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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gez" data-source="post: 2609529" data-attributes="member: 1328">Red herring. Peyo named the "schtroumpfs" after... Strumpf (pronounced "shtroompf"), the German word for socks. Why socks? Well, just look at their hats.Svirfneblins are named after some construction from svart (black) and nebelung (gnome). You know, like in "Das Ring der Nebelungen," Wagner's opera. So they're "dark gnomes".Anyway, the Schtroumpfs were renamed Smurf for the Anglosaxon market, because the original name was deemed much too complicated... I would feel insulted if I were you!To dispel a confusion, Gargamel (who himself took his name from... a female Giant, Gargamelle, the mother of Gargantua in Rabelais' story) is indeed looking for smurfs to create gold, but the smurfs aren't to be turned to gold. Instead, they need to be dissolved in a foul potion that allows to create the Philosopher's stone, and once this smurfy potion is brewed and the philosopher stone is created, Gargamel could turn any metal into gold.Then, after having been thwarted several times, he's out for revenge more than for wealth.Finally, the black-haired Smurfette wasn't evil. She was just ugly and clumsy by Smurf standards, and the other Smurfs were so mean with her she contemplated suicide.Then Papa Smurf has just changed her look so that the other Smurfs would no longer mock her. He didn't change her personality.</blockquote>