Moreover, despite the fantastical subterranean caverns and the existence of Irene's "dear old great big grandmother" in her attic in the sky, the truly fantastical element in MacDonald's novel, and one that is also the easiest to accept, is Curdie and the Princess Irene's companionship and equality. Princess Irene is a princess because she is brave and trusts in her grandmother, but as Lootie and Curdie are well aware, "princesses have told lies as well as other people." (66) In fact, MacDonald takes pains to remind his audience that princesses are not naturally good or perfect. In The Princess and the Goblin, it is the king's men who fail to protect the princess and rather the miner boy who dashes onto the king's white charger and saves the day. MacDonald refuses to premise that kings will be good, that princesses will always be correct and miner boys dirty and uncouth. However, in creating this moral ambivalence regarding the history and presence of the goblins, MacDonald challenges the tradition of the reader's passive acceptance of good and evil, or in fact any familiar category. They are ugly and sly creatures, and although they may not have, once upon a time, deserved this underground life, we have no problems hoping Curdie foils their plans and stamps hard on their unshod, tender goblin feet. Our failure to sympathize with the goblins is on purpose. MacDonald does not intend for his audience to like the goblins. Indeed, although we only meet Irene's King-Papa briefly, it is difficult to imagine this heroic figure astride his white steed having any dealings with the goblins. Our sympathies obviously lie with the inhabitants above ground and the Princess Irene, despite the fact that perhaps these goblins would not be hatching their dastardly plots if Irene's ancestors had not driven them below ground in the first place. The narrator also reminds his reader that despite appearances, these goblins may not be as inhumane as they look: "They had enough of affection left for each other to preserve them from being absolutely cruel for cruelty's sake to those that came in their way but still they so heartily cherished the ancestral grudge against those who occupied their former possessions and especially against the descendants of the king who had caused their expulsion." (2) This last brief introduction to the goblins hardly inspires enough sympathy in the reader for us to side with these sad, horrible creatures. Although the goblins are now no longer men, they were once so and achieved their present terrible state due to some unspecified persecution. According to legend, this "strange race" may once have been men, however, they were long driven below ground by severe taxes or stricter laws, or something. AcDonald begins The Princess and the Goblin by introducing a subterranean world inhabited by fearsome goblins.
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