The Hob & The Farmer

I have not based my Hob story on a particular folk tale but on the general known attributes of Hobs, which are also known as hobthrust, hobgoblins, hobbits and are very similar to the Scottish brownie. Hobs are mythical creatures of Yorkshire and the North of England. In appearance they are small and goblin like creatures, naked and hairy, although details are generally speculative as they are rarely seen, preferring to work secretly at night and object to being spied on. Hard work is something they delight in, especially household and farmyard tasks. The problem with them is that they are easily offended and when offended they can flip into a boggart. Boggarts are very similar to modern poltergiests and create havoc in a household and are extremely difficult to get rid of. Although often offended by any form of payment for their work, they are known to be partial to a bowl of cream left out before householders retire to bed. Many stories relate how a slovenly or avaricious person fails to leave out the bowl of cream or leaves a substandard substitute resulting in the hob flipping into it’s alto-ego the boggart or simply leaving the household. Other tales revolve around a kindly house wife making the hob a new suit of clothing, the hob then leaves either because he is offended or delighted with the clothes. Slovenly work by household members is another trigger for the hobs ire again causing him either to revert to a boggart or leave.

The North York Moors are rich in hob tales, which are too numerous to mention individually. Many North York Moor places at one stage seem to have had a hob associated with them, Gordon Home in The Evolution of A Yorkshire Town gives a list of 23 different hobs from an 1823 source, associated with Pickering and its North York Moor surroundings. Two well known stories are the Hart Hall Hob, which involves a gift of clothes and the Farndale Hob who is offended by substandard whey being left out instead of cream and turns into a boggart. The theme of hob like creatures leaving after a gift of clothes features in other well known fairytale such as The Elves and the Shoemaker. A hob by another name that features in a modern story is Dobby (also another name for a hob like creature) the house elf, in the Harry Potter series. His kinship with the hob is demonstrated by him being able to leave his household when his owner is tricked into giving him a sock.