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

Lawn Gnome

A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by small stature and living underground. According to Paracelsus, gnomes are the most important of the elemental spirits of the element of earth. He wrote that they move as easily through the earth as humans walk upon the ground. The sun's rays turn them into stone. In other traditions, they are simply small, mischievous sprites or goblins. Some sources say they spend the day as a toad. According to some traditions, their king is called Gob. A kaukis is a Prussian gnome. Gnomes appear in the German fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. In fairy tales, the mountain gnome Rubezahl was lord over the underworld.

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 said to derive from the New Latin gnomus and ultimately from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge. According to myth, gnomes hoarded secret knowledge just as they hoarded 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.
• The Gnome Mobile was a Disney movie.
• 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.
• The British children's comic The Beano featured a character called Gordon Gnome, who was a garden gnome living next to a pond. An animated series is under production for the BBC which will air in 2005. Toonhound article (external link) (http://www.toonhound.com/july2002.htm#gnome)
• Gnomes and Secrets of the Gnomes by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, and spin-off animated series David the Gnome
• In some computer games, including Everquest and World of Warcraft, Gnomes are a short race of humanoids closely related to Dwarves, and are exceptionally adept at tinkering and mechanics. Oftentimes this results in they and their allies having technologies not normally in fantasy settings, such as firearms or robot-like beings.

Garden Gnomes

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.

• A sub-culture exists among those who collect garden gnomes. This phenomenon is frequently lampooned in popular culture.

Related topics

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