Last week I talked about categorizing faeries into the Seelie and the Unseelie Court, but the Fair Folk is so much more than faeries. One of those creatures that dwell with the faeries is the pooka, sometimes also spelled púca, phouka, or even pwca.
What is a pooka?
In his beautifully illustrated book Faeries, Brian Froud describes the pooka as “an Irish goblin with a variety of rough beast-like forms. He appears sometimes as a dog or a horse, or even a bull, but he is generally jet-black with blazing eyes. As a seemingly friendly, shaggy […] pony Phooka offers the unwary traveller a welcome lift, but once astride he is taken for a wild and terrifying gallop across the wettest and most thorny country, eventually to be dumped headlong into the mire or deposited in a ditch. The chuckle is that of the Phooka as he gallops away.”
A pooka means no harm
Some people fear the pooka because of that wild ride, but in truth, the pooka means no harm. Pookas enjoy playing a few little tricks that might appear malevolent but aren’t meant to hurt anyone. For example, a pooka loves to chat for hours, but he will leave without a word and a trace that he was there in the first place. It is also said that berries killed by frost were turned poisonous by the pookas who spit on them.
The pookas who inhabit my books
In my Crown of Tír na nÓg trilogy, the pookas are a folk separate from the faeries, although they do share some similarities. They’re mostly humanoid beings (like the Seelie and Unseelie faeries) but many have animal features such as antlers or hooved feet. In Unseelie Queen, Kayla meets all kinds of pookas when she and her friends visit the pookas’ city.
Their skin came in all shades of brown—some soft with gold flecks, others dark as the trees surrounding them. She noticed that most men had unusual features, like horns, antlers, or hooves, while the women didn’t. They resembled the Seelie women, but there was something wild about them. Maybe it was their clothing, which was much less elegant than that of the Seelies. Their dresses looked worn, their fabrics faded as if passed down through generations, though well cared for. Some even had embroideries stitched along the hem. A few women wore pants rather than skirts, their upper bodies protected by armor.
The pookas of my story are not the trickster kind like Shakespeare’s Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, they can be quite territorial and brutal. Living deep in the Whispering Woods, the pookas are led by a man named Cadfael, who strongly disagrees with many of the Seelie Queen’s decisions. Like many pooka leaders before him, he wishes for his people to be independent, and he’s been questioning the Seelie Queen’s leadership since the day she acceded to the throne. During the events of Seelie Princess, Kayla learns a bit more about why the pookas’ relationship with the Seelies has always been complicated.
“There are many reasons,” Oilibhéar said. “But for one, when the Crown of Tír na nÓg was forged, the Seelie faeries established themselves as the rulers and the pookas were not content with that… development.”
“The pookas did not want to bow to the Seelie Court,” Nooa said. “They believe in the deity Cernunnos as their true leader, even though he has not been seen since the Giants vanished from this world.”
Rhydian nodded along. “But when the pookas lost the Battle of Trees, they were forced to accept our king as their ruler. They kept fighting for their independence, even after that, until the Treaty of Blackpond.”
As beings created by the deity Cernunnos, the pookas refuse to bow to the one who was bestowed the crown by the deity Dôn. They continue to challenge the Seelie Queen’s rule throughout all three books, wishing to finally gain independence. However, they may have to consider that independence isn’t the only path that leads to freedom.
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Sarah Tanzmann 
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