I've been dipping in and out of an anthology of Scandinavian folk & fairy tales over the last couple of months.
I bought it new in 1984, when I was 20ish.
It's a compilation of tales that were collected by various folklorists, mostly from the late 19th Century (around the time, but after, the Bros. Grimm published their most famous collection), And the stories were translated into English by various translators in roughly the same era.
Anyway -- My point is, that the spooky stories in this collection came about Well Before "Horror Tropes" were Hollywood Horror Tropes.
And I've come away with the impression that:
What these folklorists called "Goblins," we would probably look at and say: "That's some sort of zombie" (A deceased person that still has some sort of physical body, as opposed to an immaterial Ghost, who can pass through walls, and appear and disappear) and
What D&D (I think) classifies as a "Goblin," these folklorists would classify as a "Troll" (Sentient beings who are living, and have names, and cultures, and habits, who are often antagonistic, ranging from mischievous to malicious,* and whom you would not like to sit down to supper with, because of their disgusting-to-us eating habits*).
Since this is Spoopy Season, I thought that would be fun to share.
*Depending, of course, on the story's culture of origin. Danish trolls are much nicer than Norwegian ones... at least, in the stories in this collection. And just for an example.
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