Where did the myth of gnomes come from?

Question

They seem common in many tales - are they fact or fiction?

How did they spread so much throughout much or europe?

Answer 1

They're just ugly elves.

Answer 2

The gnomes appear for the first time, in the Half Age, XIV and XV centuries, among the Jewish cabalists who affirmed that these fantastic petty characters, lived under the earth, the same as the midgets.

Although they already existed in the oral tradition of Celtic, Viking and German, Talmud (sacred book of the Jews), allocates them the task of guarding hidden treasures.

In this book it is counted, among other things that a gnome with worm form lent services to the king Salomón, extracting rocks of the quarries for the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem.

It is defined to the gnomes like intermediate beings between the man and the spirits; they have an intermediate" "earth as residence place; with trees, plants and rocks. These petty beings assume the features of the locus in quo they live. All save features in common: they are old of petty, grotesque and thin body; and their mandible is prominent.

Gnomes are very widespread species, known to a number of human races. Germans name them Erdmanleins, except in the Alpine areas, where they are called Heinzemannchens. In Denmark and Norway they are Nisse; Nissen is a Swedish variation. In Brittany they are called Nains. Tontti to the Finns and Foddenskkmaend is their name in Iceland. The Polish call they by the familar Gnom. Bulgaria and Albania, however, use Dudje. In Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, Gnomes are called Mano. The Dutch use Kabouter and the Belgian, Skritek. Switzerland and Luxembourg use the same name, Kleinmanneken, which means "littlemen." Domovoi Djedoes is used in western Russia.

Answer 3

I always thought they were originally a nordic myth - but apparently they're originally a German idea.

this has some info - more about the garden gnomes than anything else though ->  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome

Answer 4

I don't know, but theres gnome business like gnome business, aha gettit?

:\

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome

Answer 5

Gnomes are earth spirits.