Sometimes, I take for granted this place’s beauty… I mean, it’s really remarkable, especially if it is compared to those filthy hovels humans make, he-he. I joke, but I mean… this place… look! Amazing! Nothing in their world comes even close. Yeah, they have some buildings that are taller than these trees… But they are lifeless — machined rock, forced together against its nature. This place is special… ethereal. The enchanted forest is an island outside the mainland, known as Tír na nÓg. Oh, I suppose you don’t know Gaelic though… That translates to ‘Land of the Young’ or something like that. It sounds fanciful, but it is just the local name of their… their… Ah, what word did they use in the Hellas?… Olympus! Tír na nÓg, like Olympus, is timeless, and they, the Gods, do not age. The same is true for these trees. I’ve lived in two such places. I’ll explain the other one later perhaps…

 

For HERE though, it is the royal couple — Oberon and Titania — who extend this timelessness into this ‘embassy of the Heavens.’ I dunno how it works exactly, to be honest. But somehow, their presence changes the trees, grasses, bugs — anyone inside their domain just repels the ravages of time… as they do. In that same sense, things do not grow here. Yet, everything blooms all year. I mean, ‘bloom’ perhaps isn’t the best term, I suppose. Let’s just say the flowers are always pretty, ha-ha. Yet, you may be wondering why this central forest area, with these massive trees, became this way then… Well, this, I can only answer based on my own observations. I’ve seen!… I’ve seen Titania and Oberon travel into the new areas of the forest where their influence was not previously in… If they camp there, the forest slowly changes and by morning, the trees are notably larger and vibrant-er’er… — Ha-ha, sorry, despite some portrayals of me out there, I am no artisan of any language… — Anyway, within three days, the area around their camp will look just like this place. They can stop in the middle of the grassy plains. It happens. They could stop in a desert, and it would happen. If both Titania and Oberon stop there; everything becomes… grand and vibrant. If Oberon is by himself, it does not happen. If Titania is alone, nope… There is something that happens only when they are together… And if they leave the area, the size, the energy, will disappear from the trees, until they all look normal again. It takes a couple days, but it happens… Again, I’ve seen.

 

This same energy has affected me as well. I am a Puck, otherwise known as a bogle — maybe you’ve heard of Boogeyman? …Same — otherwise known as hob, or hobgoblin, brownie, silkie, kobold, blah, blah, blah. Sigh…None of these are positive. We get a bad name. We aren’t bad… Humans project anything bad to the ‘other,’ and we are a favorite and easy target because of our prank-loving nature and tiny stature. For example, cobalt is named so because when they mine it, they die. The northern miners blame us ‘kobold’ for it! It is the arsenic that is with the blue stone… the arsenic gas when they heat it, kills them! …Not us! With Nickel too! … ‘Nickel’ means demon. Ha-ha… I mean, geez, we get blamed for silver rocks not being silver and for poisonous gasses being poisonous, ha-ha… It just isn’t fair…

 

Anyway, this ‘kobold’ name is similar to my people’s first name, near Olympus; it was Kobalos. It was here, long ago, I lived with Dionysus in his forest. There, I was no larger than a rabbit! Dionysus found the kobaloi to be funny — and funnier small… So, I was tiny. But, look at me here! Ha-ha, I mean I am by no measure tall amongst the elves, but I think that I could walk amongst the humans and even see above many of them… Just like our trees, I grew, ha-ha. Anyway, when Dionysus became more involved with Olympus, us kobaloi were left-to-the-wind as they say. Most of them did just that, ‘go with the wind,’ dying violent deaths of some sort… I watched my friend get picked off by an eagle…not a pretty sight… I decided to look for another area, in the service of another lord, for I was far too little. In the Hellas you are surrounded by the ocean to the east and south, so I walked north-west…

 

I searched for many years, and as luck would have it, when I came to this area — so far from my original home — Oberon and Titania came here… pure luck. As mentioned, I changed when I stayed with them. I became less goblin-like, influenced by my new master: Oberon. Oberon is… how do I say… a ‘pretty boy,’ — he-he. Hey, he admits this readily to himself!… And me? I dare say I am somewhat ‘cute’ now! Ha-ha, that hardly is my role though. You see, the only thing he likes more than looking his best, is pranks… And now, you understand. It is perfect! I do what I love, and I live, protected and privileged, as a courtier. …And my name is no longer ‘Hob-goblin,’ but nay do I run from it either… I took the beginning and end, making it Rob’ ‘in.

 

This place… Myrwood Forest… is my home, and I am Robin Goodfellow.