The Power, Allure, and Mystery of the Ring in Fantasy
January 5th, 2007
In the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Stephen Donaldson uses a ring as a powerful symbol. The Main character, Covenant, has a white gold wedding band and in the world he is plunged into white gold has enormous magical power. In Covenant’s mind the ring also holds the enormous power of the commitment and love he has for his ex wife.
When it comes to power and magic the ring holds the highest place in the totems of fantasy and of course you are familiar with the ring(s) in lord of the rings. This is where the ring also possesses enormous power but also symbolizes the struggle within oneself for self mastery and the strength to resist the temptations of evil.
All of this you probably already knew. But this allure and mystery of the ring is very much older than Tolkien or Donaldson. In Plato’s Republic there is a tale called “The Ring of the Gyges”. In it a shephard named Gyges stumbles into a secret cavern and finds a corpse with a ring on it. When he places this ring on his finger it turns him invisible!
So what does Gyges do? He succumbs to the power of the ring and seduces the Queen, murders the King, and does other dreadful things. The ring here symbolizes the thought that if you could be undetected in your deeds would you become evil yourself? If you could without a doubt get away with crimes would you do them? If you could steal a million dolllars and be guaranteed to get away with it would you do it? So the symbology here is that man is in a battle of balance between the neecs/wants of himself and the needs/wants of society as a whole.
The ring itself is a very interesting choice of totem for this deep and varied symbology and I wonder why it has been chosen as the symbol above symbols. Maybe it has something to do with the symobolic shape of the ring. It is a neverending perfect circle.
About the Picture with this article: It is a Magnet of the Popular Lord of the Rings Poster. The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - Frodo - One Ring to Rule Them All Magnet, 3″ x 4″
