An Artist Presents His Ringworld

By Knud Ellitsgaard-Rasmussen

Translated by Martin Hardgrave

Dear Editor,

You asked me in your letter of 25 November 1993 to write something about my Tolkien rings, which you heard about from a member of the Society. This is it.

After a wandering life in the world of mythology I ended up in 1988 with the exhibition "A Ring World" at the Nikolaj Church Tower in central Copenhagen.

For many years, working as a geologist in Greenland, I had contact with the mythology of the arctic world. To a large degree that mythology is connected with the world of hunters and hunting. I was also engaged in economic geology, where the use of minerals in the widest sense was close to my heart, so one thing led to another and I wanted to show the eskimo (Greenland) mythological world in different materials than the usual bone, tooth, wood and soapstone. As an amateur goldsmith it was natural for me to make some mask-rings, which were clearly inspired by the North American (Alaskan) eskimos. A mask-ring bears a mask on a plain finger-ring: rings which the eskimo women wore at fertility festivals as a parallel to the men's (shamans') large face masks.

However, it proved that that the eskimo mythology was fundamentally alien to me, and it could not foster any artistic inspiration. At that time I slid into Tolkien's world. The construction and content of his mythology fit better in my inner self, and I started then to make visible a range of characters from

The Lord of the Rings. From 1980 to 1988 a series of Tolkien characters in the form of mask-rings took shape in my small workshop, as other projects allowed. All of the representations are in Sterling silver. Some are fire-gilt; others inlaid with iron. Some of them are decorated with stones. They are all about 5-6 cm tall. All of the rings are described by many as "abstract - very abstract." This description is of course only valid if one knows whence they are abstracted. But for me they are genuine, made wholly on the basis of Tolkien's words which have always, in selected passages, stood before me in the moment of creation.

In addition to exhibitions the rings have also been shown to art associations, where they appear only as guests for an evening, accompanied by an informal presentation of "the creator". I suppose they have been seen by more than 6,000 people, including H. M. Queen Margrethe II. The rings can never be separated: they are immortal, and must live together as a whole, and would willingly (given a suitable opportunity) pay a visit to the Danish Tolkien Society.

[The rings paid us a visit at a meeting in Roskilde on 11 March 1995. Knud Ellitsgaard-Rasmussen has also produced a catalogue of his Ringworld, and anyone interested can contact the Editor. For the sake of clarity: the rings are not authorized by Tolkien or The Tolkien Estate].