Gnome

This article is about the mythical creatures. For alternate meanings see Gnome (disambiguation).

Lawn Gnome

A race of small beings that live underground. According to Paracelsus, gnomes are the most important of the earth spirits. He wrote that they move as easily through the earth as humans walk upon the ground. The sun's rays turn them into stone. Some sources say they spend the day as a toad. Gnomes appear in the German fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. In fairy tales, the mountain gnome Rubezahl was lord over the underworld. A kaukis is a Prussian gnome.

A gnome is a mythical creature. In certain traditions and certain kinds of magickal practice, gnomes are elemental spirits of the element of earth. In other traditions, they are simply small, mischievous sprites or goblins. According to some traditions, their king is called Gob.

In Fairy tales the gnome is usually a creature living deep underground and guarding buried treasure, resembling a small gnarled old man. Accordingly Swiss bankers are sometimes referred to as the Gnomes of Zurich.

The word gnome is derived from the New Latin gnomus and ultimately from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge. According to myth, gnomes horded secrets knowledge just as they horded treasure.

Gnomes in literature

The Gnome King and his gnome subjects nearly transformed Dorothy Gale and her friends into bric-a-brac in The Ozma of Oz, the second book in Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz series.

Gnomes feature in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, where they are also called goblins. The Nac Mac Feegle are sometimes considered an ethnic subgroup of gnomes.

Terry Pratchett has also written a trilogy called The Bromeliad in which a race of "nomes" explore the world beyond their home, and keep discovering it's bigger than they thought.

The Shannara novels by Terry Brooks include the savage Spider Gnomes and the kindly Healer Gnomes.

Gnomes are featured in many books set in various Dungeons & Dragons worlds, most notably the mechanically minded tinker gnomes of the Dragonlance setting.

In David Brin's novel Earth, a major nuclear war is described in which many nations attack Switzerland in an effort to reclaim money from the "gnomes" (bankers), money that has been illegally smuggled out of ailing developing nations and hidden in numbered Swiss bank accounts.

A replica of Lampy the Lamport gnome

The first garden gnomes were introduced to the United Kingdom in 1847 by Sir Charles Isham, when he brought 21 terracotta figures back from a trip to Germany and placed them around the gardens of his home, Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. Only one of the original batch of gnomes survives: Lampy as he is known, is on display at Lamport Hall, and is insured for one million pounds.

Garden gnomes have become a popular accessory in many gardens, although they are not loved by all. They can be the target of pranks: people have been known to "return to the wild" these garden gnomes, most notably France's "Front de Liberation des Nains de Jardins" and Italy's "MALAG" (Garden Gnome Liberation Front). Some kidnapped garden gnomes have been sent on trips around the world, being passed from person to person and photographed at different famous landmarks, with the photos being returned to the owner. Non conventional statues have also been made: a flashing gnome in a raincoat, or a gnome couple having sex.