Gnome Kidnapping: A Brief History
The act of liberating a garden gnome and sending it on a trip around the world is typically thought to be a relatively modern act of tomfoolery. Few know that the concept of a "travelling gnome" is in fact one with deep roots in history. The first gnome relocating incident is recorded in an old Scandinavian folktale from the mid-9th century.
The fable tells the tale of an out of control gnome-infestation in the town of Oslo. Such a large concentration of creatures posed quite a problem to the village as they were prone to performing mischief. In small raid parties the gnomes would head to the heart of the city, defacing buildings, stealing food, and posing in gardens. After some debate as to how to deal with overgrown gnome population, the Oslo locals opted to capture and release the creatures back into the wild elsewhere, rather than dispose of them in a more sinister manner. The town folk went forth, captured the majority of the gnomes, and started the search for a suitable area in which to deposit them. After some thought the people of Oslo decided the neighboring town of Jutland would make a most excellent home for the newly captured gnomes. As the city of Jutland and Oslo had been feuding for sometime over rights to a local fjord the village people were in no way morally opposed to passing the gnome infestation onto them.
Once the Oslo gnome population had been transferred, Jutland went through a similar problem solving process. After some thought, they too decided to move the gnomes to another city. The following city also moved the gnomes; and so on and so forth. The grouping of gnomes eventually made their way throughout all of northern Europe.
Due to the readily available food supply provided by their constantly changing surroundings the Oslo gnome population grew to an outlandish size. This eventually led to the widespread population of garden dwelling, travel loving, European gnomes.
These days, individuals with the thought of preserving the tradition outlined in this beloved folktale, kidnap gnomes and send them travelling around the world; in much the same way their ancestors did in the days of yore.