REALM
OF THE RING LORDS
- The Ancient Legacy of the Ring and the Grail
by
Laurence Gardner
-
- TRANSCRIPT - -
From
the earliest of Sumerian and Scythian times, over 5,000 years
ago, the abiding symbol of wholeness, unity and eternity was
the Ring. In those days, the kings-of-kings were also styled
Ring Lords by virtue of their Rings of office which symbolised
divinely inspired justice. They were golden circlets which,
as time progressed, were often worn as head-bands - ultimately
to become crowns.
As
depicted in numerous reliefs, the Ring was a primary device
of the Anunnaki gods, who were recorded as having descended
into ancient Sumer and were responsible for the establishment
of municipal government and kingly practice. In view of this,
it is of particular relevance that, when the author J.R.R. Tolkien
was asked, in the 1960s, about the Middle-earth environment
of his book trilogy The Lord of the Rings, he said that he perceived
its setting to relate to about 4000 BC.
Tolkien
was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon language and, in this
regard, the root of his popular tale was extracted directly
from Saxon folklore. Indeed, the early Saxon god Wotan (Odin)
was said to have ruled the Nine Worlds of the Rings - having
the ninth (the One Ring) to govern eight others.
As
the generations passed from those ancient times, the ideal of
dynastic kingship spread through the Mediterranean lands into
the Balkans, the Black Sea regions and Europe. But, in the course
of this, the crucial essence of the old wisdom was diluted and
this gave rise to dynasties that were not of the original kingly
race. Instead, many were unrelated warrior chiefs who gained
their thrones by might of the sword.
The
oldest complete version of the Ring Cycle comes from the Norse
mythology of the Volsunga Saga. Compiled from more than forty
separate legends, this Icelandic tale relates to the god Odin,
to the kingdom of the Nine Worlds and to a dark forest called
Mirkwood - a name later repeated by Tolkien in The Lord of the
Rings. It tells of how Prince Sigmund of the Volsung dynasty
is the only warrior able to pull the great sword of Odin from
a tree in which the god had driven it to its hilt - as replicated
in the Arthurian story of the sword and the stone. Additionally,
we learn of the water-dwarf Andarvi, whose magical One Ring
of red-gold could weave great wealth and power for its master
- precisely as depicted in all related Ring legends.
Contemporary
with the Volsunga Saga was a similar tale which appeared in
and around Burgundy in the 1200s: a German epic called The Nibelungenlied.
In this account, which follows a similar path, the hero is called
Siegfried and the tale is given a knightly gloss of the Gothic
era, while unfortunately losing some of the pagan enchantment
of the Northern legend.
In
ancient Sumer, the Anunnaki were said to have governed by way
of a Grand Assembly of nine Councillors who sat at Nippur. The
nine consisted of eight members (seven males and a female),
who held the Rings of divine justice, along with their president,
Anu, who held the One Ring to bind them all. This conforms precisely
with the nine kingdoms of the Volsunga Saga, which cites Odin
as the ultimate presidential Ring Lord.
In
recent times there have been some astonishing archaeological
discoveries which now prove that Sumerian was not the first
written language as is commonly portrayed. Also that the Sumerian
culture (generally held to be the earliest cradle of civilization)
had an older origin in the Balkans, specifically in Transylvania
and the Carpathian regions.
The
earliest type of Mesopotamian writing, which preceded the strictly
wedge-shaped Sumerian cuneiform, is known to be a little over
5,500 years old. It was found at Uruk in Sumer and at Jemdat
Nasr, between Baghdad and Babylon, where the Oxford Assyriologist,
Stephen Langdon, made numerous important discoveries in 1925.
But, around thirty years ago a more significant find was subsequently
made beneath the ancient village of Tartaria in Romania. Here
were found clay tablets inscribed with a form of script which
Carbon-14 dating and strata positioning have revealed to be
more than 1,000 years older than the earliest Sumerian writings.
That
was not the only surprise, however, for the Tartarian symbols
were practically identical to those which emerged later in Mesopotamia.
- and it was discovered that the very name of Ur (the capital
of Sumer) came from the Scythian word Ur, meaning Lord. Not
only that, but the name of Enki is clearly defined on one tablet
in an identical form to that subsequently used in Sumer. Hence,
it became very apparent that the Anunnaki culture was far more
widespread than had previously been thought.
Another
significant discovery was made high in the Altai Mountains between
Siberia and Mongolia. There, preserved by the severe cold since
the distant BC years, was found a Scythian burial mound, where
the bodies of ancient chieftains, together with their horses,
clothing and possessions had all been remarkably preserved from
decay.
These
were the people who, in the Black Sea steppe lands, first domesticated
the horse in about 4000 BC. Consequently, the extent of their
travels through the centuries and their influence on the various
indigenous cultures is most impressive.
It
ranges geographically from Hungary and Romania, north into the
Russian steppes and Siberia, eastwards across the Ukraine and
Anatolia (modern Turkey), south into Syria and Mesopotamia,
and still further east into Mongolia, Tibet and the Chinese
border country.
Digging
first commenced at the Altai site in 1927, but it was not until
1947 that the richest mound containing six separate tombs was
discovered and the various bodies found. They were preserved
not only by the extreme cold of the region, but also by skilled
embalming. There was hair on their heads, but their brains had
been removed, along with other internal organs (just as in Egyptian
mummification).
Some
way south of the Altai site, in the northern foothills of the
Himalayas, are the centres of Hami, Loulan and Churchen. It
was close to these places, nestling in the Tarim Basin below
Mongolia, to the north of Tibet, that a number of similar discoveries
were made as recently as 1994. Unlike the intensely cold climate
of the Altai Mountains, this lower region of the Central Asian
desert is quite different, as a result of which the bodies were
preserved in the perfectly dry air, coupled with moisture-absorbing
salt beds and, again, expert mummification.
Dated
at around 4,000 years old, these interred men, women and children
have undermined all the established history teaching of the
area, which previously stated that no one of their type arrived
there until about 120 BC. But there they were from 2,000 years
earlier at the time of Abraham, when Egyptian pharaohs such
as Tutankhamun and Ramesses the Great were more than 500 years
into the future. These mummies, although contemporary with the
mummies of ancient Egypt, are actually far better preserved.
Like
their Romanian counterparts, the Himalayan mummies are of impressive
stock, with light skin, auburn hair and pale eyes. The leather
and woollen clad men stood at least 6-feet, 6-inches and upwards,
while even the women were over 6-feet tall. Undoubtedly, these
forebears of the Gaelic High Kings were among the most formidable
warriors of their time, and their use of finely woven tartan
cloth serves as identifiable proof of the plaid designs which
they eventually brought into Ireland and Scotland.
From
the 1st century, the Ring Lord culture fell into decline when
various Roman emperors decreed that the Messianic heirs (the
descendants of Jesus and his family) should be hunted down and
put to the sword. This fact was recorded by eminent chroniclers
such as Hegesippus, Africanus and Eusebius. Then, once the Roman
Church was operative from the 4th century, the sacred dynasty
was forever damned by the bishops.
It
was this formal damnation which led to such events as the Albigensian
Crusade in 1209 and the subsequent Catholic Inquisitions - for
these brutal assaults by the papal machine were specifically
directed against the upholders and champions of the original
concept of Grail kingship, as against the style of pseudo-monarchy
which had been implemented by the Bishops of Rome.
In
practical terms, Church kingship has prevailed from the 8th
century and has continued, through the ages, to the present
day. But the fact is that, under strict terms of sovereign practice,
all such monarchies and their affiliated governments have been
invalid.
Church
kingship is precisely that with which we have become so familiar.
It applies to all monarchs who achieve their regnal positions
by way of Church coronation by the Pope or other Christian leader
(in Britain, by the Archbishop of Canterbury). Previously, in
terms of true kingship, there was no necessity for coronation
because kingly and queenly inheritance were always regarded
as being 'in the blood'.
The
change was made possible by way of a text called the Donation
of Constantine - a document which led to just about every social
injustice that has since been experienced in the Christian world.
When the Donation made its first appearance in 751, it was alleged
to have been written by Emperor Constantine some 400 years earlier,
although strangely never produced in the interim. It was even
dated and carried his supposed signature. What the document
proclaimed was that the Emperor's appointed Pope was Christ's
personally elected representative on Earth. He had the power
to 'create' kings as his subordinates since his palace ranked
above all the palaces in the world.
The
provisions of the Donation were enacted by the Vatican, whereupon
the Merovingian Kings of the Grail bloodline in Gaul were deposed
and a whole new puppet-dynasty was supplemented by way of a
family of hitherto mayors. They were dubbed Carolingians and
their only king of any significance was the legendary Charlemagne.
By way of this strategy, the whole nature of monarchy changed
from being an office of community guardianship to one of absolute
rule and, by virtue of this monumental change, the long-standing
code of princely service was forsaken as European kings became
servants of the Church instead of being servants of the people.
The
fact is, however, that over 500 years ago in the Renaissance
era, proof emerged that the Donation was an outright forgery.
Its New Testament references relate to the Latin Vulgate Bible
- an edition translated and compiled by St. Jerome, who was
not born until AD 340, some 26 years after Constantine supposedly
signed the document! Apart from that, the language of the Donation,
with its numerous anachronisms in form and content, is that
of the 8th century and bears no relation to the writing style
of Constantine's day. But the truly ridiculous aspect is that
the Donation's overwhelming dictate, which cemented the Pope
as the supreme spiritual and temporal head of Christendom, has
prevailed regardless.
Victimized
prior to the formal Church Inquisition in the Middle Ages were
the Cathars of the Languedoc region in the South of France.
The Cathars were fully conversant with the Ring Lord culture
and, in accordance with tradition, referred to the Messianic
bloodline as the Elven Race, venerating them as the Shining
Ones.
In the language of old Provence, a female elf was an 'albi',
and Albi was the name given to the main Cathar centre in Languedoc.
This was in deference to the matrilinear heritage of the Grail
dynasty, for the Cathars were supporters of the Albi-gens -
the elven bloodline which had descended through the Grail queens
such as Lilith, Miriam, Bathsheba and Mary Magdalene. It was
for this reason that, when Simon de Montfort and the armies
of Pope Innocent III decimated the region from 1209, it was
called the Albigensian Crusade.
The
concept of calling the original princely race the Shining Ones,
while also defining them as 'elves', dates well back into ancient
Bible times and can be traced into Mesopotamia and Palestine.
The ancient word El, which was used to identify a god or lofty-one
(as in El Elyon and El Shaddai) actually meant Shining in old
Mesopotamian Sumer. To the north in Babylonia, the derivative
Ellu meant Shining One, while in Saxony and Britain it became
Elf.
The
concept of fairies was born directly from the Ring Lord culture
and, deriving from the Greek word 'phare', the term related
to a Great House, from which also stemmed the designation 'pharaoh'.
In the Gaelic world, certain royal families were said to carry
the fairy blood - that is to say, the fate or destiny of the
Grail bloodline and of humankind at large. Meanwhile, the elf-maidens
of the Albi-gens were the designated guardians of the earth,
starlight and forest. It is for these reasons that fairies and
elves have so often been portrayed as shoemakers and lamplighters,
for the fairy cobblers made the shoes which measured the steps
of life, while the Shining Ones of the elven race were there
to light the way.
In
national terms (although fairies present a widespread image),
they are particularly associated with Ireland, where they are
epitomized by the ancient people of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
This formidable king tribe was, nevertheless, mythologized by
the Christian monks, who rewrote the majority of Irish history
to suit their own Church's vested interest in Ireland.
From
a base of the monastic texts, which arose onwards from medieval
times, it is generally stated that the Tuatha Dé Danann
were the supernatural tribe of the agricultural goddess Danaë
of Argos, but their true name (rendered in its older form) was
Tuadhe d'Anu - the people (or tribe) of Anu, the great sky god
of the Anunnaki.
Onwards
from the year 751, the Church sought all possible measures to
diminish the status of any royal strain emanating from the original
Ring Lords so that the fraudulent Donation of Constantine could
be brought into play. Henceforth, only the subjugative Church
could determine who was a king, while the elves and fairies
of the Albi-gens were manoeuvred from the forefront of history
into a realm of apparent fantasy and legend.
Settling
in Ireland from about 800 BC, the noble Tuadhe d'Anu hailed
from the Central European lands of Scythia, which stretched
from the Carpathian mountains and Transylvanian Alps, across
to the Russian River Don. They were strictly known as the Royal
Scyths and they were said to be the masters of a transcendent
intellect called the Sidhé, which was known to the druids
as the Web of the Wise.
As the Church rose to power, so the underground stream, which
supported the Ring Lord culture, found strategic methods of
preserving the traditions of the royal bloodline. In the course
of this, the fairy tale concept was born - stories which were
not unlike many of the parables inherent in the New Testament
Gospels. They were likewise contrived 'for those with ears to
hear', while others among the uninitiated would perceive them
as no more than fanciful entertainment.
A
focal message built into these fairy tales was an understanding
of the importance of perpetuating the family line, regardless
of the power of the bishops and the Church's puppet kings. The
whole scenario was presented, time after time, as if it were
a struggling nightmare, wherein the female (the elf-maiden who
carried the essence of the strain) was out of reach of the prince,
so that his torturous quest to find her was akin to the quest
for the Holy Grail itself.
Consequently,
many of the tales which emanated from this base were stories
of lost brides and usurped kingship, based upon the Church's
subjugation of the Grail bloodline. The fairy tale ideal was
essentially geared to relate the truth of these persecutions.
They were allegorical accounts of the predicament of the Messianic
family, whose fairies and elves (having been manoeuvred from
the mortal plane of orthodoxy and status quo) were confined
to a contrived otherworldly existence.
They
emerged as tales of valiant princes who were turned into frogs;
of swan knights who roamed the wasteland, and of Grail princesses
locked in towers, or put to sleep for hundreds of years. In
the course of their persecution, the elf-maidens were pricked
with bodkins, fed with poisoned apples, subjected to spells
or condemned to servitude, while their champions swam great
lakes, battled through thickets and scaled mighty towers to
secure and protect the matrilinear heritage of the Albi-gens.
These
romantic legends include such well-known stories as the Sleeping
Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel. In all cases, the
underlying theme is the same, with the princess kept (through
drugging, imprisonment or some form of restraint) out of reach
of the prince, who has to find her and release her in order
to preserve the dynasty and perpetuate the line.
It
was during the period of France's Carolingian dynasty that the
seeds of most of these popular stories were planted, and it
is because of the inherent truths which lie behind the stories
that we find them so naturally appealing. Some academics argue
that fairy tales survive because they are often based upon a
rags-to-riches doctrine, but this is not the case. They survive
because deep within our psyche is an inherent, inbred awareness
that the Grail (symbolised by the Lost Bride) has to be found
if the wasteland is to return to fertility.
A
primary feature of the traditional folklore related to the Ring
and Grail quests is that it embodies a nominal terminology that
was historically applicable to the Messianic dynasts. As cited,
the terms fairy and elf each related to certain castes within
the succession of the Shining Ones. But there were others -
notably the pixies - who were of the utmost importance within
the overall structure of the princely bloodline. Having the
same Sidhé heritage as the historical elves and fairies,
their familiar name derived from the description Pict-sidhé.
In time, following their migration into Anjou, Ireland and the
far North of Britain, they became better known, the Picts. They
called their northern domain 'Caledonia' - the land of the Caille
Daouine forest people.
The
social structures of the Scythian Ring Lord were firmly centred
upon designated seats of assembly which became known as Fairy
Rings. These royal seats (from Scythia to Ireland) were known
as Raths, which denoted round or circular constructions. On
that account, the Round Table of Arthurian romance was designed
to symbolize this concept. What is generally not recognized,
however, is that (just like the Volsunga Saga and the Nibelungenlied)
the Arthurian mythos is itself a very powerful Ring Cycle. The
true legacy of the Round table lies not in the Table itself,
but in the knights who sat at the table - for these noble emissaries
represented the most important aspect of ancient lore by presenting
themselves as a living, iron-clad Ring. In accordance with traditional
Ring lore, the land fell into waste and chaos when the power
of the Ring was usurped by virtue of Queen Guinevere being unfaithful
to Arthur with Lancelot.
From
around 1800 BC, the Kassites of Babylonia were predominant in
the Rath culture. They gained their name from the word 'kassi',
which meant 'place of wood' - the place in question being a
sacred mound dwelling, variantly called a 'caddi'. By virtue
of this, the Kassites were designated Wood Lords.
Following
their time in Babylonia, they moved across Syria and Phoenicia
into Europe and, eventually, to Britain where they established
many great kingdoms within which the remnant of their name survived
- the Welsh King Cadwallan, for example, and the earlier British
King Casswallan, who reigned at about the time of Herod the
Great. In each of these names the 'wallan' aspect is important
since it was also the distinction of a Wood Lord - again with
Mesopotamian roots. The original Wallans were called Yulannu,
and it was from their ancient tradition that the winter solstice
Yuletide festival derived before moving into Scandinavia.
Apart from the fairies, pixies and elves of history, there are
others of the Shining Ones who are also said to inhabit the
magical Land of Elphame; they are the sprites, goblins, gnomes
and leprechauns.
The
definition 'sprite' means no more nor less than a spirit person
- one of the transcendental realm of the Sidhé. The original
sprites were the ancient Scythian ghost warriors, who painted
their bodies grey-blue to look like corpses when they entered
the battlefield.
The
'goblin' description stems from the Germanic word kobelin, which
denoted a mine-worker or one who worked underground. In the
context of the Ring culture, goblins and gnomes were attendants
of the Raths, wherein they were custodians of the wealth and
wisdom of the ages, being essentially treasurers and archivists.
It was their role as guardians of the treasures which led to
their nominal distinction being used in association with banking,
as in the Gnomes of Zurich. The word root is in the Greek equivalent
of 'g-n-o', from which we derive gnosis (knowledge).
As
for the 'leprechauns', they were the armoured horse troops of
the Pict-sidhé. Their body armour was made from small
overlapped plates of bronze, which tarnished to a greenish colour
so they looked like lizards or dragons. In this regard, they
were called 'lepra-corpan' (scaly body), a word corrupted in
Ireland to leprechaun.
The
Catholic Inquisition, although ostensibly set against heretics,
managed to include all manner of groups and factions within
this overall classification. Witchcraft was a common accusation,
and into this particular net fell the gypsies. Any person with
no fixed place of residence was regarded with suspicion because
an itinerant lifestyle was perceived as a means by which to
evade Church authority.
The
main premise of Christianity was the promise of salvation as
achieved through subservience to the bishops, aligned with the
perpetuation of a serene afterlife in a heavenly environment.
But how could the alternative notion of Hell be portrayed on
Earth in a manner which would scare the life out of tentative
believers or reluctant worshippers? Somehow Hell had to be given
an earthly form, and what better than the notion of dead people
who could not complete their dying because they were so hideously
unclean - people who were, in fact, 'undead'. Such people, said
the churchmen, had to roam the mortal world like lost souls
with no dimension of life or death to call their own.
The
concept was good enough in part, but it was really no more scary
than the idea of ghosts with a physical form. Something else
was needed; these beings had to become predators in order to
make people fearful enough to lean wholly upon the Church for
deliverance. So, what would all people, rich and poor alike,
fear to lose the most if they were seeking salvation for their
souls?
The
answer to this question was found in the Bible - to be precise,
in the Old Testament book of Leviticus, which states: "It
is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul". It
was therefore decided that the undead creatures would be said
to prey upon people's blood, thereby divesting them of the route
to atonement.
A
problem to overcome in this regard was the fact that this Leviticus
statement was part of a very ancient Hebrew law and had little
or nothing to do with Christianity. But a way was soon found
to cope with the anomaly when the Church ruled that every good
Christian who partook of the Communion wine was figuratively
drinking the blood of Christ. This divine blood then became
a part of his or her own body and any creature which then extracted
blood from such a person was reckoned to be stealing the blood
of Christ!
These
bloodthirsty revenants could only be repelled, it was decreed,
by such devices as holy water and the crucifix. And so the Church
introduced a truly fearsome creature into its subjugative mythology.
They were classified as vampires - a word which derived from
the old Scythian title for a kingly overlord of the Rath - a
Lord of the Rings.
In
summary it can be said that the ancient progenitors of our culture
and spiritual heritage have never been positively featured in
our academic teachings. Instead, their reality was quashed from
the earliest days of Roman suppression as the literal diminution
of their figures caused a parallel demolition of their history
- to be portrayed as the fairies, elves, pixies and vampires
of legend.
Notwithstanding
this, the sovereign culture, from which derived all the so-called
mythology that sits so comfortably within our collective memory
comes from one place alone. It comes from a place and time which,
to use J.R.R. Tolkien's definition, might just as well be called
Middle-earth as by any other name. It comes from the long distant
Realm of the Ring Lords.
