As this is a short post and doesn’t belong on the Substack or really anywhere else, I figure a quick old style blog post works for exploring the candidates of “a ring that’s not for wearing” in the Name of the Wind and Wise Man’s Fear.
Obviously the poems from Kingkiller are littered with innuendo, which has been explored at length elsewhere and we don’t need to get any deeper on that here. First, let’s put the two poems side by side:
Seven things has Lady Lackless
Keeps them underneath her black dress
One a ring that's not for wearing
One a sharp word, not for swearing,
Right beside her husband's candle
There's a door without a handle
In a box, no lid or locks
Lackless keeps her husband's rocks
There's a secret she's been keeping
She's been dreaming and not sleeping
On a road, that's not for traveling
Lackless likes her riddle raveling
And also:
Seven things stand before
The entrance to the Lackless door.
One of them a ring unworn
One a word that is forsworn
One a time that must be right
One a candle without light
One a son who brings the blood
One a door that holds the flood
One a thing tight-held in keeping
Then comes that which comes with sleeping.
1. A bell
As I’ve mentioned before with “The Slow Regard of Silent Things,” which is the dictionary definition of the verb To Moon, Rothfuss loves verbal puns in the riddling context. He gets this from Tolkien more than anything.
So. Could be things that ring like a bell:
2. Or the ringing strings of a bowl harp:
There is a type of court harp that’s literally a bowl:
…and in that case, it’s a ring that must be fingered, no innuendo implied.
3. A universal ring sundial:
I’ve often said that the personification of planetary phenomena is the key to unlocking the series, so this is likely:
4. Or a literal astronomical ring:
Similar to the sun dial, but wearable:
5. A bird band:
6. A burner on an ancient stove:
7. A ring around a planet:
This is where the things start serving multiple purposes.
8. A ring as in arena:
9. A kroužek.
Å or Ů
10. A chemical closed chain.
11. An old measurement for corn.
ring / coomb / half a quarter
12. The twenty-fifth Lenormand card in tarot
13. Rings of a tree
14. A circus ring (for performers)
15. A ring of stones
This shows up often in the piece (and was originally on my handwritten list), but the rings of stone would work:
16. A ring that’s made by naming
The ring of fire specifically again makes me think of an eclipse and the above astronomical rings.
17. Telhu’s Wheel
The ring of iron that binds people to the name of iron.
18. Auri’s gear
As I said, I think it’s likely that a ring that’s not for wearing could look like a ring and yet not be one. For instance, you could make a ring out the rings of a fallen tree that had been felled in a lightning storm and was originally part of a spell cast during the performance in a fighter’s ring, one carved astronomically and representative of the ring in tarot, etc. etc. etc. It need not merely serve one purpose and, as we’ve seen, things with multiple meanings in the series have stronger power.
Happy hunting.
PS — While I have you here, maybe consider subscribing to my Substack or… I mean let’s be honest here. Do you see this chart? Have you really, truly, looked at that dark blue upward curve?
That print sales curve means we’re on pace this year to create a full compounding curve on the print sales of my books. Have you bought one of the books on the list below, including the new ones?
If you have, have you bought them all?
Bell Hammers, novel — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A novel about carpenters pranking an oil company.
Bell Hammers, audiobook — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
….that I also narrated.
Cold Brewed — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A graphic novel told in photographs — a noir where the drug traded is coffee beans.
Overmorrow — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A lyrical, fever dream YA urban fantasy whose memory monster messes with your own memory.
The Omni Lighthouse — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A MASSIVE collection of my essays and stories.
Tap and Die, novella — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A fantasy that takes a metatextual approach to Die Hard, westerns, and Matilda.
Do Literary Books Sell Fewer Copies Than Genre Books?
A data-based survey on the state of publishing sales.
A collection of free verse and romantic meter poems.
Person, Place, Thing: Stories Pulled from a Hat
An anthology of stories whose prompts were random slips of paper containing a person, then a place, then a thing.
A sci fi and fantasy anthology featuring Juliet Marillier .
Of Gods and Globes II — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A sci fi and fantasy anthology featuring Kaaron Warren.
Of Gods and Globes III — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A sci fi and fantasy anthology featuring Juliet Marillier and many others.
A dark, vulnerable Indie Folk album.
An Americana EP album.
Harry Rides the Danger — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A children’s book that encourages kids to face their fears.
The Elevator Out — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
A children’s book that offers a simple response to nihilism.
The Greenwood Poet — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
Poetry written in Greenwood Cemetery before, during, and after the pandemic. Most of it’s pretty romantic, greenwave, climate fiction, or fae inspired.
Inconveniences, Rightly Considered
Poems I sold in my twenties.
Women’s Poetry Anthology — (direct link to ensure highest royalty)
An anthology of the great women poets across history.
Short stories taking place in The Vale — YOU CAN GET ALL 15 FOR DIRT CHEAP.
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