Who is Puck?
Puck is a mischievous nature sprite in English folklore who has inspired a number of figures, including the spirit of the same name in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Puck is so closely associated with mischief and fun-loving personalities that the term “puckish” is sometimes used to describe someone with an independent streak and a love of practical jokes. Stories about fun-loving sprites and spirits are common to many world religions, and some form of Puck has probably existed in the folklore of the British Isles for centuries. This figure is also sometimes known as Hob or Will-o-the-wisp, and in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he also goes by “Robin Goodfellow.” These variable names reflect Puck’s constantly metamorphosing personality. While Shakespeare depicts Puck as a single, distinctive individual, originally the term “puck” was used to describe any sort of mischief-loving nature spirit. These spirits supposedly appeared in all sorts of guises to confuse people and play pran
