"Goblin Markets"

That depends. In my local market, you can buy fruit, sweets, clothes, games, DVDs, fish, meat, cooked food, healthy snacks such as currants and nuts, thread, buttons, scarves, shoes, bags, nick-nacks and lots else. So goblins would have similar items. What do they eat? What would they buy to eat immediately, and what would they buy to cook later? How would they cook it? Can whatever they're selling be kept fresh? (The meat and fish sections of my local market have electricity and refrigeration) What do goblins wear? What is that made of? How is clothing made, economically speaking - are there tailors who make every outfit to order, sweat shops where items are made in bulk, or do individuals make their own clothes? Where do they get the materials for making clothing from? What materials are they - leather, furs, wool, or cotton, or something else? Do they, indeed, wear clothes at all? What do they do in their leisure time? Are they militaristic - in which case there'd be people selling weapons and armour. Are they superstitious - in which case, amulets and charms that are meant to ward off evil or bring good luck. Do they display wealth, and if so, how? Clothing? Jewellery? By throwing big feasts, building public buildings? What kind of currency are they using? How do they go about buying and selling stuff - do they barter, or are prices fixed? How do they attract customers - bright displays, shouting offers or products? Do they, indeed, go out of their way to block rivals or do they attempt to steal customers away from rival stalls?

And I realise I've moved away from "what should they sell" to "what would the market be like", but I've been thinking about markets a lot recently. I'm trying to work out what kind of economy a particular city is going to have, so I'm also thinking about who does the shopping - the head of the household, so that he has complete control over what is spent and what is bought, or women, who need to know what they're cooking, or slaves, because it's all legwork and the other members of the household have better things to be getting on with.

Anyway, good luck.

Your required reading would be the famous poem 'Goblin Market' by Christina Rosetti... unless you already know it and that's where your idea came from, in which case this post is redundant!

"A novel can best be defined as a long piece of prose with something wrong with it."
- Neil Gaiman, Introduction to American Gods.

Possibly a lot of things that have been stolen and are trying to be off-loaded or which just do not work, if you wanted something to expand the plot.

Maybe it could be a place where you can find anything and everything for a price if you know the right people to ask and have the money for it.

"Sanity is the playground of the unimaginative."

Thanks, I've heard of "Goblin Market" but never read it.

2005, 2006, 2007 - WON
2008 - FAILED

2009 § The Sidereal Rose

http://thesiderealrose.blogspot.com/

Also check out Ted Naifeh's Courtney Crumrin series. There's a cool Goblin Market there.

Typically in folklore, Goblin Markets sell humans or other things taken from the mortal world.

Mine sells many things...
peppered lizards, buttons, human blonde hair, stegorats, fried bat wings cooked in dragon blood, quinces, and wine.

I was thinking about having some farmers hire out booths to sell veggies and herbs, oils and saps, straw and nuts, etc.

The Indians sold dream catchers. I need an idea as such that the goblins could make and sell. Hummmm.

Shiskarats... hehe. eww. And ground goblin fingernails for tea... making them "stronger".. hehe. Ugh.

jade

I was essentially going to post what SilverDolphin did, so here's an emphatic head nod!

Crystal

Synopsis: Kenna took off over ten years ago. Khale dreamed that he and Elenna were trying to find her. The last time he ignored his dream their parent's died. Khale and Elenna set off on a quest to find a sister they're not sure is even alive.

Cheers to this post! Totally marking this for future reference - all of these ideas are great. I love the concept itself. In my story, the "Goblin Markets" (I refer to them as something else) lean more towards the dark as well - auctioning off bastard children or children who see magic, particularly. Also, cursed trinkets made by faeries for rich, foolish, magic-seeking humans to buy.

Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" also has a fairie market that comes once every ten years to the field near the village of Wall. If I remember correctly, there's a description of it in the opening chapter(s) and the version with Charles Vess' illustrations also have pictures of it.

The good ended happily and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means - Oscar Wilde

2009: Swan's Wing - Winner!

That's what I thought when I saw the title. Cursed fruit or other objects that seem enticing to unwary human beings would be the kind of thing you'd expect goblins to sell.

What is offered at the market might depend more on the characteristics of "goblin" than of market. A church market offers very different things from a gypsy bazaar which offers different things from a Asian street market. The question to ask yourself is - what things would goblins have access to that they might be able to interest non-goblins into purchasing? I doubt that a goblin selling cow guts would make very many sales to the average human.

Procrastination: Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now.

Some things from my proposed 'Goblin Town'.

1> There is a Goblin King and a Goblin Mayor. The King is the older goblin that used to rule things (he just was the King by divine right). In the last fifty years there appeared a Goblin Mayor as democracy in the 'real' world has influenced the fae world. The two can often be found giving counter orders and arguing with each other as to which is really in charge of Goblin Town. The goblin citizens just like the extra chaos this brings to their market.

2> There is a 'local' market. Goblin Town has a shadow touching on many different cities and towns. These shadows form the lesser markets but it is possible to pass from the local markets to the main Goblin Town which is deeper in the fae lands for the shopper wanting to make the trip.

3> It is called 'Goblin Town' as many goblin live there but it is a very diverse group of fae that can be found living and working in the domain. Many supernatural groups go to Goblin Town to purchase things that can not be purchased from non-fae sources.

4> My MC is a fae and goes to Goblin Town to get a device to help track a cell number back to the original cell phone. My MC also carries a gun forged with Goblin Tech.

5> My MC is going to pay for the cell phone tracker with Casu Marzu (it is a real type of cheese that has live maggots and comes from Italy ~ one of those wierd things I came across and thought would be a nice inclusion in the novel).

6> The proietor of one of the places that my MC is going to shop is also having illegal fairy fights (cage battles of your typical sprite style of fae) with humans betting on the outcome (the human involvement is the illegal part though caging fae is frowned upon)

2007 The Lieutenant of Fairies (won!)
2008 The Captain of the Dammed (won!)
2009 Black Dog (won!)

The Night Market in "Neverland" is a lot like this too.

I love goblins in a fantasy novel. I don't know why, but I just do. Maybe because they're a)classic and b)underutilized.