floor, sleeping and eating. After all, it is he who makes us such beautiful furniture and can always fix anything that has broken. We all love him very much for that.

Quite often Reifur embellishes our furniture with moss. He is a real master at that.

But at first I was a bit skeptical when I heard that it was about Allsvartur's tree apartment. Everything about Allsvartur was black. His clothes and also the furnishings of his apartment. How awful, don't you think? It is much nicer to have colorful clothes and also colorful pictures on the walls, isn't it?

He called himself 'Allsvartur', which translated into human language means 'the deep black one'. And let me tell you, when I first entered the apartment, my hair stood on end under my wight cap.

He had blackened everything with the coal from the cooled campfire. And I really mean everything: his bed, the table, the walls, his shelf, and even his chair. Horrible, really horrible. To make the paint last and not rub off every time he touched it, he covered everything in his apartment with the resin from the trees. It was always so dark in his house that none of us wanted to visit him.

Everyone talked me through it and with the active support of my dear friends we were able to turn this dark place into a truly 'golden' home for me. Gosi, for example, built me a new table with two matching chairs and, at my request, a really great shelf in my reading corner, where all my books have found their place.

Even the shy Styggur (he is pronounced Stügur in human language), who actually does not like to be active with the rest of us, gave me a self-made lamp.

The gift from Reifur, however, was the big hit: He had covered his old wing chair, which Gosi had previously repaired, with fresh moss especially for me and presented me with two cushions embroidered by him to go with it. Oh, I love to snuggle into the armchair with the high back and the thick cushions. The cover is so wonderfully soft that I have fallen asleep many a time while reading.

And Pokki gave me a big plate full of homemade cookies for moving in, which we all had to snack on. Some tasted like wild strawberries, others like nuts. But once again, the most delicious were the cookies that tasted like herbs. He is always trying out new recipes and has already written a very thick book about them. Of course, he is very proud of this and lets us try his new delicacies every now and then. But I'll tell you a secret now:

Sometimes they don't taste at all or are totally charred and when he asks us in his great joy if we like them, we usually just nod so as not to fib. But please don't tell him.

Oh dear, I actually wanted to tell you why my home is 'golden'. Please forgive me, I am sometimes a bit scatterbrained and ramble on while telling you.

Well, word got around that I would be moving into Allsvartur's tree apartment, and quite a few people were horrified. So Gulltoppur's suggestion to help me with the renovation was most welcome. Gulltoppur has an absolute knack for mixing paint. Especially nice, is the golden color. He claims to make it from an ancient and secret fairy recipe from his great-great-grandmother.

So there he was, standing in the middle of my new apartment: with a big bucket of this impossibly beautiful paint in one hand and a second bucket of white paint in the other. He could not be dissuaded from painting the walls white, as well as many a piece of furniture gold. I already knew the golden color, but was once again deeply impressed. At the second bucket, however, my gaze was really stuck.

"My goodness, I've never seen such white paint. How do you manage to do that?", I asked him.

"You know, I mix all my own colors. We've always done it that way in my family. For example, if you mix the light colors blue and green, you get the color turquoise. On the other hand, if you mix red and green, you get the color yellow. And now hold on: if you mix them all together, i.e. blue, green, turquoise, red and yellow, you get the color white."

At that point I was actually flabbergasted and very happy that he had explained it to me so well.

My dear Tamin brought me self-sewn orange and white checkered curtains and a matching tablecloth, Pokki decorated my dining table, dresser and even a niche located in the tree with self-picked bouquets of beautiful forest and meadow flowers. Gosi had given me a door sign with my name on it and from Pegjandi I got a rug made of straw.

My new apartment was perfect.

My dear neighbor

Oh no, I actually wanted to check on Galdur, who had a problem with some knot. Ts ... ts ... ts ... I so often forget the time while telling the story. So, now I'm really going to walk briskly to him.

No sooner said than done.

"Galdur, dear friend," I said, when I had walked around the tree and saw him sitting on the forest floor in front of his front door. "Can I be of any help to you?"

"Now look at this, Snørgl. I got a new hammock from Svipdapur today and didn't hang it up with him right away, silly me. I had to sweep up the fallen leaves in front of the tree first, so that I can fill my cushion again. And now it's all tangled up and the ends have turned into one big knot. Can you please help me untangle it? I'm pretty annoyed!" he said, holding the tangled hammock out to me with such a desperate expression on his face that I had to laugh out loud.

Galdur

"Sorry, your expression really should be painted! I can barely contain myself," I said laughing and grabbing the hammock at the same time.

It actually took us quite a while to untie the knots and attach the hammock.

"Do you think we can really all go on a dream trip together someday?" he asked me as we sat together outside his apartment on the tree stumps that Gosi had worked on. Now they almost looked like garden furniture.

"Well, I can't really imagine how that would work. But I'd really like to do it. That would certainly be a lot of fun. Fortunately, my last dream trip was some time ago, but I'm always happy when the lucky children smile again and forget their worries. But you'd better tell me why you had a fight with Vökull a few days ago."

Thoughtfully he looked at me.

"We didn't quarrel. I was just annoyed with him because he wouldn't stop pimping Styggur."

"Why? What was he doing?"

"Oh, you know, Styggur is in love with Sóla, after all, and every time he sees her he gets red in the face, starts stuttering, and finally runs away. It's not okay to tease him about it all the time and make him look ridiculous. It annoyed me and I guess that's why I got a little louder with him. I did apologize to him about it a short time later. But only because I was loud and not because of what I said to him."

He was really right about that. I had also noticed Styggur's behavior. But that you make fun of it is really not nice. I think it's very good that Galdur spoke to Vökull about it. But what I find just as great: he apologized to him because he had become so loud. I wonder if he suspected that it happened to me with Lýsa in the same way as it happened to Styggur with Sóla. Surely everyone suspected that I was also in love with an elf. With the most beautiful of all elves... with my Lýsa. But none of the elves had ever teased me about it.

We sat together for quite a while, talking about all sorts of things and drinking Pokki's herbal tea.

Then we were completely surprised when Djarfur appeared in front of the tree and stood up in front of us with his legs wide apart and his arms crossed:

"Helloooo! Do you need a special invitation or what? We've been sitting in the hollow around the campfire for quite a while now, just waiting for you two noses so we can finally start the meeting. This is sooooo typical again!" he grumbled, turning and stomping off still ranting:

"Those wretches. Always the last ones. Always needing a soooo special invitation."

One of his habits is to draw out the 'O' when he's excited. That's how we can always tell he's really annoyed, which is why we didn't think twice and ran after him.

At this point, we all had no idea what was in store for us. Maybe that was just as well, because I would have had a really loud heart palpitation from excitement.

And so we ran after Djarfur, because it would never have occurred to us not to follow this invitation immediately.

The dusk had already fallen and so we were allowed to experience an extraordinary moment, which pleases not only me again and again:

Because when we arrived on a slight hill we saw how the last fireflies were on their way to the meeting place. This incredibly beautiful and romantic sight fascinates me every time. Again today, so much so that I reached for Galdur's hand. With a 'Tell me, are you having a wichtelt?' he snatched his hand from me, but I could see in his face that he felt the same way as I did.

Countless shimmering dots floated over the ferns and grasses, and in the distance one could see the last rays of the setting sun breaking through the branches. And there, where the light of the sun no longer reached, the fireflies could be seen, on their way to gather. I felt a deep sense of happiness inside me and looked forward to spending the evening together with my friends.

"How nice that we are finally complete," we heard the deep voice of Vegard the head wight even before we had arrived at the campfire. You wouldn't think it possible that this powerful voice is really from him. Because: Vegard is a, uh, well, not very big wight. Well, more like a little runt. Oh, I think Vegard is one of the smallest wretches in our community. Especially for him, Gosi built a platform out of a very thick tree trunk, with a staircase to go with it, on which Vegard could always stand to speak to us. Because even when we were all sitting on the ground around him, he could hardly be seen.

You don't have to shake your head. Really, I'm not exaggerating!

And when we big wretches stand around him, you don't see him at all! (chuckle)

"Today it is my special pleasure, my dear Goblin, to speak to you. Lýsa has already let me know in the early morning hours that the day you have been looking forward to for so long has come. But she shall tell you all about it herself. Lýsa, my dear, please come to me on the pedestal!" he spoke and held out his hand to Lýsa.

Yes (sigh), Lýsa. The most beautiful of all elves. I, too, am usually speechless and behave quite strangely when she addresses me. Styggur feels the same way when he sees Sóla.

My Lýsa ... I am already very much in love with her. She is so gentle with the fireflies and the butterflies, she is so gentle with all animals, no matter if they are big or small. Everyone is drawn to her. She is so kind and always has a kind word - for each of us. Her delicate wings shimmer like gold, her soft curly hair seems to flow over her shoulders. And she has incredibly beautiful green - almost turquoise eyes that always seem to be smiling. If I had to describe her nature, I would say that she is always in a good mood and always friendly to everyone. When she walks she seems to dance, when she talks she seems to sing. And when she flies, it is more like floating and if you look after her, you think you can perceive a delicate cloud of gold dust around her.

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