Magic ring

A magic ring is a ring, usually a finger ring, that has magical properties. It appears frequently in fantasy and fairy tales. Magic rings are found in the folklore of every country where rings are worn,^[1] and they endow the wearer with a variety of abilities, including invisibility, the granting of wishes and immortality. Sometimes, they can be cursed, as in the fictional ring that was recovered by Sigurd from the hoard of the dragon Fafnir in Norse mythology^[2] or the fictional ring that features in J R R Tolkien's modern saga The Lord of the Rings. More often, however, they are featured as forces for good, or as a neutral tool whose value is dependent upon the wearer.^[1]

A finger ring is a convenient choice for a (fictional) magic item: it is ornamental, distinctive and often unique, natural to wear, of a shape that is often endowed with mystical properties (circular), it can carry an enchanted stone and is usually worn on a finger that can be easily pointed at a target.^[3]

History and function

Images of Celtic gods have been found wearing a torc or a neck ring, and torcs are on rare occasions mentioned as decoration in early Irish and medieval Welsh literature, but none are described as magical. Seventy-five complete neck torcs and fragments of many more, in twelve or fourteen separate hoards dating to the first century BC, were found at Snettisham, in Norfolk, England, in the twentieth century and had been buried deliberately; it is not known why.^[4]

J G Frazer, in his study of magic and superstition in The Golden Bough, has pointed to evidence that rings can serve, in the primitive mind, as devices to prevent the soul from leaving the body and to prevent demons from gaining entry.^[5] A magic ring, therefore, might confer immortality by preventing the soul's departure and thwart the penetration of any harmful magic that might be directed against the wearer. These magical properties inhibiting access to the soul may explain "an ancient Greek maxim, attributed to [the ancient philosopher and mystic] Pythagoras, which forbade people to wear rings" in ancient Greece.^[6] Muslim pilgrims in Mecca may not wear rings.^[7]

Ancient drawings of Mesopotamian gods sometimes include one or several rings attached to staffs or poles, but no reference has been found in writings recovered from that time to show whether they were magical or merely decorative. Generally, however, the two most common types of magical rings in mythology and fiction are arm rings and finger rings.

Magical rings can be magical for a variety of reasons and their magical properties may be either very specific or of a more general nature. A folk tale or story may give no reason for a ring being magical, or it may have become magical through being enchanted by a magician or touched by a god. A ring may also be magical because of the material of which it is made; often a ring is a mere carrier for a special jewel, which itself is the source of the magic. Other rings are magical because they are inhabited by a spirit.

Mythology and folklore

"Brynhild, Sigurd and the Rings" Faroe stamp depicting magical rings from Norse mythology

An early magical ring in European mythology is the arm ring named Draupnir worn by the Norse god Odin. Because its only reported function was to create more gold arm bands every nine days, Draupnir may have been a religious symbol which represented the increasing of wealth. The ring was placed onto Baldr's funeral pyre, but Baldr gave Draupnir back to Hermod when he came looking for him in Hel and so the ring was returned to Odin from the land of death, with its new-found ability to replicate.^[8] Another Norse ring was called Andvarinaut. Andvarinaut is the famous Ring of the Niebelungens from The Volsunga Saga and The Nibelungenlied, which eventually becomes the property of the hero Siegfried or Sigurd. How it came to be cursed is explained in detail in The Volsunga Saga,^[9] Andvarinaut's use is never specifically given in the story: its curse is simply a source of disaster for every person who owns it, its principal characteristic is that nearly everyone wants to get it, except Sigurd, who has got it, but doesn't know what it is.

Magic rings are certainly known in Jewish lore; they are mentioned in the Talmud and Midrash. Solomon's magical ring had many properties in legend: making him all-knowing, conferring him with the ability to speak with animals and bearing the special sigil that sealed genies into bottles.^[3] A story about King Solomon and a ring is found in the Babylonian Talmud,^[10] but rings are more fully discussed in Jewish mystical literature. The power of a ring is in the divine name with which it is inscribed; such rings are used to invoke and command various guardians of heavenly palaces and to gain entrance to those heavens.^[11] In the Zohar, God is thought to own and use a signet ring, or, at least, a signet.^[12]

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato, in the second book of The Republic, tells a story about the Ring of Gyges, which conferred invisibility on its wearer.^[13] The shepherd Gydes, who found it in a cave, used its power to seduce the queen, kill the king and take his place. Earlier accounts of Gyges, however, who was king of Lydia, make no mention of a magic ring. Rings are not generally attributed with magic powers in ancient Greek legend, although many other magical objects are listed, particularly in the Perseus myth.

A small number of Viking Age finger rings bearing runic inscriptions of apparently magical significance are known, among them the Kingmoor Ring and the Bramham Moor Ring.

Medieval romance

Medieval storytellers have utilized a number of magical rings in their tales. Merlin, for example, was the victim of a magical finger ring given to him by a young enchantress named Nimue. The magic in the ring caused him to fall in love with her. Merlin then allowed Nimue to imprison him; some versions of the story say in the trunk of a tree, others in a cave or in a stone coffin. Sir Yvain is given a magic ring by a maiden in Chrétien de Troyes twelfth century Arthurian romance The Knight of the Lion. This finger ring can be worn with the stone on the inside, facing the palm, and then it will make the wearer invisible.^[14] The Scottish ballads Hind Horn and Bonny Bee Hom both include a magic ring that turns pale when the person who received it has lost the person who gave it.^[15]

The fourteenth century Middle English Arthurian romance Sir Perceval of Galles has the hero, Perceval, take a ring from the finger of a sleeping maiden in exchange for his own, and he then goes off on a series of adventures that includes defeating an entire Saracen army single-handedly, in a Land of Maidens. Only near the end of this romance does he learn that the ring he was wearing is a magic ring and that its wearer cannot be killed.^[16] Similar rings feature in the fourteenth century medieval romance Sir Eglamour of Artois and the twelfth century Floris and Blancheflour,^[17][18] and in Sir Thomas Malory's tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney, in his fifteenth century epic Le Morte d'Arthur, in which Sir Gareth is given a ring by a damsel who lives in Avalon that will render him invulnerable to losing any blood at a tournament.^[19]

Fiction

Like other magical objects in stories, magic rings can act as a plot device, but in two distinct ways. They may give magical abilities to a person who is otherwise lacking in them, or enhance the power of a wizard. Or alternatively, they may function as nothing more than MacGuffins, that is, objects for which it is the characters' desire to obtain them, rather than any innate power that they possess, that moves the story along.

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, for example, involves a magical ring which allows Bilbo Baggins to be instrumental in a quest, matching the abilities of the dwarves.^[20] In the Volsunga Saga, on the other hand, the magic ring that Sigurd takes from the dragon Fafnir created gold, but is irrelivant, for its main purpose is a more symbolic item for it was taken by the mishief god Loki from the dwarf Andvari, who cursed it as a result. The ring's function in the plot is to give a sense of inevitable disaster to the unfolding story.^[21]

Satire

William Makepeace Thackeray's satirical novel The Rose and the Ring features a ring that has the power to make whoever owns it beautiful; its passage from person to person in the novel is an important element of the story.^[22]

Folk tale and opera

A well-known folk tale to make use of a magic ring in its plot is the story of Aladdin: not only is there a genie, or djinn, summoned by a magic lamp, there is also a less powerful djinn summoned from a finger ring. Aladdin rubs the ring and its genie helps him to escape from the cave that his uncle the sorcerer has shut him into. Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale included in the book of One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of ancient and medieval stories from this region, first published in full English translation in the 1880s. Its plot is used in a popular British pantomime put on for children during the Christmas period.

The composer Richard Wagner wrote a series of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen which present his version of the story told in The Nibelungenlied and in Volsunga Saga, as well as the Prose Edda. The operas are more often called The Wagner Ring Cycle in English. In this cycle, the ring of the Nibelungen ultimately brings about the downfall of the old gods as Wotan relinquishes the ring, which confers power, back to the Rhinemaidens from whom its gold was stolen in the first place,^[3][23]

Science fiction and fantasy

Magic rings occur in a myriad of modern fantasy stories as incidental objects, but many novels feature a ring as a central part of the plot. In Andre Norton's novel The Zero Stone, the title comes from a ring that has advanced properties. H. Warner Munn has written an award winning fantasy novel titled Merlin's Ring. Stephen R. Donaldson has written a long series of fantasy novels about a magic ring of white gold owned by a fictional Thomas Covenant. Poul Anderson, in his novel A Midsummer Tempest, has Oberon and Titania give two characters magical rings that will aid them as long as they are true to each other. The author Piers Anthony has written Castle Roogna which includes, as an important part of its plot, a ring which claims – convincingly as it turns out – to be able to grant wishes. The ring of Solomon appears in Charles Williams's novel Many Dimensions.^[3]

Children's fiction

In C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, two magic rings, which take people to the Wood between the Worlds, a linking room between parallel universes, are central to the story; a yellow ring, when touched, sends a person to the "Other World", while a green ring is used to bring that person back. These rings were created by the magician "Uncle Andrew" by the use of magical dust, from the lost continent and complex of Atlantis.

The Harry Potter series, by author J. K. Rowling, features a magic ring bearing a coat of arms linked to the Peverell brothers, Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort's ancestors. It becomes one of the most important objects in Harry Potter's world because it contains a fragment of Voldemort's soul and formerly held one of the three Deathly Hallows: the resurrection stone which can summon the deceased.

In the Tanya Grotter book series, a Russian parody of Harry Potter, the heroine uses a magic ring that bears the voice of her great-grandfather in order to perform spells. Additionally, the other magicians in the series also use rings to perform magic.

E. Nesbit's The Enchanted Castle, published in 1907, features a magic ring which has the property that whatever magical powers its owner says that it has, it has.^[24]

J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Hobbit was written as children's fiction, but as the story grew into The Lord of the Rings the matter expanded, borrowing from Germanic and Norse mythology for many of its themes, creatures, and names. Of twenty magical finger rings, four are described in some detail: the "One Ring" around which the plot revolves, and three "elven" rings worn by Gandalf the wizard and the elves Elrond and Galadriel. Seven are given to the dwarves in a partially-successful attempt to corrupt them. Humans prove to be more susceptible; each of the nine "Ringwraiths" possesses a ring.

Television

The Vampire Diaries feature magic rings that allow vampires to walk in the sunlight. In the same series, a non-vampire is given a magic ring to protect him from harm.

There is a Tom and Jerry cartoon, The Magic Ring, in which, whenever a magic ring is tapped, it casts a magical spell. Because the ring is sized for human fingers, Jerry the mouse wears it on his head like a tiara.

In the episode "Good God, Y'all!" of the television series Supernatural, the horseman War uses a ring to manifest his powers, namely, making people hallucinate into thinking they are fighting demons, when in fact they are merely killing each other. When the ring is cut off his finger, both he and his car disappear, but the ring, which is based, at least in concept, on "the One Ring" from The Lord of the Rings, remains.^[25] In later episodes of the series, the other three horsemen (Famine, Pestilence, and Death) also appear, each with their own rings. When connected together, the four rings open a door to Lucifer's cage in hell.

In Czech TV series "Arabela" (1979) and "Arabela Returns" (1993) is a magic ring that make any wish to come true when the wearer twist it on his finger and says his desire speaking or thinking at it. There were three ring and each has the same power. The serial was a good mixed up story of our world and fairy tale world. In one episode in our world the ring is used to build some sky scrapers in matter of seconds after some architecture plans. The ring power is limitless it not need to recharge. The only limitation is the wearer imagination.

Comics

Solomon's ring appears in the stories featuring the comic book character Seraph.

In the DC Universe, the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott fashions a power ring from an ancient lamp that is a concentration of magic energy that the Guardians of the Universe created to attempt to remove magic from the universe. As a result of this discovery, Scott's ring functions much like the standard rings of the Green Lantern Corps, except that it cannot directly affect wood.

Video and role-playing games

Magic rings with a wide variety of effects became a common part of the "treasure" found in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, and thus part of many other fantasy role-playing games and video games that followed it.

The Breath of Fire series often incorporates a magic ring into its storyline. In the first game it is a source of power for the Forest Clan and in the second it serves as a key to open a sealed door leading to a mythical weapon in SimaFort. Curse of Enchantia features a magic ring that is used at the very end to destroy the evil witch and complete the game. Eternal Ring has several magic rings that can be made by placing a "dead" ring on a pedestal. Final Fantasy VI involves many Relic class items, a sort of ring, some of which protect against status effects, or cast a protection spell when the wearer is near death. Rings are a pivotal part of Gaia Online, providing most if not all of the abilities a character can use. In RuneScape, magic rings have many uses from teleportation to helping attack, and in Time Stalkers, a character can wield a total of ten rings, most of which have magical properties.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Josepha Sherman, Once upon a Galaxy p 129 ISBN 0-87483-387-6
2. ^ Byock, Jesse L, 1990, reprinted 1999. The Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sugurd the Dragon Slayer. Translated from Old Norse with an introduction. Penguin Books Limited.
3. ^ ^{a b c d} John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Rings", p 813 ISBN 0-312-19869-8
4. ^ Stead, Ian, 1985 reprinted 1996. Celtic Art: In Britain before the Roman Conquest. The British Museum Press.
5. ^ Frazer, James, 1922. The Golden Bough. Published by Penguin Books Limited with an introduction by George Stocking Jr., 1996 (Frazer's abridged version).
6. ^ Frazer, James, 1922. The Golden Bough. Published by Penguin Books Limited with an introduction by George Stocking Jr., 1996 (Frazer's abridged version). p 293.
7. ^ Frazer, James, 1922. The Golden Bough. Published by Penguin Books Limited with an introduction by George Stocking Jr., 1996 (Frazer's abridged version). p 287.
8. ^ Byock, Jesse L, 2005. Snorri Sturluson: The Prose Edda. Norse Mythology, translated from Old Norse with an introduction. Penguin Books Limited. 49. The Death of Baldr and Hermod's ride to Hel. pp 65–69.
9. ^ Byock, Jesse L, 1990, reprinted 1999. The Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sugurd the Dragon Slayer. Translated from Old Norse with an introduction. Penguin Books Limited. 14. The Otter's Ransom, pp 57–59.
10. ^ Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Gittin Folio 68a.
11. ^ For the use of such rings in halakhic literature see Mark Verman's "The Books of Contemplation" chapter two, note 200.
12. ^ Zohar 1:29a, although this is certainly metaphorical.
13. ^ Grube, G M A and Reeve, rev C D C. 1997. Republic: Book II. In: Cooper, John M (Ed). Plato: Complete Works. Hackett Publishing Company. p 1000.
14. ^ Kibler, William W., and Carroll, Carleton W., 1991. Chrétien de Troyes: Arthurian Romances. Translated from Old French with an introduction. Penguin Books Limited. p 307.
15. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 317, Dover Publications, New York 1965. Child ballads 18 and 92.
16. ^ Brasswell, Mary Flowers (Ed), 1995. Sir Perceval of Galles and Yvain and Gawain. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Western Michigan University for TEAMS. Introduction to the TEAMS medieval text
17. ^ Hudson, Harriet. 1996. Four Middle English Romances. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications. Introduction to TEAMS Middle English text Sir Eglamour of Artois.
18. ^ Kooper, Erik (Ed). 2006. Sentimental and Humorous Romances. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications. Introduction to TEAMS Middle English text Floris and Blancheflour.
19. ^ Vinaver, Eugene, 1971, reprinted in paperback, 1977. Malory: Works. Oxford University Press. The Book of Sir Gareth of Orkney, that was called Bewmaynes by Sir Kay, pp 213–214. This ring also confers upon Sir Gareth the ability to disguise himself, the damsel explains, since "the vertu of my rynge is this: that that is grene woll turne to rede [red] , and that that is rede woll turne in lyknesse to grene, and that that is blewe woll turne to whyghte and that that is whyght woll turne in lyknesse to blew; and so hit woll do of all maner of coloures; also who that beryth this rynge shall lose no bloode."
20. ^ Tom Shippley, The Road to Middle-earth, p 77, ISBN 0-628-25760-8
21. ^ Byock, Jesse L. (1990, reprinted 1999). The Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sugurd the Dragon Slayer. Translated from Old Norse with an introduction. Penguin Books Limited.
22. ^ Stephen Prickett, Victorian Fantasy p 69 ISBN 0-253-17461-9
23. ^ von Westerman, Gerhart.1964, reprinted 1973. Opera Guide. Richard Wagner. pp 200–253.
24. ^ Stephen Prickett, Victorian Fantasy p 233 ISBN 0-253-17461-9
25. ^ Dean Winchester makes a reference comparing the ring of the horseman War and the One Ring of the Lord of the Rings in the episode.