The Sea King's Ring
A golden ring given by the sea king in the Swedish ballad 'Agneta and the Sea King', a version of the old ballad about the maiden taken by the sea folk. The ring is the gift that binds the maiden to her underwater master, the token of a marriage that keeps her below the waves while her family mourns her above; in the ballad's ending the ring and its owner part in sorrow when the world above finally reclaims her. The ballad is documented in Swedish song collections from the 18th century and belongs to the international cycle of ballads about the seal-maiden and the water-man, in which a gift or