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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6670511" data-attributes="member: 4937">Ahh... but Tolkien knew that Gnomes were a sort of elf.&nbsp; In fact, it may only be an accident of history that when we see the word Gnome in an RPG, we think little bearded guy with a pointed cap and not fair faced powerful elven wizards and alchemists.&nbsp; You see, when Tolkien was composing the background of Middle Earth, for the longest while he considered using the word Gnome to mean 'High Elves'.&nbsp; Eventually, he translated the word Gnome into its elvish equivalent - Noldor - and decided to use that word in his stories.&nbsp; But in point of fact, Noldor means Gnome.&nbsp;&nbsp; Which is as much to say that Elrond and Galadriel are Gnomes.At roughly the same time Tolkien was writing, the Gartenzwerge statue was introduced to England.&nbsp; Gartenzwerge translates as 'Garden Drawf' in German, and this sort of fairy creature caught on as lawn decoration.&nbsp; Because Gartenzwerge is a mouthful in English, the little guys quickly adopted the preferred term 'Garden Gnomes' or just 'gnomes', and its from there we get RPG gnomes.&nbsp;&nbsp; Even further complicating the story, the appearance of the thing we think of as a Gnome is in fact inspired by the drawings of Disney's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'.&nbsp; But if you go back into the myth on Gnomes, which really only goes back to the 16th century, they are in fact elemental earth spirits - but this doesn't mean that they come from D&amp;D's 'elemental plane of Earth'.&nbsp; The term was actually made up as a classification of all the diverse chthonic fairies of myth, such as well, Dwarves.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6670511, member: 4937"] Ahh... but Tolkien knew that Gnomes were a sort of elf. In fact, it may only be an accident of history that when we see the word Gnome in an RPG, we think little bearded guy with a pointed cap and not fair faced powerful elven wizards and alchemists. You see, when Tolkien was composing the background of Middle Earth, for the longest while he considered using the word Gnome to mean 'High Elves'. Eventually, he translated the word Gnome into its elvish equivalent - Noldor - and decided to use that word in his stories. But in point of fact, Noldor means Gnome. Which is as much to say that Elrond and Galadriel are Gnomes. At roughly the same time Tolkien was writing, the Gartenzwerge statue was introduced to England. Gartenzwerge translates as 'Garden Drawf' in German, and this sort of fairy creature caught on as lawn decoration. Because Gartenzwerge is a mouthful in English, the little guys quickly adopted the preferred term 'Garden Gnomes' or just 'gnomes', and its from there we get RPG gnomes. Even further complicating the story, the appearance of the thing we think of as a Gnome is in fact inspired by the drawings of Disney's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'. But if you go back into the myth on Gnomes, which really only goes back to the 16th century, they are in fact elemental earth spirits - but this doesn't mean that they come from D&D's 'elemental plane of Earth'. The term was actually made up as a classification of all the diverse chthonic fairies of myth, such as well, Dwarves. [/QUOTE]

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