| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
XcomSquaddie
Veteran
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 906
Location: In the Eye of the Nerdicane
|
 Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:11 am Post subject: One of Tolkien's inspirations? |
 |
|
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9966793/The-Hobbit-ring-that-inspired-Tolkien-goes-on-display.html
| Quote: | A “cursed” Roman ring believed to be the inspiration behind the “ring of power” in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit went on display at a National Trust property today.
The 12 gram gold ring – which carries the Latin inscription “Senicianus live well in God” and an image of Roman god Venus – is part of a new exhibition organised in partnership with the Tolkien Society at National Trust property The Vyne in Hampshire.
According to the Guardian, historians believe a farmer found the ring in Silchester, Hampshire in 1785 before selling it to the Chute family, who owned The Vyne.
Several decades after the discovery of the ring, a tablet was found 100 miles away in Lydney, Gloucestershire with an inscription suggesting that a Roman named Silvianus had owned the ring and put a curse on it after it was stolen.
The inscription read: “Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens.”
This “curse” would have been designed to inform the Roman god Nodens that a man named Senicianus had stolen the ring from Silvianus.
Tolkien, who was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University before publishing The Hobbit in 1937, had studied the story of ring two years before starting work on his novel. |
This might be of interest to some.
_________________
Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise.
-Rat Thing B-782 |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Sitting Duck
Legendary
Joined: 15 May 2003
Posts: 4556
Location: Podunk Junction, State of Confusion
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Lord Inar
Heroic
Joined: 30 May 2006
Posts: 1532
Location: Boulder, CO
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
SavageGamerGirl
Heroic
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Posts: 1253
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:20 am Post subject: |
|
|
I always assumed that the One Ring was inspired by the Nibelungenlied.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
XcomSquaddie
Veteran
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 906
Location: In the Eye of the Nerdicane
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 11:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
| SavageGamerGirl wrote: | | I always assumed that the One Ring was inspired by the Nibelungenlied. |
I did as well. However I read this today:
| Quote: | | Wagner's Ring and Tolkien's RingJ. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings (1937-1949) shares elements with Der Ring des Nibelungen, but Tolkien himself denied that he had been inspired by Wagner's work, saying that "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." Many similarities can be explained because Tolkien and Wagner both drew upon the same source material, including the Völsungasaga and the Poetic Edda. But scholar Edward Haymes suggests that Tolkien owes a direct debt to Wagner's cycle for concepts like a ring that gives its owner mastery of the world, and that works to corrupt the minds and wills of its possessors. |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen
On an unrelated note, I wanted to name our last dog Nibelungen but my wife vetoed that. 
_________________
Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise.
-Rat Thing B-782 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Lord Inar
Heroic
Joined: 30 May 2006
Posts: 1532
Location: Boulder, CO
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 1:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| XcomSquaddie wrote: | | On an unrelated note, I wanted to name our last dog Nibelungen but my wife vetoed that. |
We name our bettas after great heroes. We've had Beowulf, Vainomainen and Gilgamesh.
_________________
Lord Inar
Sherwood and Gaslight
Rocky Mountain Savages
SharkBytes |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
SavageGamerGirl
Heroic
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Posts: 1253
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 1:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| XcomSquaddie wrote: | | I did as well. However I read this today: |
He also insisted that there were no WWII and/or atomic bomb allegories in the Lord of the Rings, but it's still easy to draw such correlations. I'm not suggesting that he was lying about his own inspirations, of course, only that they are fairly easy assumptions for a casual fan to make.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
XcomSquaddie
Veteran
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 906
Location: In the Eye of the Nerdicane
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| SavageGamerGirl wrote: | | XcomSquaddie wrote: | | I did as well. However I read this today: |
He also insisted that there were no WWII and/or atomic bomb allegories in the Lord of the Rings, but it's still easy to draw such correlations. I'm not suggesting that he was lying about his own inspirations, of course, only that they are fairly easy assumptions for a casual fan to make. |
I hadn't heard of the atomic bomb aspect, but I did read an article where he talked about the WWII comparisons. IIRC he said that if anything, it would have been his experiences in WWI rather than WWII.
There's an idea for you: Do a WWII/LotR mash-up.
_________________
Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise.
-Rat Thing B-782 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Cryonic
Veteran
Joined: 21 Oct 2009
Posts: 813
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| SavageGamerGirl wrote: | | XcomSquaddie wrote: | | I did as well. However I read this today: |
He also insisted that there were no WWII and/or atomic bomb allegories in the Lord of the Rings, but it's still easy to draw such correlations. I'm not suggesting that he was lying about his own inspirations, of course, only that they are fairly easy assumptions for a casual fan to make. |
Provided you don't know the history of the story. Looks like he started writing it in '37, long before the Bomb and took until '49 to finish it. And then it still wasn't published for another 6 years, '55.
_________________
My Blog of Random Gaming: http://www.daemonstorm.com
Savage Worlds Tales: http://www.daemonstorm.com/category/Categories/Role-playing/Savage-Worlds |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
VonDan
Legendary
Joined: 08 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 3:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
As some one with 30 pounds of book by and about Tolkien
The basis for a cursed ring in his work was from early Germanic myths as said above the same sources as used by Wagner in Das Ring. Tolkien may have head of this found ring but all the same elements are in the old German myths, stolen ring that is lost and is cursed.
If there are any political/military themes in his work they are based on his own experience in the trenches of ww1 and seeing the industrial revolution take over daily life in England. In his personal experience it was a time of war phasing from dashing cavalry charges to the age of Machine guns and tanks and poison gas. The last chapter of ROTK about the shire reflect a night mare view of how his idyllic memories of the English country side has been taken over by modern machinery.
The big mystery is why Tolkien never mentions he had classmate from Kentucky who was versed in many appalachian folk tales and that in the phone books of Lexington and Shelbyville Kentucky can be found EVERY HOBBIT FAMILY NAME FROM BILBO"S PARTY
_________________
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h51/Vondan/ |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kevin
Seasoned
Joined: 15 May 2011
Posts: 344
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:22 pm Post subject: Re: One of Tolkien's inspirations? |
|
|
| XcomSquaddie wrote: | The inscription read: “Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens.”
This “curse” would have been designed to inform the Roman god Nodens that a man named Senicianus had stolen the ring from Silvianus. |
Just gave me some inspiration, too. Plot hook: one of your players comes down with a curse because some other guy with the same name on the other side of the kingdom stole something … and the owner set this very same curse on it.
Does the party track town the thief to get the McGuffin back? Do they go after the rightful owner? It's be easy to follow the thief—just follow the same trail of catastrophe heading off in front of you as the one you're leaving behind you.
_________________
| Snate56 wrote: | | I know to some people this is blasphemy, but there is such a thing as too much detail... |
| Jux wrote: | | Perfection is not when there is nothing more to add, but nothing more to take away. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
VonDan
Legendary
Joined: 08 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:29 pm Post subject: Re: One of Tolkien's inspirations? |
|
|
| Kevin wrote: | | XcomSquaddie wrote: | The inscription read: “Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens.”
This “curse” would have been designed to inform the Roman god Nodens that a man named Senicianus had stolen the ring from Silvianus. |
Just gave me some inspiration, too. Plot hook: one of your players comes down with a curse because some other guy with the same name on the other side of the kingdom stole something … and the owner set this very same curse on it.
Does the party track town the thief to get the McGuffin back? Do they go after the rightful owner? It's be easy to follow the thief—just follow the same trail of catastrophe heading off in front of you as the one you're leaving behind you. |
And all the clues come from a grumpy old street vender named McGuffin who is set up under the arches of the golden bridge and sells breakfast muffins.
_________________
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h51/Vondan/ |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Takeda
Heroic
.jpg)
Joined: 28 Apr 2009
Posts: 1328
|
| Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 11:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
We had a cat named Loki ... what was totally appropriate as he was a red tabby full of vinegar.
Our current cat is named Halea (goddess of fertility from Harnmaster). She's a total cuddle-monkey so her mothering is totally fitting.
_________________
Dean: "Ya' know she could be faking."
Sam: "Yeah, what do you wanna do, poke her with a stick?"
[Dean nods]
Sam: "Dude, you're not gonna poke her with a stick?"
Supernatural Quotes |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
