A stone bridge in Norway collapsed in 2016. Locals joked that trolls had finally grown tired of human engineering. No one meant it literally, but the joke worked because trolls remain vivid in the Nordic imagination. Gnomes, by contrast, are the beings you find in a Danish grandmother’s garden, painted red-capped and smiling. Trolls and gnomes are distinct classes of mythical beings from Northern European folklore, differing in origin, temperament, habitat, and relationship with humans. Trolls are giant, dangerous, and often hostile. Gnomes are small, reclusive, and sometimes helpful. The confusion between them comes from centuries of literary blending and commercial illustration.
Where do trolls come from?
Trolls appear in Norse mythology as early as the 13th century, recorded in the Prose Edda (c. 1220) by Snorri Sturluson. Snorri describes trolls as a race of giants, often called jötnar, who dwell in mountains and caves. They are older than the gods, born from the primordial frost. The word “troll” itself comes from Old Norse troll, meaning “giant” or “demon.”
By the 17th century, Scandinavian folklore had softened the troll into something more varied. Some trolls were still man-eating giants. Others were smaller, solitary beings who lived under bridges or inside hills. The Danish folklorist Evald Tang Kristensen collected over 2,000 troll legends in the 19th century, many describing trolls as creatures who could smell human blood and would turn to stone if caught in sunlight.
The bridge troll is a specific subtype. The most famous example comes from the Norwegian folk tale “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norwegian Folktales (1845). That troll lives under a bridge, demands to eat the goats, and is ultimately destroyed. The story cemented the troll as a territorial predator.
Where do gnomes come from?
Gnomes have a different genealogy entirely. The word “gnome” was coined in the 16th century by the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus (1493–1541). In his Book of Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders (published posthumously in 1566), Paracelsus classified gnomes as earth elementals. They were small beings who could move through solid ground as easily as humans walk through air. He described them as two spans tall, shy, and capable of guarding buried treasure.
This was not a folk tradition. It was an alchemical theory. Paracelsus needed a name for the spirits of earth, and he invented one, probably from the Greek genomos (earth-dweller) or the Latin gnomus (a word he may have made up). The concept spread through occult literature and eventually into German folklore, where it merged with older traditions of Bergmännlein (little mountain men) and Kobolde (house spirits).
The garden gnome as we know it is a 19th-century invention. German sculptor Philipp Griebel began producing terra-cotta gnome figurines in Gräfenroda around 1872. The red cap, white beard, and blue tunic became standard. British gardeners imported them, and by the 1930s, gnomes were a fixture of suburban lawns. The gnome had moved from alchemical theory to garden ornament in three centuries.
How do trolls and gnomes compare in appearance?
Trolls are large. In the oldest sources, they are the size of mountains. In later folklore, they shrink to the size of a large man or a bear. They have rough skin, often described as stone-like or mossy. Some have multiple heads. The Danish folklorist Kristensen recorded a legend of a troll with three heads who could smell a Christian “on the wind.” Trolls are ugly by human standards: crooked noses, yellow teeth, long arms, and tails in some accounts.
Gnomes are small. Paracelsus set their height at two spans, roughly 18 inches. Modern garden gnomes are about 12 to 18 inches tall. They have white beards, red pointed hats, and round bodies. Their skin is weathered, like an old farmer’s. They wear boots and tunics. The red hat is not a folk tradition; it was a design choice by Griebel, possibly borrowed from the Phrygian cap of revolutionary iconography.
The contrast is extreme. A troll is something you flee from. A gnome is something you place next to your petunias.
What do trolls and gnomes want?
Trolls want territory, food, and isolation. They guard bridges, mountains, and treasure. They are hostile to humans, especially Christians in the post-conversion folklore. A troll will eat you if it catches you. But trolls are also stupid. The folk tales are full of trolls who are tricked by clever humans: the billy goats outwit the bridge troll, the farmer tricks the mountain troll into waiting for sunrise so it turns to stone.
Gnomes want quiet and order. In German folklore, a Kobold or Heinzelmännchen will help with housework if treated well. The Heinzelmännchen of Cologne, documented in the 19th century, would bake bread, chop wood, and clean stables at night. But if a human spied on them or mocked them, they would leave forever. The garden gnome, by extension, is a passive being. It does not help or harm. It simply sits.
The difference in motivation is fundamental. Trolls are active threats. Gnomes are passive presences.
How do humans interact with them?
Trolls are avoided. Scandinavian farmers knew which hills were troll dwellings and stayed away. If a troll was causing trouble, a human might ring church bells, which trolls hated. Or they might carve a cross into the doorframe. The troll’s weakness to sunlight is a consistent motif: a troll caught above ground at dawn turns to stone. This is why so many rock formations in Scandinavia are named “Troll’s Head” or “Troll’s Wife.”
Gnomes are tolerated or welcomed. In German households, a bowl of milk or a piece of bread might be left out for the Kobold. In gardens, gnomes are placed as decoration, but some gardeners treat them with a kind of superstitious respect. Moving a gnome without asking permission is said to bring bad luck. The “gnome liberation” movement of the 1970s, in which activists stole garden gnomes and released them into forests, was a joke, but it relied on the idea that gnomes wanted freedom.
There is no liberation movement for trolls. No one steals a troll statue and sets it free in a forest. The troll is not a being you free. It is a being you avoid.
What are the common misconceptions?
The biggest misconception is that trolls and gnomes are the same kind of being. They are not. They come from different cultures, different time periods, and different literary traditions. Trolls are native to Norse and Scandinavian folklore. Gnomes are a German alchemical invention that absorbed folk elements.
Another misconception is that all trolls are giant. Some are. But Scandinavian folklore also includes bergtroll (mountain trolls) and skogstroll (forest trolls) that are human-sized or smaller. The giant troll is the most famous, but not the only type.
A third misconception is that gnomes are always friendly. The Kobold could be malicious if offended. The Bergmännlein might lead miners to ore or cause cave-ins. The garden gnome is friendly because it is a commercial product, not a folk being.
How have trolls and gnomes changed in modern media?
Modern fantasy has blended the two. J.R.R. Tolkien’s trolls in The Hobbit (1937) are giant, stupid, and turn to stone in sunlight. They are faithful to the Norse source. But Tolkien’s gnomes are something else entirely: in his early writings, “Gnomes” were the Noldor, the high elves of Valinor. He later abandoned the term because of the garden gnome association.
Role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons (1974) codified the distinction. D&D trolls are giant regenerating monsters. D&D gnomes are small, clever, and magical. The game’s influence has shaped how millions of people understand these beings.
The film Trollhunter (2010) presented trolls as a hidden species in modern Norway, with a government cover-up. It played the folklore straight. The Gnomeo and Juliet films (2011, 2018) treated gnomes as toys who come to life. The two genres do not overlap.
FAQ
Are trolls and gnomes related in folklore? No. They come from separate traditions. Trolls are Norse. Gnomes are German alchemical theory that later absorbed folk elements.
Can trolls and gnomes be friendly to humans? Trolls are almost never friendly. Gnomes can be helpful if treated well, but they are easily offended.
Why do trolls turn to stone in sunlight? The motif appears in Scandinavian folklore from at least the 13th century. It may reflect the Christianization of older pagan beliefs, where trolls were associated with darkness and the old gods.
Are garden gnomes based on real folklore? Only loosely. The garden gnome is a 19th-century German commercial design inspired by the Bergmännlein of mining folklore and the Kobold of household tradition.
The difference between a troll and a gnome is not size. It is relationship. A troll is a boundary you do not cross. A gnome is a presence you might thank. Both belong to the same Northern European landscape, but they occupy different stories. Understanding that distinction matters because folklore is not a grab bag. It is a map of how people organized the invisible world. Trolls and gnomes mark different territories on that map.
For more on the beings that share this landscape, see our guide to mythical creatures. You may also find our glossary of Norse terms useful for understanding the older sources. And if you want to trace how these beings evolved in literature, our guide to folkloric archetypes covers the full spectrum.