Bucca (mythological creature)

bockas, bockyas [1][2]) is a male sea-spirit in Cornish folklore, a merman, that inhabited mines and coastal communities as a hobgoblin during storms.

Rev W. S. Lach-Szyrma, one 19th-century writer on Cornish antiquities, suggested the Bucca had originally been an ancient pagan deity of the sea such as Irish Nechtan or British Nodens, though his claims are mainly conjecture.

He assisted the Lamorna fishermen by driving fish into their nets and crabs into their pots, yet was capable of terrible vengeance and so they avoided him leaving a share of their catch on the beach to placate him.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, folklorists generally interpreted the popular beliefs and practices they found as survivals from or relics of Catholicism, equating such 'survivals' with Paganism.

[9][10] As a bucca-boo this spirit was also invoked by parents as a bogeyman figure to frighten children into proper behaviour, especially those who wouldn't stop crying.

[13] In the 19th century a new road was built between Penzance and Land's End and the Tolcarne River (main stream at the outskirts of Newlyn) was bridged; this area was called Bucca's pass.

[21] In 1997 the Pagan Alliance (New Zealand) newsletter, administrators Jeff & Louise state they are heavily influenced by Boucca Wicca.

[22] In the children's book Thomas and the Tinners (1995) by Jill Paton Walsh, Buccas are presented as fairies who work in Cornish tin mines, granting wishes in exchange for food (see knockers).