Trying to pin down a rumour

[Earniel]

Okay, fellow tolkien-fans, I come to you in hopes I can pick your collective and extensive brain.

A friend of mine came with a vague story about a clay tablet with would have inspired Tolkien to write the text that is featured on the inside (or outside) of the One Ring. If I'm not mistaken, that text in question is the few lines of the poem: "One Ring to rule them all, one Ring them find them all, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them".

Now my friend has heard the story of a professor, so it increasingly lost detail in the telling. The clay tablet in question, likely to be a cuneiform tablet, would have been accessible to Tolkien via his alleged role of chairman of some cultural society.

As far as I know Tolkien studied many old writings so it isn't unlikely he ever looked at cuneiform. He also does strike me as the type that might have been part, if not head, of a cultural society that was connected to a Middle-eastern dig. In the bibliography of published works by Tolkien listed in the Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien is mention of at least one report on a archeological excavation, albeit an English one.

But I've never heard of a specific source (or at least don't remember it now) that inspired Tolkien to write these lines in the ring-poem. Tolkien's influences and sources have been studied quite extensively, and even often discussed here, so maybe somebody else here knows better.

Personally I think the story somewhat unlikely, mostly based on the presumption that I would have heard the story before if it had been true since it connects two interests of mine. But hey, what do I really know?

So I come to you. Do any of you remember any story like this one? Has anyone an idea of the specific elements: they clay tablet, the head of a cultural society, the middle-eastern connection, an extrenal origin of the ring-poem, are true?

I would very much like to hear your thoughts on this one.

[Beren3000]

Hey Eärniel

Interesting question.

Although I have no resources to verify or discredit this rumor, I found a Wikipedia article that seems to suggest that an archaeological dig (in the UK) did influence Tolkien and inspire the One Ring. Tolkien was called to consult on the findings in his capacity as Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.

[Earniel]

Hey Beren.

Oooh, very nice find!

Interesting especially since the one archeological report that I mentioned from Tolkien's published works list happens to be this one: Appendix 1: The Name 'Nodens', Report on the excavation of the prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Sites of Lydney Park, Gloucestershire. So that confirms at least the link between Tolkien and the excavation.

While it does remain to be seen if this ring of Silvianus did inspire Tolkien more than, say, the rings of germanic and nordic mythology (hard to say without the man in question own thoughts on the matter), this story of the ring and plaque could well be the origin of the story I heard, with the lead plaque substituted by a clay tablet in the telling.

[Beren3000]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Interesting especially since the one archeological report that I mentioned from Tolkien's published works list happens to be this one: Appendix 1: The Name 'Nodens', Report on the excavation of the prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Sites of Lydney Park, Gloucestershire. So that confirms at least the link between Tolkien and the excavation.

Wikipedia strikes again!

Interestingly enough another Wikipedia article on Tolkien's influences fails to mention the ring of Silvianus completely and suggests the rather more familiar Ring of the Nibelungs.

[Valandil]

Don't know if this suggests a link.

As I understand it, Tolkien translated some of a particular translation of the Bible. I believe the Book of Job, and maybe some smaller portions.

Some believe Job to be the oldest written story in the Bible. I believe I've heard there is a similar story in one of the ancient Mesopotamian cultures... Babylonian?

While I have little doubt that Tolkien would have worked either from Hebrew, or Greek or Latin translations from Hebrew - doing this work may have launched an interest in pursuing other writings from Mesopotamia...???

All conjecture.

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Valandil

Some believe Job to be the oldest written story in the Bible. I believe I've heard there is a similar story in one of the ancient Mesopotamian cultures... Babylonian?

Hm, this is the first I've heard of this. I know Job is of importance in Judaism and Islam, but a Babylonian origin would surprise me. They have no similar concept to the devil if I recall correctly. Maybe there's some confusion with the flood story? That one is certainly straight from Babylonian mythology. I could be wrong though, not a scholar.

But Akkadian is a semitic language if I recall correctly, so the step from Hebrew to other, older Middle-eastern languages may have been there for Tolkien.

[Alcuin]

The book of Job is traditionally considered the oldest book in the Bible, as Valandil mentioned. The rabbinic tradition, I believe, is that Moses heard it while living in Midian with his father-in-law, Jethro, who was “a priest of Midian”. The people in the book – Job, his three friends, who condemn him as wicked and unrepentant because of his afflictions despite his protests of innocence, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and the young man who speaks at the end, Elihu – as well as Jethro and Moses, all acknowledge the God of Abraham.

Eliphaz was from Teman, the principal city of Edom: he seems to have been a descendant of Esau. Bildad is called “the Shuhite”, indicating that he was also descended from Abraham. Zophar was from Naamah, a town in nearby Canaan. Elihu is called a Buzite, a descendant of one of Abraham’s nephews, Buz. And the Midianites themselves are said to be descended from Abraham. (So Jethro was, too.)

If we search for an Akkadian connection, Abraham was from Ur, which was in the southernmost part of the Akkadian Empire; however, the traditional date for the birth of Abraham (from the rabbis’ counting “son of, son of, son of…”) is 1976 BC; the Akkadian Empire had come to an end more than a century earlier.

Moreover, if Eärniel is correct, and the Akkdians had no concept of a devil – they worshipped all sorts of gods, both good and evil – the story of Job makes no sense. Polytheistic gods – whether Roman, Greek, Egyptian or Akkadian – tend to be capricious, with little concern for morality or ethics, much less human suffering. The whole book of Job is all about the mystery of suffering – specifically, Job’s suffering despite his (human) righteousness – setting it apart from polytheistic stories. It is theologically complex, exploring and rejecting in turn each traditional explanation of suffering. Job is left to exercise his free will to choose between Good and Evil, chooses Good despite his pain, rejects Evil, and is rewarded with a Theophanic vision of God in a whirlwind (tornado).

Finally, there are some highly specific geographic markers in Job: Teman, Naamah, and the “Land of Uz”, which seems to be another, older name for Edom. The book also discusses hippopotami and crocodiles, which still inhabit the Nile and formerly inhabited the Jordan River.

None of these things would fit with a tale of Akkadian origins. There seems little reason to doubt that it is a story with its origins in Edom or Midian.