Ring Legends of Tolkien

by David Day

  Then, Asmodeus, who was his evil tempter in all this, brought word from his eavesdropping at Heaven’s gate that the kingdom would be split at Solomon’s death; that the Temple and his books would be destroyed, and that the demons of disease would be released again.

  Solomon repented, but it was too late and Asmodeus’s prophecies came about. However, it is said that Solomon died upright, leaning on his staff, and that the demons continued to work on his plans for many years after, not knowing that he was dead and that the power of the ring was now unmanned. At length, a snake curled about the staff and it snapped, and then the demons scattered.

  The ring is thought to have been placed in the Holy of Holies in the Ark of the Covenant itself, and never captured. A later magician went to rescue it when the soldiers of Titus were destroying the Temple. He saw it and touched it, but then fainted and was carried to a strange land where a voice told him that the ring had been taken back to Heaven.

  PART

  TWELVE

  EASTERN MYTHOLOGY

  The epic hero of the Far East, Geser, was a warrior, magician, smith and king who ruled the greatest kingdom in the East. He is capable of many feats of heroism and magic. His confirmation as king comes when the supernatural guardians of the kingdom allow him entry into a crystal mountain where great treasures are kept.

  As the king, Geser takes possession of these great and countless treasures. Without doubt, the most important is the emblematic throne of the realm, on which rests a huge, gold mandala ring that is known as the “life” of the land, with a crystal vessel at its centre, from which flows the shining “waters of immortality”.

  GESER AND KURKAR

  Geser’s early life was not an easy one. Although born a royal prince, while he is still a child his parents are slain by Kurkar, the evil sorcerer and ruler of a large mountain kingdom. The orphaned Geser is found in a heap of rubbish and adopted by a poor smith, who raises him as an apprentice. Under the adopted name of Chori, he survives many attempts by sorcerers to kill him. He becomes an extraordinary alchemist by combining his skills as a smith with his inherited powers of sorcery. He creates many wonders in his smithy for his master, but for himself he forges an unbreakable sword from celestial (meteoric) iron.

  Geser prepares himself for his ultimate duel with his great enemy, Kurkar. However, he knows that his enemy cannot be slain until a huge iron mandala ring or talisman that is kept in the palace treasury is destroyed. This huge iron talisman contains the “life” or “soul” of Kurkar and all his ancestors. This sacred iron had been venerated for many centuries and in it reposed the vital essence of the dynasty. The evil Kurkar himself says: “It is the ‘life’ of my ancestors. Sometimes sounds come from it, at other times it speaks.”

  Mountain Kingdom of Kurkar the Evil Sorcerer

  Geser tricks Kurkar into allowing him access to the iron talisman. However, it is believed Kurkar is safe because the iron cannot be melted or forged by any known means. The fire of the furnace does not even redden the sacred iron. Geser is warned by the master smith: “It is folly to think that it will let itself be forged.”

  Geser, however, is no ordinary smith and accepts the challenge. He summons his supernatural brothers and a multitude of spirits who manage to build a huge furnace and fill it with “coal piled high as mountains”. This results in an inferno that is sufficient to forge the iron mandala. Geser and his supernatural brothers strike the iron mandala with hammer blows that sound like thunder. At last the iron “life” of Kurkar and his ancestors is broken, and we are told “the three worlds shook” with its destruction.

  Once this is achieved, Geser puts on his glittering armour and takes up his sword of celestial iron. In all his shining glory, Geser appears before the evil Kurkar. Geser declares his true identity to him and his mission of vengeance. Then, with a single stroke, Geser cuts off the sorcerer’s head.

  the Talisman

  GESER, KURKAR AND SAURON

  In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the evil Sauron shares many characteristics with Geser and Kurkar. Like Geser, Sauron is both a supernaturally gifted smith capable of creating unmatched wonders upon his forge, and a magician capable of terrifying acts of sorcery. Both have mountain strongholds, and both must keep safe the golden rings by whose powers they rule their kingdoms.

  At this point the comparison between Geser and Sauron largely ceases. Geser becomes an avenging angel of light, while Sauron the Dark Lord is much more closely allied to the values of the evil Kurkar. Kurkar – like both Geser and Sauron – also has a ring or talisman that must be kept safe and by whose power he rules his kingdom. However, Kurkar’s iron talisman is much more like Sauron’s One Ring because both are inherently evil, and the sorcerers’ lives depend on the survival of the ring. Kurkar’s talisman also shares the One Ring’s characteristic of being almost indestructible. Normal fires do not even cause the metal in them to redden. Both require supernatural fires of volcanic intensity to melt them down.

  The destruction of Kurkar’s iron ring in Geser’s volcanic forge-room causes a cataclysm in which “the three worlds shook”. This is matched by the climax of The Lord of the Rings, when the destruction of Sauron’s One Ring in Mount Doom’s volcanic forge-room causes a comparable cataclysm in which “the earth shook, the plain heaved and cracked, and… the skies burst into thunder seared with lightning.”

  ALCHEMICAL ROOTS

  The Eastern epic of Geser – with its gold and iron mandala rings – is very obviously rooted in the ancient alchemical traditions. As touched upon earlier in this book, Alchemy combined the knowledge of the smith/smelter/miner with the supernatural powers of the magician/sorcerer/shaman. Geser is a warrior-king who is both a smith and a magician. To such a hero, all things are possible. He assumes many forms, creates invulnerable weapons, conjures up phantom armies, and creates wealth and prosperity for his people.

  In Asian myth and history, the connection between alchemy or metallurgy and the power of kings and heroes is often more obviously stated than it is in Europe. Perhaps this is because eastern religions or philosophies are not in conflict with their shamanistic and alchemical traditions. Nor do they appear to have Christianity’s need to vilify or eliminate these traditions.

  Tradition insists, for instance, that the great historic Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan was descended from a family of smiths. So too was the legendary Tartar hero Kok Chan, who possessed a ring that – like Sauron’s One Ring – hugely increased his already formidable powers. Legends telling of heroes or villains possessing external souls that are kept hidden within objects outside the body are found in many cultures throughout the world. The legends spring from a number of sources. However, when the soul is kept in a metal object or a ring, one can be certain that the source of the legend is the magician-smith tradition of alchemy.

  The epic events of Geser’s life demonstrate the ancient alchemical belief that not only can individual souls or lives be kept in a ring or talisman, but so can the souls or lives of entire dynasties and whole nations. This certainly parallels Tolkien’s epic adventure, where Sauron the Dark Lord’s entire evil empire collapses with the One Ring’s destruction.

  The defeat and surrender of the Shang Empire

  CHINA – RINGS OF JADE

  The ancient histories of China tell how the monarchs of China wore rings that were unlike the rings of the West. For the alchemists of China believed that jade was the purest and most sacred substance, and the greatest value was placed on it. Their ruler’s ring was not of gold or of some gem, but was a simple stone ring made from a unique blue jade. This was the sign of the power and glory of those omnipotent emperors through nearly four thousand years.

  This blue jade ring was known as the Sky Ring of the Shang Dynasty, and the fate of this ring was bound up with the fate of China. There is one ancient tale concerning one of the emperors who failed to uphold its tradition and suffered through the curse of the ring.

  Zhou Xin was the 30th and last of the S
hang emperors. He was corrupt, greedy, cruel and foolish; and he should not rightly have had the throne. He abused his power. He indulged only in pleasure and ostentation, and he did not possess the one true ring of blue jade called the Sky Ring of Shang.

  Zhou Xin’s father, the emperor Di Yi, had an older son called Weiziqi, who was born when the empress was still his favourite concubine. Weiziqi was modest, learned and pious. His father named him his heir and, in a secret ceremony on his deathbed, handed him the Sky Ring of blue jade that was the sacred sign of the Shangs.

  But on the emperor Di Yi’s death, the ambitious Zhou Xin claimed that his brother Weiziqi had no right to the throne, being born out of wedlock, and Zhou usurped him. Thereafter Zhou Xin ruled the empire, but was always bitterly jealous of Weiziqi and plotted against him. Weiziqi retired to his estates in Wei, and some power protected him from all attempts on his life and property.

  ZHOU XIN AND DAJI

  But with the rule of Zhou Xin, a great imbalance came to the empire. The ceremonies of the ring were abolished; the wisdom of the Sky ring was lost. Zhou oppressed his people and gathered to himself great wealth while enjoying many decadent and hedonistic pleasures.

  It is said Zhou Xin had concubines beyond number, but he always desired more. On hearing of the beauty of Daji, a princess of a neighbouring kingdom, he did not hesitate to demand her. When he was refused, he led his people into a bloody and disastrous war. At great price he won the pearl of that blameless kingdom, and with cruel torture he put to death Daji’s father, mother and brothers.

  The cruel Zhou Xin found this woman to be fair indeed. Her face was as the white full moon and her beauty outshone that of Zhou’s other concubines, as the moon outshines the stars. He proclaimed her the most beautiful woman in the world, but some believed that the lovely Daji had bewitched the emperor so that she might find some way to avenge the slaughter of her family.

  Although the people of the empire had already suffered grievously in war because of the charms of this princess, Zhou Xin commanded that they must build a palace befitting her beauty. This was to be the Deer Tower (the Luhtae), the greatest building in the world. It stood like a sheer mountain looming above the city of Po. To this vain purpose, Zhou Xin enslaved all his people for seven long years and impoverished the nation. Neglecting all other duties of his high office, he allowed the land to fall into ruin. There was famine and plague, and Zhou Xin even failed to maintain the power of the armies that had allowed the Shangs to dwell in peace for so long.

  THE FINAL BETRAYAL

  On the borders of the empire, the warlord Wan Wang, the duke of Zhou, looked upon the Shang lands with concern and dismay. Troubled by what he saw, he consulted the oracles of bone for divine guidance. He raised an army of chariots, cavalry and foot-soldiers, and, after receiving a favourable sign from the oracles, he went to war. With great ceremony Wan Wang crossed the Huang River and entered into the empire of the Shangs unchallenged.

  Now Zhou Xin betrayed his people for the last time. He had the keeper of the treasury bring all that remained in the vaults of the nation and all the ancient Imperial Jades of the Shangs to him. Then he climbed to the top of the Deer Tower and set fire to himself and all the wealth of the empire. His people were left with nothing, and all their labour of seven years was destroyed.

  Wan Wang observed the ceremonies of the time. Thus, as conqueror, he rode to the ruins of the Deer Tower and shot three arrows from his chariot. He then climbed out and decapitated Zhou Xin’s charred body with his yellow axe. The head was impaled upon his great white standard. Next, Wan Wang had Daji, the concubine, brought before him and strangled. Again, he fired three arrows and then decapitated her with his black axe. The adorned head was impaled on his small white standard. Now he was conqueror, but, with all the Imperial Jades ruined by fire, he could not be emperor and father to the people. Then came Weiziqi to Wan Wang’s camp, making the traditional gestures of surrender and self-sacrifice. He came naked to the waist, with his hands bound and drawing an empty coffin behind him. In his mouth he held the sacred Sky Ring of Shang. Wan Wang received Weiziqi before his field pavilion. He raised Weiziqi up with his own hands, untied his wrists and accepted from him the ring of blue jade. In an act of mercy, Wan Wang burned the coffin instead of Weiziqi and returned him to his estates in Wei.

  Now that Wan Wang was emperor, he restored his empire and reinstituted the ring sacrifices. Peace and prosperity returned to the land. Wan Wang used the Sky Ring of the one true jade of Heaven as it was intended. Heaven and Earth were in harmony once more.

  ARABIA AND INDIA

  The mythology of the East has innumerable legends dealing with magic rings. In the Arabic world the use of magicians’ rings of power was considered even more common than it was in the West. That wonderful anthology of Eastern legends, One Thousand and One Nights, contains many tales involving magical rings. The most famous of these is the story of Aladdin’s Magical Lamp. In the original story, we find that the genie of Aladdin’s ring is far stronger and more useful than the genie of his lamp. The genie gets him into no end of trouble, while the genie of the ring saves his life three times.

  In India, the ring is often used as a symbol for the recognition of divinity in mortals. Among the many ring legends of this kind is one known as “The Bodhisattva’s Ring”. In this tale, the son of Brahmadatta, the king of Benares, is raised secretly as an untouchable stick-gatherer. The untouchable mother and child are brought to the throne-room. Recognition comes only when his mother throws the child into the air. Bearing a ruby ring in his hand, the child does not fall to the floor, but levitates in the air. The king accepts the child as his true heir and an incarnation of the Buddha.

  In India, the quest for the ring can be almost entirely spiritual in nature. This is related to the Indian Vedic tradition, which teaches that the “ring of fire” burns away all ignorance and illusion. The pilgrim or warrior who passes through its flames attains a mystical state of perfect peace. This is like the Buddhist meditational state of Satori. This is the ring of fire at the centre of the universe and the Chidambaram, “the centre of the universe which is within the heart”. It is an eternal place without time, where the true state of the soul may be observed and will grow to perfect wisdom.

  To some degree, this Vedic ring of fire is comparable to the enchanted ring of fire which Sigurd the Völsung rode through to make his way to his Valkyrie bride. It is also comparable to the Elven rings of enchantment that protected the hidden Elf kingdoms of Lothlórien and Doriath from evil and the march of time. Then there is its evil opposite, the satanic fiery ring that burned round the evil Eye of Sauron and preserved his damned spirit from mortal death.

  PART

  THIRTEEN

  THE ALCHEMIST'S RING

  RINGS IN ALCHEMY: A SECRET LANGUAGE

  As touched upon elsewhere in this book, the ring was also the symbol of the alchemist. The alchemist’s ring – in the form of a serpent swallowing its own tail – represented a quest for knowledge that was forbidden by the Church. Alchemists were often executed as sorcerers or magicians. The practices of these alchemists were often linked with their rings. The real or imagined use and trade of such “rings of power” were perceived as an evil that must be eradicated.

  Because of constant persecution, alchemists cloaked their studies in secrecy and wrote up their experiments and formulae in codified records. The 20th century’s leading historian of religions, Mircea Eliade, concluded that alchemical studies were transmitted mystically, just as poetry uses fables and parables. Regarding alchemy, Eliade wrote: “What we are dealing with here is a secret language such as we meet among shamans and secret societies and among the mystics of the traditional religions.”

  This “secret language” is strongly reminiscent of the Exeter Book’s “magic speech” of the ring. It seems likely that we are dealing with the same kind of cryptic communication. The “magic speech” of the ring and the “secret language” of alchemy are one. The dominan
ce of the symbol of the ring in pagan religions – and in all shamanistic tribal cultures who use metal – is related to the ring’s alchemical origins.

  The symbol for the alchemist was a gold ring in the form of a serpent swallowing its own tail. This serpent ring is the Ouroboros, meaning a “a tail biter”, a symbol for eternity that is found in a score of mythologies. In many cultures, we find in the great serpent the first form to emerge from chaos; it then encircles the void and creates time and space by forming a ring, becoming the Ouroboros and grasping its own tail. We see this celestial serpent ring in the Babylonian serpent called Ea, the Greek Ophion, the Hindu Sheshna, the Chinese Naga and the Norse Jörmungandr.

  The ring was a symbol of the alchemist’s profession and a vision of the alchemist’s quest. This was a ring very like that seen in a vision by the 17th-century metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan, in his poem “The World”:

  I saw Eternity the other night

  Like a great Ring of pure and endless light,

  All calm, as it was bright,

  And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years

  Driv’n by the spheres…