J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings novels may have been inspired by a true story.
At The Vyne in England, a golden Roman ring has been rediscovered with an interesting history. A 12 gram gold ring bears an inscription which says, “Senicianus live well in God.” The ring was supposedly found in 1785 by a farmer a few miles from the walls of Silchester, one of Rome’s most mysterious towns, abandoned around the seventh century and never occupied again.
A tablet found in Gloucestershire, at a site known locally as Dwarf’s Hill, seems to state that a curse was placed on the golden ring , much like the fabled One Ring from The Lord of The Rings .
According to The Guardian , the tablet has the words inscribed in it, “A Roman called Silvianus informs the god Nodens that his ring has been stolen. He knows the villain responsible, and he wants the god to sort them out: ‘Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens.’”
So apparently, unless the name Senicianus was more common in that area than we thought, the two artifacts appear to be connected. But how is this connected to J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy? For one, the ring on display at The Vyne has an inscription connected to the tablet, cursing anyone who wears it. The tablet was found at a place called Dwarf’s Hill, remarkably similar to the Shire (possibly named after Gloucestershire). Finally, J.R.R. Tolkien himself was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford with information on the diety Nodens.
An archaeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, had re-excavated Dwarf’s Hill in 1929 and had asked for help with the mystery of Nodens and had turned to J.R.R. Tolkien. The legendary fantasy novelist would years later write the Lord of The Rings series of stories.
Could it be that J.R.R. Tolkien had based his writings on a true story? Could The Lord of The Rings be mirroring what at the time was very real?
Was Tolkien’s One Ring … real? This cursed, ancient Roman ring may have inspired the Lord of the Rings author: go.ign.com/Z1F4sp
— IGN (@IGN) April 7, 2013
