Magic ring

During the late Greek classical era, Plato tells a story about the ring of Gyges, which conferred invisibility on its wearer, as a political allegory in the second book of The Republic.

[5] The shepherd Gyges, who found it in a cave, used its power to seduce the queen, kill the king, and take his place.

However, it seems to have been an invention by Plato, rather than an ancient story: Earlier accounts of Gyges the king of Lydia make no mention of any magic ring.

[6](p 293) Traditional medieval Arabic and Hebraic demonology both cultivated the legend of the Ring of Solomon, used to control demons and / or djinn.

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.

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.

Because its only reported function was to create more gold arm bands every nine days, Draupnir may have been a religious symbol meant represent prosperity.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[23] François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, developed the motif of a magical invisibility ring in his literary fable History of Rosimund and Braminth.

Or alternatively, they may function as nothing more than MacGuffins, that is, objects for which it is the characters' desire to obtain them, rather than any innate power that they possess, that moves the story along.

In Ruth Plumly Thompson's sequel The Cowardly Lion of Oz one character has a magic ring which binds a messenger to fulfill his assignment, and turns him blue and stops him from being able to move, if he betrays the owner.

J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Hobbit was written as children's fiction, but as the story grew into The Lord of the Rings the matter expanded, borrowing from Germanic and Norse mythology for many of its themes, creatures, and names.

It becomes one of the most important objects in Harry Potter's world because it contains a fragment of Voldemort's soul, and before it was pried apart by Dumbledore, it held one of the three Deathly Hallows: the Resurrection Stone, which can summon the deceased.

Magical rings frequently appear in video games as items, typically granting special abilities or effects such as stat bonuses.