Episode 7: Small, Everyday Fae: Grogoch

The folklore of grogochs in a nutshell, how I reimagined them for my writing, and the faery translated into Afrikaans.

Written and narrated by Ronel Janse van Vuuren.

Copyright 2021 Ronel Janse van Vuuren — All rights reserved.

Learn more about grogochs here.

Get the transcript here.

Music: Secrets by David Fesliyan (FesliyanStudios.com) and Dramatic Heartbeat by FesliyanStudios.com

Transcript

You’re listening to the Faeries and Folklore podcast by Ronel.

I’m dark fantasy author Ronel Janse van Vuuren. With nearly a decade of digging around in dusty folklore books, researching creatures of imagination that ignited my curiosity, I’m here to share the folklore in a nutshell and how I reimagined it for my writing in an origin of the fae.

This is the Faeries and Folklore podcast.

Hi, I’m your host Ronel Janse van Vuuren. You can just call me Ronel. In today’s episode, we’re continuing our exploration of the fae realm.

We’re continuing our exploration of small every day fae.

Today’s faery: grogoch

Folklore in a Nutshell by Ronel

This creature has so many spellings for its name that sounds like fiddle-dee-dee, I prefer to call it grogoch.

The grogoch originates on the Isle of Man and is much like the brownie from Scotland and England, only extremely hairy. It is said that this hairy faery usually runs about naked (his copious amounts of hair covers everything) and is helpful to humans – he is happy to do any farm chore, though mending fishing nets is among his many skills. He only wants food in exchange for his labour.

As shown in folktales, the origin of the grogoch is something sad: usually he is a knight from a faery court, transformed into this grody creature as punishment for falling in love with a human girl and skipping one too many festivities of his kind to be with her.

He is an excellent herder, stone mover, a nimble mower and many other things. But if you dare offer him clothes, he will disappear and leave you to do your work yourself.

And now for my interpretation of the fae in an Origin of the Fae: Grogochs

There are no female Grogochs.

The Grogoch lives in either a cave, a cleft in the landscape or a hollow he evicted a fox or rabbit from.

He resembles a short, old man covered in coarse red fur. He’s really grody – his hygiene leaves much to be desired. Spare twigs and leaves can always be found on his person (though this could be a good thing while he gardens?).

Thanks to the thick fur covering his body, the Grogoch is quite impervious to extreme temperatures of either end of the spectrum.

Once they bond with a magic user (Druid, Witch, Warlock, what-have-you), they are extremely loyal.

It is unclear what kind of magic they practice.

As a little bonus, let’s look at the translation of grogoch into Afrikaans: Vuil-vos-kabouter. (this is of my own making)

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode of the faeries and folklore podcast and that you’ve learned something new about faeries.

Remember that you can get a transcript of this episode in the description. If you’re new to the podcast, why not go and grab your free copy of Unseen, the second book in the Faery Tales series, on my website ronelthemythmaker.com? Loads of folklore, magic and danger await! Take care!

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