To shame bright gems Anne hath a way!”[1]
We shall find many interesting stories connected with rings. By way of illustration, here is one:
In a battle between Edmund the Anglo-Saxon and Canute the Dane, the army of the latter was defeated and fled; and one of its principal captains, Ulf, lost his way in the woods. After wandering all night, he met, at daybreak, a young peasant driving a herd of oxen, whom he saluted and asked his name. “I am Godwin, the son of Ulfnoth,” said the young peasant, “and thou art a Dane.” Thus obliged to confess who he was, Ulf begged the young Saxon to show him his way to the Severn, where the Danish ships were at anchor. “It is foolish in a Dane,” replied the peasant, “to expect such a service from a Saxon; and, besides, the way is long, and the country people are all in arms.” The Danish chief drew off a gold ring from his finger and gave it to the shepherd as an inducement to be his guide. The young Saxon looked at it for an instant with great earnestness, and then returned it, saying, “I will take nothing from thee, but I will try to conduct thee.” Leading him to his father’s cottage, he concealed him there during the day; and when night came on, they prepared to depart together. As they were going, the old peasant said to Ulf, “This is my only son Godwin, who risks his life for thee. He cannot return among his countrymen again; take him, therefore, and present him to thy king, Canute, that he may enter into his service.” The Dane promised, and kept his word. The young Saxon peasant was well received in the Danish camp; and rising from step to step by the force of his talents, he afterwards became known over all England as the great Earl Godwin. He might have been monarch; while his sweet and beautiful daughter Edith or Ethelswith did marry King Edward. “Godwin,” the people said in their songs, contrasting the firmness of the father with the sweetness of the daughter, “is the parent of Edith, as the thorn is of the rose.”[2]
§ 2. The word symbolum, for a long time, meant a ring; and was substituted for the ancient Oscan word ungulus.
§ 3. In examining ancient rings, care must be taken not to confound them with coins made in the shape of rings.[3] The fresco paintings in the tombs of Egypt exhibit people bringing, as tribute, to the foot of the throne of Pharaoh, bags of gold and silver rings, at a period before the exodus of the Israelites. Great quantities of ring-money have been found in different countries, including Ireland.[4]
Egyptian Ring-money. Celtic Ring-money.
The ancient Britons had them. That these rings were used for money, is confirmed by the fact that, on being weighed, by far the greater number of them appear to be exact multiples of a certain standard unit. Layard mentions[5] that Dr. Lepsius has recently published a bas relief, from an Egyptian tomb, representing a man weighing rings of gold and silver, with weights in the form of a bull’s head; and Layard also gives a seeming outline of the subject, (although its description speaks of “weights in the form of a seated lion.”) It is presumed that these rings are intended for ring-money; the fact of weighing them strengthens this idea; and see Wilkinson’s Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians, (revised,) ii. 148-9.
§ 4. We not only find rings in the most ancient times, but we also trace them in mythology.