Reading Notes Part A "22 Goblins"

Three Men and a Tortoise

In this story, a goblin (which is apparently a kind of spirit that inhabits a dead body) is hanging in a tree. A monk has requested that the king bring him the goblin, for some unknown purpose. As the king goes to retrieve him, the goblin tells him a story, or a kind of riddle. If the king answers the riddle correctly, then the goblin jumps back into the tree he is hanging from. If the king does not know the answer and gives an incorrect response, then nothing happens and they may continue walking. However, if he knowingly gives a wrong answer, the goblin will split his head in two.
So far in the overall story, I am a little confused as to what is going on and why there is a goblin, or why the king even continues to play this little game. Why wouldn't he just ignore the goblin? I hope that this is resolved later.
Each of the riddles or stories that the goblin tells the king hinge around a similar kind of premise. Essentially there is a situation in which several very similar solutions are presented and the king must decide which, of the various similar solutions, is actually the correct one. For example, between 3 young men who all have amazing gifts, whether in expertise, or something else and decide which expertise was most correct. Many of the riddles are very subjective, but I agreed almost always with the king in his deduction, which is normally very astute and quick.
I am quite interested to see what will become of the king and the goblin in the next part.

Story source: Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder, with illustrations by Perham W. Nahl (1917)

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My Project website is here ! A picture I took while in Peru of a tiny pueblo in the Andes

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