Gnome mythology has been around for centuries, early gnomes are shown as gnarled old men sporting long white beards or as mishapen dwarfs, the main characteristic being their short stature. In germany they were known as dwarfs and were often portrayed as miners and there is a theory that suggests that miner came from crete around 1,500bc and were small in stature probably due to their working environment they dug for gold and silver in differnt parts of europe, including Germany and may have been the origin of the mining dwarf myth. Dwarfs often appeared in German fairy tales, for example those told by the Brothers Grimm and the dwarf figurines were believed to bring good fortune to the home if they were placed in the house or garden hence them being adopted by so many german homes. The red hat that is so popular on gnomes today was said to have originated as a representation of the miners hats worn in south east Germany. Rest of the article located here at GnomeLand... http://www.gnomeland.co.uk/HISTORY.htm
Any gnomes I've seen in stores here in Sweden and Denmark are usually not of the colourful variety. They are usually more realistic looking and more detailed. Some of them are verging on frightening. Great article PL, where did you find it?
I did a search on google as I didn't know anything about why we got gnomes, there was some conflicting info about who was the first some say they dont know others say it was produced by potter Philipp Griebel and the business has been passed down from generation to generation I used a couple of articles to find out all about them the main one being a website called gnomeland. I think its true if your curious for info you can find anything on the internet!
Thanks PL, interesting site. I have shortened the posted article and added a link to the GnomeLand website so members can read the rest of it.
That is so interesting!! Thank you for the information. I love to learn the background and history of common practices.
Nice posting, PT. I smiled to see Rien Poortvliet mentioned. I suspect that 20 or so years agoi there were few houses that did not have Mr. Poortvliet's books in their house. I surprized the people here when I brought back his remarkable book from amerika. It was all in english--a real oddity here. I find that book of his a very special thing and I can imagine that both children and adults like it very much. ...They even have quite a bit about trolls in there which will be very familiar to the Scaninavians that are here. I wish that they could see it. I would love to hear their reactions. BTW--we don't call them "gnomes", we call them Kabouters.
Actually, funny enough a magazine I subscribe to featured an article about garden gnomes. They are reportedly a trend that started in the 17th century in Austria I believe. But let me see if I can find the article againand I'll translate (parts of) it. Here gnomes are considered tacky by the way ;-)
