Realm of the Ring Lords: The Myth and Magic of the Grail Quest [Paperback]

Laurence Gardner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2003

The magical history of the Ring Lords, alluded to in J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings, has been largely consigned to legend and half-remembered battles between good and evil. Shrouded in supernatural enigma, its legacy lives on in fascinating tales of fairies, elves, witches, and vampires.

The most popular Grail stories relate to Arthurian tales of Guinevere’s golden Ring and the great iron-clad Ring of Camelot—the Knights of the Round Table. When this Ring was broken, the land fell into chaos and the forces of darkness reigned over the earth, starlight, and forest.

Why do we sense deeper truths behind the mysteries of the Ring and the Grail? Why have their common enhancements been distorted and hidden?

The ancient guardians of our culture have never featured positively in academic teachings, for they were the Shining Ones: the real progenitors of our heritage. Instead, their reality was quashed from the earliest days of Inquisitional suppression and the literal diminution of their figures caused a parallel diminishing of their history. In truth, however, the sovereign legacy of our culture comes from a place and time that might just as well be called Middle-earth as by any other name. It lingers beyond the twilight portal in the long distant realm of the Ring Lords.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Laurence Gardner, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, is a constitutional historian, international lecturer and broadcaster.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Fair Winds Press (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931412146
• ISBN-13: 978-1931412148
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #528,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Alot Of Material Here!, August 28, 2006

By 

A. McDonald "A. McDonald" (TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Realm of the Ring Lords: The Myth and Magic of the Grail Quest (Paperback)

This book begins with a look into Tolkien's books and the relationships to distant history. Information and the process of the author's thoughts drift to linking the Ring lord culture into a roller coaster ride through almost every distant european and middle eastern culture. Lots of this material is well presented and factual. Some is also conjecture on the author's behalf. All is well presented and adventureous to read.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fails to deliver on the title, November 21, 2006

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Commentator - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Realm of the Ring Lords: The Myth and Magic of the Grail Quest (Paperback)

Waste of money. Gardner is resting on his laurels. There is so much that could be done with this title, but it was not. Instead we get a recital of stuff already said elsewhere not particularly related to the extensive lore which Tolkien drew upon. Way too little to do with the Realms of the Ring Lords, as if he was knocking off a book to exploit the popularity of Tolkien.

Pity, I was expecting more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Realm of the intriguing, September 5, 2009

By 

Meadow Greycastle "Leslie G-W." (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Realm of the Ring Lords: The Myth and Magic of the Grail Quest (Paperback)

This as a well researched and notated book with clear explanations of a very complicated subject. Gardener's "Realm of the Ring Lords" takes the reader on a journey beginning in Transylvania, Egypt and ancient Sumeria and arriving in the modern Western world, with frequent stops through the UK, France, Germany and many other European and Asian stops along the way. This book details how the tales of fairies, dragons pixies, gnomes, and elves all derive from the same source: a specially bred race of people called the nephilim who rose to prominence thousands of years before Christ and left their imprint on cultures all around the world. The author demonstrates how legends of the Grail, the Lord of the Rings, stories of the Elven-home and so on, are all inextricably linked and, ultimately stem from the same sources, being different tellings of, and using different symbols to, tell the same stories.

Of great importance to me in a work of this kind, which challenges many long held belief systems and "authorized history", is a good list of sources. Laurence Gardner delivers in this respect as well, not failing to back up his claims with a lot of other sources the reader can refer to. While I don't necessarily agree with all that Gardener states, I can say that he makes many valid points that shed new light, and make room for new ideas about, many of the concepts that people take for granted in every day life and society.

For anyone interested in dragons, fairies, gnomes, vampires, werewolves; pixies, elves, mermaids, swan-maidens and grail knights and The Lord of the Rings, you can find many interesting answers here. For lovers of history, culture and linguistics, this book is a treasure trove. However, if you're looking for a fantasy-fiction story or some sort of continuation of Tolkien's Middle Earth, this is not the place to find it.