Knockers
Also called Coblynau, Buccas.
Knockers are friendly Cornish and Welsh mine spirits whose tapping and knocking sounds guide miners toward rich veins of ore or warn them away from danger underground.
At a glance
- Tradition
- English folkloreWelsh folklore
- Region
- Cornwall (place of origin)Underground Caves and Mines (unspecified) (habitat)
- Trait family
- The Hearth-Bound
Near this figure
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Behaviour
- Aids household or construction tasks for the respectful
why
Some tellings describe the sounds as the Knockers continuing the miners' own labor by night after the human workers have gone home, mimicking pickaxe blows and other mining noises deep in the tunnels.
Utility powers
- Treasure detection
why
The Knockers' practical function within mining communities was straightforward: their tapping was read as pointing toward rich ore deposits, making them valued, almost professional collaborators in the physically dangerous work of deep mining, and in some tellings a sudden burst of urgent knocking or hammering was read as a warning that a section of the mine was about to give way, sending miners scrambling clear.
- Danger forewarning call
why
in some tellings a sudden burst of urgent knocking or hammering was read as a warning that a section of the mine was about to give way, sending miners scrambling clear
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Earth meets
4 citations
- Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins, s.v. "Coblynau."
- Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "Coblynau."
- Maria Leach, editor, Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, s.v. "Coblynau."
- Wirt Sikes, British Goblins.