Gnomes of Bism

The Gnomes of Bism are an underground people forced by the Lady of the Green Kirtle to work far from their own country under an enchantment that suppresses memory and joy. When the Witch dies and a chasm opens toward the deeper land of Bism, the spell breaks: the gnomes remember who they are, cast down their burdens, and hurry home. Their apparent military organization briefly makes them seem like a new threat, but Golg explains that their weapons and formation are an act of self-protection by captives who had not yet realized their mistress was dead.

Identity and Enchantment

Golg identifies himself as a gnome from Bism and describes the land where he and the others have been working as the Shallow Lands, a region uncomfortably close to the surface. The Witch had summoned them upward by magic and made them work for her. For years, they did not know who they were or where they belonged; they could neither act nor think freely, except in ways the Witch had put into their minds.

The mental world imposed on them was persistently glum. Golg says he had nearly forgotten how to make a joke or dance a jig, evidence that the enchantment had stifled more than their ability to choose their labor: it had also dimmed the pleasures and habits through which they recognized themselves. The gnomes had been made to mistake imposed gloom for their ordinary condition.

The Spell Breaks and the Road Home

The change begins with a great crash and bang. The sound prompts the gnomes to recognize that they have gone too long without singing, dancing, or setting off a squib; they realize they must have been enchanted. They then see a red glow and understand that a crack has opened toward the Really Deep Land, about a thousand fathoms below them. With the Witch’s spell broken, they drop their sacks, bundles, and tools instead of continuing the work she had assigned.

Golg describes Bism as a lovely place and the gnomes’ own country. At the sound of the crash and the opening of the chasm, they remember both their origin and their desire to return. Their departure is therefore not merely a flight from danger: it is a recovery of belonging after years in which the Witch had obscured where they came from.

Misread Intentions and Golg’s Explanation

Jill welcomes the gnomes’ release, believing that the rescuers have freed them as well as themselves by killing the Witch. Puddleglum, however, notices that the gnomes do not look like people simply running away; their movements resemble military formations. He asks Golg directly whether they had been preparing for battle.

Golg confirms that they were. The gnomes did not know the Witch was dead and thought she might be watching from the castle, so they were trying to escape unseen. When they saw the four Overlanders emerge with swords and horses, they assumed that a confrontation was beginning and were ready to fight rather than surrender their hope of returning to Bism. The apparent hostility is thus a consequence of captivity and mistaken identification, not allegiance to the Witch. The Prince accepts Golg as honest and recognizes the parallel between the gnomes’ enchantment and his own recent recovery of memory.

Celebration and Return to Bism

Once the Witch’s death and the Overlanders’ harmless intentions are announced, Golg leads the party toward the road the Witch had meant to use for an invasion of the Overworld. As he goes, he calls out the news; those who hear him pass it onward until Underland rings with cheers. Gnomes by hundreds and thousands crowd around Coalblack and Snowflake, turning cartwheels, standing on their heads, playing leapfrog, and setting off huge crackers. The sudden exuberance reverses the silence and sadness of the years under the spell, while the Prince repeatedly recounts his own enchantment and deliverance.

The celebration takes place beside a chasm about a thousand feet long and perhaps two hundred feet wide. Heat rises from its depths with a sharp, rich smell that makes the travelers sneeze; at first, the brightness dazzles them. Once their eyes adjust, they make out what seems to be a river of fire, with fields and groves of intense color along its banks. Hundreds of Earthmen climb down the rugged sides toward that fiery landscape, making visible the route home that the gnomes had been denied while enchanted.

Narrative Significance

The Gnomes of Bism are first encountered through Golg’s account of collective recovery: a noise, a sudden recognition of lost pleasures, and the return of memories the Witch had suppressed. Their transformation from silent laborers into a jubilant crowd makes the effects of her magic concrete, while their armed formation complicates an initially simple picture of liberation. The rescue has not instantly made them trusting; they must learn that the Witch is dead and that the armed newcomers are not her servants.

Their story also gives the escape from Underland a destination beyond mere survival. The gnomes want to return to Bism, not to remain in the Witch’s country or move upward into the Overworld. Golg’s description of surface life as crawling like flies captures the distance between their understanding of home and the Overlanders’ assumptions. Their joyful descent into the deeper land turns the opened chasm from a sign of Underland’s rupture into a passage of return.