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Meet Puck, the Mischievous Sprite of Olde (and maybe current) England

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Henry Fuseli, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Puck, The Naughty Sprite

As we approach Midsummer’s Eve…

To many, the naughty sprite Puck (aka Robin Goodfellow) is best known from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596) as one of the main fairy characters that populate the play, significantly influencing events with his cheeky pranks such as replacing Nick Bottom's head with that of an ass.

Older readers may possibly recall Kipling’s novel Puck of Pook's Hill where Puck (“a small, brown… pointy-eared person”), who refers to himself as "the oldest Old Thing in England", recounts various scenes of English history/fantasy to two children from nearby Burwash, in the High Weald of Sussex. Kipling's Puck is extremely critical of the modern image of a fairy: “Can you wonder that the People of the Hills don't care to be confused with that pointy-winged, wand-waving, sugar-and-shake-your-head set of imposters? Butterfly wings, indeed!”

Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) by Rudyard Kipling

‘Pook’s Hill’ is thought to be the hill that can be seen to the south-west from the lawn at Bateman’s, Kipling’s charming rural residence. Its real name is Perch Hill.

Jonathan Whitesell played Robin Goodfellow in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2020):

Jack Gleeson (Joffrey from Game of Thrones) also essayed Puck in season two of The Sandman on Netflix last year.

Joseph Noel Paton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In Amazon’s appalling fantasy series Carnival Row (2019, 2023), the Puck are a race of ‘fae’.

But who was Puck – and was he in any way ‘real’?

Puck associated place-names in England are relatively rare when compared to those commonly said to possess Norse and Saxon stems and originate from Gloucestershire, parts of Sussex, and the South-West, suggesting a possible Celtic origin. Names such as South Gloucestershire’s Pucklechurch ("Puck's Church") and various Puck- and Poke- prefixed woods, hills, and wells survive from early-medieval times to the this very day. Looking further back, Puck has been linked to the Greek God, Pan. In Anna Franklin’s Midsummer: Magical Celebrations of the Summer Solstice (2002) she says, “Robin Goodfellow is sometimes described as having the head of a youth and the body of a goat. Like the god Pan, he has a lusty nature, small horns on his head, and carries musical pipes. It may be that he is the fairy remnant of the ancient horned god or nature spirits, since there originally seems to have been a race of pucks.”

There is also said to be a link between Puck, The Green Man and Robin Hood – all to an extent representing nature in its raw and wilful form. Mike Harding, author of A Little Book of the Green Man (1998), said in a 2010 letter to The Guardian:

Robin Hood and the woodland orgies

Of course there was no Robin Hood. The name is a corruption of Robin of the Wood or Robin in the Hood and refers to Robin Goodfellow/Puck, the spirit of the woods, a pagan nature god who lived on well beyond the Christianisation of this island (Robin is often quoted in witchcraft trials as the name the witches chose for their familiars). He was no "tricksy spirit" but a powerful green god – perhaps seen in one aspect in the images of the Green Man that adorn so many of our great medieval churches and cathedrals. Mayday (a movable feast dependent upon the first blossoming of the hawthorn) was the signal for all and sundry to hie them away to the woods for a mass orgy. Harsh winters and poor diet meant low fertility, so the best way to ensure a good stock of babies was for women to have as many sexual partners as possible.

Any children born of the woodland orgies that went under the name of the Robin Hood games became known as Robson, Robinson or Hudson (Robert Graves – The White Goddess). Men in tights might work very well for the film-makers and the tourist boards – green gods that encouraged fecund fornication probably wouldn't figure highly in the naming of airports. And Maid Marian? Mary the Virgin Mother, the maid, consort of the Green Man perhaps. Morris dancers? Well that phallic symbol the maypole was brought out of the woods accompanied by a gang of dancers – Morris men. (Mary's men?) Until Cromwell came along and did away with maypoles and bonking in the bower, England was a much more ribald and perhaps even merry place. Perhaps the Tories who want a Big Society and a return to merry England could revive the maypole and spontaneous and widespread woodland nookie – bit late to put it in the manifesto though.

Despite the comparative scarcity, at least 50 places in England feature the word "Puck," including:

Puckrup, Gloucestershire – the hamlet derives its name from Old English, meaning a "goblin-haunted farmstead". In local folklore, the locality is heavily associated with Puck (or Puca)

Puckaster Cove, Isle of Wight – mentioned frequently in local folklore regarding ‘fairy dances’.

Puckstye & Pockford, Surrey – relating to nearby fields and a centuries-old goblin/sprite-haunted pathway

Puckham Woods, Gloucestershire – associated with medieval witchcraft

Puckshipton, Wiltshire – strongly associated with sightings of goblins etc

According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898): Puck/Robin Goodfellow is both a "drudging fiend", and merry domestic fairy, famous for mischievous pranks and practical jokes. During late evenings Puck will sometimes perform small services for the family over which he ‘presides’. The Scots call this kind of domestic spirit a brownie; the Germans, Kobold or Knecht Ruprecht. Scandinavians called it Nissë God-dreng.

According to his mood, Puck would undertake minor housework, some fine needlework or butter-churning. He would assist housewives with their chores, in expectation of an offering of some fresh crusty white bread and creamy milk. If this were neglected, he would steal that which he believed was owed and enact other petty acts of retribution upon the householders.

After the Protestant Reformation, Puck became the subject of negative texts written by Protestant proselytisers, along with, of course, other supernatural entities. Edmond Bicknoll claimed he was born from the ‘fruit of infidelity’ and was a conspirator of the devil, whilst Reginald Scot referred to Puck as the ‘great and ancient bullbeggar’ and Edward Dering blamed the sprite for the ‘idle superstitions’ of medieval religion.

Contrary to the attacks from Protestant authorities, the belief in Robin Goodfellow and his fairy companions remained significant in early modern popular life, particularly in the realm of household. Indeed, in Bedfordshire, where I currently abide, local rustic families supposedly still give offerings and venerate the ‘Little Folk/Hobs/Lubber Fiends’ who will minister to their domiciliary needs, if appropriately placated.

The fear Puck could engenderer also led to other customs which were designed to prevent his punishments from occurring. For example, people would often leave out pails of water for the creatures to wash themselves. In 1731, George Waldron argued that this belief was still important, saying “a person would be thought impudently profane” to go to bed “without having first set a tub, or pail full of clean fresh cool water”, in order for “these guests to bathe themselves in”.

Which is nice. Maybe this accounts for the pails of water left by cottages in my locality; unless of course it’s meant for the squirrels and birds during the current heat wave.

Moses Haughton the younger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The 'lubber fiend', a nocturnal household drudge of folklore, lying on a tiled floor beside a fire, satiated from the empty bowl of cream fallen by his right hand, a butterfly circling above him; after a lost painting for the Milton Gallery by Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), rendering by Moses Haughton the younger (1773–1849).

Puck was portrayed as a cocky trickster who could also shape-shift to toy with the people he met, stating, “sometimes I meet them like a man, sometimes an oxe, sometimes a hound, and to a horse I turn me can.” His jolly japes ranged from ruining dinner parties by annoying guests, spooking people in their sleep and when in the mood, swapping human children for hideous elf-changelings.

puck 1789 by joshua reynolds 2c3d9526d6d47ca28f260cba014c32bd 800 Paranormal Daily News

Joshua Reynolds, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Puck, as Robin Goodfellow, even 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."

In 1952, a woman named Mrs. C. Woods reported encountering a 3-foot-tall "elf" or sprite whilst yomping on Dartmoor. Apparently she initially mistook the peculiar little figure for an animal, but realized it was a "tiny man in brown" wearing a smock when she approached closer.

The Red Sprite, a form of upper-atmospheric lightning, is sometimes referred to as "Puck", a reference to mischievous nature spirits, inspiring the phenomenon's name. Whilst extremely rare, Red Sprites have been photographed and witnessed in the night skies of England during severe thunderstorms.

The Hillfort of Sussex kings on Midsummer's Eve