Brag is a one of the mischievous shape-shifting kinds of goblins. Like the Irish phooka, he often takes the form of a horse. He belongs to the Northern Counties, which are rich in Hobgoblins.

In "Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties" William Henderson quotes some tales of the Picktree Brag told by Sir Cuthbert Sharpe in "The Bishoprick Garland". It kept changing its form. Sometimes it was like a calf, with a white handkerchief round its neck, sometimes like a dick-ass; it appeared once as four men holding a white sheet, once as a naked man without a head. One old lady had a tale about her uncle. He had a suit of white clothes which always brought him bad luck. The first time he put it on he met the brag, and once, as he was returning from a christening in that very suit, he met the brag again. He was a brave man, so he leapt on its back.

But when he came to the four lonin ends, the Brag joggled him so sore that he could hardly keep his seat; and at last it threw him into the middle o' the pond, and ran away, setting up a great nicker and laugh, for all the world like a Christian.

The dunnie and hedley kow behave in the same kind of way (1290: p.36).