Gnome
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A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Typically small humanoids who live underground, gnome characteristics are reinterpreted to suit various storytellers and artists.
Gnome Watching Railway Train, Carl Spitzweg, 1848
Historic garden gnomes on display at the Gnome Reserve in Devon, UK. The ornament on the left of the image was produced by Eckardt and Mentz in the late nineteenth-century,
Gnome garden at the Wieliczka Salt Mine, Poland
Dwarf (folklore)
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A dwarf is a type of supernatural being in Germanic folklore. Accounts of dwarfs vary significantly throughout history; however, they are commonly, but not exclusively, presented as living in mountains or stones and being skilled craftspeople. In early literary sources, only males are explicitly referred to as dwarfs. However, they are described as having sisters and daughters, while male and female dwarfs feature in later saga literature and folklore. Dwarfs are sometimes described as short; however, scholars have noted that this is neither explicit nor relevant to their roles in the earliest sources.
Two dwarfs as depicted in a 19th-century edition of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá (1895) by Lorenz Frølich
Siegfried wrestling Alberich, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Face of the Heysham hogback stone depicting four figures with upraised arms, which have been interpreted as the dwarfs Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri holding up the sky
The Ribe skull fragment, dating to the 8th century CE, bearing a protective charm against either one or two dwarfs