Baby gnomes are unique. That is a brand new thing, not really talked about before the mid twentieth century. Today’s subject is a baby gnome in a watering can, and the point is what that little figure represents.
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Gnomes began as earth spirits, sprite kind of things that might guide people or help you if your intent was good, and might turn spiteful if you were rude or a threat to the environment. Their behavior depended on your intentions.
They are based loosely on the Scandinavian Nisse or Tomte, with little red hats, round noses, and round bodies. The design and descriptions really settled during the Renaissance, when people started writing the lore down. Once it is written, it gets formalized. It becomes like comic book canon or an episode guide that people refer back to and say, this is how they act.
For a very long time there were no women gnomes. That did not show up until the 1960s. It makes a kind of myth logic. If they are sprites, if they are eternal spirits, there is no reason for female or male in the human sense. No girl gnomes means no children gnomes. Depictions of immortals as infants are rare, even though we have told stories about Greek and Norse gods since forever. They are almost always shown as adults. Cherubs arrive in the Renaissance and open that door a crack, but the door to baby immortals does not swing wide until much later.
Think about the problem that comes with immortal families. If immortals have offspring and never die, you eventually fill the universe. That seems problematic. Still, modern culture starts playing with the idea. In 1983, Marvel introduces Lockheed, a small dragon companion, and after that you see more of these childlike versions. Even in gnome land, by the 1960s people start to mention girl gnomes, and within a few decades some versions turn them into something sexy, fishnets and lingerie in the yard. That is not classroom friendly, which means I have to be careful what sources even show on the screen when I am researching. The funny side of all this is that lore keeps evolving, and literacy keeps pushing the edges of what these creatures can be.
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Also, if you, or a teacher friend, would like a 20-30 minute lesson plan about Gnomes and Gnome Families, feel free to download and share this one:
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