What is "friar rush"

Puck \Puck\, n. [OE. pouke; cf. OSw. puke, Icel. p[=u]ki an evil demon, W. pwca a hobgoblin. Cf. Poker a bugbear, Pug.]

1. (Medi[ae]val Myth.) A celebrated fairy, ``the merry wanderer of the night;'' -- called also Robin Goodfellow, Friar Rush, Pug, etc.
   --Shak.

   He meeteth Puck, whom most men call Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall.
   --Drayton.

2. (Zo["o]l.) The goatsucker. [Prov. Eng.]

Friar Rush (, , ) is the title of a medieval Low German legend, surviving in a 1488 edition in verse form. During the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous High German, Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish), Dutch and English translations and adaptations in Volksbuch or chap book form were printed. The first High German edition dates to 1515, printed in Strassburg. The story along with those of Till Eulenspiegel, Faust and Marcolf was among the most successful popular literature in 16th-century Germany. The various adaptations vary in their style and focus, some intending to set a moral example or criticize excesses in monastic life, others simply intending to amuse the reader.

A connection between Friar Rush and Hödekin, a kobold figure of German folklore, was suggested by the Shakespeare scholar George Lyman Kittredge, who noted the connection has been made in Reginald Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584. Kittredge (1900) criticizes the then-common identification of Friar Rush with Robin Goodfellow as simplistic.