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March 24, 2021
Out of the many curated corners of social media, one niche oozes divine with the most uncalculated, feral joy. One -core, out of all the -cores, has the precise delight of making us feel like a morning toad who has just rolled out of its hovel, and flown to the moon on the wings of a dragonfly. Welcome to goblincore.
“To me, goblincore is the feral side of fairytales,” says Katie, 23, a.k.a. @mountain.hag. “When you look into the lore of ‘faery’ [the old school English spelling for ‘fairy’] (really kind of just how the Irish refer to 'those little f*ckers' i.e. nature spirits with a questionable sense of humor), the line between goblin and fairy becomes blurred.”
Today’s world sees fae folk as totally Disney-fied. But goblincore swoops in on its bat wings to reclaim the feral—and “the more specifically chaotic” part—of its roots with a sense of community-based individualism. “On an average day,” says Katie, who lives in an eco-friendly cottage and hangs her clothes from a stick, “my goal is to look as if I oozed out of a tree root or am ferociously guarding my favorite puddle. Tear in your favorite blouse? No problem, make it fashion. Find a shiny rock that catches your eye? Hang it from your ear on a piece of string. It is so much less about impressing other people and more about adorning yourself in the trinkets you've scavenged that mean something to you.”
As anyone who was once a seven-year-old that talked to the wind—and pooped in a dirt hole to let the ghost wolves know they, too, can trust you—may understand, goblincore is more than an escape. It’s the place we’ve been waiting for in (the increasingly formulaic) digital realm for the past few years.
A quick perusal through the #goblincore hashtag on Instagram and TikTok reveals videos of many young people embracing the life of trolls, mud, and shires, often with an aesthetic and lifestyle that operate in tandem with cottagecore, which can hang out on the same mossy log but is a little more at home in a pastoral-Victorian-teacup-sipping space.
“I find cottagecore to be more focused on an idealized agrarian lifestyle,” says Katie, “When I began dressing this way (back when I was about 15 or 16), the names for these fashions or lifestyles were entirely different. So, sometimes I wonder if the names and classifications are entirely relevant. [But] I do think the intersection there lies in a love for nature.”
Everything from a choice pair of elf ears, to a hat you made out of an acorn cap is also fair game, and classic gob.
Of big goblincore importance: mushrooms, with their thousands of sexes. Goblincore defies modern gender norms, which makes it a welcoming habitat for those living beyond the binary.
“It's difficult, as an autistic person, to explain my gender and what it feels like,” they told VICE, “I identify as a goblin since to me, goblins are little sneaky critters with no real sense of gender identity. They just collect and steal things and hang out in the woods. Another thing I find to be a big part of the goblincore community is wanting to escape society and live in the woods. Part of this is wanting to get away from all the societal standards that are set in place.”
“I identify as female,” says Katie, “and I can only provide insight into my experience as a cis-gendered woman. But, I think that challenging what is traditionally ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ is absolutely intertwined with this style. In an aesthetic that is so entrenched in the fantastical, of course things are going to be topsy turvy. 'Reality' (whatever that is) is never what it seems, and the gender binary goes out the window right along with it.” In her case, that meant eschewing the expectations of the Nuclear Family suburbanite settle down to live like Walt Whitman 2.0—an option which, she points out, comes from a privileged socioeconomic and racial vantage point, but which embraces many of the anti-capitalist practices our planet and its critters can certainly stand to benefit from.
“The fantastically feral [aspect of goblincore] has been incredibly empowering in seizing my individuality as a person, rather than focusing on generalizations commonly associated with gender,” she says, “I think for the most part, young people these days are tired of being told what they need to do and look like in order to be successful”—especially in light of the pandemic. “At the end of the day, [there's] the idea that continuing to blindly participate in systems of oppression will result in our happiness and stability, or [the choice of] deriving fashion and lifestyle inspiration from nature and simplicity. I cannot stress enough how immensely privileged I am to have the option to choose [the latter], but it is something to think about.”
So where does one start on their own goblincore journey? In terms of the aesthetic, Katie cites Jackalope Jane Varieties, Gibbous Fashions, Wolftea Creations, Trash Fairy's Den and “all small businesses run with sustainability at the forefront!” as primo goblincore, while emphasizing that whatever goblincore can be whatever that word means to you, as you wade through your moonlit swamp. Much like a badger gnawing on the carcass of a deceased squirrel in a meadow, goblincore is about nibbling at the beauty of our planet’s detritus to create something new and exciting. It’s chaotic, but it’s not about empty chaos: It’s about harmony. “I think that the idea of being a small woodland entity brings a sense of peace,” says Sküg, “Especially for nonbinary folks who are struggling to understand how and where they fit in, in a society that works against them.”
Pagans and Wiccans are welcome in goblincore, too. We’ve got a whole reading list of esoteric library-building staples, but this guide by Arin Murphy-Hiscock is one of the best for learning to commune with the land through herbal magick, and includes “easy-to-understand directions for herbal blends and potions, ritual suggestions, [and] recipes for sacred foods”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8nw7/goblincore-aesthetic-essentials
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