D&D General Christmas elves in dnd?

[Hriston]

The description of Santa Claus as "a right jolly old elf" is misguided and similar to the name Gandalf being applied to the maia Olórin; he is apparently long-lived, magical, and associates with elves, therefore people think he's an elf, but he's not. In both cases, the beard is a dead giveaway.

The nisse is a household spirit of the goblin/kobold family. They often wear red caps whereas Santa's elves are often depicted as wearing green. Gnomes, on the other hand, are earth spirits.

 

[Yaarel]

The nisse is a household spirit of the goblin/kobold family. They often wear red caps whereas Santa's elves are often depicted as wearing green. Gnomes, on the other hand, are earth spirits.

The nisse is in the "house sprite" family, like brownie and hob.

Nisse is a nickname, like Robin Goodfellow is. The proper name for the phenomenon is "tomt" (tompt, topt, tuft), literally a "property" of land. It is literally the animistic mind of the earth that a home is built on. A place has a presence, sometimes an interactive one.

The German kobold is also a house sprite. But the English goblin isnt. The goblin is a malicious sprite, unlike a brownie that is protective house sprite. (Tho sometimes the German kobold can be malicious, more like a goblin.)

The Latin term "gnomus" probably derives from Greek ge-nomos, literally a "division of land", a field. Hence it means the same thing as Norse tomt. In any case, the Latin term is normally used to translate the folkbeliefs about house sprites, from various languages.

Gnome is a house sprite, moreso than an earth elemental per se.

The Norse tomt, Scottish brownie, English hob, German kobold, are all Gnomes.

 

[Hriston]

Gnome was coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. It refers to the Bergmännlein or "mountain manikin", a class of beings believed to lurk in the mines in early modern Germany. It was in the 20th century that gnome lost its strict association with earth and became largely synonymous with creatures of the household spirit type such as hobs, brownies, and goblins.

 

[Yaarel]

Gnome was coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. It refers to the Bergmännlein or "mountain manikin", a class of beings believed to lurk in the mines in early modern Germany. It was in the 20th century that gnome lost its strict association with earth and became largely synonymous with creatures of the household spirit type such as hobs, brownies, and goblins.

Because mines are human constructions, they can associate with house sprites, the mindful presence of the land that humans inhabit.

By extension, gnomes can associate with ships made out of wood that humans inhabit. Albeit this might relate to the concept that an "earth being" (landvættr) can travel and relocate away from its place of origin. Wherever humans travel, it is possible for nature beings to travel with them, as a stow away on a ship sotospeak.

The Scandinavian tomt is understood as a "gnome", including the "Christmas gnomes" (jul-nisser). Scandinavia imported the concept of these land beings being "small sprites" (gnomes) from the Christians of the British Isles. But before then, the worldview that areas of land are alive with individual personalities (landvættir) is already part of Norse animism.

The being who protects a family (fylgja) is often different from the being of the land that a family dwells on.