Tradition: English Mythology
Alternative Names: Bluecap
Category: Fairy
The Myth
The Bluecap is a small supernatural mine spirit that appears as a flickering blue flame deep within the workings of a mine. Associated particularly with the Anglo-Scottish Borderlands, Bluecaps were generally regarded as helpful beings when treated with respect. They could lead miners toward rich deposits of valuable minerals and, like other mining spirits, could warn them of impending cave-ins and other dangers underground.
Bluecaps were also believed to be extraordinarily hard workers. Miners said that they could move heavy loads of coal through the mine, sometimes appearing as a small blue flame that settled onto a full tub of coal and carried it away with tremendous strength. Their supernatural labour was nevertheless expected to be paid like that of an ordinary mine worker. A Bluecap was owed the wages of a normal putter, the worker responsible for pushing mine wagons, and the payment had to be left for it in a secluded corner of the mine. The spirit would accept neither more nor less than what it was owed.
Not every mine spirit was so helpful. Cutty Soames, also called Old Cutty Soames, was regarded as a more troublesome being of the same general kind. Rather than assisting miners, he was known for cutting the rope or trace by which an assistant putter was attached to a loaded tub. Bluecaps therefore belonged to a hidden community of supernatural mine workers: some guided miners to wealth and helped them survive the dangers of the underground, while others could interfere with their work and put them in danger.
Sources
“Bluecap.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed October 5, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluecap