The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various CountriesKeightley, Thomas
General
The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries
Keightley, Thomas
Fairies; Fairy tales; Folk literature; Folklore
In Ben Jonson's play of The Devil is an Ass, the unlucky fiend who gives
origin to its name is called Pug, and in the same author's Sad Shepherd
the personage named Puck-hairy is, as Gifford justly observes, "not the
Fairy or Oriental Puck, though often confounded with him."[364] In
truth, it is first in Shakespeare that we find Puck confounded with the
House-spirit, and having those traits of character which are now
regarded as his very essence, and have caused his name Pug to be given
to the agile mischievous monkey, and to a kind of little dog.
We will now discuss the origin of this far-famed appellation and its
derivation.
In the Slavonic tongues, which are akin to the Teutonic, _Bôg_ is God,
and there are sleights of etymology which would identify the two
terms; the Icelandic Puki is an evil spirit, and such we have seen was
the English Pouke, which easily became Puck, Pug, and Bug; finally, in
Friesland the Kobold is called Puk, and in old German we meet with
Putz or Butz as the name of a being not unlike the original English
Puck.[365] The Devonshire fairies are called Pixies, and the Irish
have their Pooka, and the Welsh their Pwcca, both derived from Pouke
or Puck. From Bug comes the Scottish Bogle, (which Gawin Douglas
expressly distinguishes from the Brownie) and the Yorkshire
Boggart.[366] The Swedish language has the terms _spöka_, _spöke_; the
Danish _spöge_, _spögelse_, the German, _spuken_, _spuk_, all used of
spirits or ghosts, and their apparitions. Perhaps the Scottish
_pawkey_, sly, knowing, may belong to the same family of words. Akin
to Bogle was the old English term Puckle, noticed above, which is
still retained in the sense of mischievous, as in Peregrine Pickle and
Little Pickle. It has been conjectured[367] that _Picklehäring_, the
German term for zany or merry-andrew, may have been properly
_Picklehärin_, _i.e._ the hairy sprite, answering to Jonson's
Puck-hairy, and that he may have worn a vesture of hair or leaves to
be rough like the Brownie and kindred beings.
From Bug also come Bugbear, and Bugleboo, or Bugaboo. They owe their
origin probably to the Ho! Ho! Ho! given to Puck or Robin Goodfellow,
as it was to the Devil (_i.e._, Pouke) in the Mysteries. Bull-beggar
may be only a corruption of Bugbear.[368]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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