"They’re planning something big," Curdie warned, holding his pickaxe tight. "They’re digging a tunnel to flood the castle and kidnap you to marry their prince!"

No discussion of would be complete without analyzing its antagonists. These are not the noble, brooding elves of Tolkien. MacDonald’s goblins are grotesque, pathetic, and dangerous.

Outside the castle, a brave miner boy named Curdie overhears the Goblins plotting. The Goblins, who hate humans, plan to kidnap Princess Irene and force her to marry their goblin prince, Harelip, thereby taking over the kingdom. They intend to flood the mines to drown the miners and tunnel under the castle to collapse it.

Before there was a Middle-earth, there was MacDonald’s mountain. Tolkien famously drew inspiration from MacDonald’s depiction of goblins, and C.S. Lewis once remarked that he never wrote a book that didn't owe a debt to George MacDonald. The concept of a hidden, magical world existing right beneath our feet became a staple of the genre.