Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Taming the Pooka, Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy: Magical Creatures, A Weiser Books Collection
    Taming the Pooka, Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy: Magical Creatures, A Weiser Books Collection
    Taming the Pooka, Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy: Magical Creatures, A Weiser Books Collection
    Ebook44 pages55 minutes

    Taming the Pooka, Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy: Magical Creatures, A Weiser Books Collection

    By T. Crofton Croker and William Butler Yeats

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Varla Ventura, fan favorite on Huffington Post’s Weird News, frequent guest on Coast to Coast, and bestselling author of The Book of the Bizarre and Beyond Bizarre, introduces a new Weiser Books Collection of forgotten crypto-classics. Magical Creatures is a hair-raising herd of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s affectionate and unerring eye for the fantastic.

    Perhaps one of the most notorious creatures from the fairy realm is the ever-changing trickster fairy: the Pooka. A shapeshifter, the pooka can take many forms, including invisibility, although it most often appears as a terrible horse with eyes of fire and flaming breath. It can also appear as a goat, goblin, dog, or even a rabbit. Not inherently evil, their main task is taunting: they'll take you on a joyride of terrifying proportions, shake you out of your current frame of mind, knock you out of your stupor with a swift kick. Taming the Pooka includes tales of this monster's mayhem--from such notables as W. B. Yeats and T. Crofton Croker, as well as Douglas Hyde. No one is beyond the cunning of the pooka!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel Weiser
    Release dateDec 1, 2001
    ISBN9781619400122
    Taming the Pooka, Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy: Magical Creatures, A Weiser Books Collection

    Read more from T. Crofton Croker

    Related to Taming the Pooka, Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      UFO Films And UFO Flaps

      Feb 24, 2022

      The interaction and influence of the media on how UFOs are reported and experienced is a cornerstone of the psychosocial hypothesis (PSH; see FT400:52-53) to explaining the belief in extraterrestrial UFO invaders. Martin Kottmeyer, in the pages of Ma

      4 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of Sacred Places

      Feb 8, 2023

      In Search Of Sacred Places
      5 min read

    • Article

      Building A Spell

      Mar 27, 2020

      Building A Spell
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Story Of WITCHES

      Oct 20, 2021

      Many of those dressing up as witches and ghouls for Halloween know little of the real history of witches. We see modern incarnations in culture as harmless, like Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch children’s books, and the trainee witches from the Harry P

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Hellebore Guide To Occult Britain

      Dec 29, 2021

      ▸ RELEASED OUT NOW! 313 pages | Paperback ▸ Editor Maria J Pérez Cuerv ▸ Publisher Hellebore Books • What’s Hellebore? A magazine about British folk horror/its inspirations. • A travel guide equivalent of Reader’s Digest classic Folklore Myths And Le

      1 min read

    • Article

      History of Ghosts

      Jun 18, 2020

      If you enjoyed our History of the Headless Horseman feature then you’ll enjoy the rest of the special for which that is just a teaser. The History of Ghosts is a demystifying look at the real stories behind the spooks, spectres and phantoms that have

      1 min read

    • Article

      Outer Source

      Nov 23, 2021

      Outer Source
      2 min read

    • Article

      Online Exhibition Explores The Dark History Of Witchcraft

      Oct 9, 2021

      The newly-launched online exhibition has been curated by MLitt Museum Studies students at the University of Aberdeen. Drawing on the university’s rich collections, it takes virtual visitors on a journey of discovery, examining aspects of early modern

      1 min read

    • Article

      Fortune Telling Through Time

      Dec 3, 2020

      When drinking loose-leaf tea, some of the leaves inevitably stick to the bottom and sides of the cup. Tasseography involves ‘reading’ the shapes formed by these leaves to predict the tea drinker’s future – an angel, for example, means good news is on

      2 min read

    • Article

      Season Of The Witch?

      Nov 3, 2022

      Season Of The Witch?
      10 min read

    • Article

      Fortean Times

      Jan 27, 2022

      EDITOR DAVID SUTTON drsutton@forteantimes.com FOUNDING EDITORS BOB RICKARD (ft-bobrickard@mail.com) PAUL SIEVEKING (sieveking@forteantimes.com) NEWS EDITOR IAN SIMMONS (simmons@forteantimes.com) ART DIRECTOR ETIENNE GILFILLAN (etienne@forteantimes.co

      1 min read

    • Article

      Mystical Britain

      Sep 6, 2019

      Mystical Britain
      5 min read

    • Article

      Horror In Highgate

      Jul 9, 2019

      Horror In Highgate
      2 min read

    • Article

      Magical Worlds

      Oct 10, 2019

      Magical Worlds
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Dullard

      Jun 5, 2019

      The villagers of Yockenthwaite knew him as ‘Jack Dull’, ‘Jack Dolt,’ or sometimes just ‘The Dullard’. His real name was John Dullard, last in a long, illustrious line of Dullards, and a man – so they said – of quite miraculous stupidity. The kind of

      7 min read

    • Article

      Bookshelf

      Mar 2, 2020

      There are simply some books that you inadvertently read out loud to whoever is closest—cat or human. I found myself having a giant laugh and then being unable to resist sharing long passages of Carla Funk’s memoir. Though I worried that the religious

      5 min read

    • Article

      Unreality Television

      May 27, 2020

      Unreality Television
      4 min read

    • Article

      Roger's PROFANISAURUS

      Jun 24, 2021

      Roger's PROFANISAURUS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Possessed By Possessions

      Dec 7, 2022

      YOU can’t judge a book by its title. I have no idea how Possessed by Bruce Hood made its way onto my bedside table, but there it has been lurking, unread, for the past couple of years. I assumed it was either a passionate romance (bleurgh) or about d

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Literary Zoo

      Dec 9, 2021

      A Literary Zoo
      4 min read

    • Article

      Six Bestiary Poems

      Nov 1, 2020

      The world, is it finite? Pliny the Elderon what he saw and heard, 37 “books” toround that up, early C.E. as heproceeded to be infinite. His Naturalis. His Historia.First bestiary ever in Book 8. Land lifeand sea life and through-the-air and undergrou

      4 min read

    • Article

      Year Of The Goat

      Mar 18, 2021

      Year Of The Goat
      3 min read

    • Article

      All I Want For Christmas

      Dec 16, 2020

      IT was more than an icicle. More like an icy boulder, oversized and murkily white, faceted like a cartoon jewel and, shortly, dripping. It had lurked beneath a low stone bridge at the bottom of the wood, where sycamore thickets bald for winter gave w

      18 min read

    • Article

      Animal Planet

      May 3, 2020

      Animal Planet
      3 min read

    • Article

      Rats Aweigh

      Jul 24, 2019

      Rats Aweigh
      4 min read

    • Article

      And That’s No Bull

      May 28, 2023

      And That’s No Bull
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Taming the Pooka, Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Taming the Pooka, Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy - T. Crofton Croker

      Taming the Pooka

      Celtic Tales of the Trickster Fairy

      Varla Ventura

      Magical Creatures

      A Weiser Books Collection

      This ebook edition first published in 2011 by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.

      With offices at:

      665 Third Street, Suite 400

      San Francisco, CA 94107

      www.redwheelweiser.com

      Copyright © 2011 by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. All rights reserved.

      The Pooka, The Kildare Pooka, The Piper and the Pooka, and Daniel O' Rourke were excerpted from Fairy and Folk Tales of Irish Peasantry, edited by W.B. Yeats (New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1888). Taming the Pooka is from Irish Wonders by D. R. McAnnally, Jr. (New York: Weathervane, 1888).

      eISBN: 978-1-61940-012-2

      Cover design by Jim Warner

      Cover photograph Shutterstock © Dmitriy Shironosov

      Contents

      Introduction by Varla Ventura

      The Pooka by W.B. Yeats

      The Kildare Pooka by Patrick Kennedy

      The Piper and the Puca by Douglas Hyde

      Daniel O'Rourke by T. Crofton Croker

      Taming the Pooka by D. R. McAnnally, Jr.

      Introduction

      A Midnight Ride

      Aye, we know there are many predators out there in the great, vast world. If we aren't worried about the Zombie Apocalypse we are clutching our purses in fear of getting mugged. And thanks to medication, many of us who might stay up all night wrought with anxiety can get some sleep.

      I can't tell you that what you are about to read is going to help ease any of those fears. In fact, it may add to them. After reading the following stories, on top of the usual ghosts that rattle the windows and demons that lurk in the basement, you'll add the pooka to your list of things-you'd-like-not-to-encounter-in-the-night.

      Also known as Puca, the Irish word for goblin, you can find as many spellings of the word as there are forms of the monster itself: Pook, Puki, Puka, Phouka, Pwca, Pwwka, Pwwka, Púka, Pwca, and even Puk or Puck (it certainly bears some relation to the infamous Puck in its trickery and Pan-like behavior.) The Pooka can take nearly any form, including invisibility, though it is most frequently sighted in the form of a horse—a black horse with eyes of fire and breath of blue flame. This horse takes the terrified mortal who is most unfortunate to have encountered it on a midnight ride that turns hair white, but no real harm actually comes to the person, usually. The shapeshifter can also appear as a goat, a goblin, a dog, or even a rabbit. Remember that big invisible rabbit that James Stewart spent a good deal of time conversing and sometimes even arguing with in the 1950 film Harvey? Harvey, the six-foot, three-and-a-half-inch tall white rabbit was a Pooka.

      Stewart's character, Elwood P. Dowd, was a drunk. This is a recurring theme in encounters with a Pooka. The victim is usually drunk and stumbling home in the dead of night when they see it. (I must admit I've been a prime candidate for the Pooka's trickery on more than one occasion myself, although my Pooka most recently took the form of Cookie Monster. It was a very long night.) This generally works perfectly with the Pooka's plan to torment its victim, since no one believes the drunk.

      Though the Pooka today is generally more of a trickster and a nuisance—they love nothing more than getting a good scare from their victim and were once thought to be responsible for such ill luck

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1