In English folklore, The Puck (), also known as Goodfellows, are demon or fairy which can be Household deity sprites or nature sprites.
Origins and comparative folklore
Etymology
The
etymology of
puck is uncertain.
[See for example Katharine Mary Briggs, Anatomy of Puck. New York: Arno, 1977c1959. ] The modern English word is attested already in
Old English as puca (with a diminutive form pucel). Similar words are attested later in
Old Norse (púki, with related forms including
Old Swedish puke, Icelandic púki, and Frisian puk) but also in the
Celtic languages (
Welsh language pwca,
Cornish language bucca and
Irish language púca). Most commentators think that the word was borrowed from one of these neighbouring north-west European languages into the others, but it is not certain in what direction the borrowing went, and all vectors have been proposed by scholars. The
Oxford English Dictionary favoured a Scandinavian origin, while the scholarly study by Erin Sebo of Flinders University argues for an Irish origin, on the basis that the word is widely distributed in Irish place-names, whereas
puck-place-names in English are rare and late in the areas showing Old Norse influence, and seem rather to radiate outwards from South West England, which she argues had Irish influence during the Early Middle Ages.
Alternative names
Puck may also be called
The Goodfellows or
Hobgoblin,
[Keightley, Thomas. The Fairy Mythology, London, H. G. Bohn, 1870] in which
Hob may substitute for
Rob or
Robin. This goes back to the character "Robin Goodfellow" and his name. The name
Robin is
Middle English in origin, deriving from
Old French Robin, the pet form for the name
Robert. Similar to the use of "the good folk" in describing fairies, it reflected a degree of
wishful thinking and an attempt to appease the fairies, recognizing their fondness of
flattery despite their
mischievous nature.
[
]
The earliest reference to "Robin Goodfellow" cited by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1531. Anthony Munday mentions Robin Goodfellow in his play The Two Italian Gentlemen, 1584, and he appears in Skialtheia, or a Shadowe of Truth in 1598. William Shakespeare may have had access to the manuscript of Lewes Lewkenor's translation of The Spanish Mandevile of Miracles, or, The Garden of Curious Flowers (1600), a translation of Antonio de Torquemada's Jardín de Flores Curiosas. The following passage from The Spanish Mandeville discusses the mischievous spirits:
After Giacomo Meyerbeer's successful opera Robert le Diable (1831), Neo-medievalism and occultists began to apply the name Robin Goodfellow to the Devil, with appropriately extravagant imagery.
Characteristics
According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898):
Puck might do minor housework, quick fine needlework or butter-churning, which could be undone in a moment by his knavish tricks if displeased.[ Sparkes, Abigail. "Robin Goodfellow", Historic UK]
Pucks are also known to be inherently solitary creatures. Shakespeare's characterization of "shrewd and knavish" Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream may have revived flagging interest in Puck.[Schleiner, Winifried (1985). "Imaginative Sources for Shakespeare's Puck". Shakespeare Quarterly. 36(1): 65–68. . .]
Notable cultural references
This list excludes Shakespearean references. They may be found at Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream).
16th–17th century
-
The character appears in Grim the Collier of Croydon (1660, but perhaps based on an earlier play).
-
A Robin Goodfellow play was performed at Hampton Court on 1 January 1604, followed by The Masque of Indian and China Knights.
[Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark, Queen of England: A Cultural Biography (Philadelphia, 2001), p. 83.]
-
An early 17th century broadside ballad The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow describes the character as the of Oberon, the Fairy King of the Night, inspiring night-terrors in old women but also carding their wool while they sleep, leading travellers astray, taking the shape of animals, blowing out the candles to kiss the girls in the darkness, twitching off their bedclothes, or making them fall out of bed on the cold floor, tattling secrets, and changing babes in cradles with elflings.
["The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow". A Book of Roxburghe Ballads
]
/ref>
-
Robin Goodfellow is the main speaker in Jonson's 1612 masque Love Restored.
-
John Milton, in L'Allegro tells "how the drudging Goblin swet / To earn his cream-bowle" by threshing a week's worth of grain in a night, and then, "Basks at the fire his hairy strength." Milton's Puck is not small and sprightly, but nearer to a Green Man or a hairy wild man. An illustration of Robin Goodfellow from 1639 represents the influence of Pan imagery, giving Puck the hindquarters, Cloven hoof and horns of a goat.
[ Folklore – Robin Goodfellow (Puck) University of Victoria/Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada]
19th century
-
Robin Goodfellow appears in "The Mad Pranks of Robin Goodfellow", Gammer Gurton's Pleasant Stories of Patient Grissel, The Princess Rosetta, & Robin Goodfellow, and Ballads of the Beggar's Daughter, The Babes in the Wood, and Fair Rosamond, 1845.
[Gammer Gurton's Pleasant Stories of Patient Grissel, The Princess Rosetta, & Robin Goodfellow, and Ballads of the Beggar's Daughter, The Babes in the Wood, and Fair Rosamond. Printed for Joseph Cundall, 1845, State Library of New South Wales DSM/821.04/T]
-
Robin Goodfellow appears in an 1856 speech by Karl Marx: "In the signs that bewilder the middle class, the aristocracy and the poor profits of regression, we recognize our brave friend Robin Goodfellow, the old mole that can work the earth so fast, that worthy pioneer – the Revolution."
20th century
-
The character of Puck frames the tales in Rudyard Kipling short story cycles Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910).
-
The Sandman and by Neil Gaiman includes Puck as a significant character.
21st century
-
Puck is a major character in Michael Buckley's 2005–2012 book series The Sisters Grimm.
-
Puck (Robin Goodfellow) is a character in Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series of novels (2006–).
-
Puck appears in Diana Wynne Jones's novel Enchanted Glass (2010).
-
Puck is a major character in Chris Adrian's 2011 novel The Great Night.
-
In the 2019 Amazon series Carnival Row, the Puck are a race of fae.
-
Puck (also known as Robin Goodfellow) joins the series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina in its third and fourth seasons (2019–2020) portrayed by Jonathan Whitesell.
-
'Robyn Goodfellowe' is a young English girl in the Irish animated feature Wolfwalkers.
See also
-
Puck ( A Midsummer Night's Dream)
-
Puck (other uses)
-
Niß Puk (also Nis Puk), a being from Danish-German folklore which also might be referred to as Puck
-
Púca
-
Bucca
