George Joy’s Guide to Faerytale Creatures, No 15: Tinners

Tinners are Cornish and Devon cave dwarves of the kind often called “wild” or “uncivilised.”  Though they are cave dwarves, they actually live in the tin mines of South West England where they have been surviving through bullying tin miners since prehistoric times.  

How they lived before is unknown, of course, but through threatening behaviour they gain daily feeds from humans.  Some people think it is a little harsh to call them uncivilised when they can clearly strike and maintain such a good bargain - though in most other aspects of their being they can certainly be seen as such.

Tinners, like all “wild” cave dwarves, are small even for dwarves, in stature and are different in other ways too.  They have pale, slightly translucent skin and the large, virtually blind, eyes that are often seen in creatures living underground.  They have no nose to speak of, or ears, but instead two nostrils and an ear hole on the each side of their head - it is thought that the tunnels themselves act as ears by catching and sending sounds to them while their nostrils are big enough to sniff out the food left for them.  Unlike dwarves they are quite hairless and wear no clothes.  

Their hands and teeth are the main other difference - as well as being the means to their dominating miners.  The fingers of cave trolls are elongated and have hard, sharp nails that jut out from the end.  Their teeth are many, small, triangular and very sharp.  The two combined have been enough in the past to first scare miners into freezing before making demands that have culminated in the eternal tradition of leaving the scraps of their lunch for Tinners to collect at night.

The creatures themselves live in the deepest, darkest parts of the mine and are rarely seen nowadays.  The only sign they still exist is the disappearance of offerings for them.  

Perhaps they died out at some point and have been replaced by rats, perhaps it is safe to no longer pay the Tinner Toll... but then the crust of your pasty is but a small price to pay for your life.