The fairy and elf archetypes have existed across Europe under many different names: Fae/Fey, the Fair Folk, Anjana, Sìdh(e), Aos Sí, Huldufólk, and Tylwyth Teg.

Regardless of the name, fairies and other myths frequently made their way into the works of English Victorian-era poets. As England became more industrial and urban, writers took stories and figures from the past to explore worries over their day’s social issues. These issues included women’s rights, labor conditions, morality, and sexuality.

Fairies and elves played a foundational part in Irish, English, Scottish, and Welsh folklore—Rossetti and her readers were very acquainted with the tropes of fairy lore. Rossetti used the familiar fairy story structure to symbolize and discuss desire, exploitation, and mortality. Rossetti even uses the specific name goblin, a type of pan-British fair folk known for its cruel mischief-making (Chainey, Dee Dee. “Little People of the Land.” A Treasury of British Folklore, National Trust Books, London, 2018, p. 82).

Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” has many Northern European fairy lore hallmarks. At their core, these stories are about people’s supernatural encounters inevitably changing or separating them from other humans. In a classic Irish myth, the mortal Oisín travels to the metaphysical Otherworld to marry the divine Niamh.