Fairy Rings

17 comments

My son’s girlfriend asked me last night ‘Why has Jim next door got a pile of stones laid out in a wee cirle on his lawn?’….
Perplexed – I said ‘Who knows what Jim gets up to in his garden?’

Anyway – on further investigation this afternoon, well not much investigation really, I only had too look out the upstairs window!! I saw it was a circle of fungii.

Since it was Halloween yesterday – I wondered if there was a connection.

It seems that there are vast amounts of superstition and folklore throughout Europe involving fairy rings.

I found this old Scots rhyme that describes dangers in such places…..

He wha tills the fairies’ green
Nae luck again shall hae :
And he wha spills the fairies’ ring
Betide him want and wae.
For weirdless days and weary nights
Are his till his deein’ day.
But he wha gaes by the fairy ring,
Nae dule nor pine shall see,
And he wha cleans the fairy ring
An easy death shall dee

If you need a translation here you go….

He who tills the fairies green
No luck again shall have
And he who spills the fairies ring
Betide him want and with
For weirdless days and weary nights
Are his till his dying day
But he who goes by the fairy ring
No duel or pine(want) shall see
And he who cleans the fairy ring
An easy death shall die

A picture of Jim’s Fairy Ring….

1 Nov, 2012
19 likes

Comments

Drc726

Thanks for the translation and the photo as I have never seen one.

1 Nov, 2012

Bjs

Oh dear not much hope for me ,I clear them regular from the garden so Jamie wont eat them,He did once when a puppy and ran around all day crashing in to things.More than normal that is.lol

1 Nov, 2012

Bloomer

Spooky,Scottish..but what a nice thing to see.It's the first time I have seen one as well...

1 Nov, 2012

Hywel

I've never seen a fairy ring. It's interesting to hear about the folklore and poem.

1 Nov, 2012

Lincslass

Wonder what caused them to grow like that, I`ve never seen them growing in a circle, I like myths and legends, even magical ones, lol.
When we were kids we were always told that the brighter, thicker circles that sometimes appeared in the lawns were fairy rings...

2 Nov, 2012

Nariz

If I remember rightly .... the 'Fairy Ring' starts with one toadstool/mushroom which then explodes its spores outwards from its circular edges, thereby creating new plants which grow in a 'fairy ring' around the original (now dead) toadstool/mushroom. Not nearly as pretty an answer as 'the fairies planted them.' ;o)

2 Nov, 2012

Pamg

I hope you gave him a copy of the poem Scottish......

Shapes in nature can be fascinating, there is so much we have yet to understand

2 Nov, 2012

Sixpence

Fairy rings are fungi I had them in my garden after neighbour put a tall fence then the rest of the grass turned to moss, so I had it all dug up. Thanks for the verse interesting, I too will have no luck then lol perhaps the grave yard over the other fence will be the death hehe.

2 Nov, 2012

Costas1

Aparently no mushrooms and definately no fairy rings in my garden for the first time in many-many years. Can anybody tell me why? Was it the very wet summer we had or someting else? I don't miss them of course.

2 Nov, 2012

Gattina

Isn't that brilliant? A perfect example. We get a few fungi in the lawn - in fact we get loads of stuff - anything but grass - but never seem to get fairy rings.

3 Nov, 2012

Sanbaz

arent they lovely and thanx for the poem about them to scottish, iv never had one in my garden :o)

4 Nov, 2012

Scotsgran

What a fascinating blog. I looked up Fairy rings and there is a Scottish Country dance named Fairy Rings. Have a look at the following link to read more about how the presence of rabbits and extra nitrogen can explain how they grow as they do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Ring

7 Nov, 2012

Scottish

Thanks all for enjoying this blog. There are some fascinating facts and fiction about them.
If you care to look follow Scotsgran's link.
I had my nieces so excited by the fact that the fairies were living next door - but they must NOT be nosy and go take a look because it would scare them away.
They were so over joyed that they brought all the girls in the village to see where the fairies living. They have all promised not to make a noise when they go past Jim's garden just in case it chases them away!!

7 Nov, 2012

Gattina

Ah, Bless!

7 Nov, 2012

Scotsgran

Lovely to know there is still magic for children.

7 Nov, 2012

Janeplant

thank you for link here... ive never seen a fairy ring until now...

liked how it all came about....

nice poems too :):):) seem so differant dont they... yet the same...

from jane!!!!!