SCOTTISH PUCK (ROBIN GOODFELLOW) HOBGOBLIN

Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, is a character from Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream". With his flute made from a willow twig, he accompanies fairies on their moonlight dances.

The Welsh called him pwca, which is pronounced the same as his Irish incarnation pooka. These are far from his only names. Parallel words exist in many ancient languages - puca in Old English, puki in Old Norse, puke in Swedish, puge in Danish, puks in Low German, pukis in Latvia and Lithuania -- mostly with the original meaning of a demon, devil or evil and malignant spirit.  Because of this similarity it is uncertain whether the original puca sprang from the imaginative minds of the Scandinavians, the Germans or the Irish.

As a shape-shifter, puck has had many appearances over the years. He's been in the form of animals, like how the pooka can become a horse, eagle or ass. He's been a rough, hairy creature in many versions. One Irish story has him as an old man. He's been pictured like a brownie or a hobbit.

Robin Goodfellow is one of the faeries known as hobgoblins or just hobs. Hob is a short form for the name Robin or Robert ("the goblin named Robin".) Robin itself was a medieval nickname for the devil. Robin Goodfellow was not only famous for shape-shifting and misleading travelers, he was also a helpful domestic sprite much like the brownies. He would clean houses and such in exchange for some cream or milk. If offered new clothes, he'd stop cleaning.