A bluecap is a mythical

fairy A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...

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 ...

English folklore English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the English region's mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, and folktales. Its cultural history is rooted in Celtic, Christian, ...

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. Like knockers or

kobolds A kobold (occasionally cobold) is a mythical sprite. Having spread into Europe with various spellings including "goblin" and "hobgoblin", and later taking root and stemming from Germanic mythology, the concept survived into modern times in Ger ...

, bluecaps can also forewarn miners of cave-ins. They are mostly associated with the

Anglo-Scottish Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people o ...

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. They were hard workers and expected to be paid a working man's wages, equal to those of an average putter (a mine worker who pushes the wagons). Their 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 see the flickering bluecap settle on a full tub of coal, transporting it as though "impelled by the sturdiest sinews". Another being of the same type (though less helpful in nature) was called ''Cutty Soames''''Labour and the Poor in England and Wales, 1849-1851: Northumberland and Durham, Staffordshire, the Midlands'', Jules Ginswick, Routledge, 1983, , 9780714629605, pp. 65-66 or ''Old Cutty Soames''''Character Sketches Of Romance, Fiction And The Drama'', Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, Marion Harland, The Minerva Group, Inc., 2004, , , page. 119 who was known to cut the rope-traces or soams by which the assistant putter was yoked to the tub.

References

Citations Bibliography * * Northumbrian folkloric beings Northumbrian folklore Goblins Fairies English ghosts English legendary creatures Supernatural legends {{legendary-creature-stub

See also

References