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The Princess and the Goblin is a children's fantasy novel by George MacDonald. It was published in 1872 by Strahan & Co.

From the backpage of the Wordsworth Classics edition:

George MacDonald's second novel for children is widely regarded as both his best children's story and one of the finest fantasy tales ever written. The Princess Irene lives in a castle on a mountain with her nurse Lootie, while in caves beneath live a race of ugly goblins with heads as hard as stone. The lines are drawn for a fantastic confrontation between the Princess, her great-great-grandmother and her intrepid friend Curdie on the one side, and the gnome-like goblins on the other. It is a thrilling battle of wits which must prove fatal... for someone.

In 1993, the novel was made into an animated motion picture as a Hungarian, Welsh and Japanese co-production. It also received an English release. It is 82 minutes in length. The screenplay was written by Robin Lyons and production was directed by József Gémes. The film was created at PannóniaFilm in Budapest, Hungary, NHK in Japan, and S4C and Siriol Productions in Great Britain. It was also localised into Dutch, and released in 1993 as "De Prinses en de Trollen" (The Princess and the Trolls). The animated motion picture has been released on DVD in 2003.

This story was once again adapted in animated form by Jay Ward as part of a segment called Fractured Fairytales. The story was about a race of innocent goblins who were forced to live underground. The goblin king fell in love with a princess, but a prince saves her by reciting poetry because goblins hate it.

"The Princess and the Goblins" is also a poem by Sylvia Plath (1932-1963).

• "The Princess and the Goblin" on Wikisource.
• Information on the animated film adaptation at the International Movie Database