Fairy Circles

Fairy circles are privileged places where mortals can meet the good ladies, watch their frantic dancing and occasionally even dance with them. But beware, faeries do not easily let go the hand of those unwise enough to join in their game. It is said that a companion must stand outside the faery circle and reach in to extract the hapless victim from the frantic dancing. If not, the unrepentant dancer may well be doomed to whirl around for hours or even days or months until he finally drops dead.

Those who step into faery circles out of curiosity are carelessness are indeed robbed of all sense of human time. They suddenly find themselves captive in a time beyond time, Faerie time, that answers only to the most subjective of rules.

But for genuine explorers of the realms of Faerie, such incursions into magic circles offer an opportunity to visit the elvish court. They may also try circling a faery mound nine times on a night of the full moon. If they are considered worthy enough, a doorway will open in the ground giving access to the faery ballroom. But beware! The slightest sound is enough to dispel the enchantment, turning the faery palace into a dark, desolate cave.

Our explorer could also spend the night on one of these enchanted hillsides, where he or she will dream of the elvish kingdom and all its marvels. But the sleeper is almost certain to be carried off beyond dream to those imaginary countries where people are known to stay or be forced to stay forever. Remember what happened to Rip Van Winkle in the tale by Washington Irving: he thought he had been asleep for barely a few hours when he had actually spent 20 years in the realm of Faerie. When he awoke, his dog had disappeared and his gun was covered in rust.

Those who return from the Land of the Faerie may indeed have shock in store. Many a mortal carried off to Faerie Land, whether willingly or not, finds that what seemed like weeks of perfect bliss in that other world did in fact equate to centuries in mortal time. The dreamer returns to reality only to find that family and friends died long ago and that he is all alone in the world. Our misguided adventurer into Faerie Land is doomed to spend the rest of his days filled with longing for the land of his dreams - like Thomas the Rhymer perhaps in the ancient Scottish ballad who was invited by the queen of Elfland to spend seven years in her enchanted kingdom.