Celtic fairy traditions
Pooka
Waters describes pookas as dark-featured fellows mounted on good horses and engaged in horse-dealing. He places them within a classification of several kinds of fairy people. They visit racecourses but are usually invisible. His account distinguishes them from the noble gentry rather than making every horse-associated encounter the work of one being.
Also known as Púca
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In the sources
Principal account
ReportedWaters describes pookas as dark-featured fellows mounted on good horses and engaged in horse-dealing. He places them within a classification of several kinds of fairy people.
Further detail
ReportedThey visit racecourses but are usually invisible. His account distinguishes them from the noble gentry rather than making every horse-associated encounter the work of one being.
Context & interpretation
Evans-Wentz combines named informants, manuscript narratives, and his own psychical theory in a 1911 survey. This entry preserves those distinctions: collected belief and literary tradition do not establish the physical existence of an Otherworld.
Original passages
Source 1
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
some misfortune will come to you. Pookas are black-featured fellows mounted on good horses ; and are horse-dealers. They visit racecourses, but usually areOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 84
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0084
- Original scan leaf
- 85
- Recorded leaf number
- 85
- Current Reader position
- 80
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
good horses ; and are horse-dealers. They visit racecourses, but usually are invisible. The gentry are the most noble tribe of all ;Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 84
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0084
- Original scan leaf
- 85
- Recorded leaf number
- 85
- Current Reader position
- 80
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Banshee
A warning woman associated with family, mourning, and the dead.
Same subject and traditionBucca
A Cornish power that the survey distinguishes from ordinary fairies.
Same subject and traditionCornish Piskies
Fairy people whose presence is negotiated around Cornish homes and moors.
Same subject and traditionFenodyree
The Manx helper whose farm work ends when clothes are offered.