Who’s that knocking?
Cornish tin miners believed they worked side by side with ‘knockers’, a species of subterranean fairy who could lead them to rich deposits of ore.
By Richard Holland
Tradition tends to dictate that the realm of the fairies was somewhere underground. Entrances to their subterranean world could be found in caverns, ancient burial chambers and beneath lakes.
It’s no wonder then that miners have reported encounters with fairies. Cornwall has a particularly rich folklore regarding mine fairies. They were rarely seen but, as in other parts of the UK, more usually heard: for they too would be working the mines and the sounds of their digging would indicate the location of the best sources of ore.
In Cornwall the fairies of the tin mines were simply called ‘knockers’. They seemed well disposed towards their human counterparts and never seemed to resent the fact that they led them to the richer lodes. Perhaps they took only the essence from the ore, not the ore itself, just as fairies on the surface were believed to take essence from food left out for their consumption. For this reason, perhaps, there would be no conflict of interests.
However, like all of their kind, it was unwise to deal selfishly with the knockers or to try and cheat them. One old story tells of a Cornish tin miner who struck a bargain with the knockers to allow him to work a rich lode they had found, if he would return to them just 10% of the washed and dressed ore. This ungenerous offer was accepted and all went well until the old fellow died and his son took over. Perhaps he did not believe in the knockers; at any rate, he resented returning the meagre fraction back to the workings and kept it all for himself. Immediately, the lode failed, nothing went right with him again and, bitter and disappointed, he took to drink and ultimately died a beggar.
Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, published in three volumes between 1870 and 1890, is an important source of Cornish fairylore. Collector of the tales, William Bottrell, spoke to an old miner who claimed to have enjoyed a rare sighting of the knockers, in a crystal cavity in the rock face. There were three of them.
‘They were no bigger… than a good sixpenny doll,’ he said, ‘yet in their faces, dress and movements, they had the look of hearty old tinners.’
He watched them working for a few seconds as they used diminutive picks and anvils, then turned away, perhaps because he knew it is dangerous to spy on a fairy. The knockers did no harm to him, however, but when he looked away, stole one of his candles and disappeared into the darkness ‘tittering and squeaking’.
[SOURCE: 'Popular Romances of the West of England', by Robert Hunt (1865) and 'Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall', by William Bottrell (1870-90), both quoted in 'A Dictionary of Fairies' by Katherine Briggs (1976) pp 254-6]
© Richard Holland 2008 / The picture shows a ‘demon of the mine’ (at right), a variant of the knocking spirits or fairies heard in Cornish tin mines.
Tags: British fairies, British fairylore, Cornish fairies, fairies in Britain, fairies in mines, fairies of Britain, fairies of Cornwall, knockers in tin mines, mine fairies
