Gobbleknoll

Story from record--Tales of Witches, Ghosts and Goblins Told by Vincent Price  @ Caedmon 1974 

Transposed from a Sioux legend by Alan Garner

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There once was a hill that ate people. The rabbit's grandmother told him never to go near it. So the rabbit went to the hill and shouted,

"Gobbleknoll swallow me ! Come devour me!"

But Gobbleknoll knew the rabbit and took no notice.

Later that day, a group of travelers came by looking for a place to shelter from the rain. And Gobbleknoll opened his green and ferny lips and the travelers thought that they had found a cave. They went in and the rabbit slipped close behind them.

But the hill felt hairy pads on his tunnels and before the rabbit could reach the middle, Gobbleknoll threw him out and the grass shut.

The rabbit went and hid behind a tree, and a few days later a hunting party arrived at the hill just before night. And Gobbleknoll opened again.

This time, the rabbit used magic art and took the shape of a man. Except for his ears which he tuck down his shirt so they won't brush against the roof and make Gobbleknoll sneeze.

He went down long and hurried passages until he came to the hill's stomach, and there were the remains of all the victims and some who were not yet dead.

"HEY, HEY, HEY!" shouted the rabbit. "Why don't you eat? You leave the best!  Here's a delicious heart.  What's wrong with that?"

Gobbleknoll set up a dismal howling for it was his own heart that the rabbit had seen. And the rabbit knew this and took out a knife, and stabbed the hill DEAD!

The gound split, and the blue sky lit the deep hollows, and the living came out and wept before the rabbit and wanted to give him power and riches.

But all the rabbit would take was Gobbleknoll's fat, and he went home with it on his back. And he and his grandmother were thick to burst from it with many a day.