Fairy Rings - Enchanting Music

Fairy Rings

Enchanting Music

The treble was a three-mouthed grasshopper,

Well-tutored by a skilful chorister:

An ancient master, that did use to play

The friskings which the lambs do dance in May.

And long time was the chiefest called to sing,

When on the plains the fairies made a ring;

Then a field-cricket, with a note full clean,

Sweet and unforced and softly sung the mean, 

To whose accord, and with no mickle labor,

A pretty fairy played upon a tabor:

The case was of a hazel-nut, the heads 

A bat's wing dressed, the snares were silver threads;

A little stiffened lamprey's skin did suit

All the rest well, and served them for a flute;

And to all these a deep well-breasted gnat,

That had good sides, know well his sharp and flat, 

Sung a good compass, making no wry face,

Was there as fittest for a chamber-bass.

These choice musicians to their merry king

Gave all the pleasures which their art could bring. 

by William Browne.

Music plays such an important part in a fairy's day, particularly that of  a Celtic fairy,
that some wee folk like the Hebridian Spinning fairy, The 
Loireag, punish humans who can't hold a tune.
Haunting, lilting, and utterly other-worldly, fairy music, once caught by human ears, is so
bewitching, one loses one's senses. Whether it comprises sweetly melancholic airs
that fix the hearer to the spot, or lively tunes that cause the body to start dancing,  this music

can remain in the mind forever, of the human
though it is impossible to recall the melody or quite remember the word.

The English composer Thomas Wood described listening to fairy music for some
20 minutes in 1922, and was struck by its harmonic structure.
Rather than featuring a melody that led from and to somewhere, it was more vertical, he said,
a stacking of tenuous sounds,
woven together overhead, faint as a breath.
Fairy instruments are exquisitely turned to the cultural tastes of the
mortals who listen to them: In Wales, the little people play golden harps,
in Ireland miniature fiddles, In Scotland the pipes.  They can make music
on more uncommon instruments, too: fishing nets and silver branches,
even a hammer on an anvil.
What is constant is their abilities,when a fairies fingers runs over an instrument, to create sounds
that will cause a listener's hair to stand one end. St Patrick himself was reputedly so
entranced by the tunes of fairy musician Cascorach that he declared,
''but for a twang of the fairy spell that infests it...nothing could more nearly than it resemble
Heaven's harmony."
by-William Browne, the fairy musicians
posted by Wendy

I have always been fascinated with the fairy rings. I hope that
you all enjoy the poems that I found of these artist as much as I have.
YOUR WENDY
Cynthia Fairies and Me

Fairy Rings & Enchanting Music 
I hope that you Enjoy the post just a small
fun one for you all my dears ..
I love you all my dears Friends and Followers 
YOUR WENDY 

THE POWERS OF ENCHATMENT-

THE POWER OF THE ENCHANTEMENT

THE FAIRY RING

DARE YOU HAUNT OUR HALLOW’d GREEN?

NONE BUT FAIRIES HERE ARE SEEN.

DOWN AND SLEEP, WAKE AND WEEP,

PINCH HIM BACK, AND PINCH HIM BLUE,

THAT SEEKS TO STEAL A LOVER TRUE!

WHEN YOU COME TO HEAR US SING,

OR TO TREAD OUR FAIRY RINGS,

PINCH HIM BACK, AND PINCH HIM BLUE!

O THUS OUR NAILS SHALL HANDLE YOU!

BY THOMAS RAVENSCROFT

THE LURE OF THE DANCE

THE RING OF DANCE HAUNTS MANY A FAIRY TALE,

A MEANS OF DRAWING MORTALS INTO THE WARPED TIME AND

SPACE OF FAIRYLAND. FAERIES AND ELVES CAVORT AT NIGHT OR BEFORE

DAWN ON MISTY MORNING. JOIN THE CIRCLING

DANCERS AT YOUR OWN PERIL; FOR ONCE

YOU ENTER A FEW MAKE IT HOME.

BUT BECAUSE A RING HAS NEITHER BEGINNING NOR END.

IT IS ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE TO BREAK AWAY FOR IT. NOT ONLY IS THE

RING DANCE MAGICK, SO ARE THE MARKS IT LEAVES ON THE GRASSY

GROUNDS.

THE TIRELESS TRIPPING OF TINY FEET ETCHES A CIRCLE OF MOTIF

INTO THE GROUND, WHICH WILL APPEAR AS DEEP AS GREEN TUFTS OR EVEN AS SCORCHED GRASS.

THE GRASS WITHIN MAY LOOK AS BEAUTIFUL AND LUSH OR CAN

BE DRY AS THATCH, OR EVEN REDDISH IN HUE.

IN ORKNEY IT SHOWS AS A RING OF GREEN OF BARE

HEATHLANDS AND AT CERTAINS TIMES OF THE YEAR, A RING

OF MUSHROOMS WILL SPROUT FROM THESE RINGS.

THE SIZE OF THE FAERIE RINGS VARIES, FROM A FEW INCHES

TO ALMOST 200 FEET [60METERS]OR MORE IN  DIAMETER.

FAIRY RINGS ARE EXTREMELY SLOW GROWING. IT IS THOUGHT THAT

SOME LARGER EXAMPLES ARE HUNDEREDS OF YEARS OLD!!!

NOT ONLY IS THE RING PERILOUS FOR HUMANS

TO STEP WITHIN THESE GRASSY FAIRY RINGS THAT ARE

SO ANCIENT, ITS GRASS IS UNPALATABLE FOR GRAZING

ANIMALS WHO MIGHT BE BY TO EAT THE GRASS, WHO ARE INTUITIVE

TO ITS DANGER SIGNS.

EXCEPT THE WELSH SHEEP,

WHO ARE SUPERIOR SUPERIOR QUALITY OF WELSH MUTTON IS CREDITED TO THOSE RECKLESS SHEEP GREEDILY MUCHING ON THE GRASS OF THESE

FAIRY RINGS.

ONE MIGHT BE DRAWN TO THE RING

BY THE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC OF THE FAIRY INSTRUMENTS, BUT IT IS

A FATAL CHARM FOR THE HUMAN EARS, IT WILL WAVES DREAMS

AND ACTS AS A SLEEPING DRAFT OF LOVE POTION IN YOUR MIND.  

YOU WILL NEVER HAVE A BETTER TIME IN YOUR LIFE!

THE TALES TELL, AND NEVER WEARY, BUT WHEN YOU STOP DANCING

OR ARE PULLED AWAY…

BY A LOVED ONE WHO REMAINED BRAVELY WITH ONLY ONE FOOT INSIDE

THE FAIRY RING.

YOU MAY FIND A YEAR AND A DAY HAS GONE BY—OR EVEN A LIFETIME HAS PASSED. WHEN YOU FEEL THE TUG OF YOUR LOVE ONE.

IT MIGHT BE TO LATE FOR YOU.

AND YOU WILL FIND ALL IS LOST, FAMILY,FRIENDS—THERE HAVE BEEN

SOME THAT HAVE DIED FROM EXHAUSTION TOO.

TO ENTER THEIR MAGICK WORLD IS TO DO IT COMELELY,

THERE IS NO TURNING BACK! BUT WHAT A WORLD IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT!

THOSE WHO DO RETURN ARE DESCRIBED AS DULLED OR

BEFUDDIED, MOVING IN A TRANCE FOR THE REMANDING OF THEIR DAYS.

THEY ARE UNABLE TO RECALL THE MUSICAL TUNE, TE DANCE OR

EVEN THEIR PARTNER,BUT ALSO UNABLE TO

FORGET!

ONE DAY A GENTLEMAN ENTERED A CABIN IN THE COUNTY CLARE, AND SAW A YOUNG GIRL ABOUT TWENTY SEATED BY THE FIRE, CHANTING A

MELANCHOLY SONG,WITHOUT SETTLED WORDS OR MUSIC. ON INQUIRY HE WAS TOLD SHE HAD ONCE HEARD THE FAIRY HARP AND THOSE WHO HEAR IT LOSE ALL MEMORY OF LOVE OR HATE. They forget all things and never more have any other sound in their ears, but the soft music of the fairy harp. And when the spell is broken they will die.