The Great Galimatius

‘There are those who talk and say

Nothing much, it is their way

But not so Galimatius the Great

As his story I do relate.’

“A goodly morning to you, madam. Out for a walk, are you?”

Brenna looked at the strangely hypnotising gnome who appeared to be talking to her.

She gave him a questioning look and replied, “If you are talking to me, then no, I am not out for a morning walk. I am on my way to a meeting of the Town Council, of which I am a member, and I am late.”

She frowned at him and prepared to hurry on her way, but he caught up with her as quickly as his little gnome legs would let him.

“Well then, the council meeting. Oh, I should genuinely like to sit in and hear what the council is deciding upon.”

She stopped briefly. “Why should you want to know what the council is talking about? I have never seen you around here before. Are you a local resident in Gnomlagger?”

“Ah well, no, actually, Madam Councillor, I am not at present but I am seriously giving thought to moving here and so I do have reason to have an interest in knowing about the concerns of the Council.”

“Where do you live presently? What is your name and why do you want to move here?”

“Allow me, dear lady to answer the second question first, the first one second and the third one third if that is all right with you.”

Brenna Rockpounder was getting exasperated. She was already going to be late for the start of the council meeting and, since she hated to be late, she likewise disliked anyone who was the cause of her lateness. She nodded and looked at the sundial on her left wrist.

“If it pleases you, Councillor, my name is Galimatius Bletherskate. In some parts of the kingdom, I am known as The Great Galimatius although as you are in a hurry, I will not dally with the telling of my tale.

As for where I presently live, it is in the glen of the spotted mushrooms. You see, my family had been living there for a long time but when I was growing up and discovered my gift of constant jibberjabble, they suddenly left and moved away quietly one night while I was sleeping.

Imagine my surprise when I awoke the following morning and discovered that the whole of our little cottage beneath the third giant green-spotted mushroom, to the left side of the west end of the forest was empty.

A note pinned to the side of the mushroom said they were off and wished me well but suggested that trying to follow them would be fruitless because they had no idea where they would go. So…”

Brenna’s face was turning red. She held out her hand and put it over Galimatius’ mouth.

She looked him straight in the eye and said, “It is a pleasure to meet you, I am sure, Galimatius, but as I mentioned, I am already late. The next time we meet, I shall be delighted to listen to more of your jibberjabble but for the moment, I must dash.”

With that, she pulled her hand away from his mouth and started running down the pathway towards the heart of the Town of Gnomlagger.

The Great Galimatius watched her getting smaller and smaller the farther she was away from him until she finally totally disappeared around a bend in the road. He was used to people interrupting him when he was telling them a tale or two.

Not all the people he talked to ran away. Some just leaned forward and fell asleep where they were standing. One time, he had been carrying on a one-sided conversation with an older gnome on a donkey. The old fellow must have been tired because less than a minute after Galimatius started in on his thrilling, to him anyway, story, the old fellow’s eyelids began to droop. He fell asleep and the donkey wandered off stopping here and there to munch on some grass, with the old chap sitting sound asleep on its back.

To be continued…

My team designed 30 delightful images of gnomes in various situations. When I saw the images, they suggested stories to me. I wrote 24 stories and self-published them in 2020 in a book called ‘24 Gnome Tales’. Find it on Amazon at ASIN #: B088N3TQ3Y