The One Ring

I have had my head in a world of costume and dwarves lately, so it may sound like I'm losing my grip on reality when I say that The One Ring, The Preciousssss, actually exists in the real world -- and it's not a film prop.

This real world ring is a cursed (yes, really) Anglo-Romano ring from the 4th/5th century that was found in a field in 1785 in Silchester, Gloucestershire.  It's a rather large inscribed gold ring, weighing 12g.  And when I say large I mean "dude must have worn it on his thumb over his gloves" kind of large as it's 25mm in diameter.  It has 10 facets, with the top centre facet engraved with a profile of Venus -- albeit a rather unattractive one.  As the writing is reversed and the profile is quite recessed, I think it was probably a seal ring, however, there is nothing in any source article that officially states that it was.

Above:  The ring and a close up of the Venus head, sourced from The National Trust website.

The ring inscription runs across the facets and reads "SE | NI | CIA | NE | VI | VA | S | II | NDE."  Several sources interpret this as a shortened statement of monotheistic belief, seeing it as "Senicianus vivas in Deo" or "Senicianus lives in God".  A 19th century source suggests that "Senicia ne vivas iinde" is more likely, with iinde being a truncated form of any one of the many words that start with "indec"-- most of which bear the connotations of dishonour.  This would translate to "Senicia does not live indecently", which would explain the presence of the Venus head as a representation of chastity and honour.  Either translation would be a nice counterpoint to the curse placed on the ring though.

Of course, to curse something properly, you'd have to write the curse on a separate item, cursing the first one.  Why?  Otherwise the cursed object itself would be in the hands of the person and can therefore be easily destroyed, breaking the curse.  And the whole point of curses is to make someone paranoid and make them wonder if they've been cursed.  Besides, everyone knows that Roman and Celtic gods only read curses that are inscribed using a bronze stylus onto lead or pewter tablets like these:

Roman curse tablets from the British Museum.  These were usually left in places in closer contact with the underworld, such as baths, springs, graves and temples.

Thirty years after the ring was discovered, a tablet like those above was found at the site of a Roman temple to the Celtic god Nodens.  Nodens was a god of healing, the sea, hunting and dogs.  This tablet was found in the temple along with similar tablets bearing requests for Nodens to heal people.  However, this tablet was different.  This one reads:

1 Deuo
2 Nodenti Silvianus
3 anilum perdedit
4 demediam partem
5 donauit Nodenti
6 inter quibus nomen
7 Seniciani nollis
8 petmittas sanita
9 tem donec perfera(t)
10 usque templum [No]
11 dentis

Translation: "To the god Nodens: Silvianus has lost his ring and given half (its value) to Nodens. Among those who are called Senicianus do not allow health until he brings it to the temple of Nodens." (Source: CSAD at Oxford).

Now sure, the two items weren't found too close together, apart from being in the same part of the country.  But that ring is pretty distinctive and Senicianus was not a common name at all.  Many of these curse tablets specifically cursed people for theft, although this tablet never uses the word.  The word "lost" is interesting -- and why only half it's worth? Of course we'll never actually know that answer.  Obviously, Senicianus never brought the ring to the temple; instead, he put his name on it with the message of "I didn't steal it".  After all, he does not live indecently.  As far as I can see it, this is basically Latin for "Neener neener".

There's a story there and I wish I knew it.  It's a very human, very petty story, but it would be an insight to the lives of these people.

So where's the Tolkien tie in?  In 1929, when Sir Mortimer Wheeler was working on the temple excavation, he realised the link between to the curse tablet and the ring and asked Tolkien to work on the etymology of the name "Nodens".  Tolkien visited the temple several times that year.  Of course it's just coincidence that the Iron Age mine fort  "Dwarf's Hill" is just next door...  And that he started writing The Hobbit the next year.  Sure, we don't know for sure, really, but... just sayin'.

Seriously though.  How big were this guy's fingers?

Either way, The National Trust is taking full advantage of The Hobbit publicity and has put the ring on display from 2nd April, 2013 at The Vyne in Basingstoke with all the Tolkien tie-ins ever.  The ring sits in a special rotating case in it's own room, along with a magnifying glass and a copy of the curse tablet and first edition signed Tolkien works.  The Vyne has also created a Middle Earth adventure garden for the kids -- though I can see that I'd have to have a go in there.  Seriously, whoever made this happen is a marketing genius because I'd love to go see it.  Next time I'm dahn saff, I may have to.

Madonna of Mercy with Kneeling Friars

I'm usually not one for the big religious medieval scriptures as they don't show much in the way of fashion of the time usually, however, today this caught my eye:

It caught my eye because of it's vibrancy and it's use of the fish to for the letter S.  This piece is called Madonna of Mercy with Kneeling Friars.  It was created around 1424 by a chap named Fra Angelico (the Angelic Brother), who also went by the name Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John of Fiesole).  He was born in the Italian town of Fiesole and by the age of 13 he was already in the Dominican Friary of Cortona, painting frescoes which have all now been destroyed.  He did this piece when he was 29ish, having studied illuminations from a really, really young age.  This piece is an illumination from Messale 558 -- a book of hymns for Mass that also contained the liturggies for the feast days of several saints.

Another page from this book shows the glorification of St. Dominic:

This is straight from wikipedia, so if you want a bigger picture (where you can even see the grain of the parchement), check it out here.  This is a page from the book which even has musical notation.  My favourite though has to be this one, which is simply called Blessed angelic annunciation:

It's my favourite one from the set I've seen online simply because of the scrollwork inside of the R.  That's a lot of work, a lot of patience, a lot of hours and a lot of talent. 

There's a set of four of his images from this book available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Messale_558, which are all really high res and worth a look if you like illuminations.  I can't help but wonder how long it took him to put it all together though, even though the evidence shows that he had an assistant.  I should still think it took some time!

The Aberdeen Beastiary

In doing some flicking through pictures of illuminated manuscripts online, I came across The Aberdeen Beastiary.  This manuscript was written in England around the year 1200 and is a really good example of a beastiary, containing excellent descriptions and sketches of the animals it describes.  It's written in Latin, but the nice thing about The Aberdeen Beastiary site is that the text has been translated into English and the original pages have been digitised so that it can be shared with folks like you and me.  The experts are not really sure of where the beastiary came from prior to the late 1500s, but they think it may have been created in the north-east midlands, with all drawings, including illuminations, done by the same hand.

What drew me in was this awesome picture of a bat (source:  http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/comment/51vbirdf.hti):

In the manuscript, the bat is classed in with the birds because it flies, although the manuscript does mention that it's not really all that bird-like, having four feet and teeth "which you would not usually find in birds".  As the passage goes on, I get the impression that the writer even was beginning to doubt it's classification in with the birds, especially in light that the author acknowledges that bats give birth to live young and that they don't really have wings but skin stretched over wing-like bones.  The sketch is a little off anatomically, however, it's better than most of the bestiaries of the time in terms of accuracy.  I can understand the writer's quandary though, as well as sticking it in the winged creatures section. The Beastiary also notes some bat behaviour:

"There is one thing which these mean creatures do, however: they cling to each other and hang together from one place looking like a cluster of grapes, and if the last lets go, the whole group disintegrate; it a kind of act of love of a sort which is difficult to find among men."

The manuscript also contains pictures of the Phoenix:

With the following description:

"The phoenix is a bird of Arabia. Arabia can be understood as a plain, flat land. The plain is this world; Arabia is worldly life; Arabs, those who are of this world. The Arabs call a solitary man phoenix. Any righteous man is solitary, wholly removed from the cares of this world." (from http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/translat/55v.hti).  There is a massive allegorical Christ story at the source, which is an interesting read.

The book itself is a pleasure to flick through, with some fantastic stories about wildlife both real and mythological.  One of the stranger stories about an animal that actually exists is the lore around how to avoid being chased by a tiger if you steal it's cub.  The method of getting the tiger to stop chasing you is also helpfully pictured:

"The tigress, when she finds her lair empty by the theft of a cub, follows the tracks of the thief at once. When the thief sees that, even though he rides a swift horse, he is outrun by her speed, and that there is no means of escape at hand, he devises the following deception. When he sees the tigress drawing close, he throws down a glass sphere. The tigress is deceived by her own image in the glass and thinks it is her stolen cub. She abandons the chase, eager to gather up her young. Delayed by the illusion, she tries once again with all her might to overtake the rider and, urged on by her anger, quickly threatens the fleeing man. Again he holds up her pursuit by throwing down a sphere. The memory of the trick does not banish the mother's devotion. She turns over the empty likeness and settles down as if she were about to suckle her cub. And thus, trapped by the intensity of her sense of duty, she loses both her revenge and her child." (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/translat/8v.hti), picture source: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/comment/8rtiger.hti)

I can't help but feel that it's a wonderful romantic story about the beast that the text previously refers to as "the arrow".  I also can't help but feel that the chap wouldn't have the problem had he not stolen a tiger's cub.  You do have to wonder where they got these ideas from though, you really do.  Still, it's a nice story that I hope didn't get anyone killed.

7th Century Saxon Gold Disc Pendant

These gold pendants came up in my Pinterest feed without much in the way of information, but a little digging within the pages of the British Museum website turned up a bit of info.  They were found in King's Field, Faversham, Kent (UK).  This is a site where the presence of royalty has been documented over many centuries -- Ethelbert had a residence there during his reign (560-616). The pendants are from around 600-650 AD, made of gold, glass and garnet.  The garnet in the piece on the right has an odd shape which suggests that it may have been "reclaimed" from another item and put into this one.  Reusing gold and gems was a pretty common practice, so it's possible that the gold was also reclaimed from another source.  The gems were likely originally from India or Bohemia.  Still, it was an expensive gem and the person who commissioned the pendant on the right was sparing no expense as it has a filigree border made to look like rope, which again, was a costly order.  This, my friends, was Early Anglo-Saxon bling:

This pendant would have been strung together with similar shaped pendants with gold or perhaps glass spacer beads.  To give you a sense of scale, it's 1" long (2.5cm) by 0.7" wide (1.75cm).  Similar opaque blue glass was found in the Sutton Hoo burial.

The raven pendant is similarly made of gold and garnet, with a diameter of 1.4" (3.45cm) and a height of 1.45" (3.65cm).  These pendants of gold and garnet and filigree were a female fashion, most often found in Kent, but finds have occurred as far north as Yorkshire. The raven pendant is a bit of an odd one though.  The filigree bands and the central ring are similar to Kentish disc brooches, but the central (missing) garnet, the garnets on the bird's heads and the birds themselves betray a Frankish influence.  Personally, I like to think that the curly hearts is a female indicator, but that's just me...

The bird's heads form a triskele and I really can't help but see them as ravens due to their hooked beaks.  Similar amulets have been found on the continent, but they tend to form swastikas.  It looks like the person who wore this pendant had a mixed background of both the continent and Britain.  They also had a lot of money and some great fashion sense (for a 7th century Anglo-Saxon).

If you're interested in reading more about Faversham, King's Field, or these pendants, here are my sources:
Faversham, King's Field:
http://annette-anglo-saxon.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/anglo-saxon-settlements-study-faversham.html
http://www.faversham.org/history/Royal_associations/faversham_and_kings.aspx

The British Museum:
Oval Pendant:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/system_pages/beta_collection_introduction/beta_collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=87596&partId=1&searchText=saxon%20pendant&numpages=159&page=1&images=on

Raven Pendant
http://www.britishmuseum.org/system_pages/beta_collection_introduction/beta_collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=87581&partId=1&searchText=saxon%20pendant&numpages=159&page=1&images=on