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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AaronLoeb" data-source="post: 390509" data-attributes="member: 4382">Well, it is true that Gnomes have that dreadful garden association for any self-respecting, garden-loving englishman. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> But for Tolkien they also had the association with the Norse myths, being the deep folk who guard treasures of the earth. Now, those are more similar to dwarves than to elves as he was making them, but he wanted to distinguish the dwarf-like nature of the Noldor in their love of shining things and works of metal and gems. Yadda yadda.Anyway, I asked someone who had the Silm right in front of them -- it ain't in there. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> So, this is truly obscure Tolkien lore. It appears in places like the Book of Lost Tales ("But lo! Echthelion, whose face of the pallor of grey steel and whose shield-arm hung limp at his side, strode above him as he fell; and that Gnome drave at the demon, yet did not give him death, getting rather a wound to his sword-arm that his weapon left his grasp.") but you are likely right: he decided it wouldn't translate for the average reader, who would think of little red caps and long-stem pipes and miss the awe-inspiring glory of the Noldoli. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> And then when Christopher put together the Silmarillion, he too probably thought it wouldn't translate so kept it out of there too. He did, however, use the term liberally in his original writings to mean "Noldor"AJL</blockquote>

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