History Literature / Gnomes

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The trolls, and even more so, their cousins the snotgurgles.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: [[spoilers:The events of ''Secrets of the Gnomes'' turn out to be this, to see if the authors ought to be punished for the inaccuracies of the first book (particularly the [[BlackSheep depiction]] of Siberian gnomes). They pass.]]

** Sirens are mentioned in the beastiary, and also fall under this trope. The Gnomes arent human and are thus immune from the effects of their magical song, but humans are all too vulnerable, and often have to be saved when possible.

* DarkIsEvil: The Siberian gnomes, while not outright evil, are signifigantly less benevolent, and sometimes outright malicious than their cousins. They also wear hats of black wool and grey clothes in contrast to the colorful clothes of other gnomes.

* HumansAreFlawed: Gnomes tend to take this view of humanity, rather than the overwrought HumansAreBastards trope. Doesnt make their CantArgueWithElves tendencies less grating, but they're atleast ''trying'' to help.

* {{Our Elves Are Better}}/OurGnomesAreWeirder: Gnomes in this book actually resemble small versions of Tolkienesque elves, which is why the CantArgueWithElves trope applies to them. Elves, on the other hand, are little flying critters identical with the modern stereotype of [[OurFairiesAreDifferent faires]].

''Gnomes''' popularity led to several more books on the subject by Huygen and Poortvliet, a 1980 animated film and the animated series ''TheWorldOfDavidTheGnome'' and its spin-off ''Wisdom of the Gnomes''.
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!!Gnomes contains examples of:

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Not technically literary agents, but the same idea: Huygen and Poortvliet pretend that they're just passing along what they've observed and what gnomes have told them. This is played ''very'' straight.

** The various varieties of sirens arent much better. Unlike the trolls, they are no threat to gnomes, as their main threat comes from their ability to prey on the sexual desires of human men, but the gnomes still dont like them.

* CatsAreMean: The gnome trusts all animals except the housecat, which "is not a member of the natural animal world and is completely unreliable." Why this doesn't apply to other domestic animals is never explained.

* WorthlessYellowRocks: Sort of. Gold and silver isn't worth anything to gnomes as far as money is concerned, but they do value it for its beauty and durability, using it to craft ornamental art. Supposedly their royal family keeps a large vault of it which their subjects can obtain it from via request. Also, in Legends No. 1, a man who learns, with a gnomes help, that some things are worth more than gold.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Apparently, WolfgangAmadeusMozart had a gnome friend and even gave him music lessons.

* WorthlessYellowRocks: Sort of. Gold and silver isn't worth anything to gnomes as far as money is concerned, but they do value it for its beauty and durability, using it to craft ornamental art. Supposedly their royal family keeps a large vault of it which their subjects can obtain it from via request.

* BlackSheep: Scandinavian gnomes are often less benign than most others, and occasionally, like one in one of the Legends, malignant towards humans.

* EvilSmellsBad: The book mentions a trolls complete lack of hygienic habits and the fact that they ''stink'' numerous times. (Snotgurgles are even worse.)

* WoodlandCreatures: Played mostly straight, though it doesn't hide the fact of predation.

The bulk of the book is spent giving detailed descriptions of the gnomes' physical attributes, food, clothing, homebuilding, social structures and customs, highlighted by Poortvliet's gorgeous illustrations. It then tells nine "legends of the gnomes," which have numbers but no names, relaying the adventures of gnomes interacting with other beings, including humans. The final section recounts an alleged visit to the authors by one of their gnome informants, Tomte Haroldson, who delivers an {{Anvilicious}} lecture about how HumansAreBastards because of their destructiveness to the environment and their failure to recognize great men in their time ([[AuthorTract especially artists]]).

* FriendToAllLivingThings: The gnomes are basically this, all though not all living things are friends to them (i.e. trolls).

* TheDividual: In their discussion with Tomte, Huygen and Poortvliet are depicted as literally speaking with one voice. For instance, when Tomte asks how the book is going: "Beatifully," we cried. "We're almost finished." At no point in the lengthy dialogue is either of them identified as speaking individually.

''Gnomes''' popularity led to several more books on the subject by Huygen and Poortvliet, a 1980 animated film and the animated series TheWorldOfDavidTheGnome and its spin-off ''Wisdom of the Gnomes''.

* SuperiorSpecies: Not only are the gnomes morally superior to people, but they're also physically stronger (in proportion to their size) and never die of disease. The also seem to have no genetic abnormalities worth mentioning.

* RuleOfThree: In Legend No. 1, a gnome repays a human for saving his wife by granting him three wishes.

* AlwaysLawfulGood: The gnomes are sort of this. There are some bad apples, especially in Siberia. But the authors imply that this is due to cross-breeding with trolls, so pure gnome nature is essentially good.

* DistressedDude: Despite his evidently manly past adventures, in the story of Wartje that we get he has to get [[spoiler: rescued by his wife]].

* HandWave: A couple of them. Gnome couples all have exactly two children -- a pair of twins -- through "a certain intervention about which gnomes decline to speak." We're also told that even though there's no sign of mining or industry among gnomes, the royal palace has an abundant supply of metals of mysterious origin, which the subjects are free to take. Basically, both these hand waves let the gnomes have certain modern technologies while still being...

A 1977 bestseller written by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet, in which the authors pretend to be providing "field notes" and observations after years of observing gnomes in the wild. Although popular among children, it isn't written in children's-book style, as it includes some technical language, nudity and NightmareFuel moments.

The bulk of the book is spent giving detailed descriptions of the gnomes' physical attributes, food, clothing, homebuilding, social structures and customs, highlighted by Poortvliet's gorgeous illustrations. It then tells seven "legends of the gnomes," which have numbers but no names, relaying the adventures of gnomes interacting with other beings, including humans. The final section recounts an alleged visit to the authors by one of their gnome informants, Tomte Haroldson, who delivers an {{Anvilicious}} lecture about how HumansAreBastards because of their destructiveness to the environment and their failure to recognize great men in their time ([[AuthorTract especially artists]]).

* {{Changeling}}: Legend No. 6 starts with trolls stealing a human baby and replacing it with one of their own.