Also known as, “What the bleep is a pooka?”, which may be the reaction of certain people. Anyway. A pooka is, in a nutshell, a shapeshifting spirit of the faerie family from Wales or Ireland. Most commonly, they appear in the form of a shaggy black horse with sulfurous yellow eyes. A pooka’s yellow eyes always give it away, even in human form. Gwen, being half-pooka, can pass her eyes off as hazel, though they glow when she gets excited. Pookas are tricksters who love waylaying innocents, according to lore, though that may just be human propaganda. Pookas also go by the name puca, phouka, pwca, and many other spelling variants.

In the 1800’s, people believed differently about Others like pookas. Usually, with gobs more suspicion and fear. Gwen loves visiting the used bookstore in her town and finding ancient tomes with silly old descriptions of pookas. Gwen has plenty of snark to spare for this one:

“Pooka: a shapeshifting spirit of the faerie family; a malevolent trickster. Indigenous to Ireland and Wales. Most commonly appears in the form of a black horse with nary a white hair upon its body. Can also assume the shape of a goat, a dog, an eagle, or presumably any animal. Whatever form the pooka chooses, it can always be detected by its sulfurous yellow eyes. In the form of a horse, a pooka uses persuasive magic to entice travelers on a wild nighttime ride. This ride invariably ends when the pooka throws the rider into brambles or bog, usually not fatally, though some pookas favor precipices. The Celts once revered pookas. On the night of Samhain, the first of November, they would consult a pooka for prophetic answers. This heathen practice must be discouraged, as pookas are dangerous beasts with little affinity for humans.”

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