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Hansjop

by

Tradition / Region: Dutch Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Dwarf, Gnome

The Myth

On the heath near Oss, there rises a low hill called the Hansjoppenberg. There, people say, lives a small dwarf-like being known as Hansjop.

Lonely walkers crossing the heath at dusk or in quiet weather may find themselves unexpectedly accompanied. A short figure appears beside them, walking along as if by chance. He does not threaten, nor does he ask questions. He simply keeps pace, sharing the path in silence or light-hearted calm.

After walking a little way together, Hansjop suddenly stops. With a cheerful “houdoe”—a familiar Brabant farewell—he turns aside and vanishes back into his hill, leaving the traveler alone once more, unsure whether what they experienced was real.

Some say Hansjop is no harmless dwarf at all, but the restless spirit of a man named Hans Joppe, or Hans Jacob, who in 1678 murdered his wife and was punished with a brutal execution. According to this telling, his soul never left the place and now wanders the heath, neither fully at peace nor openly hostile.

Whether friendly hill-dweller or condemned ghost, Hansjop remains a figure of quiet encounters—appearing only to the solitary traveler, walking beside them for a time, and disappearing again into the earth as suddenly as he came.

Gallery

Sources

Abe de Verteller contributors. (n.d.). Van aardmannetje tot zwarte juffer: Een lijst van Nederlandse en Vlaamse elfen en geesten. In Abe de Verteller, from https://abedeverteller.nl/van-aardmannetje-tot-zwarte-juffer-een-lijst-van-nederlandse-en-vlaamse-elfen-en-geesten/

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Grauwkes

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Tradition / Region: Dutch Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Gnome, Goblin

The Myth

In the countryside of Groningen, people once spoke in hushed tones of the Grauwkes, small, black gnome-like beings who lived hidden beneath hedges and thick growth. By day they remained unseen, buried deep in the roots and shadows where no one looked too closely.

At evening, when light faded and the land grew quiet, the Grauwkes emerged. They did not come to help or to trade favors, but to frighten. Shapes would move where nothing should be, soft sounds followed travelers along paths, and sudden presences made hearts race without reason. People felt watched, surrounded, or chased, though nothing could be clearly seen.

The Grauwkes were not known for grand deeds or lasting harm. Their power lay in fear itself—the unease that crept in at dusk, the sudden panic that made someone hurry home, the sense that something small and malicious lingered just out of sight.

Because of this, people avoided hedges after dark and warned children not to linger outside at night. The Grauwkes did not need to be seen to be believed in; their work was done as soon as fear took hold.

Gallery

Sources

Abe de Verteller contributors. (n.d.). Van aardmannetje tot zwarte juffer: Een lijst van Nederlandse en Vlaamse elfen en geesten. In Abe de Verteller, from https://abedeverteller.nl/van-aardmannetje-tot-zwarte-juffer-een-lijst-van-nederlandse-en-vlaamse-elfen-en-geesten/

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Junren

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Tradition / Region: Chinese mythology
Alternate Names: People of Small Stature
Category: Gnome

The Myth

Beyond the familiar lands of humankind, in the far and unnamed regions of the world, there live the Junren, a race of people small in body yet fully human in form. They dwell in distant wildernesses where mountains, forests, and seas stretch beyond the reach of ordinary travelers.

The Junren are said to live together as their own people, forming small kingdoms hidden at the edges of the world. Though diminutive in size, they walk upright, speak, labor, and order their lives as humans do. Their lands mirror the greater world, only scaled down—fields, dwellings, and communities shaped to their stature.

They are rarely seen, not because they are spirits or illusions, but because their homes lie far from known roads. Those who glimpse them often do so only briefly, mistaking them at first for children, birds, or moving shadows among grass and stone. By the time the eye adjusts, the Junren have already withdrawn.

In the old telling, the Junren serve as a reminder that the world is vast and layered, filled with peoples unseen by most. Humanity is not alone in shaping civilization; even in the remotest wilderness, lives unfold according to their own customs and rhythms.

Thus the Junren endure in story as the small people of the far lands, quiet proof that the earth holds more nations than those whose names are commonly known.

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 茜人. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8F%8C%E4%BA%BA

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Menehune

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Tradition / Region: Hawaiian mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Gnome

The Myth

Long before people filled the coasts of Hawaiʻi, the islands were said to belong to the Menehune, a hidden race of small people who lived far from human settlements. They dwelled deep in the forests, in narrow valleys, and within caves where sunlight rarely reached. Though small in stature—often said to be no more than two feet tall—they were immensely strong and extraordinarily skilled.

The Menehune were master builders. By night, when the world was quiet, they emerged from their hidden places to work. In a single night they could raise temples, carve roads, hollow out canoes, and build vast fishponds of stone. Their work was precise and enduring, fitted together without mortar, shaped by knowledge older than memory. But there was one rule they never broke: their labor had to be finished before dawn. If the sun rose before a project was complete, they would abandon it instantly, leaving it unfinished forever.

Because of this, many ancient structures across the islands are said to be Menehune works—especially those that seem too perfectly made, too remote, or too sudden in their creation. The most famous tales say entire fishponds were built overnight, stones passed hand to hand in long human chains stretching through the darkness.

The Menehune avoided people. Only their own children, or humans who were bound to them by kinship or fate, could see them clearly. To most, they were only heard: the sound of stones shifting in the dark, voices murmuring in the forest, or the splash of water where no one stood.

They lived simply despite their skill. They loved bananas and fish, and gathered food from forest and stream. When humans began to spread more widely across the islands, the Menehune withdrew even deeper into hidden places, choosing secrecy over conflict. Some stories say they still remain, unseen, guarding their valleys and watching the land they once shaped.

To this day, when an ancient wall stands in a place no one remembers building, or a fishpond seems too vast for ordinary hands, people say softly:
“That was the Menehune.”

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Menehune. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menehune

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Lutin

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Tradition / Region: French Mythology
Alternate Names: Lutine (female), Nain Rouge, Cheval Bayard (horse form)
Category: Gnome, House dweller

The Myth

The lutin is one of the small hidden folk who live close to humans, slipping easily between the visible and invisible worlds. Mischievous by nature, clever rather than cruel, the lutin delights in tricks, surprises, and quiet interference in everyday life.

Often unseen, the lutin may suddenly make its presence known through tangled hair, twisted into stubborn elf-locks, or by the unexplained movement of objects in a home or stable. Horses are particular targets of its playfulness: their manes may be braided overnight, or they may be found lathered and exhausted, as though ridden hard while no rider was seen.

At times, the lutin takes on a striking form—a horse already saddled and waiting, known as Le Cheval Bayard. Those foolish enough to mount it may find themselves carried off at impossible speed, only to be dropped far from home, confused and shaken.

Lutins possess remarkable powers. They can become invisible at will, pass through walls, doors, and locked spaces, rise into the air without wings, dive into the sea without drowning, and cross vast distances in an instant. They are not bound by the limits of land, water, or sky. When they choose to be seen, they appear in a small, human-like form, often wearing a red cap, sometimes enchanted so that it grants invisibility.

Though playful and troublesome, lutins are not enemies of humankind. Like household spirits elsewhere in Europe, they may help or hinder depending on how they are treated. Kindness may earn quiet assistance; disrespect invites mockery and confusion.

In later tradition, the lutin’s role softened further. It is said that they now assist Père Noël, working unseen to help with his labors in the far north. Yet even then, they retain their old nature—quick, elusive, fond of tricks, and never entirely trustworthy.

To encounter a lutin is to brush against a world where rules bend, doors open without keys, and laughter may echo just beyond sight.

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Lutin. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutin

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Dúnaters

by

Tradition / Region: Dutch Mythology
Alternate Names: Dúnnatters
Category: Gnome

The Myth

On the island of Schiermonnikoog, the dunes are said to be inhabited by the Dúnaters, tiny beings who belong wholly to sand, wind, and grass. They are no more than five centimeters tall, small brown figures covered in hair, so easily mistaken for clumps of earth or roots if glimpsed at all.

The Dúnaters live deep within the dunes and act as guardians of the plants and animals that grow there. Anyone who damages the dunes—by uprooting plants, hunting where they should not, or disturbing the land—risks their anger. Though small, the Dúnaters are not weak. When provoked, they can make themselves large, looming and dangerous, and their punishment is swift.

Children were often warned about them. Those who wandered carelessly were told that a Dúnater might drag them into a rabbit hole, pulling them beneath the sand where no one could see or hear them. Such stories kept children close to home and respectful of the dunes.

Yet the Dúnaters were not only feared. They were also woven into gentler beliefs about birth and beginnings. On the island stood a high, bare dune called the Blinkert, said to be the place where children came from. There, the Dúnaters cared for newborn babies beneath the sand, tending them until parents came to choose them. It was said that if a child laid their ear against the dune, they could hear a baby softly crying beneath the surface. Children could even go there to ask for a little brother or sister.

But the Dúnaters were unpredictable. In darker moods, they were said to push babies under the sand until they ate it, a grim image meant to explain illness, deformity, or misfortune. In the late nineteenth century, when a girl appeared on the island with a large hump on her back, people whispered that the Dúnaters had held her in their tunnels for too long, forcing her to swallow sand until it deformed her body.

Thus the Dúnaters lived in memory as both protectors and threats: tiny dune folk who guarded nature, frightened children into obedience, and lingered beneath the sand as unseen keepers of life, danger, and the fragile balance of the island.

Gallery

Sources

Abe de Verteller contributors. (n.d.). Van aardmannetje tot zwarte juffer: Een lijst van Nederlandse en Vlaamse elfen en geesten. In Abe de Verteller, from https://abedeverteller.nl/van-aardmannetje-tot-zwarte-juffer-een-lijst-van-nederlandse-en-vlaamse-elfen-en-geesten/

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Alven

by

Tradition / Region: Dutch Mythology
Alternate Names: Alf, Elle, Elvinne
Category: Fairy, Spirit

The Myth

The Alven are elusive beings who move between the human world and a hidden one of their own. They are seldom seen directly, yet their influence is felt wherever paths twist strangely, hills rise unnaturally, or circles appear in the grass at dawn.

They are said to travel in floating eggshells upon water or fly through the air in sieves, drifting lightly between places. Wherever they pass, certain plants may become poisonous, marked by their touch. The Alven make their homes inside hills, mounds, and terpen, known as alvenheuvels or alvinnenheuvels, hollow places where their world presses close to the surface.

Those who lose their way without reason are said to have been “led” or “lured” by an alf. The path seems familiar, yet turns endlessly, and the traveler wanders until fear or exhaustion takes hold. This confusion is no accident: the Alven delight in making the world appear other than it truly is.

At night, they dance above marshes and pools or in rings upon the grass. Their music and movement are enchanting, and those who join them may dance until dawn without knowing how much time has passed. When morning comes, the Alven are gone, but a circle remains pressed into the grass, silent proof of their presence.

In old stories and medieval texts, the elvinne is especially known for deception. She casts illusions so convincing that sight itself cannot be trusted—hence the word alfsgedrog, meaning a false vision or glamour. She is alluring, unrestrained, and dangerous in her beauty. Sometimes she exchanges her child for a human infant, leaving confusion and sorrow behind.

In Flemish tradition, the Alven are ruled by a queen named Wanne Thekla, a powerful and unseen sovereign of their hidden courts.

The Alven are not merely playful spirits. They are tricksters, tempters, and deceivers, beings who blur truth and illusion. To encounter them is to risk losing one’s way, one’s certainty, or even one’s child—yet their traces remain lightly stamped upon the land, in hills, circles, and paths that never quite lead where they should.

Gallery

Sources

Abe de Verteller contributors. (n.d.). Van aardmannetje tot zwarte juffer: Een lijst van Nederlandse en Vlaamse elfen en geesten. In Abe de Verteller, from https://abedeverteller.nl/van-aardmannetje-tot-zwarte-juffer-een-lijst-van-nederlandse-en-vlaamse-elfen-en-geesten/

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Eisenbach Gnome

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Tradition / Region: Luxembourgish Mythology
Alternate Names: Wichtelcher of Eisenbach
Category: Gnome

The Myth

In the time before the land around Eisenbach was cultivated, when forest and wilderness covered everything, the area was said to be inhabited by the Wichtelcher. These little people were no more than a foot and a half tall, yet they were skilled and diligent beyond their size.

They lived beneath the ground in underground chambers, carved and arranged by their own hardworking hands. Stone walls and rooms formed their dwellings, shaped into homes that mirrored those of humans, only smaller and hidden from sight. Though they kept themselves unseen, their presence was known through the order and care of the spaces they built.

As the land was cleared and fields were formed, the Wichtelcher withdrew, sinking back into the earth or leaving the area altogether. Yet they did not vanish without a trace. Remains of stonework were said to still be visible in certain places, fragments of their underground homes exposed where the soil had shifted or been cut away.

These stones served as quiet proof, for those who believed, that before human hands shaped Eisenbach, the Little Ones had already lived and labored beneath its ground.

Gallery

Sources

SAGEN.at contributors. (n.d.). Wichtlein (Eisenbach). In SAGEN.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Wichtlein_Eisenbach.html

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Wahlhausen Gnome

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Tradition / Region: Luxembourgish Mythology
Alternate Names: Wichtelcher of op dem Heidenhäuschen
Category: Gnome, Cave dweller

The Myth

Near Wahlhausen, on a mountain whose foot meets the Ur River, there is a place known as op dem Heidenhäuschen. Long ago, people believed this hill was not solid earth alone, but hollowed beneath by an underground dwelling.

Within that hidden space lived very small people, the Wichtelcher. They were said to inhabit rooms beneath the soil, sheltered from sight, living quietly below the fields. The place where they lived now lies under cultivated land, ploughed and walked upon, yet never entirely at rest.

Old villagers remembered that stone walls were once uncovered in the ground there—traces of something built, then buried again by time and soil. Even in more recent years, the land showed signs of what lay below. While people were working the rock nearby and paused to eat, the ground suddenly sank beneath them, dropping about the depth of a shoe, as if the earth itself had given way into a hollow space.

Such moments were taken as reminders that the Wichtelcher had not been a story alone. Though unseen, their former homes were believed to remain beneath the hill, fragile and empty now, but still capable of shifting the ground above. The place kept its quiet reputation, a reminder that beneath ordinary fields, the Little Ones were once said to live.

Gallery

Sources

SAGEN.at contributors. (n.d.). Wichtlein (Wahlhausen). In SAGEN.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Wichtlein_Wahlhausen.html

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Waldbillig Gnome

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Tradition / Region: Luxembourgish Mythology
Alternate Names: Wichtelcher of Belliger Seitert
Category: Gnome

The Myth

Near Waldbillig, in front of the Belliger Seitert forest, there lies a field once owned by Theodor Broos. Those who worked the land noticed strange things beneath the soil: carefully worked stones, set as if by deliberate hands, and an ash pit like the kind found in old farmhouses.

These discoveries stirred an old memory. The grandfather of the family had often said that this place was once the home of the Wichtelcher, little earth folk who lived hidden beneath the field. They were said to be no taller than one or two shoes, small enough to pass unseen, yet capable of shaping stone and arranging their dwellings with care.

The Wichtelcher were believed to live much like humans, with hearths, ashes, and shelters of their own, but all concealed underground. When the land was still quiet and lightly worked, they remained there. As time passed and the fields were turned more deeply, they withdrew, leaving behind only stones and traces of their former homes.

Though no one sees them now, the field is still spoken of with a certain respect. The worked stones and the ash pit are taken as signs that the little people once lived there, reminding those who know the story that the land around Waldbillig was not always empty beneath the surface.

Gallery

Sources

SAGEN.at contributors. (n.d.). Wichtlein (Waldbillig). In SAGEN.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Wichtlein_Waldbillig.html

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