Goblin Market

Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market is a fable of two sisters who encounter the goblin merchants, who offer tempting fruits with beguiling voices, begging them to try, to taste, to touch. A friend had succumbed to their alluring charm before, and then, having tasted, gradually wasted away to death. One sister heeds the warning signs and begs the other sister to follow her home and ignore the beckoning calls of the insistent, persistent goblins who promise so much. But the second sister lingers to know more, and, even when admitting that she has no money, they accept just a lock of her golden hair for payment. She tastes of the fruits and is delighted. Not only is it delicious, but she wants more and more. When finally she is satisfied, she returns home, perfectly safe -- so she thought. But day by day, the yearning after more of the marvelous fruit sets in, but she doesn't hear the siren voices of the goblins ever again. Her sister, however, who was cautious, does hear the voices, and recognizes that she will have to do something or she will lose her sister as they lost their friend. She emboldens herself to go to the goblins, tosses them a coin, but does not bite the fruit. She is assaulted, wheedled, poked, argued with -- but she is stubborn. Returning, she is able to save her sister from the consequences of the temptation. Although she was "right," she put herself in danger in order to reclaim her sister. Christina and her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, were members of the Pre-Rafaelite movement, in the course of which, D.G. translated a number of Italian poets who were friends or acquaintances of the young Dante Alighieri, and published their work, primarily love poems, as Dante and His Circle (www.createspace.com/4024060) -- somewhat resembling the artistic kinship of the Pre-Rafaelites.