Founded Upon a Remarkable Lack of Verification (1903)

Fact Goblin was founded in London in the spring of 1903 by the distinguished goblin scholar Professor Grizzlefink Bogscribe F.R.S. (Frequently Rather Speculative).

According to company records, Professor Bogscribe became concerned by a growing societal problem: people were spending far too much time checking whether things were true.

While serving as Assistant Lecturer in Applied Assumptions at the Royal Institute of Dubious Learning, Bogscribe proposed a revolutionary alternative. Rather than verifying information, one could simply present it with sufficient confidence, decorative typography, and a footnote written in very small print.

This concept became the foundation of Fact Goblin.

Operating from a rented basement beneath a hat shop in South Croydon, Bogscribe and three fellow goblins began printing weekly fact sheets on a hand-operated press. These pamphlets contained remarkable discoveries such as:

• The average Victorian umbrella contained enough fabric to make seven angry pigeons.
• The city of Norwich briefly considered replacing clocks with trained ferrets.
• More than 60% of parliamentary debates were conducted while someone was thinking about lunch.

Although none of these claims could be substantiated, they were widely discussed.

The organisation adopted its first official motto:

“Question Everything. Except Us.”

The Disappearance of Professor Grizzlefink Bogscribe

The exact fate of Fact Goblin founder Professor Grizzlefink Bogscribe F.R.S. (Frequently Rather Speculative) remains one of the organisation’s greatest mysteries.

On 17 October 1947, Professor Bogscribe reportedly left Fact Goblin headquarters carrying a leather satchel, a half-finished manuscript entitled The Definitive Guide to Things That May Have Happened, and a sandwich of disputed provenance. Official company records state that he left to investigate reports of a twelve-foot-tall badger serving as mayor of a small Welsh village.

He was never officially seen again.

An extensive search was conducted by staff, local authorities, three amateur cryptozoological societies, and one particularly enthusiastic newt. No conclusive evidence regarding his whereabouts was ever discovered.

Despite his disappearance, alleged sightings of Professor Bogscribe have continued for decades, and still continue to this day. His staff liken this to Elvis sightings, but with a far better looking individual.

Unconfirmed reports include:

• A goblin matching his description seen arguing with librarians in Edinburgh in 1954.
• A mysterious passenger aboard a steam train in Yorkshire in 1968 who paid his fare using obsolete banknotes and several unusually convincing facts.
• A photograph taken outside a bookshop in London in 1987 showing a figure remarkably similar to Bogscribe browsing the “Reference” section.
• A grainy image from 2009 appearing to show the Professor attending the launch of the Fact Goblin website, despite having been missing for over seventy years.

None of these sightings have ever been verified.

His office remains preserved exactly as it was allegedly left, although several objects have reportedly changed position over the years. Staff are instructed not to investigate this too closely.

To this day, Professor Grizzlefink Bogscribe continues to hold the honorary title of Founder Emeritus. Company policy states that this position will remain his “until such time as he either returns, writes a resignation letter, or is conclusively proven to have become a myth.”