Short Story:Rincemangle, The Gnome of Even Moor

Rincemangle, The Gnome of Even Moor is a short story written by Terry Pratchett in 1973 for the Bucks Free Press. The plot of this short story would later serve as the template for Truckers. It was later reprinted in A Blink of the Screen and The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner.

Plot

Rincemangle is a lonely Gnome living out in Even Moor. One day he hops onto a truck and arrives at a large store where he discovers other Gnomes. Unfortunately Rincemangle discovers that the store is closing and helps the store Gnomes to escape with him on the back of a truck back to his home in Even Moor.

Annotation

Similar to 'Tales of the Carpet People' which would be expanded into The Carpet People this short story is near identical in its plot to Truckers and is likely the fist instance of what would later become the Bromeliad trilogy.

The two main differences between this short story and the later novel would first be the name of Rincemangle, which would seem to have changed and repurposed for a certain wizzard. The other is the spelling of the word Gnome, which is given its more traditional spelling here rather than its later spelling of Nome. This helps to differentiate it from the Gnomes that appear in the Discworld series.