Roaming Gnome (Philip Clostio)

## Legend Summary

Coming around in the 1980s, the Roaming Gnomes legend concerns lawn gnomes being taken, usually as an act of theft or as a prank. The gnome is then brought to and photographed at various monuments around the globe, where pictures of it are anonymously sent back to the owner of the gnome. The legend ends with the gnome eventually being returned to its owner, usually after a period of a few months.

## History

The earliest known mention of this legend seems to come from Australia on September 24, 1986, in the *Sydney Morning Herald*. In an article, “Regular Shorts,” it claims that a garden gnome was stolen, and it its stead was a note containing the message: “Dear mum, couldn't stand the solitude any longer. Gone off to see the world. Don't be worried, I'll be back soon. Love Bilbo xxx." The legend and prank were quite popular in the late 80s and 1990s, gaining more traction in the early 2000s with the popularity of the French movie *Amelie*, which features this legend.

## Adaptations

A sort of adaptation of this legend can be found in the travel agency Travelocity’s marketing, beginning with the “Where is my Gnome?” campaign. Starting in the early 2000s, the gnome has since become the official mascot of Travelocity, even having its own social media account outside of Travelocity’s. Another adaptation of this legend is in the 2001 French movie *Amelie*. In this film, Amelie steals her father’s garden gnome, giving it to a friend of hers that is a stewardess. Her friend then takes photos of it in famous locations, where Amelie sends the pictures anonymously to her father. All of this is done in an attempt to inspire wanderlust in her father and to convince him to travel. This legend is also featured in the short story written by Laura Frankos, “The Garden Gnome Freedom Front,” published in 2005 in *The Enchanter Completed*, which follows some college students in France as the garden gnomes they have stolen become sentient due to the moon.

## Analysis of Adaptation/How I Would Adapt This Legend

While there are a few adaptations of the Roaming Gnome legend, many of them are pretty cut and dry, lacking much room for analysis. That being said, if I were to adapt this legend, I think it would function well as a dark comedy. My adaptation would probably be of a visual nature in some way (If done in prose, I feel like some of the melodrama from the characters could become lost) and it would poke fun at how materialistic people can be, and how materialism can sometimes be seen as more important than the wellbeing of others. It would start with a phone call from a person to their partner, with them in hysterics over the disappearance of their lawn gnome. It would follow them as they contact neighbors and family as they frantically look for their gnome, eventually filing a missing persons report and starting a social media campaign to try to help locate the gnome. This is juxtaposed by following another couple that is trying to find their missing child, with much less help and energy from others than what the other couple received—maybe even going as far as to have people ignore an Amber Alert, instead worrying about the gnome. Receiving pictures of the gnome in the mail, the gnome’s owners go on television and plead for the kidnappers to safely return their gnome, while the couple with the missing child can’t even get the proper help and resources that they need to find their child. Eventually the gnome gets returned, but the child remains missing. The child’s family ends up losing all hope of finding their child. This could also be interesting if the couples were combined, with the parents so involved with finding their gnome that they do not even realize their child is missing. I think the inclusion of the missing child is very important to poke fun at the materialistic emphasis many people have, literally choosing an object over a child’s wellbeing. While highly unlikely that one would choose a garden gnome over a child, the exaggeration adds an extra layer of satire. An adaptation like this would hinge on extremely melodramatic characters looking for their gnome, acting like the loss of a garden gnome is as crushing as getting a child kidnapped. An alternate avenue that can be used with a similar story would be a fake true crime documentary, following the couple that owned the gnome as they frantically search for their gnome (the couple that lost a child wouldn’t really have a place in this style of adaptation, so some of the direct contrast could become lost.)

## Works Cited

Tibble, Phil. “Regular Shorts.” *Sydney Morning Herald*, 24 Sept. 1986.

Travelocity Roaming Gnome @roaminggnome. Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/roaminggnome/. Accessed 11 October, 2023

Turtledove, Harry, et al. “Garden Gnome Freedom Front.” *The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp*, Baen Pub. Enterprises, Riverdale, NY, 2005.