The gnome race evolved from a hunter/gatherer community, using tools and traps to catch small animals to a community of nomads, traveling around with large herds of animals they keep in great fenced of fields the build with portable fences and even later (when the lands we now call Midgard) where cultivated, they settled into permanent settlements.
Most gnomes used to live in long ear forest but their drive to build a great civilization disturbed the tranquility and balance of the forest. They waged a short but bloody war with the feyfolk during this time. Large parts of the forest where burned down by the gnomes and fellroot is still reaping the bountiful rewards of these forest fires.