Jawnomicon

Brag

Also called Picktree Brag.

Brags are shape-shifting goblins of England's Northern Counties that appear as grotesque horses, calves, and stranger forms to mislead and humiliate night travelers.

At a glance

Tradition
English folklore
Region
County Durham, England (place of origin)
Trait family
The Water-Beckoners

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Disguised as harmless livestock
    why

    The trick at the center of its character is misplaced trust — a traveler takes it for the ordinary farm animal it appears to be, and the brag then misleads its rider into trouble, ending the joke with a triumphant horse-laugh.

Utility powers

  • Shapeshifting
    why

    It appeared variously as a calf wearing a white handkerchief around its neck, as a coach-horse trotting the lane ahead of people, as a donkey, as four men carrying a white sheet, and once as a headless naked man.

Curses

  • Mischief pranks
    why

    The trick at the center of its character is misplaced trust — a traveler takes it for the ordinary farm animal it appears to be, and the brag then misleads its rider into trouble, ending the joke with a triumphant horse-laugh.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.