Ring of Silvianus

The Vyne Ring, the Ring of Senicianus or the Ring of Silvianus is a gold ring, dating probably from the 4th century AD, discovered while ploughing a field near Silchester, in Hampshire, England, before 1786.

After its discovery in the 18th century, the ring became the property of the Chute family, whose country house was The Vyne, also in Hampshire, now a National Trust property. The ring went on display there in April 2013.

Before 1812, a curse tablet mentioning the name Senicianus was found at Lydney Park in Gloucestershire, England. The ring has been suggested to be originally the property of a British Roman called Silvianus, apparently stolen or otherwise misappropriated by a person named Senicianus, upon whom Silvianus called down a curse. Other authors suggested that the connection between the ring and the curse tablet should not be assumed just from the coincidence of the names.

In 1929, during excavations of the site of the Roman temple of Nodens at Lydney Park, the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler reviewed previous finds at the site and became interested in the curse tablet. As Wheeler consulted with J. R. R. Tolkien on the name of the god invoked in the curse, the ring and curse may have inspired the One Ring in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

However, there is no evidence that Tolkien had anything to do with the ring or that it influenced his work. The National Trust website on the ring states "In the past it has been wrongly identified as the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy."