Gnomes

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This content is considered pre-canon. While the subject of this article is based on official information, it was replaced or emended in later stages of the legendarium.

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The terms Gnomes and Noldoli were used for many decades in J.R.R. Tolkien's earlier phases of his legendarium to describe the group of Elves that would later become the Ñoldor. The names of the Noldoli are in the Gnomish or Noldorin languages.

External history

Gnomes and Noldoli were both used from the beginning of Tolkien's legendarium in The Book of Lost Tales. Noldoli became the later form Ñoldor c. the mid-1930s, when most of the major texts of the Silmarillion tradition had new revised versions made, all having Ñoldor where earlier texts had Noldoli.^[1] Gnome, however, continued to be used well after this point. It was published in the first edition of The Hobbit in 1937.^[2] It continued to be used in drafting of The Lord of the Rings.^[3][4] It was even used as far into the story as the drafting of the chapter that became "The Window on the West", which was written in 1944.^[5] However, by the time Tolkien began to draft the material that became the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings in the late 1940s, the problems with the term were recognized, and eventually it was deemed "too misleading" due to confusion with the popular concept of Gnomes.^[6]

At one time, "Gnomes" also referred to the Valar.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology

In a letter dating from 1973, Tolkien stated that the word Gnome derives from Paracelsus,^[7] who is known to have used Modern Latin gnomus in a 16th century treatise.^[8]

The Gnome of Paracelsus likely means "earth-dweller". The basis for Tolkien's use of Gnome was Greek gnōmē meaning thought or intelligence.^[2]

The Mannish name Nóm meaning "wisdom", was given to Finrod by Bëor and his followers.^[9]

After the flight of the Noldoli and slaughter of Solosimpi, the Gnomes who stayed in Aman and did not join other tribes were called Aulenossë, derived from nossë ("kind, people") and related to -nor in Valinor,^[10] the people of Aulë. He himself called the Gnomes who stayed in his palace just Eldar.^[11]

Inspiration

A Gnome is a dwarf-like creature of European folklore, often associated with Dwarves and Goblins. Traditional Gnomes however were, unlike his depiction of his High Elves, imagined as deformed underground dwellers, and by the 19th century were depicted dwarf-like.

For that reason Tolkien dropped the term since that would confuse his readers. However, other folkloric names like "Elves", "Dwarves", and "Goblins" would persist in Tolkien's writing ever since, although he would be unsure about them (he did replace "Goblins" with "Orcs" after the publication of The Hobbit).

In the first Portuguese translation of The Hobbit, the title of the book is translated as gnomo, the Portuguese word for Gnome.

In other writings

Outside of the legendarium, a group of Red Gnomes or Red Elves lived at the North Pole with Father Christmas in the Letters From Father Christmas. They were first mentioned in a letter written on November 30 of 1932. Other Red Gnomes were known to live in Norway. The Red Gnomes were sent for by Father Christmas in 1932, and helped him and the North Polar Bear capture many Goblins. They appeared again the next year around November 21 to help deal with another goblin attack. In the battle that followed, many Red Gnomes got hurt. In 1934, the Red Gnomes were invited to a special Boxing Day party. About a week before the next Christmas, the Red Gnomes enjoyed their time shoveling out Father Christmas' house. That year, they received magic sparkler spears to scare goblins away. During the year of 1936, many Red Gnomes moved in with Father Christmas at his Cliff House.

References