| Gnome | |
| Folklore: | Renaissance |
| Grouping: | Diminutive spirit |
| First Attested: | 16th century |
A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Typically small humanoids who live underground, gnome characteristics are reinterpreted to suit various storytellers and artists.[1]
Paracelsus gnome is recognized to have derived from the German miner's legend about German: Bergmännlein or Latin: dæmon metallicus "metallurgical or mineralogical demons" according to Georg Agricola (1530), also called Latin: virunculus montanos "mountain manikin" by Agriocola in a later work (1549), and described by other names such as Latin: cobeli (sing. Latin: cobelus; equivalent to German German: Kobel). Agricola recorded that according to the legends of this profession, these mining spirits as miming and laughing pranksters that sometimes threw pebbles at miners, but could also reward them by depositing a rich vein of ore.
Paracelsus also called his gnomes occasionally by these names (Bergmännlein, etc.) in the German publications of his work (1567). Paracelsus claimed they measured 2 spans (18 inches) in height, whereas Agricola stated them to be 3 (3 spans, 27 inches) tall.
Lawn ornaments crafted as gnomes were introduced during the 19th century, growing in popularity during the 20th century as garden gnomes.
The word comes from Renaissance Latin Latin: gnomus, gnomos, (pl. Latin: gnomi) which first appears in A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits by Paracelsus, published posthumously in Nysa in 1566.[2] [3]
The term may be an original invention of Paracelsus, possibly deriving the term from Latin Latin: *gēnomos, itself representing a Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: *γηνόμος, approximated by "Latin: *gē-nomos", literally "earth-dweller". This characterized as a case of "blunder" by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), presumably referring to the omission of the ē to arrive at gnomus. However, this conjectural derivation is not substantiated by any known attestation in literature, and one commentator suggests the truth will never be known, short of a discovery of correspondence from the author.
Paracelsus uses Gnomi as a synonym of Pygmæi and classifies them as earth elementals.[4] He describes them as two spans tall.[5] They are able to move through solid earth, as easily as humans move through air, and hence described as being like a "spirit".[6] However the elementals eat, drink and talk (like humans), distinguishing them from spirits.
And according to Paracelsus's views, the so-called dwarf (German: Zwerg, Zwerglein) is merely monstra (deformities) of the earth spirit gnome.
Note that Paracelsus also frequently resorts to circumlocutions like "mountain people" (German: Bergleute) or "mountain manikins" ("German: Bergmänlein" [7]) to denote the gnomi in the German edition (1567).[8]
There was a belief in early modern Germany about beings that lurked in the mines, probably known as German: Bergmännlein (var. German: Bergmännlin, German: Bergmänngen), equatable to what Paracelsus called "gnomes". Georgius Agricola, being a supervisor of mines, collected his well-versed knowledge of this mythical being in his monograph, De amantibus subterraneis (recté De animatibus subterraneis. The (corrected) title suggests the subject to be "subterranean animate beings". It was regarded as a treatise on the "Mountain spirit" (German: Berggeist by the Brothers Grimm, in Deutsche Sagen.
Agricola himself did mention the German forms Bergmännlein, Kobel, Güttel, etc. in nonstandardized spellings in one of his Latin treatises, as did his contemporary Johannes Mathesius in Sarepta Oder Bergpostill (1562). Mathesius also equated the kobel to kobold of the mines.
Agricola is the earliest and probably most reliable source on these Bergmännlein.
According to Agricola in De animatibus subterraneis (1549), the Cobali (singular: Latin: Cobalos; German: Kobel, German: Kobal is the name given to these strange beings by Germans and some Greeks on account of them aping or mimicking humans. They have the penchant to laugh, while seeming to do things, without accomplishing anything. They are called the "mountain dwarf" (Latin: virunculos montanos, lit. in German: German: Bergmännlein, or English: "mountain manikin")) on account of their small stature. They have the appearance of old age, and dress like miners, in laced shirt and leather apron around the loins. And although they may pelt miners with gravel/pebbles they do no real harm, unless they were first provoked.
Though Agricola's cobalos (Germ. kobel/kobal) might be considered a precise synonym for German: Bergmännchen by some, kobel is said to have a more general sense of "evil spirit, according to Grimm's dictionary, though it also acknowledges a secondary meaning as a sot of kobold in the miner's community.
And the term kobold, also, though it was originally a house spirit, got conflated and became regarded as being associated with mines.
Agricola goes on to add there are similar to the beings which the Germans called Guteli (singular: Latin: Gutelos; German: Gütel, var. German: Güttgen), which are amicable demons that are rarely seen, since they have business at their home taking care of livestock. Again, a Gütel or German: Güttel is elsewhere explained as not necessarily a mountain spirit, but more generic, and may haunt forests and fields. The Hoovers render these as "goblins".
Agricola finally adds these resemble the Latin: Trullis (trolls?) as they are called especially by the Swedes, said to shapeshift into the guise of human males and females, and sometimes made to serve men.
Purportedly a mountain demon incident caused 12 fatalities at a mine named Rosenkrans at Anneberg or rather Rosenkrantz (Corona Rosacea) at Annaberg-Buchholz, in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in Saxony. The demon took on the guise of the horse, and killed the twelve men with its breath, according to Agricola.
Agricola has a passage in Bermanus (Bermanus, sive, de re metallica, 1530) which is quoted by a modern scholar as relevant to the study of his contemporary Paracelsus, in modern scholarship, The passage contains the line basically repeated by Olaus, as "there exist in ore-bearing regions six kinds of demon more malicious than the rest".
This is probably misstated or misleading, since Bermanus cites Psellus, who devised a classification of six demon classes, where clearly it is not all six, but just the fifth class of subterranean demons which are relevant to mining.
This demon class is also equatable to the Agricola's Cobali and "Getuli" (recté "Guteli") according to commentators.
It has also been noted that Agricola distinguished the "mountain devil", exemplified by Rübezahl with the small-statured Bergmännlein. Although the popular notion was that Rübezahl was indeed lord of the gnomes, as told in folktales around the Risengibirge (Giant Mountains) region in Silesia, published by 18th century folktale collector Musäus.
In this same work, Agricola glosses his "mine demon" Latin: dæmon metallicus as "German: Bergmenlin", simply a corrupted form of German: Bergmännlîn, Bergmännlein, and goes on to explain in Book XII that this Latin: daemon metallicus / German: bergmenlein could sometimes leave a rich vein of ore ("abundant mine", Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: [[wikt:fündig|'fundige [[[wikt:Zeche|zech]]
"Gnomi humiles sunt, duas circiter spithamas æquantes"; : "die Gnomi sein klein bis auff zwo spannen unnd dergleichen ungeferlich"; : "The mountain people are small, of about two spans".
"Terra autem gnomis tantum chaos ist. Illi enim transeunt solidas parietes, saxa & scopulos, instar spiritus..."; : "also den Gnomis die erde ihr Lufft, dann ein jedes ding wonet, geht und steht im Chaos. Die Gnomi gehn durch ganze felsen, mauren, unnd was innen ihr Chaos zu gros ist..."; : "the mountain manikins have the earth which is their chaos. To them it is only an air"; : "to the gnomi in the mountains: the earth is the air and is their chaos.. Now, the earth is not more than mere chaos to the mountain manikins. For they walk through solid walls, through rocks and stones, like a spirit;"