The fairy ring appeared one morning in the middle of a small English forest near Warwick. It was near a sacred grove of oak that the fairy ring first appeared by magic. All of the ordinary plants and animals within the fairy ring disappeared, leaving only a strange moss bed lined with small mushrooms and flowers, bluebells and lilies-of-the-valley. This was a strange thing indeed. A wild bird’s song filled the air a moment, the gentle whistle of a blue tit, followed by a few song sparrows breaking in noisily.
A local poacher whose name was Ewan was walking through the forest to a neighboring stream when he noticed the fairy ring. As he stepped into the open clearing lit by sunlight, he began to smell a faint, strange odor of flowery perfume and to hear an eerie song, as though the bluebells were ringing!!!
“Well, I’ll never be!” he exclaimed out loud, dropping his fishing pole. “The bluebells are ringing!” and as he looked down, he saw that indeed the bluebells were bouncing to and fro though there was no breeze to stir them.
The poacher was immediately afraid, and the hair on his back started to rise.
Suddenly a small voice said, “What big foot has stepped on my house?”
The poacher looked to his feet. There was a tiny figure, not an inch high flying around his foot. It looked like a dragonfly, but as the poacher squinted, he saw that it was a tiny human form with wings riding a dragonfly!
“I-I didn’t mean you any harm,” said the poacher. “I was just headed towards the river to do my usual bit of fishing,” he remarked, turning his head about as the tiny fairy circled his leg.
“Well, you did, you ruined my house!” shrieked the fairy. “You shall have to get me another one, or pay the consequences.”
“How can I do that?” asked the poacher.
“You must gather seeds of the bluebells by the stream and bring them back to me here in this clearing. Then plant the seeds for me, and I will soon have a new home. Be quick. If you do not return, I will find you this night and work my vengeance upon you!” warned the fairy, who was actually rather pretty, with long brown hair and green flashing eyes, and a nice little white dress. She looked every inch a lady, and also rather vexed at being put out of her tiny home. Her nostrils flared with venom, then she coughed and said, “if you do as I ask, I will let you go easily.”
He tried to leave without answering, but found himself suddenly back in the fairy ring the moment he stepped out of it. Again, he stepped out, and found himself right back where he started.
“Ok then, I’ll go and do what you ask,” agreed the poacher at last. “I’ll return in the hour.”
Unfortunately, however, he didn’t, though this time he was indeed able to leave the fairy ring. While fishing at the river, the poacher did gather the bluebell seeds from the many real bluebells growing on the river banks, but he forgot his deadline with the fairy, and fell asleep under an alder tree. Soon after, he heard a shrill voice that woke him from his slumber.
“Mark my words, you will never fish again!” shrieked the fairy. “You forgot to bring me my seeds for a new home, and now you shall pay the price!” The poacher blinked twice and woke up, but his fairy friend had disappeared already.
Immediately, his fishing rod snapped in half. He cursed and swore, then spent a long time in the forest looking for a long stick of wood to replace the fishing pole. No sooner than he had gotten it to the river bank when c-r-a-c-k! the branch broke in half in his fingers. The poacher dropped the now useless wood to the ground. He gathered the bluebell seeds, and returned to the fairy ring to bargain with the fairy for another chance.
“Please kind miss,” said the poacher, “I have brought you the seeds for another home. Will you let me go fishing again? Here are the seeds,” he said, bending down to the ground and making a hole into it with his finger, then dropping the seed into it and covering it up with dirt he added, “there you are, good as new in no time. So how about letting me fish now?”
“You didn’t heed my warning,” said the fairy. “No deal.”
“But please, miss, I have no other way to live,” pleaded the poacher.
“Very well,” said the fairy, “but you must do me another favor first.”
“What favor?” asked the poacher. “I am giving a fairy feast for my friends, and I require some butterflies for a dinner dish, dissolved in dew,” said the fairy. “Please go and gather some for me.”
“But how do I do that?” asked the poacher.
“That is your problem,” said the fairy. “But if you fail, you will never leave these woods again.”
The poacher gasped. “Very well,” he said. “I’ll do my best.” And with that he left, taking his cap off, intending to use it to catch the butterflies.
Many hours later he returned, with a few butterflies in his cap. He gave them over to the fairy by dropping his cap at her fairy feet and leaving it there.
“Butterflies are inside, as requested, Miss,” said the poacher.
“You have earned your reward,” said the fairy. “You may fish again, and you may leave this clearing, but if you ever return here again, you will never leave this place again alive.”
And with that, the poacher left the fairy ring, returned to his village with the story, and never set foot in the forest again.