Tag: Magic Ring

Description:

Magic or enchanted rings that give their wearer special abilities, enhancements, or statuses are very common in the fantasy genre. Magic rings appear in literature from many periods and cultures all over the world, but there is a certain lineage of the magic ring in modern Western medieval fantasy. This is mostly likely the One Ring (LINK) from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth saga, namely The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Besides conferring invisibility on its wearers, one of the most prominent aspects of the One Ring is its corrupting influence, seemingly having a will of its own. While separated from Sauron, its creator, the Ring tries to return to him as the source of its power, influencing mortals to find and carry it, and then abandoning them when it chooses, such as when Gollum loses the Ring to Bilbo Baggins. In its meandering path, the Ring causes only suffering and death, where we find its greatest similarity to magic rings from Old Norse literature. In Völsunga saga (LINK), Reginsmál (LINK), and other sources of the Völsung legend (see this (LINK) for these sources), the story goes that in order to pay a blood debt and free themselves, the gods Óðinn and Hœnir sent their third traveling companion, Loki, who had carried out the accidental murder, to fetch gold to pay. He captures the dwarf Andvari, who was in the shape of a fish, and extorts all of the dwarf's treasure. Andvari asks to keep only one ring for himself, but Loki refuses him, so the dwarf lays a curse upon all the treasure, so that any who possesses it will die before they can enjoy it. Loki, knowing it will be immediately given over to Hreiðmarr, their captor, doesn't care, and in handing it all over to them, another pattern of greed is observed. Just as Loki took the single ring Andvari wanted to keep, Hreiðmarr demands the same ring, which Óðinn fancied and also wanted to keep. Andvari's cursed gold inevitably leads to Hreiðmarr's death, murdered by his own son, Fáfnir (LINK), who coveted the gold. Fáfnir is killed in dragon-form by the Völsung hero, Sigurðr (LINK), who becomes the most renowned dragon slayer from this dead. Inevitably, however, he is also killed, mainly for the cursed gold, by his own kinsmen and blood-brothers. Despite the whole gold hoard being cursed, the ring is the symbol of the curse incurred by greed. Greed, for societies such as Iron Age and medieval Germanic ones, whose social order depended on gift-giving, honor, hospitality, and generosity, was seen as a despicable trait. Rings in early medieval cultures of the north were used as currency, both of monetary value and of social and political value, as well as instances of oaths being sworn on rings. Rings represented a tangible connection of the relationship between rulers and their retinues, a reminder of their duty, obligation to the ruler, and the honor invested in the social exchange. Although there are many other proposed sources for the One Ring of Sauron (see, for instance, the wikipedia page of the One Ring (LINK) or these articles (LINK), and the reality was likely a combination of several special rings, both historical and literary, in Tolkien's mind, we know that Tolkien was an expert in Germanic languages and literature, and had a special fondness for the heroic and strange tales of Old English and Old Norse literature. Through these connections of magic rings, ancient and medieval, to Tolkien's literature, which set the standard for modern medievalist fantasy, magic rings have become a common feature of works in that genre across entertainment media, and especially video games.

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