Gnome

Origin

The iconographic origin is the fusion of Paracelsus's four-element-spirit theory of 1566 with medieval European mining-Gnome traditions. The decisive canon of Gnome iconography is the four-element-spirit (Elemental Spirits) canon — Water (Undine), Air (Sylph), Earth (Gnomus), Fire (Salamander) — of the Latin treatise A Book of Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders (Liber de Nymphis, Sylphis, Pygmaeis et Salamandris) of Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493-1541, born in Switzerland), published posthumously in Basel, Switzerland in 1566 — written in the 1530s in Salzburg, Innsbruck, and other Austrian-Swiss regions. Paracelsus set the Gnomus as a Greek-coined word meaning 'one who dwells in the earth' or 'being of knowledge', and established the canonical iconography of dwelling in mines and caves and handling gems and metals. In medieval Europe — the mines of fourteenth- to sixteenth-century German Saxony, the Austrian Alps, and the Bohemian Czech region — the miners' folklore that the mining spirit (Bergmaennlein, 'little mountain man') or the Kobold guards the treasures of the mine and shows the miner the veins is the indigenous foundation of the Paracelsian Gnome canon. The 1690 Le Comte de Gabalis of the French author Montfaucon de Villars (1635-1673) — which adapted Paracelsus's four-element-spirit theory into seventeenth-century French salon literature — is the decisive event of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European popularisation of Gnome iconography, and the seven dwarfs of the 1812 Snow White (Schneewittchen) tale 53 of the Kinder- und Hausmaerchen of the German Grimm Brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm) — though dwarfs (Zwerg) per se, evaluated as a decisive adaptation of Gnome iconography — established the nineteenth-century fairy-tale Gnome canon. The 1872 start of industrial production of the first ceramic garden gnome (Gartenzwerg, 'garden dwarf') by the Philipp Griebel workshop in Graefenroda, Thuringia, Germany, is the decisive origin of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century global garden-decoration Gnome canon.

Features

• Small old-man figure (usually about 30 cm)
• White beard and red conical cap
• Dwelling in the earth, caves, rocks, and mines
• Skilled in mining for gems, minerals, and metals
• Guardian of treasure, of disposition to avoid humans
• Weakness to sunlight and loud noise

Stories

The four-element-spirit canon of Paracelsus's 1566 A Book of Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders is the decisive origin of the Gnome canon, and the 1690 Le Comte de Gabalis of Montfaucon de Villars established the seventeenth-century French salon-literary Gnome canon. The seven dwarfs of the 1812 Grimm Brothers Snow White — though dwarfs (Zwerg) per se, evaluated as a decisive adaptation of Gnome iconography — established the nineteenth-century fairy-tale Gnome canon, and the seven dwarfs (Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey) of Disney's first feature-length animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (released 21 December 1937 in the USA, directed by David Hand, based on the Grimm Brothers original) established the twentieth-century global Disney Gnome-dwarf canon. The first ceramic garden gnome production of the Philipp Griebel workshop in Graefenroda, Thuringia, Germany, in 1872 is the decisive canon of nineteenth- and twentieth-century European garden decoration, and the picture book The Gnomes (Dutch Leven en Werken van de Kabouter) of the Dutch author Wil Huygen (1922-2009) and illustrator Rien Poortvliet of 1976 — canonised by the 1989 Dutch TV animation The World of David the Gnome — became the late-twentieth-century global children's Gnome canon. The Gnome race of the 1977 D&D Monster Manual by Gary Gygax (1938-2008) of TSR in the USA — consistent through to 5e (5th Edition) of 2014, as a Player Character race — is the modern fantasy RPG Gnome canon, and the Gnome airplane of the 31 August 1995 Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness of Blizzard Entertainment and the Gnome race of the 2004 World of Warcraft settled the twenty-first-century global video-game Gnome canon.

Weakness

The Gnome's weaknesses are: (1) sunlight — the decisive canon in the 1566 Paracelsus canon and medieval European mining folklore that the Gnome, when exposed to sunlight, is weakened or turns to stone; (2) loud noise — the canon of miners' folklore that the Gnome hides or vanishes from humans' loud noise and the artificial blast of the mines; (3) human greed — the decisive canon that the Gnome conceals himself before the human who covets treasure, the canon in the 1812 Grimm Brothers Snow White that the seven dwarfs protect Snow White without greed; (4) sacred light — the medieval European canon that Catholic exorcism and sacred light can seal elemental spirits like the Gnome; (5) Paracelsian four-element binding — the 1566 Paracelsus elemental-spirit canon that the Gnome is environmentally bound to his earth element — mountains, mines, caves — and cannot leave; (6) strong water flow — the weak opposition of Earth (Terra) and Water (Aqua) in the 1566 Paracelsus four-element-spirit canon, by which strong water flow weakens the Gnome; (7) exhaustion of the vein — the canonical weakness that the Gnome weakens and vanishes when all gems and metals of his vein are mined; (8) extinction of the race — when the mine is desolated, the entire Gnome of that mine weakens and vanishes. Since the D&D system of 1977 through to 5e (5th Edition) of 2014, the adaptation canon that the Gnome race endures sunlight has settled, but the sunlight weakness of the 1566 Paracelsus canon is the decisive canon of the mining-spirit Gnome, and the seven dwarfs of the 1937 Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs work in the mine and return home at night — the Heigh-Ho work song — established the twentieth-century Gnome-dwarf night-activity canon.

Cultural Significance

The Gnome is not merely an earth-spirit icon but the canonical iconographic figure of the Western earth-spirit canon traversing Paracelsus's four-element-spirit theory of 1566, the medieval European miners' folklore, the 1690 French salon literature, the 1812 Grimm Brothers fairy tales, the 1872 German garden-decoration industry, the 1937 Disney first feature-length animation, the 1977 D&D fantasy RPG, and the twenty-first-century global video games. The 1566 A Book of Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders of Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, born in Switzerland) — as the decisive event of Renaissance European natural philosophy and alchemy — became the decisive canon of the nineteenth-century European fantasy literature through the 1690 Le Comte de Gabalis of Montfaucon de Villars and the 1690s-1700s French salon literature. The 1872 start of industrial production of the first ceramic garden gnome (Gartenzwerg) by the Philipp Griebel (1845-1900) workshop in Graefenroda, Thuringia, Germany — the Graefenroda ceramic industry — became the decisive canon of European garden decoration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Graefenroda, a small town of about 3,400 inhabitants as of 2024, has been canonised as the 'Capital of German Garden Gnomes' (Gartenzwerg-Hauptstadt). The Disney first feature-length animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released on 21 December 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, USA — directed by David Hand, produced by Walt Disney — earning 184 million dollars at the American box office and winning the 1939 Academy Honorary Award, is a decisive event of film history, and its seven dwarfs established the twentieth-century global Disney Gnome-dwarf canon. The picture book The Gnomes by the Dutch author Wil Huygen of 1976 was televised through 1989-1991 as a twenty-six-episode TV animation The World of David the Gnome by the Spanish BRB Internacional, aired in over one hundred countries, becoming the late-twentieth-century global children's Gnome canon. The Gnome race of the 1977 D&D Monster Manual and the Gnome race of the 1995 Blizzard Warcraft II and the 2004 World of Warcraft (cumulative 100 million subscribers worldwide) became the decisive canon of the twenty-first-century global video-game market.

In Popular Culture

Paracelsus, A Book of Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders (1566) — decisive canon of the four element spirits GnomeMedieval European miners' folklore (fourteenth-sixteenth century) — indigenous canon of the mining GnomeMontfaucon de Villars, Le Comte de Gabalis (1690) — French salon-literary Gnome canonGrimm Brothers, Snow White, seven dwarfs (1812) — fairy-tale Gnome-dwarf canonPhilipp Griebel, first ceramic garden gnome (1872) — decisive nineteenth-twentieth-century garden-decoration canonDisney, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) — global Disney Gnome canonWil Huygen, picture book The Gnomes (1976) — children's-book Gnome canonGygax, D&D Monster Manual, Gnome (1977) — decisive fantasy RPG canonSpanish BRB, The World of David the Gnome (1989) — global children's Gnome animation canonBlizzard, World of Warcraft, Gnome race (2004) — twenty-first-century video-game canon