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The Pooka

© Linda Casselman

A few weeks ago I wondered what I should discuss in my next article. Then on a quiet Saturday afternoon the inspiration came. My husband and I were visiting with my parents when an old black-and-white movie came on. That movie was Harvey. Surely you remember Harvey. I'll give you a hint: 6-foot tall, invisible white rabbit, fond of drinking and Elwood P. Dowd. Now you've got it!

Harvey, the 1950 film directed by Frank Capra and staring James Stewart as the loveable drunk Elwood P. Dowd, is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Mary Chase. The story revolves around the extremely pleasant Mr. Dowd and his invisible companion Harvey. While everyone thinks that Mr. Dowd is crazy and are busy trying to lock him up in the Funny Farm, Mr Dowd continues to ooze charm and spread smiles trying to introduce his invisible friend wherever he goes and to whomever he meets. In the end, he teaches us a little about the fine line between reality and fantasy, between sanity and insanity. In a memorable moment he says, "Years ago my mother used to say to me... She'd say 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant'".

In this film, we learn that sanity, or seeming sanity, isn't always the desired reality, as the cab driver states when Mr Dowd is gone to get an injection to cure him of his delusions, "After this he'll be a perfectly normal human being and you know what stinkers they are".

So what is the inspiration for a mythology article from an old movie then, you wonder? Well, that 6-foot tall invisible white rabbit, Harvey, was a pooka. A pooka? Yes, a pooka.

In the film a pooka is described as: "Pooka. From old Celtic mythology. A fairy spirit in animal form. Always very large. The pooka appears here and there, now and then, to this one and that one at his own caprice. A wise but mischievous creature. Very fond of rum-pots, crack-pots..."

And the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, says:

"pooka, phooka (pu:ka). Irish. [Ir. puca] In Irish folklore, A hobgoblin, a malignant sprite. 1825 T. C. Croker. Fairy Leg. Irish superstition makes the Phooka palpable to the touch. To its agency, peasantry usually ascribe accidental falls. 1847 Le Fanu. T O'Brian The Cavilier had heard of Phookas that... scare... the benighted traveller. 1888 W.B.Yeats Fairy & Folk T. The Pooka... seems essentially an animal spirit... [a] wild, staring phantom."

The copyright of the article The Pooka in Mythology is owned by Wayne Kreger. Permission to republish The Pooka in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.