Snåsningen 28^th of January 2004

MYSTERIOUS CIRCLES IN THE FIELD

Pupils at Vinje primary school made an exiting discovery just before Christmas. An inexplicable circle of ice west of the Leif and Sigurd Aune field made them very curious. The discovery was reported to The Norwegian Crop Circle Group, which is the Norwegian branch of the world of crop circle enthusiasts.

By Thor Riseth

The pupils Sivert Brønstad and Victoria Flasnes were working on a project about ghosts and other mysterious phenomena. Then the inexplicable circle arrived and the pupils included it in their project as well. Now their classmate Gjermund Hansen Eggen is also involved in the project.- We were standing in the wood behind the school building where a sledging hill leads down to the farm field. We were discussing a film that is about these inexplicable patterns in fields, tell the three enthusiastic youngsters. While standing there, we suddenly noticed the strange formation down at the field. It felt puzzling, they express.- We filmed the circle from a distance, from where the pattern appeared clearly. When we tried to go closer and film the details of the pattern, the video recorder failed. The battery was drained, says Victoria. When we later spoke to a lady in the Norwegian Crop Circle Group, we learned that this is not uncommon. Some unknown force often makes electronic equipment fail close to crop circles. She herself has experienced how the battery of a brand new digital camera was destroyed in a crop circle. We had to pay 500 Crowns for a new battery, tells Victoria.

The video that the youngsters recorded has been sent to the Norwegian Crop Circle Group, who thought it was very exiting, and is now analysing and copying the tape. On a world basis, more than 10.000 crop circles have been registered. The circle at Vinje is, however, considered an ice formation, which are not as common as crop circles. While human pranksters worldwide are responsible for a lot of the formations, many circles remain unexplained mysteries. The circle at Vinje must surely belong to the latter category. The three friends are now waiting for the copies of their video.

PHOTO: Thor Riseth

Down there, at that field, we saw the mysterious circle. And this is where
we stood when we filmed it; explain Gjermund Hansen Eggen, Victoria Flasnes
and Sivert Brønstad.

PHOTO: Victoria Flasnes

The circle is visible, if not very clear at the Photograph. It was extracted
from videotape recorded the 11^th of December, and is thus of poor quality.