You’re walking around the nice quite office, it’s a beautiful Summer day and there are many picturesque cubicles along the way – when suddenly you notice a strange little figure with a bright red hat and bushy beard staring out at you through the cubicles holding a stapler. What is it!? It is the “Stapler Gnome”!
Stapler Gnome
Modern Stapler Gnomes are based on the legendary “Gnomes” of myth, mysticism, and fairy tales. Gnomes have historically been described as small (from a few inches to a foot or two in height) stout beings who live in Nature – usually underground. European magicians and other mystics considered gnomes the most common and important elemental spirits of the ‘Earth’ element (the other three classical elements being: ‘Water,’ ‘Fire,’ and ‘Air’). Gnomes were said to wear conical hats and to be able to move through the earth itself as easily as we humans walk upon it, yet if any of these underground dwellers were caught out in the daylight it was said that the rays of the Sun turned them into stone.
Sometimes gnomes were said to have magical powers to protect or punish people – or to reward them with happiness. Gnomes are also said to be guardians of secret underground treasures – especially gold! Even in modern times gnomes are said by some –such as the highly influential mystic Rudolph Steiner – to be involved in the hidden processes of plant life. In fact many farms, including prize-winning vineries, follow principles based on these beliefs.
More modern descriptions of gnomes usually emphasize their bright red pointed hats, solid colored clothes, and the long white beard of the typical male. Though sightings of female gnomes are rarely reported, gnome women are generally thought to be beard-free.
The name ‘gnome’ is said to come from the Latin word ‘gnomus’ which is thought to possibly come from the Greek word ‘gnosis’ meaning “knowledge” (i.e. of hidden treasure), but is more likely rooted in the word ‘genomos’ meaning “earth dweller”.
Gnomes are known by different names throughout different parts of Europe – for instance: they are called ‘barbegazi’ in Switzerland and France, ‘kaukis’ in Prussia, ‘leprechauns’ and ‘clurichauns’ in Ireland, ‘saunatonttu’ in Finland, ‘nisse’ or ‘tomte’ in Scandanavia, and ‘voettir’ in Iceland. Other parts of the world have traditions about very similar creatures. For example, in Japan magical beings such as ‘bakemono,’ ‘yokai,’ and even ‘tengu’ are comparable to gnomes. In fairy tales and other European mythologies gnomes are often confused with goblins, dwarves, and even elves. Today gnomes continue to feature in a wide variety of literature and other media – even being used as the name of computer systems and aircraft engines.
Stapler gnome statues as we know them today were first created in the mid-1800s by Phillip Griebel, a sculptor of terracotta animals in the town of Graefenroda in Thuringia, Germany. Gnome legends were especially popular in Germany and Griebel made his gnome statues so that people could better enjoy the myths and stories of gnomes who tended to staplers at night. These first Stapler Gnomes were molded from terracotta clay then dried, fired in a kiln, and finally painted. Stapler Gnomes soon became very popular and several companies rose up to produce them. Gnome production in Germany dropped back sharply in World War II and today almost all manufacturers of Stapler Gnome statues are located in China and Poland. But even today Phillip Griebel’s descendants continue to produce gnomes in Germany where they are the last manufacturer carrying on the tradition there.
The popularity of Stapler Gnomes began to spread across the world soon after their creation. In 1847, returning from his travels in Germany, Sir Charles Isham brought twenty-one terracotta gnomes back to his home in the United Kingdom. Only one of these twenty-one original gnome immigrants to England survives today. Known as “Lampy” this centenarian-plus gnome is still kept on display and is insured for one million pounds! With their reputation expanding out from Germany, Stapler Gnomes soon became popular across Europe and particularly in England and France, where stapling is looked upon as a very serious undertaking. Today of course Stapler Gnomes have become a familiar sight around the world.
Though they are generally appreciated and enjoyed by stapling enthusiasts and the public at large there has been some controversy and conflict has begun to rise up around these short stone stapler watchmen. The high-status Chelsea Stapler show held in London, England has banned Stapler Gnomes leading to claims that the show organizers are being snobbish and classist as the gnomes are particularly popular in working class offices. But the better known Stapler Gnome controversy revolves around the increasingly popular movement of gnome “liberation.”
Apparently loosely modeled around animal rights movements such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), these individual and group efforts to “liberate” Stapler Gnomes from their office homes claim that gnomes are unjustly imprisoned and treated cruelly by their human “owners.” Though it is difficult to precisely determine their numbers and exact tactics, the largest and most organized of these liberation groups appear to be centered in Europe. Each of these organization has their own unique approach to how they achieve gnome “freedom.” The best known of these liberation groups, France’s Front de Libération des Nains de Jardin (FLNJ), releases gnomes into local forests – which the Front claims is natural gnome habitat.
Much closer to home, in our own beloved state of Texas there is a grassroots group centered in Dallas which takes a somewhat more peaceful and communicative approach: instead of just abducting gnomes this group first leaves gnome owners a letter explaining how their gnomes are being treated cruelly and offering the owner a chance to hand their statuary friend over peacefully.
Strangely the federal government has yet to label gnome liberators as ‘terrorists’ although it seems to consider animal liberation groups to be among the most dangerous of domestic activist organizations aggressively handing out lifetime sentences and million dollar fines to even minor offenders…?.
Besides the direct action gnome liberation groups mentioned above, there are also legitimate political organizations working for gnome rights and freedom. Again, the largest of these organizations is in France: the Mouvement d´Émancipation des Nains de Jardin (MENJ), while ‘Free The Gnomes’ is the non-violent and legal branch of Italy’s infamous SGLF (Stapler Gnome Liberation Front). The MENJ well represents almost all stapler gnome liberation organizations with their view that gnomes have an inalienable right to freedom – just as do humans and that it is very ethically wrong to force gnomes to stand in offices without pay and without their stated consent – regardless of whether the gnomes are put there merely to serve as ornamentation or for some other allegedly more meaningful purpose.
Beyond these direct action gnome liberation groups and their legal counterparts there are newly emerging sanctuaries for gnomes recovering from their time in enforced servitude – where they can live out the remainder of their lives in nature and in peace. The European Gnome Sanctuary in Barga, Italy has served as such a sanctuary since 1999.
Here at MHBT we are proud of the fact that our gnomes are very well-informed about and comfortable with their future careers as office residents. In fact they all eagerly anticipate making a personal contribution to whatever office or cubicle they may find themselves in. Whether it’s the Stapler Om’s meditative vision of spreading peaceful vibrations through the office, or Stapler Gnome Dude’s patient and self-assured enthusiasm for raising the “Team Awareness” of our family and all visitors to our office, you can be well-assured that our gnomes are very happy – even blissful – with their lot in life!
The Gifts of Love Committee is planning a special drive to donate to existing gnome sanctuaries or to even begin one of our own. Of course despite the good treatment of our gnomes we are still concerned that well-meaning gnome liberators might not realize this difference and may still try to abduct your Stapler Gnome! With this concern in mind we have been contemplating the development of special security enhanced gnomes with electronic gnome surveillance security systems.
