The Goblin Mines

Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

Setting	The Princess and the Goblin (George MacDonald)
Location	Deep within an unnamed mountain in an unnamed kingdom, entered through a natural opening beneath a rock where a stream emerges; its deepest workings run directly alongside, and in one place only a foot away from, the natural caverns inhabited by the goblins.
Type	Metal mine (ore unspecified in the text)
Worked	Not dated in the text; long enough established that Curdie, a boy of twelve, is already a seasoned miner working alongside his father, Peter. – Not formally closed within the story; the mine survives the goblins' attempted flood, which instead destroys the goblins' own kingdom.
Extent	A network of tunnels and passages the miners call 'gangs', worked with pickaxes, shovels and hammers, lit by lamps fixed to the miners' own heads.
Status	Researched

Overview

The human mine at the heart of George MacDonald's 1872 novel The Princess and the Goblin, worked by miners including twelve-year-old Curdie and his father, whose deepest passages run perilously close to the natural caverns of an underground goblin kingdom.

History

The title 'goblin mines' is something of a simplification: the text describes one human mine, worked conventionally with pickaxes and lamps, whose deepest gangs happen to run close alongside the goblins' own kingdom -- natural caverns the goblins inhabit rather than themselves excavate or work for ore. Curdie, the son of the miner Peter, works night shifts in the mine and, overhearing goblin voices through a thin partition of rock 'not more than a foot in thickness', breaks through into their territory to spy on them, discovering a plot to kidnap Princess Irene and force her to marry the goblin prince. Failing that, the goblins plan a second, more drastic scheme: to flood the human mine entirely by breaking open the natural underground reservoirs in their own higher-lying territory, letting the water pour down into the miners' workings and drown them. Curdie warns the other miners, who work to seal off the vulnerable gang by packing it solid with rock, buttressed against the mountain itself. When the goblins finally release the waters, the scheme backfires: rather than draining down into the sealed-off human mine, the flood instead pours into the goblins' own lower territory, sweeping many of them away and destroying their kingdom. The surviving goblins are scattered or, over time, become friendlier toward the humans living above them. The king -- unnamed in the text -- having learned from Curdie what the goblins had intended, brings Princess Irene safely home and puts Curdie in charge of his household in gratitude.

Workings

Worked conventionally with pickaxes, shovels and hammers along tunnels the miners call 'gangs', lit by lamps fixed to the miners' own heads; its lowest workings lie perilously close to the goblins' own underground kingdom.

Closure

The goblins' attempted flood -- meant to drown the mine by releasing water from their own higher-lying reservoirs -- instead breaks through into the goblins' own lower territory, sweeping many of them away and destroying their kingdom rather than the human mine.

What became of it

Left standing and, by implication, safe from the goblin threat that had endangered it throughout the novel; the story's sequel, The Princess and Curdie, is set some years later in the same kingdom.

Canon & adaptations

This record follows George MacDonald's original 1872 novel. It has been adapted into an animated 1991 film with altered plot details; those changes are not reflected here.

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

The human mine's deepest gangs run close alongside the goblins' own natural underground kingdom, in one place separated by a partition of rock 'not more than a foot in thickness', which Curdie breaks through to spy on the goblins. (explicit canon) ¹
The goblins plan to flood the human mine by releasing water from their own higher-lying reservoirs; when the miners seal off the vulnerable passage, the released water instead pours into the goblins' own lower territory, destroying their kingdom instead. (explicit canon) ^1,2
Having warned of and helped avert both goblin schemes, Curdie is put in charge of the king's household in gratitude once Princess Irene is safely returned. (explicit canon) ¹

Sources

(primary) The Princess and the Goblin (full text) — Project Gutenberg (George MacDonald, 1872)
(primary) The Princess and the Goblin, Chapter 31: The Subterranean Waters — Owl Eyes (George MacDonald, 1872)

Record created: 31 August 2026