Ring Master

three thousand miles of desert. Frank T. Hopkins wrote a detailed account of his participation in that race, which he had competed in toward the end of the nineteenth century. While many don't remember Hopkins today, they certainly were member his horse hid I'll go. Today, the Ocean of Fire has been deemed nothing more than a tall tale. Hopkins and his brave steed probably never traversed the Middle Eastern desert, but similar tests of endurance are still run to this day.

One such competition was held in the French city of Nant back in Racers gathered from all over Europe to show the world, Who was the best, who had the stamina, the drive, the determination to get back to England and take home the gold. The racist motto translated to English as at dawn we go, and at six thirty in the morning on June, that's what they did. The racers took off, making their way across the English Channel with gusto. Some hit top speeds of fifty miles per hour out

the gate. One such racer was Champion white Tail. White Tail had thirteen wins under his belt by the time he'd reached not that day. He made this trip over a dozen times. White Tail's owner, Tom Rodin went home to Manchester, England, knowing his prized racer would find its way back eventually. White Tail should have arrived a week later on the afternoon of June, but by two pm he was nowhere to be seen. In fact, thousands of

racers up and disappeared after the event started. A few of them ever made it home, and there was no explanation for it. Five years passed without a sign of the champion white Tail. Apparently he was gone for good. Then one day, after Rodin had leashed up his dog for a walk, he opened the door to see a familiar sight. Standing there, Champion white Tail had found his way home. Tom knew it was him because of his white tail feathers and the identification ring around his leg.

You see, Champion white Tail hadn't participated in a horse race. He was a pigeon. They all were. The incident had become known as the Great Pigeon Disaster of n So what had caused all those pigeons to vanish, leaving only one to find its way home? According to some scientists, it's possible that the birds heard the rumble of a storm way off in the distance that sent them scattering. However, the weather hadn't been rough that week. There had been no fog or heavy winds. But there had been a

plane flying straight across the pigeons path. And not just any plane. It was a Concord Supersonic Transports or SST that had been soaring overhead way overhead. The concorde was able to reach speeds of over thirteen hundred miles per hour, faster than the speed of sound, and flew so high that passengers who looked up could glimpse where Earth ended and space began. When the s s T broke, the sound barrier. It left in its wake a sonic boom

that sent a shock wave straight toward the pigeons. Disoriented, the animals abandoned their race for safer ground. Weeks after Whitetail's miraculous reappearance, Tom Rodin came home to find a letter waiting for him. It had come from a man named Jean Bouchard, who happened to live in Nuts, where the race had started. He told Tom that he'd stumbled upon an exhausted pigeon in his garden and took it

in to help it regain its strength. He'd even built a cage or to keep it safe from his neighbor's cats. He noticed the ring around the bird's ankle with a number on it, which he used to track down Tom. Once white Tail was strong enough to fly, Bouchard took him to the Natural History Museum in town. He had been unaware of the race and thought this was where

the pigeon had been released. He opened the cage out flew champion white Tail, who was set free in two different locations, disappeared for five years, and eventually found his way home. A true test of endurance and a true test of the bond between a man at his bird. In five, a farmer in the English village of Silchester was plowing his field when he spotted something shiny at his feet. It was a large ring, the kind that would fit comfortably over a thumb but fall off of

any other finger. Now, the area where it was found had originally been a Roman occupied settlement until the seventh century, and the ring showed a connection to that lost era, having been crafted out of twelve grams of gold, with the head of Venus etched into one of its ten sides. Along the other nine sides was a Latin inscription that translated as Senechianus live well in God. Now, if someone's name was chiseled onto the side of a ring, it might be safe to assume that they were the rings

original owner. However, the strange story of this ancient piece of jewelry would only get stranger. Years later, a mysterious curse tablet was discovered in the village of Lydney in Gloucestershire, also known as Dwarfs Hill, roughly one miles away from Silchester. Now, curse tablets were a common fixture of the Roman world. Oftentimes they were nothing more than scraps of lead or stone with a message scratched onto them. They were typically tossed into wells or placed in temples as a way

of forming a contract with the gods. This particular tablet was found in an old Pagan temple dedicated to a Celtic deity called Nodens, and it read Sylvianis has lost a ring among those who bear the name Senechianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple. What's amazing is that for almost a hundred and fifty years these two artifacts remained separate, their connection as yet undiscovered. Then, in the late nineteen twenties, archaeologist

Sir Mortimer Wheeler began to wonder about their story. However, he needed confirmation from an expert on English etymology and history. He invited his colleague John, who was a professor of Anglo Saxon at Pembroke College in Oxford, to examine the ring and tablet. Growing up, John had developed a passion for subjects like botany and Latin. As he got older,

he explored other tongues such as Esperanto. He even constructed alphabets of his own invention, which bloomed into full functioning languages. At the start of World War One, John was shunned by his family and community for not rushing to enlist, but he valued his education above all else. He deferred enlistment until he earned his degree, at which point he joined a regiment, married his high school sweetheart, and fought

until he was too sick to fight. Once he was discharged from the military, he found a job working for the Oxford English Dictionary as an etymologist, someone who studies the origins and histories of words, with his focus mainly on Germanic words. From there he began a career in academics that took him from the University of Leeds to

Pembroke College at Oxford University. So when Sir Mortimer Wheeler pulled John into his mystery, the younger man was well suited to examine the ring and tablets, and he saw the connection right away. He deduced that a Christian man named Senechianus had stolen the ring from its Roman owner Silviannis sometime during the fourth century. Sylviannas then did what

he thought would help. He made a cursed tablet and traveled to the temple, where he asked the pagan god to bring illness upon the thief until they returned the ring to its rightful home. Unfortunately, the ring never made it back, and the thief solidified his new ownership by having his own name inscribed around it. John helped put the pieces together for his friend, but the story of

the Cursed Ring left him intrigued. Not long after, he started working on a story, one that followed the adventures of someone who finds their own cursed Golden Ring. And while that old Roman ring and its associated cursed tablets are pretty much forgotten by most today, the entire world knows the stories that John wrote. They span a number of novels, all of which have been adapted for the big screen, and it formed much of the foundation of

modern fantasy literature. All thanks to John John Ronald Ruel Token and his stories The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey

in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,