The Fairy Rings
A perfect ring of mushrooms appears overnight in a field. Folklore warns: step inside, and the fairies may make you dance until you die.
What was reported
Across Europe, rings of mushrooms or of dark, lush grass, often perfect circles, appear in fields and woods. In British and Irish folklore they were made by fairies dancing at night, and stepping inside one could trap you in fairyland, or force you to dance for years. In Germany they were called witches' rings, where witches danced on Walpurgis Night.
Some rings are huge. One near Belfort in France is said to be about 600 metres across, and perhaps 700 years old.
Explanations offered
Fairy rings are made by fungi. A fungus grows underground as a network of threads spreading out evenly from a central point. As it uses up nutrients in the middle, the inner part dies, and mushrooms come up only around the growing edge, forming an expanding ring.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Belfort, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
- Witnesses
- Folklore across Europe
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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