I was reading The Book of Lost Tales today, and stumbled on a fascinating etymology note that talked of two completely different meanings for the word 'gnome', neither of which are the average garden variety that is usually associated with that word.



That passage got the gears turning. Why has no one heard of gnome-races that were philosophical geniuses (or maybe they just consider themselves philosophical geniuses)? Or what of the gnomes that walked through earth? Or perhaps both?
Have any of you run into gnomes that fall into the above categories/etc.? Thoughts on the passage? I'd love to hear y'alls thoughts.

I've heard of ground gnomes that travel through the ground like roots on trees do. I'm trying to remember where, though. It wasn't from my childhood movie The Gnomes...

Those are both fascinating things to ponder, especially the latter, about gnomes who travel inside the earth.

It seems like I read about something that could travel in the earth in a kids fairy tale book...but that may have just been Rumplestiltskin getting mad and getting swallowed by the earth...yeah that's probably what I'm thinking of.

But that is very interesting, it'd be strange (but cool in a freakish sort of way) to have humanoid things that can go 'through' the ground like a fish through water. It seems though that they would need to be of a strange substance or something, so you would have to decide what having the earth as their element would mean for their appearance and material make-up...

It definitely is fun to think about.

I totally agree, that's what I was thinking when I read your post.

This is a neat idea, Sui. I haven't really thought much about gnomes, but this is interesting. If I ever include them, I'll definitely consider this.

I think that the earth-elemental creatures in Lois McMaster Bujold's early fantasy novel The Spirit Ring are called gnomes and travel through the ground. And, for the other sense, in the tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons (at least the versions I'm most familiar with ...) the typical gnome player is a wizard---a trickster illusionist wizard more often than a cerebral type, but still a class requiring high intelligence.

I'm actually a little scared of gnomes. The thought that first pops into my head when I think of them is garden gnomes that look cute during the day, but at night come alive and open up their mouths to show really sharp teeth.

Might I ask what you mean by "going through earth". Do you mean like...swimming in it? Or being really fast at tunneling and moving through it that way? Or just...passing through? Like a ghost?

It'd be more like swimming, I think. They would just...temporarily displace the ground, I guess. That's the impression I get, at least.

Me too.

Very cool. I totally want to make a harmless garden gnome be an arch-villain now.

Yeah!

I think gnomes are a neat race "template", and I think that the ability to "swim" through earth would be a good special ability to define them as a race...not sure though that they will make it into Vadra. *starts an automatic [Ponder] process in the back of his brain and leaves it there to process*

In my world, Fantasia, the Gnomes average about 7' tall and I think I'll be adding the "swimming through earth" ability to them.

Cool, I think that the archetypical gnome is really short (though I'm not sure), so it's neat that you're making 'em different in that way.

Cool.

Cool idea Sui, I saw something like that in The Book of Names by D. Barkley Briggs.

In some of the world building I've done with Brendan, we thought of gnomes as elementals like dryads and naiads, only for earth. I guess that's a lot like that latter.

Scared of Gnomes?!?!? Who could be scared of the amazing little creatures?

That is a really cool thought. I really like the idea of them swimming through the earth. I get this image of some characters sitting around or walking or whatever, and then something just starts coming up out of the ground without it changing...ug...let me just write it.

"Why are we following these guys again?" whispered Felix.
"Because, they stole our gold you dimwit!" Gary was having trouble keeping his voice down, but with all the grass overhead he doubted he would be heard by the stinking humans. The grass presented another problem: there was nowhere for Gary and Felix to surface. There were a few animal burrows with enough space to poke their heads up to look around, but not much else in this sea of tangled turf.
The humans were completely unaware of this bane of the gnomes, for if they had know they would have made sure to keep to the grass. They were also unaware that the gold they found belonged to anyone, and the thought that the owners were following them had not crossed their minds. Unfortunately, they decided to make their camp among a large clump of boulders, and as dusk grew darker, Felix and Gary waited for the perfect time to strike. Once the gnomes were sure the humans were asleep, they risked exposing themselves.
Not all of the humans were asleep, and what one of them saw gave him such a fright that he quickly woke the others.
"What is it Devin?" asked Phil.
Devin was frantically sputtering out half-words and pointing at one of the larger boulders. "Ther-the-th-There was as a face!"
"What?"
"There was a face, coming out of that rock! It was hideous, and it slunk back inside as soon as I made a sound."
The face was that of Gary. Felix couldn't help but chuckle a little at the human's comment, but he was quickly silenced by Gary's firm stare.
It took some time before things calmed down enough for the gnomes to try once more to retrieve their gold. But when they did try, Devin was still very wide eyed and awake, though his friends had tried to calm his nerves with some strong drink. He sat up leaning against the bolder opposite the one Gary had used to look around. Devin eyes constantly darted around the camp. Then Devin saw something crawling around the bags. In the dim light he thought it was hand. Very carefully, Devin approached the place. Whatever was snooping around the bags seemed to grow and was now a long snake-like thing inspecting the bags. Devin finally drew close enough to see what looked like an arm coming out of a small rock with a hand on the end of it which was feeling the bags and searching through their contents. Without thinking, Devin grabbed the hand and shouted for everyone to wake up. There was a great commotion in the camp as everyone tried to figure out what Devin was doing.
"I've caught it! I've caught it!" Devin was shouting. What he had was Gary's arm, and was doing a pretty good job of hanging onto it.
Meanwhile, Gary was desperately trying to pull his hand back down through the rock, but was pined up against a bunch of turf.
"Get up there and do something!" Gary was shouting at Felix over -- or rather under -- the commotion above.
Felix chose a rock that he thought would be behind the humans and carefully pulled himself out onto the grass. No one saw him, but he was still very afraid of the half dozen tussling humans all gathered around Gary's arm. Not being particularly bright or inventive, Felix took a couple handfuls of the stone from which he had emerged. He had a hard time holding it for it was like trying to hold jello for a human, being something between a solid and a liquid when handled in this manner. As soon as it left his hand in the direction of the humans, it hardened back to its usual density and struck them all with less force then Felix could have hoped for. The distraction was enough to get everyone to look up at Felix, and that gave Gary an opportunity to get his hand free and escape, so in that respect Felix did alright. Felix quickly dove back into the earth before the humans had time to do anything.
Gary and Felix would just have to bide there time for another chance to retrieve their gold.

Sorry, but this is the only way I can express myself sometimes. I hope it was okay to put that here. It was sort of spur of the moment. Also sorry if the gnomes come off as sort of boorish. I guess these two could be exceptions to the norm, but I think of them as sort of greedy for some reason.

Say aren't there gnomes in Narnia? In the Silver Chair, I think. It has been a while since I read that.

In my story the gnomes are tinkerers and have a ancient Greek steampunk kind of feel to them. Tonight I think I'll flesh them out and see what you think.

I love that concept, Andorin. That quick excerpt was perfect to get the idea across to someone like me, so I'm glad you described it that way.

Oooh...Greek steampunky gnomes. I admit, that really appeals to me. Have you got anything more on that idea yet?

*has interesting visual concepts for steampunky Greek gnomes.... * That is such an inspiring combination.... good choice!

Thank you, I got the idea from hearing about Hero of Alexandria an ancient greek who made an aeolipile a ball that when a flame was placed below it it would create steam and start spinning. I do have some more thoughts on their culture; I've placed them in a sheltered spot in the world and over time, due to a lack of being attacked, they made wondrous steam-powered inventions that could move and perform tasks such as defense and repair.