Tradition / Region: Dutch Mythology
Alternate Names: –
Category: Gnome
The Myth
On Texel, among the dunes and old burial mounds, people long believed in the Sommeltjes—small earth spirits no taller than a child’s waist. Their home was said to be the Sommeltjesberg, a grassy burial hill near the village of De Waal, where they hid their treasures beneath the sand and danced together in the moonlight.
The Sommeltjes lived only by night. Sunlight was deadly to them: if caught by the sun’s rays, they would turn to stone. Because of this, they slept hidden beneath dunes, hills, and pits during the day. At night they emerged silently, moving like shadows over sand and grass. They could make themselves invisible and slip into houses through the smallest cracks or openings.
They loved shining objects above all else. Copper kettles, silver coins, and anything that gleamed might vanish overnight. Yet the Sommeltjes were not purely thieves. Sometimes a stolen kettle would return, polished until it shone like new, and filled with food or drink—as if to remind people that the spirits were capricious rather than cruel.
On Wieringen, they were also said to live in a hollow known as the Sammeltjeskuil, where small clay pipes—sammeltjespiipkes—were found. These tiny pipes were believed to be used by the Sommeltjes themselves when they gathered at night to smoke and whisper beneath the stars.
Children were warned to behave, lest the Sommeltjes come creeping out of the hill to take them. At the same time, parents told their young ones that newborn babies were brought by the Sommeltjes, carried secretly through the dunes under cover of darkness.
Neither fully kind nor fully malicious, the Sommeltjes belonged to the land itself—spirits of sand, moonlight, and buried things. To respect the dunes was to remain safe; to mock or challenge the little night-folk was to invite loss, fear, or stone-cold silence.
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/
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Sommeltje