Garden Gnome Liberationists

Basic Information

Garden gnome liberationists are groups that "liberate" garden gnomes from private gardens and "releasing them back into their natural habitats". These groups are primarily active in France, although similar groups have arisen in neighboring countries.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia entry

Game and Story Use

• Maybe the relocation of the garden gnomes has some illuminated link to the Gnomes of Zurich.
• Perhaps the garden gnomes are faeries who have been transformed into small statues by cruel spells and then sold off to humans, and the liberationists are trying to undo the spells.
• In more fantastic settings, small statues of mythological creatures could serve as "spirit homes" for these entities, binding them and bringing the owner of the land they are on good fortune (whether out of their own free will or because the statue binds them to the owners). Stealing these statues could transfer this good fortune to new owners and new places, and as a result the more potent statues might have guardians.
  • For wainscot purposes, perhaps the gnomes, rather than being animist fetishes are actually a remnant of a tradition of garden-god shrines, venerating some almost forgotten small god of horticulture.
  • Some sort of domesticated polevik or other fae might be involved (or a dormovoi who happens to include the garden in his purview) - brownies perhaps? Which way they cut on tacky plaster statues may be a real issue.
• Reputedly there are also groups in operation dedicated to the destruction of Garden Gnomes - the Pixie Eradication Society, for example, roamed Dartmoor in the 1980s destroying gnomes wherever they found them - whether these people are natural enemies of the liberationists or simply have a more extreme version of "freeing" the gnomes remains to be seen.
  • If, as above, the gnomes are serving as a fetish then destroying them may well liberate the spirits bound inside them.
• If in the Severn valley, especially around the town of Goatswood, leave the gnomes alone.
  • Or, failing that, ensure your eradicationists are thorough.
• And we all know the classic: "MUCKLE DAMRED CULTI 'AIR EH NAMBLIES BE KEEPIN' ME WEE MEN!?!?"
  • Yeah, if they though the elves were "terrific"…
• For those that prefer the Potterverse, garden gnomes may act as a sort of scarecrow to drive off the real thing.