This is an accepted version of this page A gnome (/noʊm/[1]) 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.

[2] Paracelsus's gnome is recognized to have derived from the German miners' legend about Bergmännlein or dæmon metallicus, the "metallurgical or mineralogical demon", according to Georg Agricola (1530), also called virunculus montanos (literal Latinization of Bergmännlein, = "mountain manikin") by Agriocola in a later work (1549), and described by other names such as cobeli (sing.

Agricola recorded that, according to the legends of that profession, these mining spirits acted as miming and laughing pranksters who sometimes threw pebbles at miners, but could also reward them by depositing a rich vein of silver ore. Paracelsus also called his gnomes occasionally by these names (Bergmännlein, etc.)

gnomi[9]) 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.

This is characterized by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as a case of "blunder",[1] presumably referring to the omission of the ē to arrive at gnomus.

However, this conjectural derivation is not substantiated by any known prior attestation in literature,[c] and one commentator suggests the truth will never be known, short of a discovery of correspondence from the author.

[18][f] And according to Paracelsus's views, the so-called dwarf (German: Zwerg, Zwerglein) is merely monstra (deformities) of the earth spirit gnome.

[53][55] According to Agricola in De animatibus subterraneis (1549), these mountain-cave demons were called by the same name, cobalos, in both Greek (i.e. kobalos) and German (i.e. kobel[56][35] var.

[45][46] In classical Greek literature, kobalos (κόβαλος) refers to an "impudent rogue",[59][60] or in more modern parlance, "joker"[61] or "trickster".

[65] These were otherwise called the virunculos montanos, literally translatable into German as Bergmännlein, or English as "mountain manikin"[k][67][68] due to their small stature (about 2 feet).

[85] The passage contains the line[86] basically repeated by Olaus, as "there exist in ore-bearing regions six kinds of demon more malicious than the rest".

[52] Agricola knew of certain noxious unwanted ores the Germans miners called kobelt, though he generally referred to it by the Greek term, cadmia.

[93] This ore, which defied being smelted by the metallurgy of that time, may also have been cobaltite, composed of cobalt, arsenic, and sulfur.

[94] The presence of this nuisance ore kobelt was blamed on the similar-sounding kobel mine spirits, as Mathesius noted in his preaching.

[42] The inferred etymology of kobelt deriving from kobel, which Mathesius does not quite elocute, was explicitly articulated by Johannes Beckmann in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Erfindungen (tr.

[41] The kobel spirit possibly the namesake of the ore is characterized as a "gnome or a goblin" by science writer Philip Ball.

[98] An alternative etymology deriving kobolt ore from Kübel, a type of bucket mentioned by Agricola, has been suggested by Karl Müller-Fraureuth.

[95] The erudite Swedish Olaus Magnus in his Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555) also provides a chapter on "demons in the mines".

[87][77] Although Olaus uses the term "demon" (daemon) and not the uninvented coinage "gnome", the accompanying woodcut he provided (cf.

[2][101][102] Johannes Praetorius in Anthropodemus Plutonicus (1666) devotes a chapter of considerable length to the beings he calls Bergmännrigen or Erdleute "earth people", and follows Agricola to a large extent.

In the Harz area, it is a being Bergmönch or "mountain monk" who uses the so-called "mining light (Grubenlicht or Geleucht) to guide miners to their quarry or to their exit.

If ignored it will angrily appear in its giant true form, with eyes as large as cartwheels, his silver lantern measuring a German bushel or Scheffel  [de].

[70][120] As can be glimpsed by this example, the approach of Grimm's "Mythologische Schule" is to regard the lore of the various männlein or specifically Bergmännlein as essentially derivatives of the Zwerge/dvergr of pagan Germanic mythologies.

What sparked the controversy was not over the Bergmännlein type tale per se, but over Grimms' "Three Miners of Kuttenberg",[x] who are trapped underground but supernaturally maintain longevity through prayer.

[126] Whereas Ina-Maria Greverus (1962), presented yet a different view, that it was not based on organized church doctrine, but a world-view and faith in the miner's unique microcosm.

Other uses of the term gnome remain obscure until the early 19th century, when it is taken up by authors of Romanticist collections of fairy tales and becomes mostly synonymous with the older word goblin.

The Russian composer Mussorgsky produced a movement in his work Pictures at an Exhibition, (1874) named "Gnomus" (Latin for "The Gnome").

Franz Hartmann in 1895 satirized materialism in an allegorical tale entitled Unter den Gnomen im Untersberg.

After World War II (with early references, in ironic use, from the late 1930s) the diminutive figurines introduced as lawn ornaments during the 19th century came to be known as garden gnomes.

[148] Numerous one-off gnome parades have been held, including in Savannah, Georgia (April 2012)[149] and Cleveland, Ohio (May 2011).