Garden gnomes seem to be cropping up everywhere over the past few years. They've moved from being the kitschy garden ornaments to taking the television ad world by storm. They've appeared in feature films and have even been the subject of a full-fledged internet campaign calling for their release from oppressive gardeners. Where did all this interest in the fuzzy little creatures originate?
Gnome Legends
According to myth, gnomes can move as easily under the ground as humans do above it. They spend most of their time below ground, making their way through tunnels and living in cozy little burrows. When they need something from above ground - say an acorn cap or a nice berry - they try to gather it at night when no one is looking.
They're not just being shy, either. Legend has it that if a gnome is caught by sunlight, it turns to stone. Some of those stories claim that the stone imprisonment is permanent, but at least a few gnome stories give the gnomes a bit of a reprieve - nightfall releases them from their stony prisons and let them roam at will again. That would explain how the Travelocity gnome gets out and about so much.
More Pop Culture Gnomes
The Travelocity gnome is only one of the gnomes that has made it into pop culture in the past few years. In the 2001 French film,Amelie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain), a garden gnome plays a major part in one of the sub-plots, when Amelie steals her father's garden gnome and convinces a friend to take photos of the gnome in different cities around the world, then mail them to her father. The little trick eventually prods Amelie's father into realizing his lifelong dream of traveling.
But these aren't the first pop-culture forays into gnome-world. Children of the 80s are certain to recall David the Gnome, a cartoon character voiced by Tom Bosley in the U.S. version of the cartoon. The cartoon debuted on Nickelodeon in 1987 as part of the early days of Nick Jr. It follows the adventure of David, a doctor, and his wife Lisa, along with their fox, Swift as they battle the trolls and protect the forest animals.
David the Gnome grew out of The Book of Gnomes, a "children's picture book" that had a huge popularity with people who were, perhaps, only children at heart. The book by Wil Hguyen featured illustrations by Rien Poortvliet that captured the imagination of the Nature-conscious in the 1970s and early 1980s with fanciful descriptions of gnome society and specific "facts" about gnome physiology.
Garden Gnome Liberation Movement
The first reference to garden gnomes in English books, however, dates back to 1847 when Sir Charles Isham returned from a trip to Bavaria with 21 terracotta garden gnomes that he'd purchased during his travels. His gardens were apparently a popular attraction - and it wasn't long before the custom of setting gnomes out in the garden to watch over the plants became firmly entrenched in English kitsch culture.
Garden gnomes have become such a convention, in fact, that sub-cultures have sprung up around the liberation of these stone and plaster creatures. The most famous is the French group, Front de Libération des Nains de Jardins, but Italian group MALAG is the most successful of Garden Gnome Liberation Front groups. More recently, US based groups have begun intense political campaigns to liberate the garden creatures, not only by freeing them but also by granting certain rights and freedoms to the long oppressed statuettes.
One of the most popular practices of freeing the oppressed gnomes is by kidnapping them and sending them on world traveling adventures. The photos taken of the gnome in different places are sent home to the offending oppressor, whose gnome is now free. It would be advisable, if investing in a lovable garden gnome of your own, to cement it firmly in your garden, or live in constant fear of its escape.
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