Ring of Barahir

My first blog and I am very happy to find that one of the seven fonts Blogger offers is my favorite front, Trebuchet! Why it is my favorite font is quite silly and goes back to my adolescent years spent playing the RTS, Age of Empires, but I am only two sentences into my first blog and already getting off topic.

Quick introduction before I begin. The founding reason for this blog was to share the story and pictures of my wedding band to the wonderful people at TheOneRing.net although after some thought, I realized that it might be nice to journal some experiences down in the public square that is the internet. Most likely I will forget after a few months and this will becomr a relic of my internet past, much like my old Myspace account (R.I.P.)

But onto my ring!

Okay before I get to the ring and pictures of it, I must share the quick story of how I proposed to my now wife which the people at TheOneRing.net will appreciate.

It was the fourth of July 2012. My mother's whole side went on a group family vacation to Myrtle Beach and my then girlfriend of almost six years is coming along on her first vacation with my family. Our hotel is right on the beach and there are people lighting off fireworks every thirty feet, so you can imagine the chaos that was going on. I was going to propose that night but did not know where exactly I would do it. As I mentioned the beach was total mayhem; we were down there for twenty minutes but after some ash nearly fell in my girlfriend's eye, I made the quick audible that we should try to see if there was roof access. The hotel was something like eighteen stories high and I had no idea if we would be able to get onto the roof.

As it often happens in my case, I was very lucky. We got to the roof and the door was open. We could see the fireworks on the beach for miles in either direction. After some time in silence enjoying the fireworks I decided it was time.

I started with a riddle,

"What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees. Up, up it goes, And yet never grows?"

After a second thinking about it she guessed it right! (I won't ruin it for those of you who don't know the answer) She had just started reading The Hobbit in preparation for the movie coming out in December of that year and my whole proposal plan was based on her remembering the last riddle the wins Bilbo the game. So I ask her a few more riddles and she remembers them all. I end by asking her,

"What was the last riddle? The one that Bilbo asks and Gollum cannot answer?"

To which she replies,

"What do I have in my pocket?"

To which I drop down to one knee, pull out the ring from my shirt pocket and propose! She was a wonderful sport about it all. Really, I have married one of the nicest human being on the planet. She isn't a huge Tolkien nerd like myself but listens when I lecture on and at least acts very interested. Which bring us finally to the ring!

So when it finally came time to talk about my ring months later, I nervously told her my desire. To have the Ring of Barahir, a replica made by the Noble Collection. Now up to this point she had tolerated my nerdiness with such grace. And after I had explained my reasoning with all these connections made to the (fictional) history of the ring, she readily agreed. It honestly felt like her saying "Yes" to me all over again!

I won't give a history here of the ring. You may Google that yourself. But for those of you familiar with its history I will give a brief version of how I explained it to the then fiance.  
For me, the ring has three connections to our relationship. First and foremost in my eyes, the ring started out as a ring of friendship in its gifting to Barahir by the Elven Lord Finrod Felagund for saving his life. I firmly believe that if you're going to marry anyone, it should be your best friend as it was in my case.

The second connection is in a general way towards Beren and Lúthien. I hope that our love is as strong as Beren, who inherits the ring, and Lúthien.

Finally, the third connection is with Aragorn and Arwen. Aragorn gives the ring to Arwen and thus they are betrothed although Aragorn must first complete the impossible task of ridding the world of evil before he can marry Arwen. 

Obviously this isn't the story I share with the average person. Even this watered down version is enough to confuse and bore anyone not interested in Tolkien. I typically boil it down even further in generally terms or even simply lie and tell people it is a heirloom on my side of the family. Terrible I know. When I showed the ring to one of my groomsmen for the first time on the day of the wedding, he refused to believe me that this was going to be my wedding band!

It definitely gets a lot of attention but I refuse to let that or people's judgments deter me from wearing it.

I feel like there is more I could say but I also feel like I failed at being concise in my fist blog so I will end here. Enjoy a few more pictures!