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Cornish mythology is the folk tradition and Celtic mythology of the Cornish people. It consists partly of folk traditions developed in Cornwall and partly of traditions developed by Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium, often shared with those of the Breton mythology and Welsh mythology peoples. Some of this contains remnants of the mythology of pre-Christian Britain.
The folklore of Cornwall often consists of tales of giants, mermaids, Bucca, pixie or the 'pobel vean' (little folk.) These tales are still popular today, with some events hosting a 'droll teller' or storyteller, to share Cornish myths and legends. The myths and stories of Cornwall have found much publishing success, particularly in children's books. The fairy tale Jack the Giant Killer takes place in Cornwall. Many early British legends associate King Arthur with Cornwall, putting his birthplace at Tintagel, the court of King Mark of Cornwall, uncle of Tristan and husband of Iseult, the most famous Cornish lovers.
Part of Cornish mythology is derived from tales of seafaring piracy and Smuggling who thrived in and around Cornwall from the early modern period through to the 19th century. Cornish pirates exploited both their knowledge of the Cornish coast as well as its sheltered creeks and hidden anchorages. For many , loot and contraband provided by pirates supported a strong and secretive underground economy in Cornwall.
Legendary creatures that appear in Cornish folklore include buccas, knockers, Giants, and . Tales of these creatures are thought to have developed as supernatural explanations for the frequent and deadly that occurred during 18th century Cornish tin mining, or else a creation of the oxygen-starved minds of exhausted miners who returned from the underground.
The knocker is said to be about two feet tall and grizzled, but not misshapen. They tend to live underground. Here they wear tiny versions of standard miner's garb and commit random mischief, such as stealing a miner's unattended tools and food. They were often cast a small votive offering of food – usually the crust of a Cornish pasty – to appease their malevolence.
Many landscape features, from the barren granite rock features on Bodmin Moor, to the dramatic cliff seascape, to the mystical form of St Michael's Mount are explained as the work of Giants and English tales such as the early eighteenth century Jack the Giant Killer may recall much older British folk traditions recorded elsewhere in medieval Welsh language manuscripts and closely related to the folk traditions of Dartmoor in neighbouring Devon.
There is a Cornish legend of the lost land of Lyonesse, supposedly lost to the sea in one night. It is claimed to represent the folk memory of the flooding of the Isles of Scilly and Mount's Bay near Penzance. For example, the Cornish name of St Michael's Mount is Karrek Loos y'n Koos, literally, "the grey rock in the wood". The Breton mythology legend of Ys is a similar concept.
Old Michaelmas Day falls on 11 October (10 October according to some sources). According to an old legend, blackberry should not be picked after this date. This is because, so British folklore goes, Satan was banished from Heaven on this day, fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell into them. In Cornwall, a similar legend prevails, according to which the devil urinated on them.
"Mist from the hill / Brings water for the mill; / Mist from the sea / Brings fine weather for me." "Lundy plain, Sign of rain" (current in north Cornwall where Lundy Island is normally visible).
The Beast of Bodmin has been reported many times but never identified with certainty.
The Doom Bar at the mouth of the River Camel was, according to legend, created by the Mermaid of Padstow as a dying curse, after being shot by a sailor.
At Zennor, there is a legend of the Mermaid of Zennor and at Mousehole, Tom Bawcock is a legendary fisherman from the village who, according to legend, risked his life to go out and fish and managed to come back with enough fish to feed the village until the storm was over. All the fish was put into a big pie, and the pie called "Stargazy pie".
The Merry Maidens stone circle at St Buryan: the local myth about the creation of the stones suggests that nineteen maidens were turned into stone as punishment for dancing on a Sunday. ( Dans Maen translates as Stone Dance.) The Pipers, two megaliths some distance north-east of the circle, are said to be the petrified remains of the musicians who played for the dancers. A more detailed story explains why the Pipers are so far from the Maidens – apparently the two pipers heard the church clock in St Buryan strike midnight, realised they were breaking the sabbath, and started to run up the hill away from the maidens who carried on dancing without accompaniment. These petrification legends are often associated with stone circles, and is reflected in the folk names of some of the nearby sites, for example, the Tregeseal Dancing Stones, the Nine Maidens of Boskednan, as well as the more distant Hurlers and The Pipers on Bodmin Moor.
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