Kabouter is the Dutch word for gnome or leprechaun. In folklore, the Dutch Kabouters are akin to the Irish Leprechaun, Scandinavian

Tomte A (, ), tomte (), , or () is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore today typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. They are generally described as being short, having a long white beard, and wearing a coni ...

or Nisse, the English Hob, the Scottish Brownie and the German Klabauter or

kobold A kobold (occasionally cobold) is a mythical sprite. Having spread into Europe with various spellings including " goblin" and "hobgoblin", and later taking root and stemming from Germanic mythology, the concept survived into modern times in G ...

. In the

folklore of the Low Countries Folklore of the Low Countries, often just referred to as Dutch folklore, includes the epics, legends, fairy tales and oral traditions of the people of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Traditionally this folklore is written or spoken in Dutch ...

, kabouters are tiny people who live underground, in a hill for instance. (In modern children's stories they live in mushrooms.) They are also spirits who help in the home. The males have long, full beards and wear tall, pointed red hats. They are generally shy of humans and in stories often punish people for spying on them. Throughout Flanders and the Netherlands they exist under a number of different local names like alvermannekes or auwelkes. In the ''Legend of the Wooden Shoes,'' an old Dutch folktale, a kabouter teaches a Dutch man how to make

piles Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''he ...

and how to make wooden shoes. The Dutch illustrator

Rien Poortvliet Rien Poortvliet (; 7 August 1932 – 15 September 1995) was a Dutch artist and illustrator. Born in Schiedam, Poortvliet was best known for his drawings of animals and for "Gnomes", a famous series of illustrated books with text by Wil Huygen ...

played an important part in modern Kabouter lore with his publication of ''Leven en werken van de Kabouter'' (English title "Life and works of the Gnome"), later translated into English and published as "

Gnomes A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its character ...

".(1977) ''Gnomes'', Harry N. Abrams Inc., (20th Anniv.) (30th Anniv.) In popular culture today, the business Travelocity uses a Rien Poortvliet-style statue of a Kabouter for commercials. They call him the Travelocity Roaming Gnome. The term ''kabouter'' was also adopted by a 1970s

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

movement in Amsterdam that sprang from the Provo movement (see Kabouters). One of its best known representatives is

Roel van Duijn Roeland Hugo Gerrit (Roel) van Duijn (born 20 January 1943) is a Dutch politician, political activist and writer. He was a founder of Provo and the Kabouterbeweging. He was alderman for the Political Party of Radicals and later wardcouncillor ...

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{{Fairies Dutch legendary creatures Dutch words and phrases Gnomes

See also

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