All about fairy rings

March 18th, 2009 § 1 Comment

As I mentioned not long ago I bought some fabric to make a reading corner cushion for my girls. The fabric is a super sweet Decollelo mushroom print. Yes, I have to admit, I have a soft spot for red-spotted mushrooms and fairies too. Lucky I had girls!

Spotty mushrooms and fairies are like green eggs and ham, they come hand-in-hand. I know this without a doubt because of all the hours I spent as a kid, nose deep in fairytale tomes. Thrilled at the unpredictable nature of fairies, loving the contrast between beauty and beast. And it turns out that just like their fairy friends, these sweet little ‘mushies’ that are printed on everything vaguely kid related, also have a sinister side.

The very sight of red caps in unearthly rings have long struck fear into the hearts of mortal men. If you happened to stumble into a ‘fairy ring’ there was a hair-raising list of consequences, like being overcome by the compulsion to dance till exhaustion, madness or death. Escape was nearly impossible. One Welsh farmer managed it by tying on a stout rope and enlisted the help of four men to pull him from the ring, clutching his bewildered daughter. However if they make it out, the victims usually remember nothing. Hmmm, sounds suspiciously like a night down at the local.

Never the less, throughout art and literature the delicious descriptions of the fair folk and their world put ‘stumbling into a fairy ring’ squarely on my to do list, with the help of four friends and a rope of course.

And I serve the Fairy Queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green.

The cowslips tall her pensioners be;

In their gold coats spots you see.

Those be rubies, fairy favours;

In those freckles live their savours.

I must go seek some dewdrops here,

and hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.

~ William Shakespeare

And what about the cushion? Well, precarious mushroom stories aside, the cushion was sewn and gifted. It now sits happily with well-worn copies of Where the Wild Things Are and The Bear’s Holiday. I’m sure it’ll even be snuggled into with a book of Brothers Grimm tales, eventually. Needless to say, these days I think those cute mushrooms look a little bit cheeky, knowing what they know.

Credits | Lily Fairy, Luis Ricardo Falero | Midsummers Eve, Edward Robert Hughes | Fairy Rings and Toadstools, Richard Doyle | All via Wikimedia Commons.

Tagged: discoveries, fairies, mushrooms

§ One Response to All about fairy rings

Lisa says:

March 21, 2009 at 9:36 pm

oh very beautiful…

you have me clammering for all my faery books now!

i must say however that i myself HAVE been forced to dance to the point of exhaustion and madness. but it was by a certain 4 year old. very unromantic!

ink caravan