Several years ago, I remember Joshua Warren informing me about a phone call he had received on the L.E.M.U.R. office line from a woman in Burnsville, North Carolina, who shared a strange story. In her message, she had described an encounter with a “strange little man” in the backwoods between her home and the nearby town of Spruce Pine. I made a follow up call within a few days, and was able to speak to the witness about her peculiar experience. While camping in the area, a remote region with one primary highway winding throughout heavily wooded valleys, she described how a strange, fur-covered little man had appeared and leaped onto her car one evening. “My boyfriend and I had been hearing weird noises, and we put out the fire and went and got in the car,” I remember her telling me. “Around that time, this little thing came running out of the woods and leaped up onto the hood. In the darkness it was too difficult to get a good look at it, as it was mostly in silhouette. It climbed onto the top of the car, and I remember hearing it scratching around up there right before we took off.” Needless to say, they left in a hurry.
Based on what was described, I’m not convinced that what the witnesses actually saw wasn’t a raccoon. I asked if this creature had appeared to move upright or on four legs, to which she said she wasn’t certain. As for the mysterious “scratching” sounds on the roof of her car, the clawed paws of a raccoon certainly would be the most likely solution, and the raccoon hypothesis nonetheless explains the fur she and her boyfriend described seeing in the creature’s silhouetted outline also. Whether or not the folks who shared this story were actually accosted by a strange little “man”, North Carolina and many other parts of the world nonetheless have folk traditions and histories that involve “little people”, presumed to be spirit folk, which sometimes do appear to cause mischief.
The Southeast has a long tradition held among the Cherokee Indians regarding “little people” who inhabit caves and other small subterranean dwellings throughout the Appalachian Mountains. Often mischievous in nature, these beings are known to appear under peculiar circumstances, and though most are known to be helpful and benign by nature, it is advised in native traditions that one who witnesses a little person should ignore them, so as not to draw attention to their presence. The Cherokee divide these spirit folk into three categories: the Rock People, vengeful and angry dwarfs who are known for accosting lost travelers by tossing stones at them for invading their space; the Laurel People, generally regarded as tricksters; and the Dogwood People, who are the most helpful and kind-hearted of the Little People.
Though such legends are traditionally considered Native beliefs, I find it interesting that the most fascinating accounts of contact with the Little People I have collected from the region don’t originate from the Cherokee themselves, but instead were told to me by locals living in the more remote areas around Western North Carolina. J.R. Sutton, a friend of my family I had known while growing up, had lived near the Cherokee Indian reservation decades ago, and told me about an encounter with “little bearded folks of short stature” he had observed on one occasion. Sutton always used to keep horses, and one afternoon while tending to them he said he was astonished to find three small people sitting on the bare back of one of the animals. “I looked at this and thought they were kids,” Sutton said. “Then one of the little fellers looked around at me and he had a long beard.” Sutton expressed some degree of superstition about the encounter, adding that he “was familiar with the legends, and didn’t want to bother the little folks.” Were the small, bearded dwarves Sutton encountered in his pasture that afternoon the same mischievous spirit folk the Cherokee have told of for centuries?
Two counties away, an even stranger encounter with a little person took place. John Capps, an entrepreneur and Western North Carolina native, lives with his wife on a remote piece of property stretching over an entire mountain on the outskirts of Buncombe County. One day several years ago, John had ridden a golf cart to the base of the mountain to collect a few bundles of firewood to bring back up to their house. The entire property has a peculiar air, and near the area where he had stopped, John has since told me about a large, curious-looking rock with a wide, flat top, which locals say was once used in Indian rituals. “I was loading up the wood down there at the base of the mountain, when I looked over and saw this strange looking little man. He was kinda leaning against a tree, and was wearing these little coveralls, just standing there.” John winced as he searched for words as he related this story to me, saying “he had a funny little look on his face. I’ll tell ya what it was—it was a little shit-eatin’ grin. That’s the best way I could describe it.”
John found the odd demeanor of the little man disconcerting, and decided to ignore the fellow, climbing into his golf cart and heading back up the mountain. “I got back up there to where I was unloading the wood, and I turned around and saw the same little character about twenty yards off, watching me just like he had done all the way down at the base of the mountain. He scared me to death, and for days I wouldn’t go anywhere without my wife riding around with me. I even started carrying a gun.” Before long, John’s wife began to wonder about what might have scared her husband, who was normally a calm, laid-back individual. “I finally told her, and she just said ‘I’ll fix this’.” John’s wife was one-quarter Cherokee herself, and also knew the legends regarding the Little People very well. “She got in touch with some family members who knew the native stories, and whatever they did to ask the little man to leave seemed to have worked.” John and his wife never saw the entity around their property again.
Further East, near the town of Winston-Salem lies what is called the Single Brother’s House in the historic Old Salem Village and Gardens. The building was originally used as a communal home for unmarried men in the area, which had been a Moravian settlement. It is here that encounters with a ghostly entity called “the Little Red Man” were said to occur up until a few decades ago. Perhaps the most famous encounter with the Little Red Man involves the granddaughter of a resident of the house named Betsy. “Little Betsy” as she was called had suffered from a childhood illness which caused deafness, though she maintained the ability to speak. One day Betsy returned from playing in the garden and told her grandmother about seeing “a small man wearing a red cap” who had beckoned her to come and play. Legends say that the entity, though seemingly harmless, was encountered again in the cellar of the building while an important public figure was visiting the house. This prompted his removal, and a minister was asked to come and exorcise the strange little fellow from the property. Winston-Salem’s “Little Red Man” was never again seen.
More recently, another strange incident involving similar phenomenon was reported across the United States in California, as related by a woman named Tammy to Jason Offutt, author of Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us (of which, I might add, Patrick Huyghe of Anomalist Books was kind enough to send me a review copy. Keep an eye out for my review of this fine book in an upcoming Gralien Report post).
Tammy reported that she and her children had lived on a lot with five houses “and one very spooky old barn.” Tammy had begun to notice that “none of the neighbor’s animals, or stray animals for that matter, would go anywhere near that barn.” Eventually, strange things began to occur around the area, and one evening Tammy finally says she heard a “very freaky, very evil-sounding chuckle.” Looking in the direction of the sound, Tammy and her son witnessed what she called “a gnome”. Offutt describes for us what this strange man of diminished proportions looked like: “The entity was about two to three feet tall. Baggy black pants hung from its waist and the “creature” wore a gold-colored shirt. It had a salt and pepper beard and hair that ran from beneath a red, pointed hat.” By all accounts, it appeared to be a traditional gnome; and a creepy one, at that!
Of course, reports of “creepy gnomes” aren’t restricted to the United States. In fact, readers of this blog may recall posts around March of 2008 dealing with a “creepy gnome” seen around the Salta province of Argentina. Strangely, this creature was described as looking very much like a typical gnome as represented in Germanic folklore; culturally, this creates a few problems. To quote myself from the original article, “For the reasons above, culturally there are many problems with a “gnome” appearing in Argentina; for instance, these creatures are a part of the folklore of mostly northern and eastern Europe, having been known famously by such names as Kaukis and Tomten in Germanic traditions, as well as Barbegazi further south in France. Having been a part of the culture of this region for centuries, one might find it more credible if reports of a “gnome” were seen here, especially with his trademark pointed hat.” Apparently, these creepy gnomes no nothing of culture when it comes to where they decide they want to appear.
Are there indeed strange, very small “spirit folk”, or “fairies” which exist in remote areas around the world? Could they be strange, hidden races of “hobbits” which exist primarily underground, hidden from view? Or could they be mere folklore, nothing more than legends that represent some weird archetypal element in the human psyche?
June 10th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Very compelling reading, thanks. Brought to mind a posting about a similar subject by Loren Coleman:
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/nain-rouge/
In Germanic/Scandinavian pre-Christian religion and folklore, these kinds of beings are sometimes considered land and/or house spirits or sprites and are portrayed as fairly difficult to deal with unless appropriately appeased. Given our increasing encroachment and subsequent pollution of remote areas, it wouldn’t surprise me if people began to report more of these sightings. Food for thought, in any case.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
For what it’s worth, Micah, (which, I’m afraid, is not very much), this post made me think of a story my first boyfriend once told me, about some creatures who lived in the woods behind one of his cousin’s houses. This was not in the South but the Midwest, although I can’t remember now whether his cousin lived in Michigan, Indiana or Ohio.
According to my boyfriend, his cousin called these creatures the “shoe stealers” because they were rumored to take people’s shoes — I can’t recall now (if my boyfriend even said anything about it) as to whether this was supposed to be known in various households in the neighborhood, or just his cousin’s house, or if his cousin and his parents lived alone in some isolated rural area.
Anyway, my boyfriend claimed to have seen these things once when visiting with his cousin. As he described it, the two of them were looking out the window on a gloomy day toward the woods behind the house when several “Jawa-sized” (his words) humanoids in black robes came out on the fringe of the woods, paralytically holding out their hands and shuffling around as if looking for something. My boyfriend says he got freaked out and got away from the window right quick, so he couldn’t tell anything more about it.
I never was sure if he was serious about this, and I asked him about it several times afterward. His story never changed, and he never did relay it with the little smirk that usually gave him away when he was trying to yank my chain. To this day I am fairly well persuaded that he was sincere about at least believing that he saw these things.
Not that this sheds any light, I know — it is just another little grain of sand to add to the castle of testimony from people who claim to have seen little folks in the forest. But it sure strikes me as curious that so many people do claim to see them, and have been seeing them for hundreds of years, according to folklore — on this as on so many other paranormal subjects, I can’t help but feel that something must be going on, though I don’t pretend to have a clue as to what that might be!
June 20th, 2009 at 3:24 am
No, there is no problem with Gnomes appearing in Argentina as it relates to German Folkloric origins; they were brought over via Operation Paperclip (Joint CIA(OSS/JIOA) /NAZI/Vatican) as they were enslaved for use on subsequent Nazi Genome (G-nome) and MK Projekts along with Joseph Mengele (Dr. Green-leprechaun?)…
With the above half truth, half tongue in cheek aside, in truth, the name for the gnome (or similarly described being) in south and central American countries is the “Tata Duende” and there is some very intriguing video footage of this being (s) posted on youtube (see link below – other than the one you mention here in this article – and there was another one that has subsequently disappeared – such as footage of a group of 3 or 4 gnomes which at first waited on one end behind some objects were obviously trying NOT to be seen, then dashed across the background of said distracted teens who were busy laughing and talking, all being filmed by another who doesn’t see it at least at first. The footage of the one (see link below) when spotted behaves as if absolutely terrified for its life. In these OTHER videos, they are much smaller and truer to movement and appearance of the traditional description of a gnome, not the foreboding interloper with the large and menacing side step and which looks more like a troll posing as a gnome. If you could see this other video with the one that I can’t find anymore you might think like I do that these guys are getting a bad rap with this scarrier one so heavily publicized.
We could speculate further on the menacing larger “gnome” that if it is a gnome, that it is maybe a different type species or perhaps class /“caste” (such as a warrior). My intuition says, if it is a gnome, we are actually witnessing a small group of normal sized gnomes using a coordinated illusory effort (i.e.: standing on each other under one shall), designed to intimidate the teens, who perhaps had ventured too close to their village or similar. That COULD explain the bizarre stilted sidestep gate it has and the seemingly smallish head to body size ratio. Again, speculation of course, but an idea worth consideration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKL9eKRFBYo&feature=related
The idea of them appearing in other countries does not pose any problems, conflictions etc. You might consider it is just you not thinking outside the box, a box you made by your research and/or your belief system, limiting to Germanic “origins”, but intended or not, is on par with German arrogance of certain origins (root race) and of superiority.
I think it silliness not to consider other cultures, and their own name/folklore for the very same or similar phenomenon/creature. Use the Yeti and Sasquatch as a simple analogy. Period.
Besides. Who’s to say the folklore is the origin of the tales of these beings? Rather than recognizing the very good possibility that not only are they real, and then certainly are not limited to one country or its people’s folklore. From that stance, if humans exist on all continents, why can’t gnomes?
The following info on the Tata Duende (New World Gnome) from this link…
http://www.grisdismation.com/Art/LofB/TataDuende.html
“Tata Duende (Ta-ta, Doo-en-dé)
Tata Duende is a powerful spirit that protects the animals and jungles of Belize. According to legend, Tata Duende’s presence can be felt upon entering the jungles of Belize. However, be extremely careful to not anger Tata Duende for his wrath can be deadly.”
Taking this last 3 words into consideration, perhaps we are experiencing more than one type of entity, and a potentially dangerous one indeed.
Ultimately we need to respect these guys as well as the environment. Or we can simply scream, run roughshod over, live in fear, and divide and conquer and destroy everything without care as we’ve been doing. I think this is the primary message that the gnomes give us, no matter where they live, and we are still ignoring it. Lets try some REAL respect for our mother.
June 20th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Quickly want to correct a misspelled and mistakenly used word in my above comment — I said “shall” when i mean’t shawl, however I should have used the word cowl, shroud or cape.
Also, I’ll take this opportunity to recommend a good resource for gnomes, which happens to be the illustrated book simply called “Gnomes” by Rien Poortvliet and Wil Huygen, who claim in the foreward to have been given permission by real Gnomes to publish the book and is based on their “observation of the local gnome population in Holland”. I have this book and I personally attest the book is extremely worthwhile if you have a sincere interest in researching these wonderful beings.
Read the editorial reveiw of this book at the following link for a quick but detailed synopsis of the book and the authors…”these friendly nocturnal creatures were only represented in folk lore; descriptions were often incomplete or simply inaccurate. Poortvliet and Huygen, having studied and interviewed gnomes for two decades, set out to fill this gap with their own encyclopedic tome.”
http://www.amazon.com/Gnomes-30th-Anniversary-Wil-Huygen/dp/0810954982/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245488585&sr=8-1
For Open minded consideration
And, also, I extend my gratidute for the original article, despite my issues with it.
June 20th, 2009 at 5:31 am
I feel compelled to share one more comment, in regarding a highly ammusing story I remembered reading a few years ago involving little humanoid creatures described as “white imps” and “dwarves” which vigorously defended a Christmas tree from being taken down, and at one point pelted the police with stones from the tree itself, ultimately forcing them to flee. Considering the location, one might think monkies were involved but the details of what happened in this story (see link below) belie this overly simplistic explanation, and because it took place in Argentina makes it very pertinent to the above article. It also provides added insight into the apparent discerning behavior/nature as well as the potential supernatural feats these small beings are capable of delivering. assuming all is true of course.
Select the link below and scroll a bit down to the story entitled…
“Argentina: The Imps Return to Parana”
http://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html
Translated by Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology
Very ammusing story, enjoy =)