Bucca has many faces, good and bad, large and small, malevolent or kind, always male.
‘Bucca’ originally referred to a Celtic divinity; Bucca Gwidden, a good god, or Bucca Dhu, the Devil himself. As Christianity took hold in Cornwall so bucca came to mean many other things; a ghost, a mischievous sprite, a mischievous lad, a little devil, or a supernatural being from the moors and mines.
Nowdays ‘bucca’ mainly refers to sea spirits, mermen who govern the fishermen’s catch and expect a fish gift as their due. Bucca of Newlyn is the merryman of the fisherfolk, both a friend and a foe.Here Bucca Dhu is the spirit of the storm at sea, Bucca Widn brings a plentiful harvest.
