Bucca

Bucca is a sea monster from England. It was once believed to be a god of the sea, but is now known as a lesser mythical creature. It is thought to resemble a dark brown conger eel with hair made from tangled seaweed, and it is thought that it can change form or become invisible. If sacrifices of fish and bread are given to Bucca, then it leads fishermen to fish and pushes their boats away from rocks. If any fish are caught with the assistance of Bucca though, one must be thrown back as thanks. It is thought to be more aggressive near the Orkney Islands where it was thought to rip the keel out of boats and eat fishermen. Here it is thought Bucca must be offered good fish, and toasted any time ale was drunk. If annoyed, Bucca was thought to bring bad luck to fishermen. It is often described as a lonely creature with a sad expression due to a tragic origin story attributed to it. In some stories it was a prince who fell in love with a woman, but she didn’t love him back and she joined a convent to avoid him. He got assistance from a witch to turn into a pigeon so he could visit the woman, and she liked him in this form. A monk realized the trick and turned him back to a human, but then he cursed the prince to become a monster for a thousand years unless he found love.

Citations:

Maberry, Jonathan. Vampire Universe: The Dark World of Supernatural Beings That Haunt Us, Hunt Us, and Hunger for Us. United States, Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2006.

O’Connor, Mike. Isles of Scilly Folk Tales. United Kingdom, History Press, 2020.