Pooka

The Pooka — púca in Irish — is one of the most capricious spirits of Irish folklore, a shape-shifter who appears as a sleek black horse, a goat, a hare, a great dog or an eagle, often with burning golden eyes. In its horse form it was notorious for offering — or forcing — a wild night-ride across the country, sweeping up the unwary and setting them down again, shaken and far from home, by dawn. Yet the Pooka was not purely malevolent: it could give sound counsel and warnings, and was treated with wary respect.

It was closely bound to the turning of the year, and especially to the days after Samhain, when by tradition the Pooka spoiled the wild fruits still left on the bushes, which were no longer to be gathered. Its name echoes across the Celtic and Germanic worlds — the Welsh pwca, the English Puck — marking it as a very old figure indeed. The Pooka remains among the best-loved and least predictable of all Ireland's fairy beings.