As part of of a series of blog entries on Celtic culture, in particular Cornwall. In times past stories of the supernatural played a large role in the thinking of the average Cornish man and woman. In the minds of many the moorlands were crawling with the “little people”. Faeries, piskies and a variety of other imps and goblins abounded sometimes cruel and malevolent, sometimes mischievous and sometimes surprisingly benevolent.
At the bottom of tin mines this belief was particularly acute, the mines spirits, some famously known as knockers (the inspiration for Steven King's Tommy Knockers) needed constant appeasement with scraps of food thrown into the darkness to prevent their displeasure. Many folklorists in the early 20th century considered these beliefs to be evidence of a long dead pagan religion, the sprites and spriggans representing minor deities or the ancient spirits of the land, an idea which was known as the “theory of survivals”, an idea which has lost almost all support in the world of the academic folklorist. One spirit which stands out as possible exception is the “Bucca” of Newlyn. Bucca of course is a nick name for the residents of Newlyn, many Newlyn residents these days however do not realise that the term was originally one of derision, a mocking name referencing the near worship of the “storm demon” Bucca. Local fisherman and their families before near enough every trip to sea would lay a “cast” of three fish at the various sites throughout the area associated with this powerful and frightening force of nature.
High above Newlyn is the “Tolcarne” a remarkable outcrop of green stone associated with the Bucca, which was a feared site of particular power. Stories of the “Devil” being chased from the Tolcarne by the choir of nearby Paul church, leaping great heights in the process and leaving his footprints in the hard rock, were popular and were used as an explanation of the strange marks on the stone itself. The Parc an Growse cross, a now “disappeared” Cornish cross of considerable antiquity situated next to the lane linking “Newlyn Town” and its mother church of St Pol-De-Leon, was another site popular for the laying of the “cast” by locals.
Both sites are incredibly exposed during a storm, I used to live very near the site of the Parc-an-Growse and often would walk there in bad weather, similarly I have had the pleasure of being stood high up on the Tolcarne as a storm brewed, no wonder these sites held such magic to our forefathers. I cannot imagine how terrifying this was for the families of hard working fishermen who risked their lives ever day to feed and clothe their families. No wonder then that folklorists such as Newlyn vicar Rev W. S. Lach-Szyrma would equate Bucca with the “storm god of the Cornish”. When thinking about this subject one fictional work always sticks in my mind written by Eden Phillpotts in his work “lying prophets”. It is a picture of the darkness and fear that any fisherman may have experienced at any moment.
"'Bucca's a churnin' the waves of the sea,
Bucca's a darkenin' the sky wi' his frown,
His voice is the roll o' the thunder.
The lightnin' do shaw us the land on our lee,
An' do point to the plaace wheer our bodies shall drown
When the bwoat gaws down from under.'