A brag is a mischievous shapeshifting
goblin
A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...
in the
folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
of Northumbria (
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
and
Durham[ Simpson, Jacqueline (2000). ''A Dictionary of English Folklore''. Oxford University Press. p. 32. ]) and often takes the form of a horse or donkey.
[Henderson, William (1879). ''Folklore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders'' (2nd ed.) W. Satchell, Peyton & Co. p. 270.][Briggs, Katharine (1976). ''An Encyclopedia of Fairies''. Pantheon Books. p. 36. .] It is fond of letting unsuspecting humans ride on its back before bucking them off into a pond or bush and running away laughing. One notable example is the Picktree Brag that was said to take other unusual forms such as a calf with a white handkerchief around its neck, a naked headless man, and even four men holding a white sheet.[ A brag at Humbleknowe was never seen but made hideous noises in the night.][
]
Popular culture
Gary the Horse, from the webcomic ''Bad Machinery
''Bad Machinery'' is a webcomic written and drawn by John Allison and set in the fictional town of Tackleford, West Yorkshire, England. ''Bad Machinery'' started on 21 September 2009 loosely based on characters and situations from John Allison' ...
'', identifies himself as a brag after bucking Shauna Wickle into the water after convincing her to take a ride on his back.
See also
*A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...
* Dunnie
* Hedley Kow
*Púca
The púca ( Irish for ''spirit/ghost''; plural púcaí), puca (Old English for ''goblin''), also pwca, pookah, phouka, and puck, is a creature of Celtic, English, and Channel Islands folklore. Considered to be bringers both of good and bad f ...
*Kelpie
A kelpie, or water kelpie (Scottish Gaelic: '' each-uisge''), is a mythical shape-shifting spirit inhabiting lochs in Scottish folklore. Legends of these shape-shifting water-horses, under various names, spread across the British Isles, appea ...
*Nuggle
A nuggle, njuggle, or , is a mythical water horse of primarily Shetland folklore where it is also referred to as a shoepultie or shoopiltee on some parts of the islands. A nocturnal creature that is always of a male gender, there are occasional fl ...
*Tangie
A tangie (or ''tongie'') is a shape-shifting sea spirit in the folklore of the Orkney and Shetland Islands in Scotland. A sea horse or merman, it takes on the appearance of either a horse or an aged man. Usually described as being covered with sea ...
*Nixie (folklore)
The Nixie, Nixy, Nix, Näcken, Nicor, Nøkk, or Nøkken (; , ; ; Norwegian ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; or ) are humanoid, and often shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore.
Under a variety of names, they are common to the stories ...
References
Goblins
Northumbrian folklore
Northumbrian folkloric beings
County Durham folklore
English legendary creatures
Legendary horses
Fictional donkeys
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