(A small part of the thousands of fairy circles found in Namibia)
The Claim
Fairy’s have created thousands of grass circles all round the world
Now the claim may seem a bit “out there” but this is one of the more supernatural explanations and the reason they get their name. A fairy circle is simply just a small grass circle, normally between 2 and 15 meters wide.
This would normally not be any cause for concern, but the thing is no one knows how they appear. There have been numerous explanations over the years which include various plants acting in a certain way with their environment, such as the mushroom theory.
One explanation claims that a certain type of mushroom begins to grow in one spot, and then sends out an underground network of roots that all go out to the same length. The grass over the roots is starved of moisture and dies, leaving a ring of grass round the edge.
This theory is quickly dismissed by most though, as it doesn’t explain how the grass grows better round the edge ring than it does on normal ground surrounding it. It also doesn’t explain how the circles stay there for so long, as the mushroom would eventually die and the grass would regrow, but this is not the case.
The biggest flaw in this theory is that there’s almost never a mushroom found in the center of the circle, and this phenomenon isn’t something that’s specific to one country, though the most famous example of fairy circles is in Namibia in south west Africa where thousands of these can be found.
Europe also has its fair share of circles, but oddly they normally only appear alone instead of in huge groups like they do in Africa.
(A fairy Circle in Ireland)
They have been mentioned in folklore and various myths for hundreds of years, with the Himba people of Namibia claiming they are caused by the god Mukuru, and have long been the sites of worship. In Europe the story changes, claiming they were caused by fairies who use them to dance around and perform various fairy magics, and should anyone destroy one of their circles they would the wrath of the fairies power.
Since a tiny flying person hasn’t popped up to punish farmers who just plough right over them i think that we can dismiss the folklore explanation, but this still doesn’t get us any closer to the truth. After the mushroom theory the next most popular one is the termite theory.
Apparently a specific type of sand termite forms its nest underground, killing any roots as it goes but does not leave any kind of mound on the surface. Even though some of the mounds have been found to contain signs of termites, this one is also quickly dismissed by most as many of the mounds don’t contain them at all, and sand termites aren’t exactly common in most of Europe.
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