Bluecap

Last updated
Bluecap
Grouping Mythological creature
Fairy
First attestedIn folklore
CountryUnited Kingdom
RegionEngland
DetailsMines

A bluecap is a mythical fairy or ghost in English folklore that inhabits mines and appears as a small blue flame. If miners treat them with respect, the bluecaps lead them to rich deposits of minerals. [1] Like knockers or kobolds, bluecaps can also forewarn miners of cave-ins. They are mostly associated with the Anglo-Scottish borders. [2]

Bluecaps were regarded as hard workers and it was said that they were expected to be paid a working man's wages, equal to those of an average putter (a mine worker who pushes the wagons). This payment was left in a solitary corner of the mine, and they would not accept any more or less than they were owed. The miners would sometimes talk of having seen a flickering bluecap settle on a full tub of coal, transporting it as though "impelled by the sturdiest sinews". [3]

Another being of the same type (though less helpful in nature) was called "Cutty Soames" [4] or Old Cutty Soames, [5] who was known to cut the rope-traces or soams by which the assistant putter was yoked to the tub. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairy</span> Mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore

A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures, a form of spirit, often with metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural qualities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Mine Workers of America</span> North American labor union

The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care. By 2014, coal mining had largely shifted to open pit mines in Wyoming, and there were only 60,000 active coal miners. The UMW was left with 35,000 members, of whom 20,000 were coal miners, chiefly in underground mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. However it was responsible for pensions and medical benefits for 40,000 retired miners, and for 50,000 spouses and dependents.

Fairies, particularly those of Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh folklore, have been classified in a variety of ways. Classifications – which most often come from scholarly analysis, and may not always accurately reflect local traditions – typically focus on behavior or physical characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Changeling</span> Creature in European folklore

A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. A changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being on kidnapping a human being. Sometimes the changeling was a 'stock', more often the changeling was a supernatural being made magically to look like the kidnapped human. Supernatural beings blamed for stealing children included fairies, demons, trolls, nereids and many others. Usually, the kidnapped human was a child; but there were cases, particularly in Scandinavia and Ireland, where adults were taken.

The redcap is a type of malevolent, murderous goblin found in Border folklore. He is said to inhabit ruined castles along the Anglo-Scottish border, especially those that were the scenes of tyranny or wicked deeds and is known for soaking his cap in the blood of his victims. He is also known as Redcomb and Bloody Cap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spriggan</span> Legendary creature in Cornish faery lore

A spriggan is a legendary creature from Cornish folklore. Spriggans are particularly associated with West Penwith in Cornwall.

The Knocker, Knacker, or Tommyknocker (US) is a mythical, subterranean, gnome-like creature in Cornish and Devon folklore. The Welsh counterpart is the coblyn. It is closely related to the Irish leprechaun, Kentish kloker and the English and Scottish brownie. The Cornish described the creature as a little person 2 ft 0 in (0.61 m) tall, with a disproportionately large head, long arms, wrinkled skin, and white whiskers. It wears a tiny version of standard miner's garb and commits random mischief, such as stealing miners' unattended tools and food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lattimer massacre</span> 1897 killing of striking miners by police in Pennsylvania

The Lattimer massacre refers to a Luzerne County sheriff's posse killing at least 19 unarmed striking immigrant anthracite miners at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania on September 10, 1897. The miners were mostly of Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian and German ethnicities. Scores more miners were wounded in the attack by the posse. The massacre was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers (UMW).

A coblyn is a mythical gnome-like creature that is said to haunt the mines and quarries of Wales and areas of Welsh settlement in America.

Bloody Bones is a bogeyman figure in English and North American folklore whose first written appearance is approximately 1548. As with all bogeymen the figure has been used to frighten children into proper deportment. The character is sometimes called Rawhead, Tommy Rawhead, or Rawhead-and-Bloody-Bones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pit pony</span> Animal used in mines

A pit pony, otherwise known as a mining horse, was a horse, pony or mule commonly used underground in mines from the mid-18th until the mid-20th century. The term "pony" was sometimes broadly applied to any equine working underground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Crackernuts</span>

"Kate Crackernuts" is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Andrew Lang in the Orkney Islands and published in Longman's Magazine in 1889. Joseph Jacobs edited and republished the tale in his English Fairy Tales (1890). The tale is about a princess who rescues her beautiful sister from an evil enchantment and a prince from a wasting sickness caused by dancing nightly with the fairies. The tale has been adapted to a children's novel and a stage play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black dog (folklore)</span> Mythical creature of British folklore

The black dog is a supernatural, spectral, or demonic hellhound originating from English folklore that has also been seen throughout Europe and the Americas. It is usually unnaturally large with glowing red or yellow eyes, is often connected with the Devil, and is sometimes an omen of death. It is sometimes associated with electrical storms, and also with crossroads, barrows, places of execution and ancient pathways.

Seelie is a term for fairies in Scottish folklore, appearing in the form of seely wights or The Seelie Court. The Northern and Middle English word seely, and the Scots form seilie, mean "happy", "lucky" or "blessed." Despite their name, the seelie folk of legend could be morally ambivalent and dangerous. Calling them "seelie," similar to names such as "good neighbors," may have been a euphemism to ward off their anger.

<span title="Middle Welsh-language text"><i lang="wlm">Tylwyth Teg</i></span> Mythological creature in Welsh folklore

Tylwyth Teg is the most usual term in Wales for the mythological creatures corresponding to the fairy folk of Welsh and Irish folklore Aos Sí. Other names for them include Bendith y Mamau, Gwyllion and Ellyllon.

The caoineag is a female spirit in Scottish folklore and a type of Highland banshee, her name meaning "weeper". She is normally invisible and foretells death in her clan by lamenting in the night at a waterfall, stream or Loch, or in a glen or on a mountainside. Unlike the related death portent known as the bean nighe, the caoineag cannot be approached, questioned, or made to grant wishes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brownie (folklore)</span> Household spirit in Scottish folklore

A brownie or broonie (Scots), also known as a brùnaidh or gruagach, is a household spirit or Hobgoblin from Scottish folklore that is said to come out at night while the owners of the house are asleep and perform various chores and farming tasks. The human owners of the house must leave a bowl of milk or cream or some other offering for the brownie, usually by the hearth. Brownies are described as easily offended and will leave their homes forever if they feel they have been insulted or in any way taken advantage of. Brownies are characteristically mischievous and are often said to punish or pull pranks on lazy servants. If angered, they are sometimes said to turn malicious, like boggarts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hag</span> Stock character; a wizened old woman, often a malicious witch

A hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as "Hansel and Gretel". Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as The Morrígan or Badb, who are seen as neither wholly benevolent nor malevolent.

This is a partial glossary of coal mining terminology commonly used in the coalfields of the United Kingdom. Some words were in use throughout the coalfields, some are historic and some are local to the different British coalfields.

In the folklore on the Anglo-Scottish border, the Brown Man of the Muirs is a dwarf who serves as a guardian spirit of wild animals. Also is a Folklore story, called "Brown Man of the Moor" in the Richardson's Table Book in the 19 century according to Publications of the Folklore Society of North England, where appear the creatures: boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins and brown men.

References

Citations

  1. Allen (2005), p. 24
  2. Katherine Mary Briggs, The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature
  3. Briggs (1976), pp. 27–28
  4. 1 2 Labour and the Poor in England and Wales, 1849–1851: Northumberland and Durham, Staffordshire, the Midlands, Jules Ginswick, Routledge, 1983, ISBN   0-7146-2960-X, 9780714629605, pp. 65-66
  5. Character Sketches Of Romance, Fiction And The Drama, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, Marion Harland, The Minerva Group, Inc., 2004, ISBN   1-4102-1335-8, ISBN   978-1-4102-1335-8, page. 119

Bibliography