REALM OFTHERINGLORDS The Myth and Magic of the Grail Quest Laurence Gardner leChevalier Labhran deSt.Germain FAIRWINDS PRESS GLOUCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS Also bythesame Author BLOODLINE OF THE HOLY GRAIL GENESIS OF THE GRAIL KINGS LaurenceGardnerisan internationallyknown sovereigngenealogistandhistoricallecturer. DistinguishedastheChevalierLabhrandeSt. Germain,heisPresidentialAttachetothe EuropeanCouncilofPrinces,aconstitutional advisorybodyestablishedin1946.Heisalso PrioroftheSacredKindredofSt.Columba,a Knight Templar of St.Anthony,aFellowof the Societyof Antiquariesof Scotlandand Attache totheGrandProtectorateoftheImperial DragonCourt,1408.Formallyattachedtothe NobleOrderoftheGuardofStGermain, founded by King James VIIof Scots in 1692 and ratifiedbyKingLouisXIVofFrance,heisthe appointed Jacobite Historiographer Royal. Dedicatedto Julia, Richard and James Fableshould be taught asfable,myth asmyth, andmiraclesaspoeticfancies.Toteach superstitions as truth is horrifying. The mind of achildacceptsthemandonlythroughgreat pain, perhaps tragedy,can the child be relieved of them. Hypatiaof Alexandria, AD 370-415 Text copyright Laurence Gardner, 2000 The right of Laurence Gardner to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in Great Britain in 2000 by Multi MediaQuest International Ltd., PO Box 4,Ottery St Mary,EX111 YR,England Paperback edition published in 2003by Fair Winds Press 33Commercial Sreet Gloucester, MA 01930 ISBN 1-931412-14-6 All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Typeset by MediaQuest Jacket design by Adrian Wagner and Stephen Knight Cover illustrations by Peter Robson Printed and bound in Canada CONTENTS List of GenealogicalCharts List of Plates List of FiguresandIllustrations Acknowledgements PictureCredits Preface 1THE RING AND THE GRAIL Eternal Quests Tolkien's Ring The Ring of Justice The Sacred Hallows 2 LEGACY OF THE DAMNED A Conflict of Interests Kingship and Conspiracy A Fraudulent Donation 3 THE SHINING ONES Elves and Anunnaki Dragons and Merlins Fate of the Fairies The Lost Bride 4 THE RING CYCLE Ring of the Dwarf Lord A Golden Age The Serpent's Ring Sirens and Water Nymphs x Xl Xll xiii xv xvi 1 1 3 5 9 13 13 17 21 24 24 27 30 34 39 39 40 43 46 5DAWN OF THE DRAGON QUEENS51 The Rule of Nine51 Goddess of the Fire-stone53 The Serpent Lady55 A Violent Outrage58 Fruit of the Womb60 6WARLORDS OF THE PICT-SIDHE63 The Kingsof Edom63 Fairy Writing66 Tombsof the Ring Lords70 Kingdom of the Pixies74 7THE FOUNT OF MELUSINE79 The Paradox79 The Mermaid and the Rings82 Lady of Lusignan85 Knight of Love88 8THE ROUND TABLE91 Excalibur and the Red Dragon91 King Arthur of the Britons92 The Pendragon Deceit96 The Ringsof Camelot98 9THE LAND OF ELPHAME103 Spirit of the Wise Ones103 The Elf King105 The Celtic Myth108 Fairy Magic and a Garter110 10THE LILY AND THE ROSE116 Living Waters116 The Essence of Kali118 The Fountain of Youth121 Grail of the World125 11 ROBIN OF THE GREENWOOD 129 Herne the Hunter 129 Diana and the Wild Hunt 130 The Horned One 133 The Legend of Robin Hood 135 The Historical Robin 140 12THE WITCHES'RING 144 Pagan Heritage 144 The Holly and the Ivy 147 Ring Dancers 155 13 SATAN AND THE YULETIDE ELF 162 A Diabolical Fantasy 162 Horns and Hooves 166 The Burning Times 171 Father Christmas 177 14THE FAERIE QUEEN 184 Red Cross Knight 184 Secret Agents 185 The Magic Circle 188 Mary Stuart 193 15LORNADOONE 199 House of the Grail 199 The Waterslide 203 History of the Doones 205 Ransom and Revenge 208 16 CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF 213 The Teeth of Beasts 213 Gypsy Rings 218 Rise of the Revenant 222 17TWILIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE224 The Undead224 The Great Debate227 Gothic Romance231 18THE PORTAL OF DRACULA237 Vision of a Vampire237 Society of the Dragon241 Guardian of the Sidhe245 Reign of the Voivode248 19BEYOND THE FOREST253 Web of the Wise253 The Overlords258 Prince of Darkness261 20REALM OF THE RING LORDS266 Cups and Rings266 The Grail Code267 Notesand References271 Appendices303 IPendragons of the Britannic Isle303 IIThe Donation of Constantine305 IIITolkien' s Timeless Legacy312 IVJoan of Arc313 vThe Earldom of Huntingdon314 VIWearing of the Green316 VIIExcommunication of Elizabeth I318 VIIIThe Magyar Inheritance of Hungary320 IXRhyme and Reason321 xGenealogical Charts323 Bibliography375 Index388 GENEALOGICAL CHARTS Included in Appendix X 1Anunnaki and the Dragon Queens 2Matrilinear Descent in Egypt 3Pharaohs and the Lords of Edom 4Heritage of the Wood Lords 5 Scythia and the Tuadhe d' Anu 6 Picts and the Fisher Kings 7Meroveus and Melusine 8Descent of the Elf King 9 Robin and the Chamberlains 10 The House of Vlad Dracula PLATES 1Shamash the Shining One 2Oberon and Titania 3The Ring of Melusine 4Moses and the Serpent 5Lilith 6The Mermaid 7Scythian Warriors 8Allegory of Chastity 9Soul of the Forest 10Mary Magdalene 11Hylas and the Nymphs 12The Portal of the Twilight World 13The Death of Dagobert 14Attainment of the Sangreal 15La Belle Dame Sans Merci 16Diana the Huntress 17Ring Dance of Apollo and the Muses 18The Birth of Venus 19Marie of the Sea 20The Lily Fairy 21Robin Goodfellow (Puck) 22The Pendragon Ring 23Sleeping Beauty (The RoseBower) xi FIGURESAND ILLUSTRATIONS 1Ring Lord at the Persopolis in Persia 2Marduk with the Rod and Ring of justice 3Tarot Magician and the Sacred Hallows 4Single and double spiralling serpents 5The Tower card- Tarot Major Arcana 6Barat-Anna and the Rosi-cruds 7Comparison of Mesopotamian and Transylvanian writing 8Scythian tattoos of ring-tailed lemurs 9A knight visits a fairy house 10Khem of Mendes - the Pentagram 11Robin of the Greenwood 12Ring revels of the satyrs 13Cave painting of astag disguise 14The boyhood of St Columba 15Traditional portrayal of a werewolf 16Penny Dreadful edition of Varney the Vampire 17Three witches burned at Derneburg 18Father Christmas in the Holly King tradition 19Insignia of the Royal Dragon Court 20Vlad Dracula 21Vlad the Impaler I I 22Columban Cross at Glencolumcille l xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For their valued assistance in the preparation of this work,I am indebtedtothegoodofficesoftheSacredKindredofSaint Columba,the RoyalHouse of Stewart,theEuropean Councilof Princes,theOrderofKnightsTemplarsofSaintAnthony,the Noble Order of the Guard of Saint Germain and the Imperial and Royal Dragon Court and Order. Iwouldalsoliketothankthosearchivistsandlibrarianswho have aided my quest,especially thoseat theBritish Library,the DepartmentsofWesternAsiaticAntiquitiesandEgyptian AntiquitiesattheBritishMuseum,BibliothequeNationalede France,BibliothequedeBordeaux,DevonCountyLibrary, BirminghamCentralLibrary,theNationalLibraryofScotland, Manchester City Art Galleries and the Royal Irish Academy. Myutmostgratitudeisduetothedirectorsandstaffof MediaQuest,alongwithHRHPrinceMichaelofAlbanyfor affordingmeprivilegedaccesstoHouseholdandChivalric papers.I am also thankful tomy wife Angela and son James for their forbearanceduring my time-consuming endeavour. Tothosemanyfriendsandcolleagueswhohavesmoothedthe path of this venture in one way or another I offer my appreciation. Inparticular,IamgratefultoHelenWagner,StephenKnight, Chev.DavidRoyStewart,KarenLyster,RonSaunders,Penny Stopa,FlorenceHamilton,JennyCarradice,ScarlettNunn, John Baldock,Matthew Cory,Tony Skiens, Chev.David Wood, Angus McBride,DanielSewellWard,NicholasdeVere,MikeSimms, Dayle Sheridan, JuliaKerr,Prof.Elizabeth Miller,ChrisRosling, Sharon Lee, Dr.Beverly Whipple and Dr.Gary Schubach. xiii For their generous support in aiding my work internationally, my specialthankstoEleanorRobsonandSteveRobsonofPeter Robson Studio; to Duncan Roads, Ruth Parnell and Marcus Allen ofNexus;toGretchenSchroederandLauraWagnerof MediaQuest USA ; to JZKnightandallatRamtha' sSchoolofEnlightenment;to ChristinaZohsofTheGoldenThread;andtoNancySimmsof Entropic Fine Art. My thankful recognition isdue to Sir Peter Robson for his artistic liaison and for creating the inspired allegorical painting ThePortal of theTwilightWorld(seealsounder PictureCredits).Similarly,to thecomposer SirAdrian Wagner who, in hisfamilytraditionof suchmasterworksasLohengrinandParsifal,hasendorsedthis book with the release of his companion music album, Realmof the Ring Lords. XIV Laurence Gardner September 2000 PICTURE CREDITS Thanksmustgotothosebelowinrespectofthefollowing photographic illustrations and copyright images 1,Courtesy of the The British Museum, London; 2,The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh,and the Bridgeman Art Library, London; 3,12, 13, 19,22,Peter Robson Studio and Entropic Fine ArtInc.Ontario;4,Museo Nacional Del Prado, Madrid, and the Ministerio de Educaci6n y Cultura, Italia; 5,Sefton MBCLeisure Services Department, Arts andCulturalServices,AtkinsonArtGallery,Southport;6, ReproducedbypermissionoftheRoyalAcademyofArts, London; 7,Illustration by Angus McBride from Men-at-Arms 137 The Scythians 700-300 BC.Reproduced bypermission of Osprey Publishing Ltd.Copyright Osprey Publishing Limited; 8, Institut de France-Musee Jaquemart-Andre, Paris; 9,Courtesy of Cliche HMaertens-MuseedesBeaux-ArtsdeNantes,France;10, Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome; 11, Reproduced by permission of ManchesterCityArtGalleries;14,20,PrivateCollection;15, National Gallery of Victoria,Melbourne, and the Bridgeman Art Library,London; 16,The Louvre, Paris,and theBridgeman Art Library,London;17,PalazzoPitti,Florence,and theBridgeman ArtLibrary,London;18,Museed'OrsayandAgence photographiquedelareunion desmuseesnationaux,Paris;21, MuseumzuAllerheiligen,Schaffhausen,Switzerland;23, CourtesyoftheFaringdonCollectionTrust,BuscotPark, Farringdon, Oxfordshire.Illustrations relating toSt Columba in Chapters13and19,TheGlencolumcilleHeritageCentre,co. Donegal. While every effort has been made tosecure permissions, if there areanyerrorsoroversightsregardingcopyrightmaterial,we apologise and will make suitable acknowledgement in any future edition. xv I PREFACE THE MYTHAND MAGIC OF THEGRAIL QUEST During these past years of my questing for the physical and spiritual aspectsoftheHolyGrail,ithasbecomeveryapparentthatthe mythologyandhistoricaltraditionsoftheRingquestareequally compelling.Moreover,thetime-honouredquestsfortheRingand theGrailare,inessence,oneandthesamesincetheyareboth concerned with aspects of enlightenment and individual sovereignty. This similarity was commented upon in the 19th century by the poet Alfred,LordTennyson,andbythecomposerRichardWagner, whileinlatertimesithasbeensupportedby J.R.R.Tolkien, author of the popular trilogy,TheLord of theRings. Despite the observations of these noted researchers, however, itisafactthattheRingandtheGrailhavegenerallybeen perceivedtohaveseparateidentitiesandtheirindividual traditionsarerarelydiscussedasbeinginanywaymutually supportive. It is,therefore,the purpose of thisbook to bring the two mysteriestogether forthe firsttimein onearena and,in so doing,toshednewlightuponthehistoricaltruthswhichlie behind these enigmatic relicsof sacred heritage. TheGrailandRingareeachthesubjectsoftheirown mythologiesand,fromtheearliestArthurianromancetothe recent tales of J.R.R. Tolkien, these are enveloped within the lore ofElphame-themagicalworldofelvesandfairies.However, the myths are based upon no mere fantasy, for beyond the portal ofthistwilightworldthereexistsanengaginghistoryofreal charactersandevents which have been strategicallyignored by orthodox educational establishments. It is for this reason that the Grail and Ring are still perceived as the objects of ultimate quest, despite all attempts by Church and academicsociety toveil and suppress the truth of our heritage. Subsequenttothe1996publicationofBloodlineof theHoly Grail,Ihavereceivedanever increasingnumberofsupportive xvi REALM OF THE RING LORDS lettersfromreaders,manyofwhom haveprovidedsomevery usefulinformationconcerningmyareasofresearch,while numerousothers have asked some truly fascinating questions.I am most grateful for this correspondence and, for some time, was abletorespondtoallindividualcommunications,even if with somedelay.Nevertheless,theposition nowisthat,withmany thousands of letters arriving in the past year or so,the volume is somewhat overwhelming.Please beassured, however, that Ido appreciate and read every item of correspondence. Meanwhile, I have endeavoured toanswer many of the most frequently asked questions within the pages of this book, and shall continue to do so in others, while also making use of the newly introduced Web site in this regard. Oneaspectofmywritingwhichhaspromptedacertain amount of enquiry over past months, and which I introduced in Genesisof theGrailKings,istheestablishment of theHungarian OrderoftheDragon.InthisrespectIhaveimpartedsome furtherinformationinChapter18(seealsoInternet ).By way of an extract from these sources, the position concerning the officersof this closed, non-joining fraternity isasfollows. TheOrderiscurrentlyregisteredattheHighCourtof BudapestasTheImperialandRoyalDragonCourtandOrder (OrdoDraconis)-SarkanyRend,1408.TheGrandChancelloris Chev.Dr.Gyorgyvon varhegyiLehr,CountofOberberg,with Inner Court members including HRH Prince Michael of Albany, Head of the Royal House of Stewart, Grand Duke Peter Galicin of CarpathiaandBaronWodiankZoltanNemessary.BishopBela CsernakistheGrandPriorinTransylvaniaandChev.Baron Andreas G.von Lehr the Grand Prior in Germany. Other notable members are Count Monsignor Laszlo Esterhazy, Chev. Count Dr JanosszekiTelekiandChev.MonsignorLaszlovongalantal Esterhazy, Papal Chaplain, Provost Parochus of the Mariaremete CathedralinBudapest.InBritainandtheEnglishspeaking countries,the Order resides within the Protectorate of theRoyal Houseof Stewart,with the GrandPriorbeing Dr.Andrew von Zsigmond, Baron de Lemheny, of the Hungarian Consulate. LaurenceGardner xvii The Ring and the Grail Eternal Quests One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, And in the darkness bind them.1 J.R.R.Tolkien' sTheLordoftheRingsisoneofthemost enchantingandsuccessfultalesofalltime.Firstissuedinthe 1950s, this famous trilogy2 could just as well have emanated from the Dark Agesor medieval times,forit has allthequalitiesand attributes of the most ancient Grail and Ring traditions. This was madepossiblebythefactthatTolkien(anOxfordprofessorof Anglo-Saxon and English language) had the legendary wealth of agesathisfingertipsandmouldedhisstoryaccordingly.Asa result,hismasterworkbecamethemostpopularindividual publication of the 20th century. The Ring Quest has a history that dates far back into the mists of time-beyond the pyramids of Egypt and the walls of Babylon. It has lived on through the era of the pagan gods and has seen the riseofBuddha,ChristandMohammed.Remarkably,its traditionsandallegoriesremainaliveandintacttothisday, evokingtheimageryofalongdistantpast.Despitethemany centuriesofChurchandgovernmentalindoctrinationdesigned to sway us from the Quest, its enlightened truths draw hard upon ourcollectivememory.Consequently,thedifferencebetween 1 REALM OF THE RING LORDS fictionandsuppressedfactisinherentlyrecognizableandthe ancient lore sits very comfortably in today's environment having, as we shall see,a perpetual moral truth at its heart. InconsideringthehistoryoftheRingQuest,itsparallel association with the Grail Quest becomes increasingly apparent, asdotheoriginsoffairies,elves,pixies,sprites,gnomesand goblins.Ring lore is also deeply rooted in many of the best loved nursery talesand providestheessentialfactsbehind numerous time-honoured characters of popular legend. Grailstoriesaregenerallyassociatedwith Arthurian knights roaming the Wasteland in search of the sacred relic.But the genre alsoembodiesmanyotherquestingtales,incorporatingsuch charactersasCinderella,RobinHood,SleepingBeautyand Count Dracula. Each account holds its own separate mystery and fascination, but it is not generally understood that, in one way or another,theyallstemfromacommonhistoricalbasewhichis rootedintheancientcultureoftheRingLords.Eventhough someofthethemeshavetheiroriginsinveryoldlore,the majorityofthesetaleswerenewlyslantedfromtheDark Ages onwards,whentheChurchsetitssightsagainsttheRing tradition. This was especially the case from medieval times when the persecution of heretics was in full swing, leading to the brutal Inquisitions which began in the 13th century. From theearliestofSumerianandScythiantimes,overfive thousand yearsago,theabidingsymboloftheRingLordswas theRing- arepresentationofwholeness,unityandeternity, often identified as an ouroboros:aserpent clutching its own tail. With a cross positioned beneath the Ring, it becomes the familiar deviceofthefemale:theVenussymbol.Alternatively,witha cross positioned above the Ring, it becomes the masculine Orb of sovereignregalia.WiththecrosspositionedwithintheRing,it symbolises the Holy Grail itself- identified as the Rosi-crucis:the Dew-cup or Cup of the Waters. Hence, as confirmed by Professor Tolkien,alongwiththepoetAlfred,LordTennyson,andthe composerRichardWagner,theGrailandtheRingareclosely affiliated and, in some measure, synonymous.3 2 ---------------THE RING AND THE GRAIL TheRosi-crucisemblem isrecordedasfarback as3500BCin Mesopotamia andit haslong been thedistinguishingdeviceof theSangreal(theBloodRoyal,or Holy Grail),whose supporters became known as Rosicrucians.Though traditionally referred to bytheChurchastheMarkofCain,4thisdeviceisinfactthe originalandlongest-standingmarkofsovereignty.In Mesopotamia and Egypt,theearly kingsof the succession were called Dragons because they were anointed with the sacred fat of alarge monitor called the Mus-husor Messeh(see figure on page 7).From this derived the Hebrew stem MSSH, which gave rise to theverbmashiach(toanoint).Thus,thekingswerealsocalled Messiahs(Meschiachs:AnointedOnes).IntheGaelicworldthe overallKings-of-kingswereknownasPendragons(Head Dragons) and, from the earliest times, they were also styled Ring Lords by virtue of their Rings of office which symbolised divinely inspired justice. Although the Messianic bloodline of the Sangreal is believed to descendfromJesusandhisfamily,thefactisthattheGrail dynasty began more than three millennia beforethe Gospel era. Asan hereditary emblem,theRosi-crucisrepresentedthematri-linearbloodoftheMessianicsuccessionheldwithinthevas-uterine chalice (the womb) of the Grail Queen. The Dragon, being emblematic of wisdom, was the epitome of the Holy Spirit which moveduponthewatersoftime,5whiletheGrailwastheper-petual blood of the succession. Originally called the Gra-alin old Mesopotamia, the maternal blood of the Rosi-crucis was said to be the 'nectar of supreme excellence' and the Greeks called it ambrosia. Tolkien' sRing For all practical purposes, the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lordof theRingscan perhaps beseen asan intuitiveparableof governmental suppression and of the combative quest for liberty andjustice.It isessentiallyataleofterritoriallordshipandof power vested in the wrong hands - a dark power which has to be 3 REALM OF THE RING LORDS destroyedinordertoreturnthewoundedMiddle-earthtoits formerequanimity.Initsownway,thestoryisentirely reminiscent of the central precept of Grail lore, which determines that only when thewoundof theFisherKing ishealedcan the Wasteland be returned to fertility. Tolkien'sstorybeginswith BilboBaggins,ahobbit whohas acquiredamagicRingthatcanrenderitswearerinvisible. Having bequeathed it to his heir,Frodo Baggins, Bilbopromptly vanishesonhiseleventy-first(lllth)birthday.Gandalfthe wizard isconcernedbecausehebelievestheRingtohavebeen madelong agobytheevilLordSauronandthat itishavinga negative effect on the Middle-earth environment, where the once sublimeforestofGreenwoodtheGreatisbesetbyoppressive forcesto become known as Mirkwood. BilbohadoriginallypurloinedtheRingfromastrange underground creature calledCollum and,on testing it,Gandalf discoversthatitiscertainlytheRingofSauron-theOneRing whichbindsvariousotherswithinitsultimatepower.6 Meanwhile, the dark forces have been driven out of the forest by theelves,buttheynowgathertotheeastinSauron' slandof Mordor, where they plot to retrieve the Ring. There isonly one way todestroy the Ring of power, and that istocast it intothe firein which it was forgedon the Mount of Doom-andsoBilbo'syoungcousinFrodoandafewhobbits embarkonthedangerousjourney.Alongtheway,theyare attackedbytheBlackRiders,but alsomeet with friendlyelves andwith Aragorn,KingofCondor,whoconductsthemtothe White Council of Elves and Dwarves, where they learn about the great war against Sauron. Frodo and the hobbits, forming a fellowship with Gandalf and Aragorn, pursue their course to dispose of the Ring,but Gandalf is soon lost to the abyss in a battle, leaving the group without their wizard. At this,aconflict ensues over who should betheleader and Frodo disappears with the Ring to the Land of Shadows. The others set out to find him, but they are now in dispute as to their purpose because the dark powers are working against them. 4 THE RING AND THE GRAIL Various members of the fellowshipare lost in a battle against thehostileOres,leavingonlyAragornandtwoothersinthe search forFrodo.Later,they meet again with Candalf, who has returned fromtheUnderworldtodefeat hisone-timechief,the wizardSaruman,whohasjoinedforceswiththeDarkPowers andtheOres.Meanwhile,FrodoandhiscolleagueSamhave reached the land of Mordor, but Frodo is paralysed by Shelob the giant spider and seized by the Ores. In Aragorn' s land of Condor, the regent Denethor is preparing forwar againsttheforcesof Mordor,but Sauron' smagicistoo powerfulandCondorisoverrun- savedonlybythetimely return of King Aragorn and hisrangers.Sam,in themeantime, hasmanaged torescueFrodo fromtheOresandthepairmake their way to the Mount of Doom with the Ring on Frodo' s finger. But the Ring now has Frodo in its grasping power and he cannot hurl it into the hellfire. The strange Collum, whom Bilbo had first encountered,then reappearstotakebacktheRing.He bitesoff Frodo' sfinger,butslipsandtopplesheadlong intotheinferno. AndsotheRingisfinallyreturnedtowhereitwasforged,at which the Mount of Doom erupts in afinalblaze ofdestruction and Sauron' s dark land of Mordor isdemolished for all time. OnreturninghomeafterameetingwithCandalfand Aragorn,the hobbits Frodo and Sam findtheir Shirein thegrip of the wizard Saruman, but he issoon overcome and the land is restored.Withthegreatwaranditseraofdarknessatanend, FrodoandCandalfthenjointogetherforthelasttimeasthey leave Middle-earth and sail westward to the white shores beyond the sea. The Ring of Justice Historically, the Ring was asymbol of perpetually divine justice, whichwasmeasuredbytheRod.Inancientdepictionsthe SumeriangoddessLilithandtheBabyloniangodMardukare individually portrayed holding the Rod and Ring devices.7 These 5 REALM OF THE RING LORDS are in keeping with other portrayals of Mesopotamian kings and queens as, for example, on the Stelae of Shamash and Ur-Nammu from the 3rd millennium BC.In some instances the Rod is clearly markedincalculableunits(likeamodernruler)8 and,in Babylonia, it wasreferredtoastheRule.Theone who held the Rulewasthedesignated'ruler' -whichisfromwherethe governmental term derives. From around 4000BC,theRing wasaprimary deviceof the Anunnakigods,whowererecordedashavingdescendedinto ancientSumerandwereresponsiblefortheestablishmentof municipal government and kingly practice. In view of this, it is of particularrelevancethat,whenProfessorTolkienwasasked about theMiddle-earth environment ofTheLordof theRings,he said that he perceived its setting to relate to about 4000 BC.9 "The pot of soup (the cauldron of the story)has always been boiling", he said, /1 and to it have continually been added new bits". In this respect, the root of Tolkien' s popular tale was (in accordance with hisAnglo-Saxonscholarship)extracteddirectlyfromSaxon folkloreand was not actually new in concept.Indeed,theearly SaxongodWotan(Odin) - theequivalentoftheSumeriangod Anu-wassaidtohaveruledtheNineWorldsoftheRings -having the ninth Ring (the One Ring) to govern the eight others.10 ThecontestedownershipoftheOneRing,asrelatedinThe Lordof theRings,islittledifferenttotheenduring questforthe HolyGrail;theyarebothquestsforthemaintenanceof sovereignty.But,in both factand fiction,the Ringand theGrail are each seen to be misappropriated by those who perceive them asweaponsofpower.Hence,ithasbeenimperative(inthe respective stories) that access to the Grail is protected by difficult questions, just as it was essential tokeep the One Ring fromthe evil Sauron of Mordor. AsthegenerationspassedfromancientMesopotamianand Egyptian times, the ideal of dynastic kingship spread through the Mediterranean lands into the Balkans, the Black Sea regions and Europe.But,in thecourse of this,thecrucialessenceoftheold wisdom was lost and this gave rise todynasties that were not of 6 THE RING AND THE GRAIL theoriginalkinglyrace.Instead,manywereunrelatedwarrior chiefs who gained their thrones by might of the sword. The sacred culture of the ancients was, nevertheless, retained in the Messianic lineof King David of Judah(c.1008BC),whose significance(asdetailedin Genesisof theGrailKings)wasin his pharaonic heritage,not in hisgenerally portrayeddescent from Abraham and the Shemite strain. It was because of this particular inheritance that David's son,Solomon the Wise,was enabled to create his Egyptian-style Temple project in Jerusalem. This led to a Holy Land revival of the pharaonic and one-time Mesopotamian Rosi-crucismovement at atime when Egypt was beset by foreign influences,firstfromLibya,NubiaandKush,andthenfrom further afield.Resultantly, the traditional marriage arrangements of the pharaohs and princesses gave way to diplomatic alliances. Marduk with theRod(Rule)and Ring of Divine Justice. At his feetisthe Mus-has 7 --------------------------------------------REALM OF THE RING LORDS Ring Lord at the Persopolis in Persia Froma stone relief of Ahura Mazda,associated with the Sumerian Enki In 525BCEgypt was conquered by the Persians, whose kings were subsequently ousted by Alexander the Great of Macedonia's army in 332BC.ThisledtotheGreekdynastyof thePtolemies andthewell-knownQueenCleopatraVII.Herliaison with the RomangeneralMarkAntonycausedthefinaldownfallofthe pharaohs,andEgypt wassubjugated byImperialRomeshortly beforethetimeofJesus.Atlength,astheRomanEmpire collapsed,Egypt felltoByzantine governorsand then,after641, to the sway of Islam. Bythat time, the Grail dynasty from David and Solomon had progressedintotheWest,notablytotheMerovingian Kingsof theFranks,whilerelatedbranchesestablishedkingdomsin IrelandandGaelicBritain.11 Theselineswerelinkedthrough marriagetotheparallelstrainsfromtheOldTestament charactersHam, JaphetandTubal-cain(whichhadsurvivedas theroyalhousesofScythiaand Anatolia),and thefamilieshad forgedtheirownmaritallinkswiththeearlyprincessesofthe Egyptian succession. The firstPendragon (Head Dragon)of the BritannicIsle(Pen Draco Insularis)from this stock was King Cymbeline of the House ofCamulot(camu-lotmeaningcurvedlight,whenceCamelot), who was installed in about AD 10.The British Pendragons were notfather-to-sonsuccessorsinaparticulardescent,butwere l____ 1_n_d_i_v-id_u_a_l_ly-el_e_c-te_d_fr_o_m_r-e1_ fa-m-il_y_b_r_a_n_c_h_e_s_b_y ----f I I THE RING AND THE GRAIL council of elders to be the overall Kings of Kings (see Appendix I). The last Pendragon was the Welsh King Cadwaladr of Gwynedd, who died in 664.At around that time much of Britain felltothe Germanicinfluenceof theinvading Anglesand Saxons - hence Angle-land(England)wasborn,asdistinctfromScotlandand Wales. Thiscoincided with Byzantium's lossof Egypt to the Caliphs and, following the last Roman Emperor in AD476,awhole new governmental structure had evolved in the West.Eventually,its ultimateoverlordswerethepopes,andoutsidethepreserved Gaelicdomainstheyappointedkings,notbyanyrightof heritage, but tosuit the political motivesof the bishops and the fast-growingRomanChurch.Inviewofthis,thestaunch upholders of the Church's articles of dogma openly opposed the pre-papal concept of Grailkingship.These bishopspronounced the Arthurian romances heretical and blacklisted the Propheciesof Merlinin1547attheCouncilofTrentoinNorthernItaly. Everything that was magic to the ears,and all that was freshair to the subjugated, became denounced assinister and occult.The great enlightenment of the Grail Code of service was condemned inaseriesofbrutalInquisitionsfrom1203,andanything remotely connected with the female ethic was dubbed Witchcraft. Inthislatterregard,theChurchbecamesofanaticalinits opposition to the Ring culture that, in 1431, when Joan of Arc was sentencedtoburning at the stake forher allegedsorcery,one of themainchargeslevelledagainstherwasthatshehadused magical rings forcurative purposes! The Sacred Hallows In all the Grail romances and in the tales of the Ring, the message isrelentlesslyclear:in thewrong hands,both theRing andthe Grailcanbringdisaster.ThepoweroftheRinghastobe withstood, otherwise it will enslave its master, whereas the Grail will retaliate with avengeance if misused.Either way,the moral 9 REALM OF THE RING LORDS isthesameinthat,ultimately,powerisself-destructivewhen achieved through selling one's soul.Consequently,the Ring can be a halo or a crown, but it can equally become a noose. Fromthe1930s,AdolfHitler'sfanaticalobsessionwith finding the Hallows of Grail Castle was aprime example of this misconceived notion of power.In his search for the Hallows, the Fuehrer of Germany obtained an ancient lance (said to have been usedbyCharlemagne),whichheinsistedwasthespearof Longinusthecenturion-thespearwhichpiercedthesideof Jesus at the Crucifixion.This, he reckoned, was the sacred Spear ofDestiny,soreveredin Graillore.Withthisin hispossession, Hitler was confident that his Empire(Reich)would be asstrong asthat of Charlemagne, but legend had it that, after many great victories,Charlemagne was doomed todefeat from the moment he lost the magical weapon. In Richard Wagner's opera,Parsifal, this powerful imagery isconveyed when the old knight Klingsor promptlydisappearsfromthemortalplaneonhurlingthe hallowedspearat Parsifal.And soitwasthat on 30April1945 (theverydaywhentheAmerican7thArmy,underGeneral Patton, seized the lance from Nuremberg Castle)12 Adolf Hitler, in the grip of such forceful and consuming lore, accepted defeat and shothimself.Today,thelanceresidesintheHofburgMuseum, Vienna. In the13th-century Grailromance,Parzival,bytheBavarian knight Wolfram von Eschenbach, the questing Parzival firstsees themysteriousspear,drippingbloodfromitspoint,ata ceremonyinGrailCastle.13 Thesightofitcausesmuch consternation among the knights,who explain that it represents the forces which kill the higher spirit in man. Also, its appearance (whencarried)signifiesthattheGrailQuesthasnotyetbeen fulfilled.WhetherornotthespearofCharlemagne,eventually acquiredbyHitler,wasindeedthebiblicalspearofthe Crucifixion has long been amatter ofdebate.That apart, it does seemtohaveanextraordinaryhistorywhich,accordingto Liutbrand,a10th-century Bishopof Cremona in Northern Italy, can be traced back to the ownership of Constantine the Great and 10 THE RING AND THE GRAIL tovariousotherkingsandemperors - tobecomeknownasthe Imperial Lance.14 TarotMagicianwiththesword,cup,pentacle andwand-representative of theGrailHallows. Whether applied in fact or fantasy, the concept of the Ring and the Grail was such that it inspired hope for the social and natural environments.TheGrailHallowsthe -Sword,Chalice,Platter andSpear -weretraditionallyregardedastoolsofprincely service but, when presumed to be weapons of power, they would always,onewayoranother,destroythewielderfromwithin. 11 -----------------------------------REALM OF THE RING LORDS TheseHallowswererepresentedin thefoursuitsoftheTarot's MinorArcanaastheSwords,Cups,PentaclesandWands-subsequentlytobecometheSpades,Hearts,Diamondsand Clubs that are familiar in our playing-card decks today.15 Clearly, a major inspiration for Tolkien was the legendary tale ofKingSolomon'sRingwhich,althoughnotmentionedin the Bible'sOldTestament,appearsinothertraditionalHebrew writings.In theTalmud16 Solomon isreckonedtohave been the mightiestmagicianofhisage,andhisgreatwisdomand considered judgement as a sorcerer-king are directly attributed to hisownershipof an enchantedRingwith which hesummoned thedemonsof the Earth.This famedson of King David was the ancestralmodelfortheMerovingiansofGaul,17 whowere themselves noted sorcerer-kings in the Ring Lord tradition. In the same manner asKing Solomon,Tolkien' sSauron used hisOneRingtocommandthedemonsoftheEarth,charging themtobuildtheTowerofMordorjustasSolomonusedhis demonstobuildtheTempleofJerusalem.TheRingswerealso similarinthateachhadthepowertocorruptanddestroyits master.Solomon'sRingachievedhisdownfallthroughthe agency of the demon Asmodaeus, whereas Sauron is presented as his own destructive demon. Along with the Rings, there are also storysimilaritiesconcerningthepossessionoflight-radiating jewels, with Solomon's being the Schamir,while that of Tolkien' s ElfKingThingol(inTheSilmarillion)wastheSilmaril- eachof which is said to be an heirloom of the respective king's race. 12 Legacy of theDamned A Conflict of Interests Prior to the year 751, kings of the Grail succession were priests in their own right;they were priest-kings, known asFisher Kings.1 Butwhentheirrightstopriesthoodwereunderminedbythe RomanChurch,thelegacywasforsakeninallbuttheGaelic realms.Beforethis,therepresentativesubstancesofpriest-kingshipweregold(fornobility),frankincense(forpriesthood) andmyrrh(forknowledge).Theseweretheverysubstances presentedtoJesusbytheasceticMagiintheNewTestament, thereby positively identifying him as a dynastic priest-king of the Grail bloodline.The significance of this magian presentation has been lost though,within acontrivedfableofhumblebirth in a stable,whichisnotmentionedinanyoriginalGospel.Yet,for someobscurereason,theGrailsymbolism wasretainedbythe ChurchinitsEucharist(Communion)sacrament,whereinthe blood of the Sangrealis drunk from the sacred chalice of the Rosi-crucis.In thisregard,thetruesymbolism of theancient custom (originallycalledtheRitualoftheStarFire)2 hasbeen strategicallyveiled,whilebothGrailloreandRingloreare denounced as unofficial heresies. As related in Bloodlineof theHolyGrail,thedisputes between theGrailfamilyandtheChurchestablishmentprevailedfor centuriesbecauseoftheirconflictofinterests.3 Fromthe1st 13 REALM OF THE RING LORDS century,ImperialRomehaddecreedthattheMessianicheirs shouldbehunteddownandputtothesword.Then,oncethe Roman Church was formally operative from the 4th century,the sacred dynasty was foreverdamned by the bishops. It was this formaldamnation which led tosuch eventsas the AlbigensianCrusadein1209andthesubsequentCatholic Inquisitions, forthese 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. Inpracticalterms,Churchkingshipprevailedfromthe8th century and has continued, through the ages, to the present day. But the fact is that, under the strict terms of sovereign practice, all suchmonarchiesandtheiraffiliatedgovernmentshavebeen invalid. So,what exactly isChurch kingship? It isprecisely that with which we have become so familiar. It applies to all monarchs who achievetheirregnalpositionsbywayofChurchcoronationby the Pope or other Christian leader (in Britain, by the Archbishop of Canterbury). In terms of true kingship, there was no necessity forcoronationbecausekinglyandqueenlyinheritancewere alwaysregardedasbeing'intheblood' -to beprecise,inthe mitochondrial DNA of the Sangreal. During the past few years, many readers have asked about the position of the Sangrealtoday, and of who might be descended in the line. In this regard it must be said that, although certain lines ofthesuccessioncanbetracedthroughthenobleregistersof Britain and Europe,allthe brancheshavebecomesubstantially diluted by way of intermarriage with other familiesthrough the centuries. Also, if one were to consider any couple in, say, the lst-century Gospel era, and to presume that two offspring emanated fromthatcouple,withthoseoffspringeachresponsiblefor producinganothertwo - andsoon - thecalculationdownto dateamountsto1,208,925,819,574,363,856,306,176birthsinthe year2000.4 Asameasureofcomparison againstthistheoretical (and obviously impossible) projection, the total number of people 14 _ _ ~LEGACY OF THE DAMNED in the whole world at thistime of writing issubstantially fewer at around 6,107,035,302. It canbeseen,therefore,thatthereisneitheranymeritnor uniqueness in the fact that anyone today might be descended from apersonthatfarbackintimeandeventuallywealltraceto common ancestors. In theoldschemeofthings,Sangrealkingshipwasautomatic because it was deemed to be an alchemical inheritance which had nothingtodowithrulingoveranyoneoranywhere.Itwas actuallyrathermoreconcernedwiththemaintenanceofjustice andtheGrailCodeofprincelyservice.Byvirtueofanillegal dictate, however, monarchies were brought under Church control and themagicalrealm of theRingLordswassupplanted by the materialand territorialreignsofthepapal kings.One mightask why this was allowed to happen. Why did no one stand up for the legacyoftheHolyGrail?Well,thefactisthatmanydid:the Cathars did, the KnightsTemplarsdid and the Rosicruciansdid. Indeed, any number of gnostic groups and fraternitiesdid,and it wasthisopensupportwhichledtothehideoustortures, executionsandwitch-huntsthatpersistedthroughsomany generations. BytheMiddleAges,theChurchcontrolledthemajorityof European monarchies-with Scotland being a notable exception, as a result of which King Robert the Bruce and the whole Scottish nationwereexcommunicatedbythePope.5 TheChurch, therefore,influenced governments, parliaments and educational establishments, as it still does today. And, by implication if not by directinstruction,themilitaryforcesofthepseudo-kings operated at Church command. TheChurchheldsuchenormousfinancial,politicaland military power that the Grail adherents became an 'underground stream' - living in fear of their lives at every turn. They were not only proclaimed heretics,they were singled out forpunishment assorcerers(conjurorsofsourcedspirits)andnecromancers (fromnegro-mans:blackmagicians).Also,sincetheydidnot conformtopapaldictates,theywereclearlysatanists! 15 REALM OF THE RING LORDS Additionally,thewomenwereallreckonedtobewhores- but thiswasnothingnew;theRomanChurchhadforgedthis dogmaticclassificationatthetimeofitsearliestconstitution when the female ethic was so fearfully suppressed. In order to understand the legacy of the Ring, we must look at how Church kingship was made possible in the first place by way ofadocumentcalledtheDonationof Constantine-adocument which led to just about every social injustice that has since been experiencedintheChristianworld.Allmonarchicaland governmentalpracticehas,forcenturies,beenbaseduponthe initial precept of thischarter but, in reality,itsprecept iswholly invalid.WhentheDonationmadeitsfirstappearanceinthe middle8thcenturyitwasallegedtohavebeenwrittenby Emperor Constantine some 400years 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 elected representative on Earth, with the power to create kings as his subordinates since his palace ranked above all the palaces in the world, while the papal dignitywasabovethatofanyearthlyruler.ThePopewas formallystyledthereinastheVicaroftheSonofGod(Vicarius FiliiDei),with thedistinction of 'Vicar'denoting adeputized or vicarious office(seeAppendix II). The provisions were put into operation by the Vatican in 751, whereupon the Merovingian Kings of the Grail bloodline in Gaul (France)weredeposedandawholenewdynastywas supplemented by way of a familyof hitherto mayors. They were dubbed Carolingians and their only king of any significance was thelegendaryCharlemagne.Bywayof thisstrategy,thewhole nature of monarchy changed from being an officeof community guardianshiptooneofabsoluteruleand,byvirtueofthis monumentalchange,thelong-standingGrailCodeofprincely service was forsakenasEuropean kingsbecameservantsofthe Church instead of being servants of the people. The factisthat over 500yearsagoin theRenaissanceera,proof emergedthattheDonationwasanoutrightforgery.ItsNew 16 LEGACY OF THE DAMNED TestamentreferencesrelatetotheLatinVulgateBible6 - anedition translatedand compiled by St Jerome,who was not born until AD 340,some26yearsafterConstantinesupposedlysignedthe document!Apartfromthis,thelanguageoftheDonation,withits numerousanachronismsinformandcontent,isthatofthe8th century and bears no relation to the writing style of Constantine's day. The truly ridiculous aspect of this is that the Donation's overwhelming dictate,whichcementedthePopeasthesupremespiritualand temporal head of Christendom, has prevailed regardless.7 ThefraudulentDonationofConstantine(Constitutum Constantini)was specifically designed to strengthen the power of the Church and, in particular, the Roman Seeafter the fallof the WesternEmpire.8 ItpurportedtobeanImperialGrantby EmperorConstantineoftemporalpowerintheWesttothe papacy, and it thoroughly misrepresented the territorial status of the popes by vesting them with a great, but false,antiquity. It was saidtobethedocumentpresentedbyConstantinetoPope Sylvester I(the first Imperial Bishop of Rome,AD 314-35)but, in historical terms, the key documentation of that era relates only to the Emperor's grant of the Lateran Palace and other benefits and buildings to the newly styled Church of Rome. Even though implemented in 751, there is no official reference to the Donation until it was mentioned in a letter written by Pope LeoIXtoMichaelCerularis,thePatriarch ofConstantinople,in 1054.However,bythe12th centuryit hadbecometheprimary document of papal lordship over the whole of Christendom and its monarchs. Kingship and Conspiracy One of the greatest threats posed to the early Roman Church prior to 751 was the royal Merovingian dynasty of Gaul. They were male-line descendants of the Fisher Kings, with an ancestry tracing back tothefamilyofJesusandwerenamedaftertheirfounder Meroveus,whomtheFrankshadproclaimedtheirGuardianat 17 REALM OF THE RING LORDS ToumaiinAD448.TheMerovingiansreignedbyanancient traditionofMessianicrightandinheritancepasseddownfrom generationsofancestors.InkeepingwiththeGrailCode,they servedasguardiansoftheirpeople,ratherthanterritorial overlords. Hence, they were styled 'Kings of the Franks', but never Kings of France. When Meroveus' s son Childeric died in AD 481, he was followed by his son Clovis, the most prominent of all the Merovingians and the traditionally reckoned founder of the French monarchy. At that time the Roman Church greatly feared the increasing popularity of theArianreligion9 inGaul(aChristianfaithwhichdidnot subscribetothedivinityofJesus),andCatholicismwas dangerously close to being completely overrun in Western Europe. Clovis was, in practice, neither Catholic nor Arian and it occurred to the Roman hierarchy that the rise of Clovis could be used to their advantage. As it transpired, Clovis aided them quite inadvertently when he married the Burgundian Princess Clotilde. AlthoughtheBurgundiansweretraditionallyArianintheir beliefs,ClotildewasherselfaCatholicandshemadeither business to evangelize her version of the faith.For a time she had no success in promoting the doctrine to her husband, but her luck changed in AD 496when King Clovis and his army were locked in battle against theinvading Alamanni tribe near Cologne.For oncein hishithertoillustriousmilitarycareer,theMerovingian was losing and, in a moment of near desperation, he invoked the name of Jesus at much the same instant that the Alaman king was slain.Atthelossoftheirleader,the Alamanni falteredandfell intoretreat,whereupon Clotildewasted no timein proclaiming that JesushadcausedtheMerovingianvictory.Cloviswasnot especially convinced of this, but his wife sent immediately for St Remy,theCatholicBishopof Reims,and arranged forClovisto be baptised.10 Indueallegiancetotheirleader,aroundhalfofthe MerovingianwarriorsfollowedClovistothefont.Wordsoon spread that the high potentate of the West was a Catholic and this wasofenormousvaluetoBishopAnastasiusin Rome.Agreat 18 r LEGACY OF THE DAMNED wave of conversions followed and the Roman Church was saved fromalmostinevitablecollapse.Infact,wereitnotforthe baptism of King Clovis, the ultimate Christian religion of Western EuropemightwellnowbeArianratherthanCatholic.Inthis regard, the royal compliance was not aone-way bargain and,in returnfortheKing'sagreementtobebaptised,theRoman authoritiespledgedanallegiancetohimandhisdescendants, promising thatanew Holy Empire would beestablishedunder the Merovingians. ClovishadnoreasontodoubtthesincerityoftheRoman alliance,buthebecametheunwittinginstrumentofabishops' conspiracy,fortheyhadalonger-termstrategyinmind.Their planwastousurptheMerovingiansinduecourse,thereby leavingtheBishopofRome(thePope)supremeinGaul.11 In preparation forthis, the key provinces of the Merovingian realm (Austrasia,Neustria,AquitaineandBurgundy)wereplaced undertheimmediatesupervisionofappointedmayors,who were themselves closely allied tothe Catholic bishops. By655,Romewasinapositiontobegindismantlingthe Merovingiansuccessionand,atthattime,theMayorofthe Austrasian Palace(akin to amodern prime minister)was firmly underpapalcontrol.WhenKingSigebertIIdied,hisson Dagobert was only fiveyears old and Mayor Grimoald took the firststep in the bishops'plan.Tobegin, he kidnapped Dagobert and had him conveyed to Ireland, to live in exile among the Scots Gaels. Then, not expecting to see the young heir again, Grimoald told Queen Immachilde that her son had died. PrinceDagobertwaseducatedatSlaneMonastery,near Dublin, and he married the Gaelic Princess Matilde when he was fifteen.Subsequently, he went to York under the patronage of St Wilfred, but then Matilde died and Dagobert returned to France, where he appeared much to the amazement of his mother.In the meantime, Grimoald had placedhisown son on the Austrasian throne,butWilfredofYorkandothersspreadwordofthe mayoraltreacheryandtheHouseofGrimoaldwasduly discredited. 19 REALM OF THE RING LORDS Having married hissecond wife,Gizellede Razes(anieceof theVisigothking),Dagobertwasreinstatedin674,afteran absenceofnearlytwentyyears,andtheRomanintriguewas thwarted- butnotforlong.TwodaysbeforeChristmas679, Dagobert was hunting near Stenay in the Ardennes when he was confronted in the forest and lanced to death-impaled to a tree by a henchman of his own powerful mayor, Pepin the Fat of Herstal. TheChurch of Romewas quick toapprove theassassination andimmediatelypassedtheMerovingianadministrationin AustrasiatotheambitiousPepin.Induecourse,hewas succeededbyhisillegitimateson,thewell-knownCharles Martel, who sustained the Roman endeavour by gaining control ofotherMerovingianterritories.WhenMarteldiedin741,the onlyMerovingianofanynotableauthoritywasDagobert' s nephew Childeric III.Meanwhile,Martel's son, Pepin the Short, was the Mayor of Neustria. Uptothatpoint(exceptfortheGrimoaldaffair),the Merovingianmonarchyhadbeenstrictlydynastic,withits hereditarysuccessionconsideredanautomaticandsacred right-a matter in which the Church had no say whatsoever. But that tradition was destined to be overturned when Rome grasped theopportunityto'create'kingsbywayofaspuriouspapal authority made possible by the Donationof Constantine. In 751Pepin the Short,in league with Pope Zachary,secured Church approval for his own coronation as King of the Franks in place of Childeric. The Church's long-awaited ideal had come to fruition,and fromthat timeonwardskingswereendorsedand crownedonlybyself-styledRomanprerogative.Andsoitwas that, with the full blessing of the Pope, Pepin became King of the FranksandChildericwasdeposed.Thepledgeofallegiance madebytheRomanChurchinAD496toKingClovisandhis descendants was broken and,aftertwoand ahalf centuries,the Church wassuitablygearedtousurptheancientlegacyofthe Merovingianbloodline,therebytakingcontroloftheFrankish realmbyappointingitsownkings.Childericwaspublicly L_h_u_m-il-ia-te_d_b_y--th_e_b-is_h_o_ps,an:0 hishair (kept :g -ffi-theO!d LEGACY OF THE DAMNED TestamentNazaritetradition)12 wascutbrutallyshort.Hewas incarceratedin amonastery,where he died fouryears later,and thus began a new dynasty of French kings,the Carolingians - so named after Pepin's father,Charles (Carolus)Martel.13 A Fraudulent Donation It was at that stage in 751that the forged Donation of Constantine was broughtintoplay byPopeZachary,whosaw hisopportunitynot only to depose the Merovingians of the Messianic strain, but to bring thekingsandqueensofChristendomunderpapalcontrolforall time.In ordertogainRomanChurchsupremacyinthespiritual domain,theDonationprovidedasecurityofmastershipinthe politicalarena.VariousnationsbecamesubordinatetoaChurch which had designated itself to be the supreme Sovereign State. There was no thought by anyone at the time that the document mightactuallybeacontemporaryforgery,whileeventheanti-papists who sought to criticise its content did not think to question itsauthenticity.Thebesttheycoulddowastomaintainthat EmperorConstantinehadnorighttohavesignedawaythe WesternEmpireinthisfashion.Thefactwasthat,althoughthe openingandclosingsectionsoftheDonationwerecleverly constructed in the 4th-century styleof Constantine'sday,itsmore centralthemes,suchasthedescriptionsofImperialandpapal ceremony,wererepresentativeofamuchlaterera.14 Alsoof particularsignificancewasthefactthat,atonestageofthe document,theByzantinecityofConstantinople(namedafter Constantine) is cited as being in existence, whereas later in the text the idea of building this city is put forward as a future concept! TheDonationwasfirstdeclaredtobeaforgerybytheSaxon EmperorOttoIIIintheyear1001.Intriguedbythefactthat ConstantinehadmovedhispersonalcapitalfromRometo Constantinople, Otto recognized that this was actually a ruse to pre-empt any Merovingian ambition to perhaps centre their ovm kingly operation in Rome in opposition to the Imperial bishops. Although 21 ' REALM OF THE RING LORDS Otto was a German, his mother was an East Roman who was well aware that this same fear had existed in the late Merovingian era, at which time the further deception of the Donationof Constantine was implemented. Otto'spronouncementcameasveryunwelcomenewstothe prevailing Pope Sylvester II,but the matter was ignored and did not come to the foreagain until the German theologian and philosopher NicholasofCusa(1401-64)announced thatConstantinehad never produced the said Donation.15 However, although adoctor of canon law,whodecreedthatthePopewasactuallysubordinatetothe membersoftheChurchmovement,Nicholaswassomehow overawedbythebishopsandsubsequently tookupaCardinalate position in 1448, becoming a staunch supporter of the papacy! TheDonationwasnotpubliclymentionedagainuntilits authenticitywasfiercelyattackedbytheItalianlinguistLorenzo Vallainthe15thcentury.16 Valla(c.1407-57)waschosenbyPope Nicholas V to translate the works of Herodotus and Thucydides from Greek into Latin.But, Valla was not just an eminent scholar, he was an ardent spokesman for the reform of education and firmly believed thatthespiritofGreco-Romanantiquityhadbeen lostduringthe Middle Ages. Angered by the fact that the elegance of classical Latin had given way to a clumsy medieval language, as exemplified by the corruptedandlargelyincomprehensiblestyleofChurchLatin,he washighlycriticaloftheChurch'sVulgateBibleanditsstrategic errorsintranslationfromtheearlierGreektexts.Thisledother scholars of the Renaissance, such as the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus(c.1466-1536),toreverttheirBiblestudiestothemore originaltexts.Resultantly,in 1516,ErasmusissuedhisownLatin translationoftheGreekNewTestament,therebyexposingthe Vulgateasacleverlymistranslateddocument,whichhecalleda 'second-hand' account. The outcome of Lorenzo Valla' s investigation into the Donation of Constantinewasthathediscoveredittobeanoutrightforgery compiled some four centuries after Emperor Constantine's death. In his related Treatise,he wrote, "I know that for a long time now men's ears are waiting to hear the offence with which I charge the Roman 22 ~ ~ LEGACY OF THE DAMNED pontiffs.It is,indeed,anenormousone".17 Yetitwasthisvery Donationwhichfacilitatedthefinalmoveinoverthrowingthe Merovingians so that theChurch could implement itsnew styleof papal kingshipwith theCarolingian dynasty.It wasthedeviceby which the Roman Church reverted political power to itself after the collapseoftheRoman'sWesternEmpire,enablingthebishopsto introduce the newly styled Holy Roman Empire under the control of the Pope. Notwithstanding the debates which ensued from Valla's findings in1450,theChurchmanagedtosurvivetheRenaissanceeraof enlightenment,branding many ofthegreat thinkersofthetimeas heretics.AndsoValla' sreport(knownastheDeclamatio)was conveniently lost within the Vatican Archives. It was not discovered for more than a hundred years until it was once more revealed by the priestMuratorwhoworkedintheVaticanLibraryinthe17th century.Subsequently,thespuriousnatureoftheDonationwas discussedanew by the Anglican minister Henry Edward Manning (1808-92)18 but,inthefootstepsofNicholasofCusa,hetoowas swayedfromhisoriginalChurchtobecomeaVaticanCouncil member,aCardinalandCatholicArchbishopofWestminster, publishing his TheTemporalPower of theVicar of JesusChrist in 1862. The task of exposing the fraud was then taken up by Christopher B.Coleman,adirectoroftheHistoricalCommissionandHistoric BureauattheIndianaStateLibraryfrom1924,whoproducedan updated commentary on TheTreatise a/Lorenzo Valla onthe Donation of Constantine.19 In theevent,the very factthat thiswork cameout of America, and not out of Britain or Continental Europe, made it easy enoughtocontain - asaresultofwhichverylittle,outsidethe occasional encyclopaedic reference, has been written concerning the Donationduringthepastcentury.Butthefactremainsthatitstill existsastheverydocumentwhichhasenabledtheChurchto maintain controlof monarchical,political,militaryand educational affairs for well over 1200 years. I23 L ~The Shining Ones Elves and Anunnaki Prior to the Grail's formal subjugation by the Church Inquisition intheMiddleAges,thevictimisedheterodoxChristians(or 'heretics'astheywerecalled)includedtheCathars-thePure Ones of the Languedoc region in the South of France. The Cathars werefullyconversantwiththeRingLordcultureand,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 femaleelf was an albi(elbe or ylbi),and Albi was the name given tothe main Cathar centre in Languedoc. This was in deference to the matrilinear heritage of the Grail dynasty, for the Cathars were supporters of the original Albi-gens:the Elven bloodline which had descended through the Grail queens of yore such as Lilith, Miriam, Bathsheba and Mary Magdalene. It was forthis reason that, when Simon de Montfort and the armies of Pope Innocent III descended upon the region in 1209, it was called the Albigensian Crusade. Through some thirty-five years, tens of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered in this savage campaign,1 all because the inhabitants of the region were upholders of the original concept of Grail kingship, as against the inappropriate style of monarchy whichhadbeenestablishedbythepapalmachine.Butthe Catharswererathermorethanthelowlyapostatecultwhich propagandist histories would have us believe.In contrast tothe 24 THE SHINING ONES prevalentsubjugativeclimateinWesternEurope,Languedoc societywasmarkedlymoretolerantandcosmopolitan.2 As pointedoutbyYuriStoyanovoftheWarburgInstituteinThe HiddenHistoryof Europe,Languedocwasactuallyaprominent centreofa12th-century'renaissance',beingthecradleof Troubadour lyric poetry and Courtly Love which had flourished under the patronage of the Counts of Beziers, Faix, Toulouse and Provence.Inthecourseofthis,theCountsofToulousewere actually admonished by the papacy foraffording Jewspositions of public office. TheconceptofcallingtheprincelyraceoftheGrailthe 'Shining Ones', while also defining them as Elves, dates well back intoancientBibletimesandcanbetracedintoMesopotamia (Iraq)and Canaan (Palestine).Some of the best modern research into the etymological roots of the long distant BCyears has been conductedbythewritersChristianandBarbaraJoyO'Brien. Christian,whoreadNaturalSciencesatChrist'sCollege, Cambridge,subsequentlyspentmanyyearsasanexploration geologist in Iran,where he was involved in the discovery of the TchogaZambilziggurat.Since1970hehasconcentratedhis research into many enigmas of prehistory, and the O'Briens have some excellent books to their credit.3 In TheGenius of theFewthey explainthattheancientwordEl,which wasusedtoidentifya godor lofty-one(asin ElElyon and ElShaddai)actually meant 'Shining' in old Mesopotamian Sumer. Tothe north in Babylonia, the derivative Ellumeant 'Shining One', as did Iluin Akkad, and the word spread across Europe to become Ellylin Wales, Aillil in Ireland,Aelf in Saxony and Elf in England.Theplural ofElwas Elohim,4 the very word used in old Bible texts to denote the gods, butstrategicallymistranslatedtoconformtotheJudaeo-Christian'OneGod'image.Interestingly,inGaelicCornwall, South West England, the word elwas the equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon engeland the old French angelewhich, in English, became 'angel'. TheShiningOnesoftheElohim(asindicatedinSumerian writingsfromasfarbackasthe3rdmillenniumBC)were 25 REALM OF THE RING LORDS identified with the skies or with a high place described as An and often translated to mean Heaven (or the heavens). In this context, thegreatgodsandoverlordsofancientSumerwerecalledthe Anunnaki(Anun-na-kimeaning'Heavencametoearth'). Alternatively, they were the Anannage (An-anan-na-ge), the 'Fiery great sons of heaven', and it was from this Anunnaki royal strain thattheGraillineensued.Forthisreason,itwastraditionally referredtoasthe Elven Bloodlineor thedynasty of the Shining Ones. QuitewhotheseAnunnakioverlordswereisamatterof continuingdebateandtheextant Sumerian texts,whichtalkof their'comingdown'or'comingfromtheheavens',haveled manytoconcludethattheywereanalienracefromanother planet. Indeed, prominent and respected writers such as Zecharia Sitchin,ascholaroftheSumerianlanguage,havewritten extensivelyinthisregard.5 Thisveryplausibleconceptis convincinglysupported bysomeoftheunearthlyportrayalsof the era, as for example astatue of the goddess NJ:n-khursag from thefirsthalfofthe3rdmillenniumBC.Inthisdepiction,Nin-khursag,thegreatmotherof theGrailbloodlineand surrogate motheroftheAdama(theEarthlings)6 AtabbaandKava(better known as Adam and Eve), is shown with distinctly alien features. Thereis,though,anotherschoolofthought whichsupports the notion that the Anunnaki werethe remnant ofan advanced earthly race which had persisted from very early times, with their 'corning down' relating rather more toageographical high place (perhaps a more mountainous or more northern country)rather than from the skies.The factis,nevertheless,that both concepts arepossibleandneithershouldbediscardedoutofhandin favouroftheother,forthesolutionseemstolieinthe chronologicaltimingofeventsinthosefaroffdays,andthe chances are that both conclusions are correct. It isbecomingevermoreclearthattheAnunnakiwerenot confinedtotheMesopotamianregion;neitherdidtheymake theironlyappearanceintheSumerianculture,asweshall discover later in our investigation. If they were of alien origin, as 26 THE SHINING ONES appearstobethecase,then theirarrivalappearstohavebeen rathermoredistantin history- sometimebeforetheSumerian era, which began in around 5500 BC. Dragons and Merlins In ancientculturallorethedragon wasemblematicof wisdom. DragonswerethoughtbytheGreekstobethebenevolent conveyors of enlightenment, while the Gaels considered them to be representative of sovereignty and the Chinese saw dragons as bringers of good fortune. It was in the Judaeo-Christian tradition thatdragonsbecamecustomarilyregardedassinisterand meddlesome,butthiswasdirectlyduetothefactthatthe Hebrew and Christian faiths were suppressors of learning, rather than champions of it.On that account, the dragon-the symbolic keeperand bringerof wisdom-was designatedsuperfluousto requirement and sidelined into adark realm of heresy. The English word' dragon' comes to us via the Latin draco,but more specifically from the Greek drakon,said tomean 'serpent'. Thewordisapparentinedrakon - anunqualifiedpasttenseof derkesthai:'to see clearly' - and is equivalent to nahash, the biblical Hebrewfor'serpent'.However,thisSemiticword(fromthe consonantalstemNHSH)actuallyrelatedtoathresholdof understanding and meant to' decipher' or' find out' .7 The serpent was, therefore, one who saw clearly- and it was held that clarity of vision engendered wisdom. Thus, the serpent was considered tobeawiseseer.It waspreciselythisnahashdefinitionwhich appliedintheGenesisstoryofEve,whenthewiseserpent correctly advised her that, contrary to what she had been led to believe, she would not die by eating from the Tree of Knowledge.8 In human terms, the great seers of the Gaelic realms were the Merlinsoftheroyalcourts - theseerstotheHighKings.They were a class of druid priests alike to the classical philosophers or magi,andtheirtraditionderivedfroman ancientpriestlytribe knowninInda-EuropeastheWiseOnes.InLatintheywere 27 I REALM OF THE RING LORDS calledtheNoblis,fromgnoblisandtheGreekverbalrootgno, meaning'toknow' -hence,'noble'(gnoble)and'gnosis' (knowledge). Traditionallyandconsistentlythesymbolofbothwisdom (Greek:sophia)and healing was the serpent-and the emblem is stillusedtodaybymedicalorganizationsaroundtheworld.9 Spirallingserpentsarealsoprominentinallegoricalfineart-featuringinsuchpaintingsasSebastienBourdon' sMosesand JohnCollier'sLilith.Theseandothersimilarportrayalsare significantinthatthecharactersareassociatednotjustwith wisdom, but with noble wisdom - the far-seeing druidic wisdom of the dragon. Single and doublespiralling serpentsasused by medical organizations worldwide Theancient Mesopotamian dragon,the Mus-hi'is,wasafour-leggedmonitororsacredcrocodile,butinsubsequentearly heraldry the dragon was depicted as a serpent with the wings of aswan - or sometimes the wings of a bat. Also,as we have seen, Messianic kingsand queens werethemselvescalled Dragons or Pendragonsandwerereckonedtoupholdthesexualprowess, the warrior fearlessnessand the ultimate wisdom of the intrepid beast.Oftentheirarmourwasscaledandtheirrobeswould displayserpentine emblems,whilethegnostictranscendenceof theirnobliswassymbolisedbyshamanicswan-feathercloaks. 28 THE SHINING ONES This wing-like garb also became relevant to the artistic portrayal ofangels,soastoidentifytheirabilitytotranscendhuman normality,whilethetitulardistinction'Merlin'wassimilarly indicative of a high-flying, far-seeing falcon. ThereexistsinIran(Persia)andtheCanaryIslandsalarge plant called thedragon tree(thedracaenadraco).Thisplant isof thegenuslillaceae,or'lily',anditsresinisknownasdragon's blood. The red extract was used as a ceremonial dye in the East,10 whereitwasreferredtoaslac(thederivative'lake'pigment beingfoundinthepaintcolourScarletLake).Itiseasyto recognize, therefore, why the blood of the dragon was associated with the essence of the lily. InGenesisoftheGrailKings,wesawhowtheearly Mesopotamian kings of the Grail bloodline were supplementally fedwith the lunar essence of the matrilinear Dragon Queens - a menstrualextractoftheAnunnakigoddesses,whichbecame known asStar Fire.11 Thiswassaidtobe the'nectar of supreme excellence' since it carried the essential elements of what we now define as mitochondrial DNA, while alsoembodying endocrinal substanceswhichcouldheightentherecipients'qualitiesof awarenessandperception.Additionally,itwasnotedthatthe queensof thelinewerelikenedtolilies(orlotusflowers),with namessuch asLily,Lilith,Luluwa,LilutuandLillet.It isfrom thisverytraditionthatthefamilynameofduLacbecame prominent in Arthurian lore- as for example in Lancelot du Lac. This was translated into English to become Lancelot of the Lake, but itsmorecorrectrepresentationwasLancelotofthedragon blood. Alongside this, the Grail dynasty was also variantly styled the Housedel Acqs,meaning 'of thewaters', from whichcamethe queenly tradition of the Ladies of theLake.As previously cited, theRosi-crucis(Cupofthewaters,orDew-cup)emblemofthe HolyGrailwasitselfidentifiedwiththeMessianicblood,held withinthesacredchaliceofthematernalwomb.Itcan, accordingly,beseenthatthestylesofduLacanddelAcqsare entirelysynonymous,asarethehistoricaltraditionsofthe 29 I REALM OF THE RING LORDS Dragon andtheGrail.Theseconjoinedtraditionsareespecially significant in the story of the blood and water which flowed from Jesus's side at the Crucifixion (John 19:34)-being emblematic of the fact that he was truly a kingly dynast of the Shining Ones. IntheOldTestament'sSongof Solomon,thelostbrideofthe king relates, "I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys".12 In duecourse,weshalldiscussthelilyand therosesymbolism but,atthisstage,itisworth mentioningthatin thetraditional loreoftheGrailmaidens - thosestyledduLac(ofthedragon blood),alternativelydelAcqs(ofthe waters)-the whole culture wasbroughttogetherwithinthemonthlyritesoftheTemple goddess.Thesewerethesacredbloodandwaterritualsofthe time-honouredLadiesoftheFountain,romanticallyepitomised bysuchcharactersasNimueandMelusine,towhom weshall return.These ceremonies, with their said pagan magical origins, weredenouncedlongagobyChurchdoctrine,whichdefined themassatanicorvampiricalongwiththeGrailheresyin general. Tothe enlightened champions of the Albi-gens, however, they lodged at the very heart of the Courtly Love tradition of the medievaltroubadours.Inthiscontext,theseritesheldthe ultimatesecretofthedivineStarFirepriestesses - theScarlet Woman whom theGreekscalled hierodulai(sacredwomen),but whoseprestigiouslegacytheChristianbishopsundermined, denigrating them as whores. Fate of the Fairies Theconceptoffairies(thefairfolk)wasborndirectlyfrom DragonandRingLordcultures,beingaderivativeoffey(Old French: faerie)and relating especially to 'fate'. In the Gaelic world, certain royalfamilies(especiallythoseof thePendragons)were said to carry the fairy blood- that isto say,the fateor destiny of theGrailbloodlineandofhumankindatlarge-whiletheElf-maidensoftheAlbi-genswerethedesignatedguardiansofthe earth, starlight and forest.It is for these reasons that fairies, elves l-----30 THE SHINING ONES andleprechaunshavesooftenbeenportrayedasshoemakers andlamplighters,forthefairycobblersmadetheshoeswhich measuredthestepsoflife,whiletheShining Onesoftheelven race were there to light the way. Innationalterms,althoughfairiespresentawidespread image, they areparticularly associated with Ireland, where they areepitomizedbytheancientpeopleoftheTuathaDeDanann. Thisformidablekingtribewas,nevertheless,mythologizedby the Christian monks, who rewrote the majority of Irish history to suit their own Church's vested interest in Eire. From a base of the monastictexts,which aroseonwardsfrommedievaltimes,itis generally stated that these people were the supernatural tribe of thepre-AchaeanagriculturalgoddessDanaeofArgos,13 or perhapsoftheAegeanMother-goddessDanu.Buttheirtrue name, rendered in its older form, was Tuadhe d'Anu. As such, they werethepeople(ortribe)ofAnu,thegreatskygodofthe Anunnaki. It isoften said that, in strategically mythologizing the heritage of thisnobleBCrace,theChristianChurch wasresponsiblefor dubbingthem'fairies',butthisisnotstrictlytrue.TheTuadhe d'Anu were always fairies in the Ring Lord tradition, but what the Church did was to redefine the meaning of the word 'fairy'. Inlife,whenconfrontedwithaseeminglyinsurmountable problem, one can either submit to the stressand pressure that it causesor,alternatively,one can mentally diminish theproblem. This does not mean that the problem goes away, but it can appear less harassing and more controllable. That was precisely what the Church did with the Tuadhed'Anu;they reduced the problem by diminishingthenominalsignificanceofthisancientkingtribe and,insodoing,portrayedthemasminutelittlefigureswho weremovedintotherealmofmythology.Becauseofthis,the miniaturizingoftheirfigurescausedaparalleldiminutionof theirhistory,andtheirproud legacywaslostfromthestageof Western education. Onwards fromtheyear751,theChurchsoughtallpossible measurestodiminishthestatusofanyroyalstrainemanating 31 REALM OF THE RING LORDS fromtheoriginalRingLordssothatthefraudulentDonationof Constantinecouldbebroughtintoplay.Henceforth,onlythe subjugativeChurchcoulddeterminewhowasandwasnota king,whiletheelvesandfairiesoftheAlbi-genswere manoeuvredfromtheforefrontofhistoryintoarealmof apparent fantasyand legend.In thisregard,it issignificant that theElvesin Tolkien' sTheLordof theRingsarequiteunlikethe cute little charactersof many fairytales;they are actually larger and more powerful than average mortals. They are also endowed withgreaterpowersofwisdom;theyridemagicalhorsesand closely resemble the ancient king tribe of the Tuadhed'Anu. Settling in Ireland from about 800BC,the noble Tuadhed'Anu hailed from the Central European lands of Scythia, 14 the Black Sea kingdoms which stretchedfromtheCarpathian mountainsand Transylvanian Alps, across to the Russian River Don.They were strictly known as the Royal Scyths and their classification as fates or fairiesoccurred because they weremastersofatranscendent intellect called theSidhe(pronounced 'Shee'), which was known to the druids as the Webof the Wise.Druid (druidhe)was itself a Gaelic word for 'witch' -an English form of the Saxon verb wicce (feminine)or wicca(masculine),meaning to bend or yield,asdo willowandwicker.Thedruidswerealsosaidtoyieldtothe consummate Sidhe,a word which eventually became a colloquial termforfairy.Interestingly,theScythianwarlordsoftheSidhe were also called the Sumaire and, in the language of old Ireland to where many of the caste migrated, the word sumaire was related to a coiled serpent. IntheSanskritholylanguageofIndia,thewisdomderived fromattainingthehigheststateoftranscendentconsciousness was calledSiddhi,while the powers said tomanifest themselves as a result of that achievement have been dubbed siddhis- a term which,onceagainthroughChurchintervention,hasbecome associatedwithsinistermagicandWitchcraft.Thus,itcanbe seenthatSidheandSiddhiareoneandthesame,whilethe ScythianTuadhed'Anuweretheoriginalfairiesofhistory.They were considered to be the world's most noble race, alongside the 32 I ! I I I THE SHINING ONES earlydynasticpharaohsofEgypt,anditwasbyvirtueoftwo particular Scythian-Egyptian royal marriages that the Scots Gaels ofIrelandemerged.Thefirstoccurredinabout 1360BC,when Niul,PrinceofScythia,marriedthedaughterofPharaoh Smenkhkare(alsocalledAkenkheresorCinciris) .15 Byvirtueof this,thedaughter,Merytaten-tasherit,becameaPrincessof Scythia (nominally styled Princess Seo-ta=Ruler of people). The secondPrincessSeo-ta(orScota,asbecamemore familiar)was the daughter of Pharaoh Nekau(Nechonibus,c.610-595BC).She marriedPrinceGalamhofScythia(adescendantoftheearlier Scotamarriage)andtheirson,EireAhmon,wastheancestral forbearoftheScotsKingsofIreland,abranchofwhich eventually founded Scotland in the North of Britain.16 Oneofthestrangest thingsabout fairyloreisnotthatthese historicalRingLordsbecameportrayedasminiaturefiguresof thetwilight realm,but that in the public imagination they have become identified with friendly little winged flowercreatures -butthiswasnotthewaytheChurchportrayedthem.Infact, quitethereversewasthecaseand,forthelongesttime,their orthodox image was strictly malevolent; they were actually said tobevampiric.InScotlanditwascommonpracticetoleavea bowlofwateravailableinthehouseatnight,sinceitwas reckoned that fairieswould suck the sleepers' blood if there was nowatertoquenchtheirthirst.InIrelandthewastingdisease consumption wassaid tobe the work ofthefairieswho would stealawayone'ssoul.Tocombatthis,wreathsofoakandivy were kept forprotection and theafflicted were tiedtostakes by holy wells,'to end them or mend them'.Such was the power of Church propaganda that numerous Christian charms were used to ward off the fairies who, it was claimed, were ready toabduct or consume anyone straying from the clerical doctrines. Up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen, Wedaren't go a-hunting for fear of little men; Wee folk,good folk,trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap and white owl's feather. WilliamAllingham(1824-89) 33 REALM OF THE RING LORDS The Lost Bride AstheChurchrosetopowerfollowingthe8th-century implementationoftheDonationofConstantine,sothe 'underground stream', which supported the true Albi-gens, found strategicmethodsofpreservingtheoldcultureoftheroyal bloodline.Inthecourseofthis,andbaseduponatraditional principle of folklore and legend, the fairy tale concept was born-storieswhich werenotunlikemanyoftheparablesinherent in theNewTestamentGospels.Theywerelikewisecontrived'for those with eyes tosee and ears to hear', while others among the uninitiatedwouldperceivethemsimplyasfancifulchildren's entertainment. Akeyfocalmessagebuiltintothesefairytaleswasan understanding of the importance of perpetuating the family line oftheSangreal,regardlessofthepowerofthebishopsandthe Church's puppet kings.The whole scenario was presented, time aftertime,asifitwereastrugglingnightmare,whereinthe female(theElf-maiden whocarriedtheessentialmitochondrial DNA)was out of reach of the Grail prince,sothat historturous quest tofindher was akin tothequest fortheHoly Grailitself. 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.17 The fairytale ideal wasessentiallygearedtorelatethetruthofthesepersecutions. Theywereallegoricalaccountsofthepredicamentofthe Messianicfamily- theRingLordsof theSangreal,whose fairies andelves(havingbeenmanoeuvredfromthemortalplaneof orthodoxyandstatusquo)wereconfinedtoaseemingly Otherworld existence. Theyemergedastalesofvaliantprinceswhowereturned into frogs;of Swan knightswho roamedthe Wastelandand of Grail princesses locked in towers,or put tosleep forhundreds ofyears.Inthecourseoftheirpersecution,theElf-maidens 34 THE SHINING ONES LA.MAISONDIEV TheTower(Houseof God)card fromtheTarot'sMajor Arcana wereprickedwithbodkins,fedwithpoisonedapples, subjectedtospellsorcondemnedtoservitude,whiletheir championsswamgreatlakes,battledthroughthicketsand scaledmightytowerstosecureandprotectthematrilinear heritageof the Albi-gens.Theseromanticlegends includesuch well-knownstoriesastheSleepingBeauty,Cinderella,Snow WhiteandRapunzel.Inallcases,theunderlying themeisthe same, with the princess kept (through drugging, imprisonment or some form of restraint)out of reach of the prince, who has to findandreleaseherinordertopreservethedynastyand perpetuate the line. 35 REALM OF THE RING LORDS Forthemostpart,theestablishmentoftheMotherChurch wassymbolizedbyamalevolentstepmother,anevilwitchor someotherjealousfemalewithanopposingvestedinterest. Always, the stories are reminiscent of the lost bride in the Bible's esotericSongof Solomon,whiletheircontentalsoembodiesthe forlorn aspect of Mary Magdalene, the bride of Jesus whose royal heritage and maternal legacy were so thoroughly undermined by the Christian bishops.18 An interesting featureof many classicfairytalesisthat they trulyareveryoldstories.ThetaleofCinderella,forexample,is oftenattributedtotheBrothersGrimmorCharlesPerrault. However,thesemenwerenotwritersoforiginaltalesasis commonlythought;theywerecompilers,amendersand interpretersoftraditionaltales.ThestoryofCinderellacan actuallybetracedbacktotheCarolingianera,withitsfirst known version appearing in the year 850.It appears to have been modelled upon aChinesetaleabout foot-bindingand the noble aspectofwomenwithtinyfeet.Perraultpublishedhiswell-known French edition in 1697,while Jacoband Wilhelm Grimm produced their German version in 1812. It was during the period ofFrance'sCarolingiandynasty(thedynastyofEmperor Charlemagne), which began in 751, that the seeds of most of these popularstorieswereplanted,anditisbecauseoftheinherent truths which lie behind the stories that we find them so naturally appealing.Someacademicsarguethatfairytalessurviveand thrivebecausetheyareoftenbaseduponarags-to-riches doctrine,butthisisnotthecase.Theysurvivebecausedeep within the Western psyche isan inherent, inbred awareness that theGrail(symbolisedbytheLostBride)hastobefoundifthe Wasteland is to return to fertility. At the same time, there isoften an apparent contrary aspect to the stories and, despite our obvious support forthe champion in his endeavour, we can also see a reason for the predicament of the princess-especiallywhenthereisatowerinvolved,asisthe casewithRapunzel.Thetower(sometimesintheformofa chessboard castle or rook)was a long-standing symbol of the del 36 THE SHINING ONES Acqsfemaleline,beingexpresslyconnectedwithMary Magdalene in laLegendedeSainteMarieMadeleineby Jacobusde Voragine,13th-centuryArchbishopofGenoa.19 Theveryname Magdalene(orMagdala)stemsfromtheHebrewnounmigdal, meaning 'tower', and was used to denote a high titular station of guardianship,asportrayedbytheMagdal-eder(Watchtowerof theflock)intheOldTestamentbookofMicah4:8.20 Itisalso representedin theTower(orHouseofGod)cardof theTarot's MajorArcana,which istraditionallyreferredtoasaMagdalene card.Withitstowerstruckbylightning,orotherwise mysteriouslyassaulted,thiscardsymbolizedtheplightofthe esotericGrailChurchinthefaceofthemercilessRoman establishment, and was introduced in France and Northern Italy by the 'underground stream'of Grailadherents followingPope Gregory IX's Catholic Inquisition of 1231. TheRapunzelstoryrelatesthat,inordertofunctionasan effectiveseer,Rapunzelwasconfinedtoatowerbyan enchantressasameasureofprotectionagainsttheworldat large-inessencetopreservehermaidenlyvirtueandthe supernaturalpowerrelatedtothatvirtue.Bymaintainingher virginity,Rapunzelwassymbolicallyendowedwiththe overlordshipoftheMagdal-ederandwaskeptapartfromthe mundane environment.Hence, as in all similar stories, although the lost bride has been confined (whether by fairmeans or foul), she always emerges in a fit mental and physical state for the Grail prince.Theconceptofatowerbeingrepresentativeoffemale virtue is very well defined in the early Renaissance painting, The AllegoryofChastity,bythe15th-centuryFlemishartistHans Memling. Another important facetof thedesiredvirginalportrayal,as evidentinthetaleofRapunzel,istheallegoricalsymbolismof long hair.Rapunzel's golden locks are presented as being plaited intoalengthybraidwhichtheprinceusedtoscalethetower. Before eventually being freed,however, Rapunzel's hair was cut offbytheenchantress,therebyimplyingthereleaseofthe maiden's chastity to the wilderness. The importance of very long 37 REALM OF THE RING LORDS hairwasthatitaffordedanappropriateveilofmodestyeven wheninanakedstate.Althoughperhapsphysicallyor metaphorically divested of clothes(assymbolised by the willing orcompulsorysubordinationtoanother),theElf-maidenwith tresseswas never vulnerable; her dignity was always preserved andneitherherbodynorsoulwaseverbareduntilthe appropriate time. ItisforthisreasonthatMaryMagdalenewassooften depictedwith verylong hairthat enveloped her formasin the RenaissancecarvingsofDonatelloandRiemenschneider,orin the Sforza Bookof Hoursportrayal of Mary arriving in Provence. TheChurch'sofficialMagdaleneimagewasthatofawanton harlot,but enlightenedartistswereoftenquicktoestablishthe reality of her modest bridal estate. They were equally willing, on occasions, to relate the fact of her flight and pregnancy,21 with the mosttellingofallpaintingsinthisregardbeingCaravaggio's stunning MaryMagdaleneportrait at the Galleria Doria-Pamphili inRome.Inthisseatedportrayalfrom1595,thecontemplative Magdalene,withhercustomarylongreddishhair,wearsthe whitebodiceofpurityandthegreendressoffertility.While makinghergravidityveryapparentinanabdominalnursing pose, the scene is completed by a shell-designed chalice upon the frontofherskirt.Nopaintingcouldbemoreforthrightinits Grail representation of the expectant Messianic queen. 38 The Ring Cycle Ring of the Dwarf Lord TheoldestcompleteversionoftheRingCyclecomesfromthe Norse mythology of the VolsungaSaga.This was described by the English poet and designer William Morris (1834-96)as "The great story of the North which should betoallour race what the tale ofTroywastotheGreeks".1 Compiledfrommorethanforty separatelegends,the13th-centuryIcelandictalerelatestothe god Odin, to the kingdom of the Nine Worlds and to a dark forest called Mirkwood- aname later repeated by Tolkien in TheLord of theRings.It alsotellsofhowPrinceSigmundof theVolsung dynasty isthe only warrior able topull the great sword of Odin fromatreeinwhichthegodhaddrivenittoitshilt- as replicated in the Arthurian story of the sword and the stone.We also learn of the Water-dwarf Andarvi, whose magical One Ring of red-gold could weave great wealth and power for its master-precisely asdepicted in all related Ring legends.2 The hero of theVolsungaaction is Sigmund's son Sigurd, who inherits the magicalsword of Odin and defeatsthedragon who (reminiscent of Tolkien' s dragon, Smaug, in his tale of TheHobbit) guardsthegoldenhoardoftheDwarfLord.Havingslainthe dragon, Prince Sigurd gains the Ring of Andarvi and sets out on his travels, but the Ring carries with it a dreadful curse. At length, inthelandoftheFranks,hefindsasleepingbeautyina mysterioustower.Onawakeningher,hediscoversthatsheis Brynhild, a Valkyrie battle-maiden of Odin who once carried the 39 REALM OF THE RING LORDS soulsofheroestothelandofValhalla.She,intruefairy-tale fashion, had been pricked by asleep-thorn and shut away in the turret, surrounded by a ring of fire. ThetwobecomeloversandSigurdplacestheRingon Brynhild's finger,whereupon she returns to sleep, bound to him forever,whileSigurdridestotheRhinelandoftheNibelung dynasty. There, he is given an enchanted drink to rob his memory ofBrynhildsothat he can marry thePrincessGudrun, but the magicof the Ring istoo strong and he iseventually drawn back totheValkyrie.On hearing oftheroyalmarriage,but knowing nothingofthepotion,BrynhildpresumesthatSigurdhas deceivedherandswearsrevenge,inconsequenceofwhich Sigurdismurdered- butonlearningthetruth,Brynhildthen kills herself in order to sleep with her hero forever.The Ringof Andarvi is subsequently inherited by Princess Gudrun but, in the final event, she is compelled to return it to the realm of the Water-dwarf.Andso,withtheRingon herfinger,shefillsherapron with stones and leaps from a cliff into the sea. Contemporary with theVolsungaSagawas a very similar tale which appeared in and around Burgundy in the 1200s:a Middle HighGermanepiccalledTheNibelungenlied.Inthisaccount, which followsasimilar path, the hero iscalled Siegfried and the taleisgivenaknightlyglossoftheGothicera,while unfortunatelylosingsomeofthepaganenchantmentofthe Northern legend. A Golden Age Six-hundredyearslater,andsomewhilebeforeTolkien,came WilliamMorrisandtheGermancomposerRichardWagner, working separately but similarlypulling theessenceofthetwo traditionstogether- oneforanepicpoemandtheotherfora grand opera. The main difference between the emergent works is that, while Morris sat more squarely with the Northern legend of Sigurdand Brynhild,Wagner was moreinclined tothe Western 40 THE RINGCYCLE European version,calling hisprincipal characters Siegfriedand Brunhilde. The main themes are actually very much the same and both were inspirational to J.R.R.Tolkien.Indeed, in 1914, when he won the Skeat Prize forEnglish from Exeter College, Oxford, at the age of twenty-two, he used fivepounds of the proceeds to purchase copies of William Morris's translated VolsungaSagaand its related work TheHouse of theWolfings3 (seeAppendix III). WilliamMorriswasassociatedwiththerenownedPre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of painters, whose emergent movement in the Golden Age of Victorian art produced so many wonderful Grail-relatedimages.TheBriarRoseseriesby SirEdwardColey Burne-Jones4 isespeciallysignificantin thisregard,asisDante GabrielRossetti'sAttainmentoftheSangreal,whichfeatures Morris'simmortalizedwifeJane.Duringthissameera,the EnglishpoetAlfred,LordTennyson,producedhisseriesof Arthurian legends, entitled Idyllsof the King,and it would appear that against the general political toils and social hardships of the timetherewasawidespreadmovementinwesternEuropean culture that was keen torevivethetime-honoured legacy of the Albi-gens. No musical composer has done so much to preserve the legacy of Ring lore as Richard Wagner (1813-83)whose renowned opera, DerRingdesNibelungen(TheRingof theNibelung),waslargely drawn from the Burgundian folklore of TheNibelungenlied and, to someextent,fromtheVolsungaSaga.Theoperahaditsfirst completeperformancein 1876at Wagner'snewly foundedand specially designed festival theatre of Bayreuth in Bavaria. Prior to this,Wagner'sgrandworkconcerningtheSwanKnight Lohengrin(composedwhilehewasconductoroftheDresden OperaHouse)hadbeenproducedatWeimarin1850byhis colleague and fellow composer Franz Liszt. This was followed by theArthuriantaleofTristanundIsolde(SirThomasMalory's Tris tram and Isoud), first performed at Munich in 1865 while, after TheRingandDieMeistersingervanNurnberg,Wagner'slast masterwork,theGrail operaParsifal,wasproducedatBayreuth in 1882. 41 REALM OF THE RING LORDS It isof particular relevancethat,irrespectiveofnotedearlier workssuchasTheFlyingDutchmanandTannhiiuser,Wagner foundthe GrailandRingquestssocompulsiveonceembarked upon. Moreover, it is doubtless not coincidental that, in that same yearof1876whenTheRingwaslaunched,WilliamMorris published his poetic translation of the epic Ring Cycle, Sigurdthe Volsung.5 Both Wagner's opera and Morris's poem weredebated at length by the Irish dramatist and criticGeorge Bernard Shaw (1856-1950),6 who perceived them not only as relics of traditional lore, but asbeing wholly representative of the social conflictsof theprevailingera.Priortohisdeath,RichardWagnerhad commencedwritinganarticleentitledTheFeminineElementin Mankindand,interestingly,morethanahundredyears afterwards,Richard'sgreat-great-grandson,thecomposerSir AdrianWagner,KnightoftheSwan,hasalsowrittenhisown essayunderthatverysametitle,7whilstsharingthesame continued enthusiasm forthe eternal Quest. InWagner'sDerRingdesNibelungen,thewarriorSiegfried obtainsthegoldenRingoftheRhinemaidens,which hadbeen stolenfromthembyAlberictheNibelung,DwarfLordofthe Underworld.Hehadlostittothesky-godWotan(theAnglo-Saxon equivalent ofOdin),followingwhich Siegfried won itby killing adragon.The Ring (forged from the enchanted flat-stone of the Rhinegold) had the power to afford its master the lordship of all the world, but only at the cost of forsaking love and selling his soul to the Ring's awesome power. Atthetopofamountain,surroundedbyaringoffire, Siegfried discovers the sleeping Brunhilde and awakens her with a kiss(a familiar scene in the SleepingBeauty story of Briar Rose). Brunhilde,ittranspires,isthedaughterofWotan - aValkyrie goddessturnedmortalforangeringherfather.Havingbeen released by her earthly hero, Brunhilde dutifully swears her love and allegiance to Siegfried, who gives her the golden Ring as his pledge beforecontinuing hisadventuresintotheRhineland.At theCourt oftheGibichungsheisgivenapotion whichmakes him forget Brunhilde and fallin love with Princess Gutrune, but 42 THE RINGCYCLE whentheValkyriediscoversthisshepursuesacourseof vengeanceandmastermindsSiegfried'sdeath.Afterwards, however,sherealiseshererrorandthrowsherselfupon Siegfried's funeralpyretobewith him in eternity.The magical Ring that Siegfried gave to Brunhilde is retrieved from the ashes by the Rhinemaiden guardians of the gold and, by virtue of this alongwithBrunhilde'sself-sacrifice,ahithertocurseplaced upon the Ring by Alberic the Nibelung islifted. UponthefinalcleansingoftheRingbytheRhinemaidens, Wotan perishes, together with hisdream kingdom of Valhalla-andwith theRingnowbackin itsrightfulhands,theworldis redeemedandtheCycleiscomplete.Andso,onceagainthe traditional Ring lore isapparent-just asin Tolkien' sTheLordof the Rings-for the Ring is finally seen to destroy whoever holds it without the right of affinity. The Serpent's Ring Overtheyears,manypeoplehavelikenedTolkien' swizard, Gandalf,toMerlinoftheArthuriantales.Atthesametime, Tolkien'sAragornhasbeenlikenedtoKingArthurbut,as Tolkienhimselfpointedout(inaletterwrittenin 1967),8 there was really a closer similarity between Aragorn and the historical Charlemagne. ThechallengewhichfacedCharlemagneinthe9thcentury (having been chargedbythePopetoestablish aviableEmpire fromvariousdisunitedkingdoms)wasnotunlikethatwhich confrontedAragorn,whoreunitedthedividedkingdomsof Middle-earthinTheLordof theRings.Buttherewasamarked differenceinpractice,forAragornwasfarmorelikeArthurin havinganadvisorywizard,whereasCharlemagnedidnot becausetheChurchwouldnotconsenttoroyalcounsellors outside itsown appointees. Aragorn' swas,therefore,moreof a Gaelic-style environment,with hisenemy being theevil Sauron of Mordor.Charlemagne,on theother hand,wassupposedlya [______43-REALM OF THE RING LORDS championoftheRom