Did This Cursed Ring Inspire J.R.R. Tolkien?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

This episode explores the mysterious history of a heavy Roman gold ring discovered in 1785 in England, which may have been stolen and cursed

Key takeaways

• The Roman gold ring discovered in Silchester bears the name Senecianus and an inscription suggesting a blessing, possibly intended as protection against a curse.
• A curse tablet found at Lydney Temple mentions a stolen ring belonging to Silvianus and curses Senecianus with ill health until the ring is returned.

Main topics

• Ancient Roman curse tablets
• Archaeological discovery in Silchester

Notable quotes

'Senecianus, may you live well in God.' — inscription on the Roman gold ring with a typo.

Conclusion

While no direct evidence confirms that the cursed ring inspired Tolkien, the striking

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:03) Back when I was in college, I worked on an archaeological dig. Briefly. I say briefly because every time we would go out digging, it would start pouring rain, like clockwork. One time it rained so hard that my contact lenses washed clean out of my eyes. It wasn't a good time. Speaker 1 (0:24) Most of what we were digging up was bits of old 18th century trash, things like broken pipe stems or bits of ceramic, probably chamber pots, honestly. But I did manage to find one thing that was really cool. It was a broken piece of jewelry from the 18th or 19th century, probably, silver with some bits of blackstone or enamel. I think it was part of a necklace. I'm not going to say that it totally changed my experience of the dig, but it felt like a real find. I mention this because the story I want to tell today also involves a found object. Although this found object is cursed. Allegedly. Although now that I'm thinking about it, maybe the necklace I found was also cursed. That would explain all the rain. Speaker 1 (1:21) Anyway, let's zoom over to England, to the little village of Silchester. The year is 1785. A farmer is out in his fields plowing, and as he turns over a big clod of dirt, he spots something sparkling on the ground. So he leans over and picks it up and sees that it's a ring. A super hefty and heavy gold ring. As it turned out, this ring weighed about 12 grams, which is two to three times heavier than your average wedding ring. And it was so large that it seemed that it could only really fit on the thumb of a gloved hand. There was a face stamped on it and an inscription winding all the way around in Latin. So it seemed pretty clear that this was not, like, the farmer's neighbor's ring that he dropped on a morning walk. This thing was old. Like ancient Roman old. And as it turned out, the ring had quite a backstory involving a Celtic god and a curse. Speaker 1 (2:37) I'm Amanda McGowan, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places. And today, we are digging into the story of this ring. Who did it belong to? Apparently, that is a bit of a complicated question, because even though there's literally a name on it, archaeological finds later suggest that it might have been stolen and then had a curse put on it. And to top it all off, this whole story might even have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien while he was writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Speaker 1 (3:29) In the English countryside southwest of London is a big brick Tudor mansion that dates back to the 17th century. It's called the Vine, V-Y-N-E. Today it's open to the public, and if you pay a visit, one of the things you'll be able to see is this giant Roman gold ring that we've