ink caravan

It’s true I have a soft spot for fairies and cute red-spotted mushrooms too. Which is no surprise when I think of all the hours I spent immersed in fairytales as a kid. Even back then I could see that the best glittery fairytales had a sinister side. And it seems that the sweet little ‘mushies’ that are printed on everything vaguely kid related, don’t disappoint either.

Apparently, the sight of red spotted caps in unearthly rings have long struck fear into the hearts of mortal men. Oh, I love the drama! Oh yes, everyone knew nothing good ever came of straying into a fairy ring.

If you did, there were a hair-raising list of consequences, like being lured in and forced to dance till exhaustion, madness or death. And escape was nearly impossible. One Welsh tale tells of a farmer who tied a rope around himself and enlisted the help of four men to pull him from the ring so he could retrieve his bewitched daughter. Afterwards, the victims remembered nothing. Hmmm, sounds suspiciously like a night down at the pub.

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.

Credits | Midsummers Eve, Edward Robert Hughes | An illustration from Princess Nobody ~ A tale of Fairyland, Richard Doyle.