Mining Folklore: Coblynau, Knockers, and Tommyknockers
Just as with my previous post announcing my intent on conducting extensive investigations through October, this post too has been prompted by conversations I've had with people I know. I was discussing with a good friend about the paranormal when they told me a story about an experience someone they knew had many years ago regarding someone dressed as a miner banging on their door and shouting to let them in. I'll include the full story in a seperate experience based post as my friend is currently trying to find out the full details, but regardless, hearing the story, and hearing the experience occured in a house on reportedly unstable ground built above old mine shafts where a disaster had occured, reminded me of an episode of DC's 'Constantine'. The programme aired back in 2015, and is fictional, but these kinds of programmes which focus on the supernatural tend to be loosely based on real folklore.
I was reminded of an episode of 'Constantine' because one episode focused on the spirits of dead miners called 'Coblynau'. In the programme it is discussed how they rarely leave their mines and tend to protect miners. It is also discussed in the programme that they cause knocking sounds within the mines. I found all of this information when hearing my friends story very interesting as not only was there a miner knocking on the door, but the house was above a location where miners did die. I've also got a family member who lived above some mines in Wales and she experienced poltergeist activity in her house, so I decided to look into the Coblynau a bit further to see if there really was anything to the potentially fictional spirits discussed on TV.
It turns out, they're real; or at least the folklore is. They aren't limited to one location either, there have been reports of creatures who live within the mines across the UK, Germany, and America. It seems they're particularly prominent regarding the tin mines of Cornwall, where they are referred to as Knockers, Buccas, or Spriggans. Either way, they are the equivilant of the Welsh Coblynau, the American Tommyknocker, German Wichtlein (or Kobolds), and Bohemian Haus-Schmiedlein. It's thought that the American Tommyknocker came about after the Cornish miners moved over to America during the gold rush of the 1800s and started spreading the stories of these creatures who live in the mines.
Now, I'm sure you're wondering what these creatures are, and there is some debate over it. As the programme 'Constantine' goes with, some believe these creatures to be the spirits of miners who have died due to a mining accident, but others believe they are possibly the spirits of Jews who caused Christ's crucifixion and were sent to work in the mines by the Romans. Another potential is that they are possibly souls who can't gain access to either heaven or hell. They may even be creatures similar to Leprechauns, Brownies, or even Faeries, and are small gnome like creatures standing roughly 2ft tall with large hooked noses and thin limbs. They're said to be extremely ugly to look at, wear miners clothing, and carry tools and lanterns. They're also said to be quite mischievous, often liking to play tricks on miners or throw harmless stones at them. They'll also knock on walls of mineshafts to let the miners know where is a good spot to mine, or to warn of a potential collapse.
How helpful the creatures are varies across cultures, but there does seem to be a common trend that as long as you are respectful towards them then they'll do you no harm. The Cornish would even leave gifts for the Knockers as a way of thanking them for keeping them out of harms way. The Cornish miners, after eating their pasties, would throw the crust into the mines for the Knockers to eat. During my research I've discovered that the Coblynau, the Welsh version of the creature, are said to cause rock slides when angered. Things that could anger the creatures, according to Cornish folklore, are things such as whistling, trying to spy on them, or making the sign of a cross. If a miner caused offence, then they could be led by the knocking to dangerous parts of the mine.
So, we've established that there are many similarities across the different cultures about these creatures. I should note I've not discussed the Tommyknocker as much due to it originating from Cornish stories, and the information I've found is really similar across the sources I've used which will all be listed at the end. A common theme with these creatures is they can help out the miners, provided they are respectful, and that they don't seem to leave the mines. The folklore says these creatures are miners themselves, to a degree, where they perform various tasks about the mines but never get anything done. So, upon finding out they never leave the mines I was a little confused as to how the stories of these creatures, the experience my friend told me, and the experience my family member told me could be at all related. However, I then came across a Cornish story.
The story says there was a man who bought a house in the mining district and shortly after he began living there, he began to wake to the sound of heavy boots walking up and down the stairs. He saw no one on the stairs at the time, and after this persisted he asked his servants what the noise was. They told him that he was hearing the knockers and that they were alerting the miners to a lode beneath the house which needed to be worked. This turned out to be true and the mine produced one of the richest tin lodes found. I've also discovered a superstition that if a person hears the knockers outside of a mine, then it could be a warning that a death is about to occur.
I was really happy to discover that the knockers have been reported to leave the mines as it means the miner in my friends story could very well have been a knocker, especially as in the cornish story the knocker manifested as something other than typical knocking. This indicates, if these stories are true, that knockers can leave the mines and they can manifest as something relating to miners, whether that be heavy mining boots, or a physical manifestation of a miner. Now, with my family members account of the poltergeist activity she experienced, she doesn't attribute it to the mines she lived above. As far as she is aware, nothing accident related happened with the mines and the hauntings could have been connected to a music box which used to play on its own. However, she also said that not long after this activity occured, a friend of hers died and so did a family member. This means the activity still could have been the result of knockers living in the mines beneath her house as their mischievous behaviour may manifest as poltergeist activity, as it did in the mines when throwing stones, and it is said if they are heard outside of the mines then it is a sign that a death is about to occur.
After looking into the creatures, and hearing both my friends story and family members story, I do think that there is something to these creatures. I don't believe they are the gnome-like creatures as is often discussed, but I do think they'll be the spirits of dead miners. They seem mostly harmless and too human in behaviour to be a mythical creature of some kind. The activity they cause also sounds far too much like typical paranormal activity... they are rarely seen, they knock on walls, they throw things without being seen etc. Also, they like pasties. If I was a dead cornish miner, I would definitely be chucking stones at miners if I knew they'd leave the crust, the best part of the pasty, for me to have. Another thing that makes me think that they are the spirits of miners who died in previous accidents is that they often warn miners when accidents will occur. If these were random creatures, they likely wouldn't care about random people invading their space, especially as they don't like to be spied on.
It is important to note the skeptical side of the arguement though. It is said water running through the ground can cause the knocking sounds, and obviously the miners are in a dark confined space which could cause the imagination to go absolutely wild. It would also cause easy tricks on the eyes due to the the dark and unfamiliar, ever changing, space. This is why I've combined the folklore with two completely unrelated experiences told to me by a friend and family member. When I say unrelated, I mean in regards to my friend and family member never having met or spoken, plus they didn't know about this folklore before they told me the experiences. It just so happens that the experiences and folklore all seem to line up really well, and that is what I love about the paranormal, and that is why I do think the paranormal exists. You can have one experience originate in Cornwall, another in Wales, and another in Manchester, all told by people who know nothing of one another or the folklore, and all experiences will all be extremely similar. I find it fascinating, and that is why I run this blog.
Thank you for reading to the end of this post! If you do have any questions, or want me to do a seperate post about these creatures in German and American culture, please let me know. Also please feel free to comment on this post with your own possible encounters with these creatures. You can also comment with any information you think I've either left out or maybe gotten wrong. If you do have anything you'd like to say whether that be about the blog, experiences of your own, or even places you would like for me to investigate, then you can comment and follow on here, Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr, and you can email thetrueparanormal1@gmail.com for a quick response to any questions.
Sources I have used:
3. Tumblr
5. JSTOR
6. Seeks Ghosts
8. Steemit
10. ABC Tales
13. Top Tenz
15. The Mirror
16. Ladbible
18. Colorado History
19. Icy Sedgwick
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