Case file · Fairy lore
Paracelsus names the gnomes
In his posthumously printed 'Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies and Salamanders' (1566), the physician Paracelsus described gnomes as earth elementals who move through solid rock as fish swim in water.
1566 CE · 47.80, 13.04 · status: legend
The account
He equated them with the mine spirits and Bergmännlein of German miners. The word 'gnome' entered European languages from his writings, and later folklore and garden statues grew from it. Paracelsus died in Salzburg in 1541.
The sceptical view
A natural-philosophical speculation built on miners' folklore.