Fun fact: in Europe, charcoal makers or colliers were considered somewhat of an odd job. While not rejected outright, despite the very specialized skill set and knowledge needed to do charcoal kilns, they seem not to be highly considered. Charcoal making needs constant attention and is often a solitary job next to sources of wood like forests, so colliers were considered solitary men, the German word Köhlerglaube (“collier’s faith”) means a person with blind faith on something, because colliers often didn’t have time to go to church to learn what they believed in, they just did.
This solitary lifestyle and connection to the forest, at least in Scandinavian folklore, seems to make colliers a favorite ‘target’ of forest spirits such as the Hulders or Huldras. Hulders are described as beautiful women (sometimes men, huldrekall) with a hidden non-human trait, like a hollow back or a fox or cow’s tails. Colliers who left gifts for them and were kind were repaid by the Hulders tending to their kilns.
Yes, I do have an encyclopedic knowledge about historical legends of fox or wolf girls. No, this doesn’t say anything at all about myself.