Gnomes... are to earth as fishes are to water...

"You may not believe in the Little People, but that is because most fairy books portray miniature men an women with ridiculous tinsel wings, doing all sorts of impossible things with flowers and cobwebs. That sort of make-believe is all right for some people, but it won‘t do for you and me... You will understand that the birds and wild animals are the Little People! Such a simple fact and yet we never realised it!... My gnomes are but a very short step (for the normal imagination) from the wild woodland people. They live with birds and beasts, and can never be far from water. That is the reason why children instinctively love water, and why Ireland is the last stronghold of the Little People; it is wild and wet, and there is no locality a gnome likes so much as a place which is 'wild and wet'."

I'd really recommend this book to those who are still young at heart and who aren't afraid to be "little" again.

A Swiss alchemist of the 16th-century brought a new theory to the light of day. This man, Paracelsus, was convinced that man and all mortal creatures consisted of the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. A certain group of creatures belonged to each of these elements: the Gnomes to the element Earth, the Slyphs to Air, the Salamanders to Fire and the Nereids to the Water element. Gnomes were said to have a natural underground habitat, they could move through the earth and bind with it like a non-material being or like a fish in water.

Medieval science and medicinal knowledge grew roots on this theory. As the Renaissance gained ever more power over the minds of people and as thoughts started to base themselves upon material proof, the doctrine of the Four Elements started to decline and lose meaning. This is the reason why Gnomes nowadays are almost always seen as non-existant beings because they belong to an already dead medieval theory or rather to a dead science. One could even say that they are a form of Fantasy within Fantasy.

The following text describes the gnome Baldmoney in "The Little Grey Men" - he's very important for he was one of the last of his kind left in England...

"His little red face, the colour of an old hip berry, was puckered and creased like the palm of a monkey's hand. His whiskers were whitish grey, the beard hanging down almost to his middle. The tiny hands with their grubby nails were like mole's hands, though smaller. Gnomes have large hands for their size, larger in comparison than those of a mortal. His ears were long, sharply pointed, and covered with silky hair...He wore a pointed skin hat, a short coat and waistcoat of mouse-skin with a strip of snake-skin round his middle; moleskin breeches tied in below the knee, but no shoes or stockings. He had no need of these, for gnomes are hairy little folk; in summer time they sometimes dispense with clothes altogether. Their bodies are not naked like ours, but clothed in long hair... He carried a hunting knife in his belt, made of hammered iron, part of an old hinge which he had found in the stream."

In a way I suppose you could compare them to dwarves, also being creatures of the earth. But I personally prefer the idea of them being a kind of link between earth and the vegetation closest to the soil. Dwarves just don't have the love for greenery and water that gnomes do. They see themselves as a part of nature, whereas the dwarves like to isolate themselves in their cavernous world of metals and minerals. Gnomes respect, love and protect nature in an unselfish manner (if you see it in that way then they are indeed much like fairies).

If you would like to see more of my images of gnomes then please click on the "Image Gallery" link in the navbar.