A "cursed" ring has gone on display at The Vyne Basingstoke which is said to have inspired JRR Tolkien in writing The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford before he found fame in writing books and was said to have been researching this ring two years before he began writing.
The ring likely to have been found by a farmer in the 1700s within the Roman sites in Silchester; was thought to have been sold to a wealthy family at The Vyne. The odd ring which is 12g of Gold is so large that it would have only fitted on a gloved thumb and included Latin engravings reading "Senicianus live well in God" and has an image of spiky head wearing a diadem.
A few decades later a tablet was found 100 miles away at a Roman site named "Dwarfs Hill" which read of a curse from a Roman called Silvianus. He informs the God of Noden of his stolen ring. It seems he knew the thief also: "Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens."
So is this the inspiration? Is this the true precious?!
The ring is now on display with a first edition of The Hobbit and a copy of the curse at The Vyne.
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