Editing Gnome (section)

===In Romanticism and modern fairy tales===
[[File:CarlSpitzwegGnomEisenbahnbetrachtend.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Gnome Watching Railway Train]]'', [[Carl Spitzweg]], 1848]]

The English word is attested from the early 18th century. Gnomes are used in [[Alexander Pope]]'s "[[The Rape of the Lock]]".<ref name="veenstra2013"/> The creatures from this mock-epic are small, celestial creatures that were prudish women in their past lives, and now spend all of eternity looking out for prudish women (in parallel to the guardian angels in Catholic belief). Other uses of the term ''gnome'' remain obscure until the early 19th century, when it is taken up by authors of [[Romanticist]] collections of [[fairy tale]]s and becomes mostly synonymous with the older word ''[[goblin]]''.

Pope's stated source, the 1670 French satire ''[[Comte de Gabalis]]'' by [[Henri de Montfaucon de Villars|Nicolas-Pierre-Henri de Montfaucon de Villars]], the [[abbot]] of [[Villars-sur-Ollon|Villars]],  describes gnomes as such:
<blockquote>The Earth is filled almost to the center with ''Gnomes'' or ''Pharyes'', a people of small stature, the guardians of treasures, of mines, and of precious stones. They are ingenious, friends of men, and easie to be commandded. They furnish the children of the ''Sages'' with as much money, as they have need of; and never ask any other reward of their services, than the glory of being commanded. The ''Gnomides'' or wives of these ''Gnomes'' or ''Pharyes'', are little, but very handsom; and their habit marvellously curious.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:199577 |title=The Count of Gabalis: Or, The Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists, Exposed in Five Pleasant Discourses on the Secret Sciences |publisher=B. M. Printer |location=London |first=Nicolas-Pierre-Henri |last=Montfaucon de Villars |translator-first=P. A. |translator-last=Gent |pages=29–30 |date=1680 |oclc=992499594}}</ref></blockquote>
De Villars used the term ''gnomide'' to refer to female gnomes (often "gnomid" in English translations).<ref>{{cite book |url=http://sacred-texts.com/eso/cdg/index.htm |title=Comte de Gabalis |publisher=The Brothers, Old Bourne Press |location=London |first=N.-P.-H. |last=de Montfaucon de Villars |date=1913 |orig-year=1670 |oclc=6624965 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513012258/http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/cdg/index.htm |archive-date=13 May 2015 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> {{anchor|gnomess}}Modern fiction instead uses the word "gnomess" to refer to female gnomes.<ref>2007: [https://books.google.com/books?id=FD6zseJQdycC&pg=PA115 Shadow on the Land, page 115]</ref><ref>2013: [https://books.google.com/books?id=vElLBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 Gnomes and Haflings, page 120]</ref>

In 19th-century fiction, the [[chthonic]] gnome became a sort of antithesis to the more airy or luminous [[fairy]]. [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] in ''[[Twice-Told Tales]]'' (1837) contrasts the two in "Small enough to be king of the fairies, and ugly enough to be king of the gnomes" (cited after [[OED]]). Similarly, gnomes are contrasted to [[elf|elves]], as in [[William Cullen Bryant]]'s ''Little People of the Snow'' (1877), which has "let us have a tale of elves that ride by night, with jingling reins, or gnomes of the mine" (cited after [[OED]]).

The Russian  composer [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]  produced a movement in his work ''[[Pictures at an Exhibition]]'', (1874)  named "Gnomus" ([[Latin]] for "The Gnome"). It  is written to sound as if a gnome is moving about.

[[Franz Hartmann]] in 1895 satirized [[materialism]] in an allegorical tale entitled ''Unter den Gnomen im Untersberg''. The English translation appeared in 1896 as ''Among the Gnomes: An Occult Tale of Adventure in the Untersberg''. In this story, the ''Gnomes'' are still clearly subterranean creatures, guarding treasures of gold within the [[Untersberg]] mountain.

As a figure of 19th-century [[fairy tale]]s, the term gnome became largely synonymous with other terms for "[[little people (mythology)|little people]]" by the 20th century, such as ''[[goblin]]'', ''[[brownie (folklore)|brownie]]'', ''[[leprechaun]]'' and other instances of the [[household spirit]] type, losing its strict association with earth or the underground world.