The ring that might well have inspired JRR Tolkien to write The Lord Of The Rings book has been put up in an exhibition at The Vyne in Hampshire, owned by the National Trust.

According to The Guardian, the ring was probably found in 1785 by a farmer ploughing a few miles away from The Vyne in Silchester. A town which flourished before the Roman invasion, was abandoned by the 7th century, it was never reoccupied. It bares semblance to the fictional ring in Tolkien’s books and also the Peter Jackson films, large and gold and featuring a Latin inscription reading: "Senicianus live well in God".

Mysteriously, at Lydney in Gloucestershire, a Roman site known locally as the Dwarf's Hill, a tablet with an inscribed curse was found, which is believed to be related to the ring. On it, a Roman called Silvianus apparently informs the god Nodens that his ring has been stolen. He knows the villain responsible, and he wants the god to sort them out: "Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens." Tolkien was undoubtedly aware of the story of the ring and the curse; he was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford and had been researching it. This took place before he found fame with the publication of The Hobbit in 1937, and the first Lord Of The Rings book in 1954.

Middle Earth
Middle Earth isn't unlike the sleepy Hampshire countryside the possible real ring can be found in