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Gollum is focused on his new ring. There is magic inside, he can feel it. A beautiful black ring with some golden symbols. He wants to know the power of this jewel but he can't wait to go back home to use an elvish dictionary.

Can you help him find out ?

enter image description here

HINT :

Elvish language

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice visuals. It seems that the "inner" text appears to be in the lower 2/3 of the ring - is this correct/important ? $\endgroup$
    – BmyGuest
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 7:20
  • $\begingroup$ @BmyG textuest It is supposed to be at the level as the outter text $\endgroup$
    – Fabich
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 7:30
  • $\begingroup$ Jewel? I don't see a jewel. $\endgroup$
    – corsiKa
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 19:16
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    $\begingroup$ @corsiKa - a jewel can just mean a treasured person/item. It does not need to be a literal jewel, which I assume is the case here. $\endgroup$
    – Broots Waymb
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 19:49

1 Answer 1

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The power of the ring is ...

Faux Elvish inscriptions overlaid

The word can be seen in capital Latin letters when one rotates one of the partial inscriptions by 180° around the "finger" axis of the ring and overlays the two parts. The red parts come from the inscription on the inside of the ring and the black parts are the inscription on the outside of the ring.

The reference to the Elvish script is ...

... a red herring.

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    $\begingroup$ You say the hint was a red herring. So are hints that aren't hints allowed? I guess they would be, just curious if it was ever brought up on meta. $\endgroup$
    – Insane
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 9:42
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    $\begingroup$ Probably it is not red herring, but refers to Boustrophedon en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon $\endgroup$
    – kamenf
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 10:04
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    $\begingroup$ Well, I thought it was a red herring; maybe I'm wrong. I imagined the ring as being made from two concentric transparent halves which were then rotated to line up. The mirrored part on the inside would then been seen as unmirrored when seen from outside. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 10:11
  • $\begingroup$ Wait, so this ring has the power of the previous one without the evil (basically)? $\endgroup$
    – SMS von der Tann
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 12:45
  • $\begingroup$ The leap from Tolkein's elvish language to Boustrophedon is pretty outrageous, per the linked Wiki page: "It has been described as a script that looks like a "mixture of Hebrew, Greek, and Pitman's shorthand."[3] Unfortunately, there are no clues as to what writing systems influenced Tolkien's scripts. This also might mean that his invented scripts found their origins from his mind alone." - the Wiki page proffered as a hint, at least, does nothing to direct the reader in that vein. $\endgroup$
    – Jason
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 16:52

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