Diamonds in the souls of their eyes

June 1, 2009 6:37 PM

I'm looking for a book that a friend remembers reading as a child, but she only has vague memories of it. The book features dwarfs as miners who use diamonds as eyes.

The book:

1) Takes place in Germany
2) Festures Dwarfs are miners
3) They mine diamonds
4) They use the diamonds for their eyes

I KNOW! Sounds totally creepy and interesting and I want to read it.
According to her she didn't re-imagine Snow White, and I've looked at the
Andrew Land and Charles Perrault but can't find anything. If you have any thoughts about what the book could be called, or more specifics, I'd appreciate it!

posted by baggers to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

I think it's The Neverending Story...?
posted by Madamina at 6:44 PM on June 1, 2009

The Neverending Story was published in 1979, and my friend is older than that...
posted by baggers at 6:58 PM on June 1, 2009

This is what came immediately to mind for ME:

Wil Huygen's, "Gnomes"
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith at 9:43 PM on June 1, 2009

I swear I remember reading something like this, at any rate I remember a book that scared the crap out of me, I kept imagining glittery white eyes coming towards me in the dark when I was trying to sleep. This sounds very much like it.
posted by variella at 9:43 PM on June 1, 2009

It was in one of the Alfred Hitchcock Anthologies. I remember this, too. I wanna say they were called "gnolls", but I COULD be wrong.
posted by polexxia at 12:04 AM on June 2, 2009

It was in one of the Alfred Hitchcock Anthologies. I remember this, too. I wanna say they were called "gnolls", but I COULD be wrong.

Are you talking about 'The Man Who Sold Rope To The Gnoles'? It is a creepy story, but I don't think that's what the poster is looking for. It involves a saleman who comes to a weird house with very weird inhabitants and steals a gem which turns out to be one of the inhabitants extra eyes. Revenge ensues. Read it many many years ago.
posted by elendil71 at 5:57 AM on June 2, 2009

Thanks all for the answers so far. Please keep the suggestions coming!

Gnomes: Don't think it was that, as my friend is older than me, (in my 40s) and that book is about 30 years old.

Hitchcockian Gnoles: That's not a children's book, but it is possible that she just read it at an impressionable age...
posted by baggers at 6:19 AM on June 2, 2009

Another "probably not the answer but your question made me think of it" is The Princess and the Goblin.
posted by not that girl at 9:42 AM on June 2, 2009

Darn it! And I read the Hitchcock one as a kid, so I recalled it as a kid's book, sorry.
posted by polexxia at 10:01 AM on June 2, 2009

Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum is more of a kid's book and contains "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles", but the gnoles use emeralds for their eyes, and quickly skimming it I don't see any mention of Germany.
posted by ants at 7:54 PM on June 2, 2009