Brothers Grimm Illustration

The gnomes are only about twenty-five centimeters tall. They look like old men with long beards, dress like miners and carry lanterns, picks, and hammers, and are also called the Little People. They never harm miners. And even when they occasionally throw rocks, it's rare that anyone gets hurt – unless the little people have been angered by cursing and swearing. They ever like to appear in shafts rich in ore or where the prospects for making a strike are good. Because of this the miners are not afraid of gnomes. Rather, they believe it is a good omen when they appear. Miners get happier and work harder on seeing them. The little creatures like to roam through mine chambers and shafts and tease the miners. Gnomes seem to work very hard, but they never do anything at all. Sometimes miners think that gnomes are tunneling out a new shaft or a vein; at other times gnomes seem to be filling their buckets with ore or working the lift as though they want to send something to the surface. But they are only teasing and distracting the miners. Now and then they will also call out from one of the chambers, but when one goes to investigate, no one is there. No one.