Zoega's "A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic" gives "puki",m. "Devil,
fiend"
Hall's "A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary" gives "puca" m. "goblin"
Warrack's "The Concise Scots Dictionary" gives "pouk" a mischievous sprite.
Shouldn't tink he would find this geneaology offensive. Loki is another
trickster. This is a good month for them or him since it was the 13th. one
taken out of the calendar.
CDM

----------
>From: Alex Davis <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: help
>Date: Mon, Nov 6, 2000, 7:27 AM
>

> One final fling at catching the Pooka.  See Yeats's entry on "The Pooka" in
> _Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland_: "The Pooka, recte Puca, seems
> essentially an animal spirit.  Some derive his name from poc, a he-goat;
> and speculative persons consider him the forefather of Shakespeare's
> "Puck". . .  He has many shapes--is now a horse, now an ass, now a bull,
> now a goat, now an eagle.  Like all spirits, he is only half in the world
> of form."  Beware: he is a November spirit.
>
> Regards,
> Alex
>
> At 07:39 03/11/00 -0800, you wrote:
>>Actually "puck" is obviously closer in English. See OED p.2350 "whether it
>>was originally Teutonic or Celtic is unsettled." So are a lot of other
>>things in this brave new world.
>>
>>----------
>>>From: Alex Davis <[log in to unmask]>
>>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>>Subject: Re: help
>>>Date: Fri, Nov 3, 2000, 3:35 AM
>>>
>>
>>> Dear Alex,
>>>
>>>         Irish: Puca--hobgoblin is the closest approximation in English.
> Don't
>>> bother with Websters, see a Gearrfhhocloir Gaeilge-Bearla (Irish-English
>>> dictionary), if you can lay your hands on one.
>>>         Best
>>>         Alex
>>>
>>>   At 16:22 01/11/00 +0100, you wrote:
>>>>Dear Pounders,
>>>>
>>>>I am doing a new translation of ALL Coney-Island-poems by Ferlinghetti
> for a
>>>>publisher in Berlin and cannot refer to my own 1972 translation (Sel.
>>> Poems) as
>>>>that contained only a selection of Coney (and other LF volumes). Therefore
>>> this
>>>>call for help.
>>>>
>>>>In poem # 11 we have these 2 lines:
>>>>
>>>>            "and a stray Connemara Pooka"
>>>>                                         (life size)"
>>>>
>>>>Obviously not one of my numerous dictionaries (including "I Hear America
>>>>Talking", "The American Heritage Dictionary" and a very good Websters
>>> PAPER-ed.)
>>>>offers help as to what a "Connemara Pooka" might be. Must be an (exotic?)
>>>>animal.
>>>>
>>>>I don't want to ask LF directly - or wd only do so if no Pounder out
> there cd
>>>>offer an explanation.
>>>>
>>>>Thanks anyway,
>>>>
>>>>alex
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>________________________________________________________________________
>>>>
>>>> Alexander Schmitz - Kleine Moorstrasse 8A - D-21640 Horneburg - Germany
>>>>Ph:(49)4163-7565 - Fx: 7549 - Mob: 0177-5128767 - eM: [log in to unmask]
>>>>
>>>
>>
>