If you are a Tolkien fan you are forever stamped by a Legend of the Ring: The Hobbit & Later, in The Lord of the Rings.

You may not realize, however, that Legends of the Ring are thousands of years old.

“A magic ring is a mythical, folkloric or fictional piece of jewelry, usually a finger ring, that is purported to have supernatural properties or powers. It appears frequently in fantasy and fairy tales. Magic rings are found in the folklore of every country where rings are worn.^[1] Some magic rings can endow the wearer with a variety of abilities including invisibility and immortality. Others can grant wishes or spells such as neverending love and happiness. Sometimes, magic rings can be cursed, as in the mythical ring that was recovered by Sigurð from the hoard of the worm Fáfnir in Norse mythology^{[2](pp 14, 57–59)} or the fictional ring that features in The Lord of the Rings. More often, however, they are featured as forces for good, or as a neutral tool whose value is dependent upon the wearer.^[1]

“Early stories of magical rings date to classical antiquity. Plato, in the second book of The Republic, tells a story about the Ring of Gyges, which conferred invisibility on its wearer.^[5] The shepherd Gyges, who found it in a cave, used its power to seduce the queen, kill the king and take his place. Earlier accounts of Gyges, however, who was king of Lydia, make no mention of a magic ring. …

Josephus about 100 A.D, [about 2000 years ago]

“Josephus repeats an anecdote of one Eleazar who used a magic ring to exorcise demons in the presence of Vespasian.

“J.G. Frazer, in his study of magic and superstition in The Golden Bough, has speculated to the effect that rings can serve, in the “primitive mind”, as devices to prevent the soul from leaving the body and to prevent demons from gaining entry.^[6] A magic ring, therefore, might confer immortality by preventing the soul’s departure and thwart the penetration of any harmful magic that might be directed against the wearer. These magical properties inhibiting egress of the soul may explain “an ancient Greek maxim, attributed to [the ancient philosopher and mystic] Pythagoras, which forbade people to wear rings”.^{[6](p 293)…}

“Tales of magic rings feature in One Thousand and One Nights, where the fisherman Judar bin Omar finds the ring of the enchanter Al-Shamardal,^[7] and the cobbler Ma’aruf discovers the signet of Shaddád ibn Aad.^[8] Each ring has powers from djinn magically confined in them.^[a] In the story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Aladdin also summons a second genie (djinn) from a finger ring given to him by the Maghrabi Magician.^[10]

By the Renaissance era Solomon’s ring had been adopted into Western magic, occultism, and alchemy.

Magic rings are known in medieval Jewish esoteric tradition; they are mentioned in the Talmud and Midrash. Solomon’s magical ring had many properties in legend: making him all-knowing, conferring him with the ability to speak with animals, and bearing the special sigil that sealed djinn into bottles.^[3] A story about King Solomon and a ring is found in the Babylonian Talmud,^[11] but rings are more fully discussed in Jewish mystical literature. The power of a ring is in the divine name with which it is inscribed; such rings are used to invoke and command various guardians of heavenly palaces and to gain entrance to those heavens.^[b] In the Zohar, God is thought to own and use a signet ring, or, at least, a signet.^[13]

A small number of Anglo-Saxon finger rings dating to the Viking Age bearing runic inscriptions of apparently magical significance have been discovered in England, such as the Kingmoor Ring and the Bramham Moor Ring. Rings endowed with special properties were significant in pagan Scandinavia. A 10th century pagan Icelandic chieftain had a temple in which an arm ring rested upon a stalli (“altar”), and upon which all oaths in the district were to be sworn, according to the 13th-century Eyrbyggja Saga.^[14]

“A magical ring in Germanic mythology is the arm ring Draupnir, worn by the god Odin. Because its only reported function was to create more gold arm bands every nine days, Draupnir may have been a religious symbol which represented the increasing of wealth. The ring was placed onto Baldr‘s funeral pyre, but Baldr gave Draupnir back to Hermóðr and so the ring was returned to Odin from Hel.^[15]

“Andvarinaut is a central ring in Germanic works such as the Middle High German Nibelungenlied and the Icelandic Völsunga saga. It eventually becomes the property of the hero Siegfried or Sigurð. In the Völsunga saga, it is a gold ring that the dwarf Andvari cursed when Loki forcefully took it as weregild to pay to Hreiðmarr, the father of Fáfnir.^{[2](pp 29, 80–82)} Upon owning the ring, Fáfnir became a worm, and was later killed by Sigurð, who took Andvarinaut, and so inherited its curse. How Andvarinaut came to be cursed is explained in detail in Völsunga saga,^[2] as is the elaborate sequence of events of how the curse plays out for Sigurð, involving Sigurð changing shapes with his brother-in-law Gunnar.^[16] However, what magical use Andvarinaut might have to make it desirable is never specifically given in the narrative: The curse on it is simply a source of disaster for every person who owns it; its principal characteristic in the story is that nearly everyone wants to get it, except Sigurð, who has got it, but does not understand what it is that he’s got.^[2]

“Sir Yvain is given a magic ring by a maiden in Chrétien de Troyes‘ 12th-century Arthurian romance The Knight of the Lion. This finger ring can be worn with the stone on the inside, facing the palm, and then it will make the wearer invisible.^[17] The 14th century Middle English Arthurian romance Sir Perceval of Galles has the hero, Perceval, take a ring from the finger of a sleeping maiden in exchange for his own, and he then goes off on a series of adventures that includes defeating an entire Saracen army in a Land of Maidens. Only near the end of this romance does he learn that the ring he was wearing is a magic ring and that its wearer cannot be killed.^[18]

“Similar rings feature in the 14th century medieval romance Sir Eglamour of Artois and the 12th century Floris and Blancheflour,^[19][20] and in Thomas Malory‘s Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney, in his 15th century epic Le Morte d’Arthur, in which Gareth is given a ring by a damsel who lives in Avalon that will render him invulnerable to losing any blood at a tournament.^[21][c]

“In the medieval collection of Welsh tales called the Mabinogion, one of the romances – Geraint ab Erbin – has the eponymous character find a ring that grants him the powers of invisibility when worn.^[22] The Scottish ballads Hind Horn and Bonny Bee Hom both include a magic ring that turns pale when the person who received it has lost the person who gave it.^[23]

“François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, developed the motif of a magical invisibility ring in his literary fable History of Rosimund and Braminth.^[24] The tale was translated by Andrew Lang as The Enchanted Ring in his Green Fairy Book.^[25][26]

“In folkloristics, tale type ATU 560, “The Magic Ring”, of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, was named after the magical object the hero receives in the tale.^{[27][28] Wikipedia}