One Ring To Rule Them All: The Ring That InspireD J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
Welcome to I Can’t Believe That Happened and our first episode on the History of Cursed Jewels.
A quick reminder I always throw in one wrong fact.
If you find it send me and email and let me know what the right fact is and what your source is.
Let’s start with the Ring of Dwarf Hill that inspired The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien
What if I told you that some of his epic fantasy came from actual history?
Let’s talk about:
The One ring to rule them all.
The ring that had all of middle earth in a massive power struggle.
Once upon a time in a town that is now in Silchester Gloucestershire but once was a very important Roman outpost called Calleva Atrebatum, a ring was forged in the 4th century AD.
It is solid gold and HUGE! Picture a massive solid gold ring (12 grams) that is large enough to fit a full grown man’s thumb, the outside is carved into 10 facets. One of the the facets is an engraved image of the Goddess Venus (might have been used for a seal many people would have a personal seal to close their letters with wax to prove it can from them).
The band had carved “Seniciane Vivas IIn De.” Now it has been a minute since I took Latin so please forgive my pronunciation but the phrase means "Senicianus live well in God.” I do have the phrase written in the show notes so head over and message me if you know the proper pronunciation.
In a similar area a tablet was also found which begins a crime thousands of years ago. This all occurs in an area known as Dwarf’s Hill. The tablet tells of a man named Silvianus (a hunting god) who claims that a Man named Senicianus stole his ring. He tells this to A diety named Nodens who curses anyone named Senicianus until the ring is returned to the temple.
Quick side note, the God Nodens was a Celtic healing god worshipped by ancient Britons. There is little information about him but for a plaque found in Gloucester which shows he had a connections with dogs (always a good sign in the unbiased researcher’s opinion.)
What does this tablet have to do with our friend J.R.R. Tolkien?
Let’s go back a little ways to 1785 when a farmer working the land finds the ring while getting his land ready for planting. There isn’t much information about how much he was paid but it is thought that he sold this ring to the family who had control of the land.
Enter Tolkien who in 1929 was a professor of Anglo Saxon at Oxford. An archeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler connected the tablet curse and the ring consulted with Tolkien on wanting to know more about the god in the inscription. Tolkien being an expert was called in. His expertise helped the family and history understand the tablet’s connection with the ring and the God referenced.
Tolkien must have been inspired because Tolkien’s book The Hobbit was published in 1937 with the first of the rings trilogy published in 1954. Someday I might do a longer episode on the histories Tolkien was said to have found in a basement that helped him shape his world but for today let’s focus on the cursed ring.
The ring is still in the collection of the Chute family who has worked with The Tolkien Society to create a visitor experience with trails and shire themed playgrounds.
I will put some pictures and the location in my show notes. If you ever head over there or have been drop a comment and let me know what it is like
Behold the cursed ring that may have inspired Tolkien's One Ring
PublishedApril 6, 2013
https://gizmodo.com/behold-the-cursed-ring-that-may-have-inspired-tolkiens-470953971
The Guardian
The Hobbit ring that may have inspired Tolkien put on show
Mon 1 Apr 2013 19.01 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/02/hobbit-tolkien-ring-exhibition
https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/719789
