Don't doubt the existence of gnomes

An Athens author's book, "The Gnome Lexicon," combines folklore from every continent into a comprehensive, whimsical anthology of tales and trivia.

She will be signing copies of the book and giving presentations later this week in Athens (details at the end of this article).

Marcia Lewandowski's interest in gnome lore was sparked, she recalled, on her grandparents' farm in North Dakota as her grandmother would tell stories about the cantankerous gnomes that lived in the Big Slough — a marshy area filled with pussy willow, cattails, gnats and deep pools. The warnings, not surprisingly, only made Lewandowski more curious to visit the little men.

It wasn't until she and her husband served for eight years as development workers in Bolivia with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) that she learned that there were international gnomes and gnomes in all cultures.

She explained that while some written material existed, much of it had never been recorded or compiled in one place before. So, she said, her goal was "…gathering every bit of gnome lore I could possibly find and putting it all in one book so anyone who likes gnomes could look at it all in one spot."

Lewandowski added that having connections with the MCC gave her invaluable international contacts to conduct interviews and research. Through years of investigating, she managed to record the lore of over 70 gnomes representing 59 cultures.

When it comes to the origin of gnome lore, she said it probably came out of necessity. "I believe that when someone couldn't understand something, they looked for answers someplace else, and oftentimes it took the form of the supernatural or something they didn't understand, like the gnomes," she explained.

However, her main intention was to ensure that even though stories like these are hundreds of years in the past, there's still a book to turn to that includes the recorded folklore from all different cultures.

AND DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE of thinking that all gnomes are alike.

"Some live in houses and scrub your floors at night, some ride around in kayaks and help hunters find game… some of them are just completely mischievous," she said.

For example, she learned of African gnome legends from an Ohio University student whose friend said he had encountered a gnome.

"(He said) if you catch a gnome… and you answer his riddle, you get a wish. And his friend had actually caught a gnome and answered his riddle correctly, and his wish was to study engineering in the United States, and he said two years later he was on a plane for the University of Michigan," she said.

Lewandowski said she was even tipped off about a local Appalachian gnome, called the Hoo-hooey, by a Jackson native. The man, she said, went fishing and hunting by the Cranberry River in West Virginia and always left a half bale of hay for the Hoo-hooey to sleep on while it watched over his camp.

"One night this gnome told him that there was going to be this huge storm coming in," she recalled. "So he hightailed it home, and he told his friends that they should come home, and they said, 'Oh, I don't think so.' And they all got caught in a horrendous ice storm, and it took them about two days to get home."

Besides a comprehensive collection of tales, "The Gnome Lexicon" contains intricate illustrations and hand lettering by local artists Nathan Vieland and Kelly Lincoln, respectively. Vieland, from Shade, graduated from OU in 2010. Lincoln, originally from New York, now lives in Marietta.

While the illustrations and hand lettering give the book a fanciful and unique appearance, the detailed content offers much more for the adult reader. Lewandowski added that she placed some tales at the end to provide content more digestible for children, making the finished product something for all ages.

The Athens Book Center is hosting Lewandowski's book signing and short presentation, "Now You See Him Now You Don't (Truth Be Told, Mostly You Don't)," which covers different cultures' methods for coaxing a gnome out of hiding, this Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. She will also present the program at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Athens Public Library.

For everyday gnomes, Lewandowski offered, "Just a warning: if one of the local gnomes offers you moonshine, don't accept it… and if you ever hear that thunder on a hot summer day, you know it's the gnomes playing ninepin."