Secrets of the Gnomes by Wil Huygen

Originally published in 1982, Secrets of the Gnomes is Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet’s follow-up to Gnomes, first published in 1977. It returns to the hidden woodland world of the original, bringing its creators into the lives they previously documented.

BEYOND THE ORIGINAL

Gnomes approached its imaginary inhabitants with the detail and seriousness of a natural-history guide. This companion continues that blend of observation and invention while taking a more personal turn: the authors themselves become participants in gnome life. For readers who grew up studying the original in the late 1970s and 1980s, it offers another way into that familiar world, moving from looking at its inhabitants to imagining life alongside them.

INSIDE THE BOOK

Across 200 hand-illustrated pages, sketches and firsthand observations explore gnome life in forests, gardens, and underground homes. Stories of their adventures and wisdom sit alongside accounts of their folklore, culture, and habits, rewarding the same close attention to small details that makes the original so absorbing.

The authors’ passage into this world begins with a meal of mushrooms and cream said to taste of “everything that light, air, sun, moon, and earth could produce.” Afterward, they find themselves transformed into gnomes, turning their study of a hidden society into an experience of belonging to it.

THE COMPANION VOLUME

Read alongside Gnomes, this follow-up extends the original’s illustrated survey with further stories and encounters. The two books offer complementary perspectives on Huygen and Poortvliet’s world: its carefully described everyday life and the adventures of entering it.

AUTHOR: Wil Huygen

ILLUSTRATOR: Rien Poortvliet

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION: 1982

FORMAT: 200 hand-illustrated pages

PUBLISHER: Abrams