The Knocker, Knacker, or Tommyknocker (US) is a mythical, subterranean,
gnome
A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...
-like creature in
Cornish and
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
folklore. The
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
counterpart is the
coblyn. It is closely related to the
Irish leprechaun,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
ish kloker and the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
brownie. The Cornish described the creature as a little person tall, with a disproportionately large head, long arms, wrinkled skin, and white whiskers. It wears a tiny version of standard
miner
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...
's garb and commits random mischief, such as stealing miners' unattended tools and food.
Cornish folklore
Cornish miners believed that the diminutive Knockers beckoned them toward finding rich
veins of tin. As miners changed from independent, family-owned operators to hired laborers for large industrialized companies, there was an increased concern for safety, reflected in the knockers new role. They knocked on the mine walls to warn of impending collapse.
[James, Ronald. "Reflections on Cornish Folklore", Cornish Story, March 17, 2020]
/ref>
Generally considered benevolent, they were also trickster
In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...
s who would hide tools and extinguish candles. They are similar to the coblynau
Coblynau are mythical gnome-like creatures that are said to haunt the mines and quarries of Wales and areas of Welsh settlement in America.
Like the Knockers of Cornish folklore they often help miners to the richest veins of ore or other treasur ...
of Welsh miners
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
.["Knocker", ''A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology'']
/ref>
One interpretation holds that they are mine-spirits, believed to be the ghosts of the Jews who worked the mines in the 11th and 12th centuries;[ another view is that they are the spirits of those killed in a mine. To show appreciation, and to avoid future peril, the miners cast the last bite of their tasty pasties into the mines for the Knockers.
]
In the United States
In the 1820s, immigrant Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
and Cornish miners brought tales of the Tommyknockers and their theft of unwatched items and warning knocks to western Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. Cornish miners, much sought after in the years following the gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
and silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
rushes, brought them to Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
, Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
, and California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. The underground elves became part of the folklore of miners throughout the American West
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
, not just those of Cornish background.[
When asked if they had relatives who would come to work the mines, the Cornish miners always said something along the lines of "Well, me cousin Jack over in Cornwall wouldst come, could ye pay 'is boat ride", and so they came to be called Cousin Jacks. The Cousin Jacks refused to enter new mines until assured by the management that the knockers were already on duty. Even non-Cornish miners, who worked deep in the earth where the noisy support timbers creaked and groaned, came to respect the Tommyknockers. The American interpretation of knockers seemed to be more ]ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
ly than elfish.
Belief in the knockers in America remained well into the 20th century. When one large mine closed in 1956 and the owners sealed the entrance, fourth, fifth, and sixth generation Cousin Jacks circulated a petition calling on the mineowners to set the knockers free so that they could move on to other mines. The owners complied. Belief among Nevadan miners persisted amongst its miners as late as the 1930s.
Tommyknocker Brewery
Tommyknocker Brewery is a craft brewery and brewpub in Idaho Springs, Colorado. They produce a line of beers and craft sodas, including root beer, made with distinctive ingredients such as mountain cherry, mountain maple and valerian root. Tomm ...
in Idaho Springs, Colorado owes its namesake to the mythical creature, and began serving in 1994 to meet the needs of the large number of prospectors, as part of the Colorado Silver Boom
The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state of Colorado in the late 19th century. The boom started in 1879 with the discovery of silver at Leadville. Over 82 million dollars worth of silv ...
.
Knocker also appeared as a name for the same phenomena, in the folklore of Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
miners.
In literature
*Knockers are a motif found in the science fiction/horror book ''The Tommyknockers
''The Tommyknockers'' is a 1987 science fiction novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the i ...
'' by Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
.
*Tommyknockers are also mentioned in the Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series for children and teens. The series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterpa ...
book, ''Hunting for Hidden Gold
''Hunting For Hidden Gold'' is Volume 5 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap. The book ranks 111th on Publishers Weekly's All-Time Bestselling Children's Book List for the United States, with 1,179,533 copi ...
''. "Tommy-clockers" is the title of chapter eight.[Dixon, Franklin W. '']Hunting for Hidden Gold
''Hunting For Hidden Gold'' is Volume 5 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap. The book ranks 111th on Publishers Weekly's All-Time Bestselling Children's Book List for the United States, with 1,179,533 copi ...
''. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1928.
*A benevolent knocker appears in ''The Ironwood Tree'', the fourth book in ''The Spiderwick Chronicles
''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' is a series of children's fantasy books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. They chronicle the adventures of the Grace children, twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, after they move into the Spid ...
'', in which it helps the protagonists escape from a dwarf kingdom.
*In the Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winning novel ''Angle of Repose
The angle of repose, or critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip relative to the horizontal plane to which a material can be piled without slumping. At this angle, the material on the slope fac ...
'' by Wallace Stegner
Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Book ...
, protagonist Susan Burling Ward first hears about tommyknockers when her husband and his colleagues take her into one of the quicksilver mines at New Almaden
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See also
References
* Katharine Briggs, ''An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures,'' "Knockers", p. 254 .
External links
BBC page on Devon myths and legends
James, Ronald M. "Knockers, Knackers, and Ghosts: Immigrant Folklore in the Western Mines", ''Western Folklore'', vol. 51, no. 2, 1992, pp. 153–177. JSTOR
{{Fairies
Cornish legendary creatures
Welsh legendary creatures
Devon folklore
Welsh folklore
American legendary creatures
Fictional miners
Mining spirits
Gnomes