The rings from Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings
The white gold ring from ‘The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant’
Several from DC comics, here’s just the ones I know, I’m sure there’s more:
The ring of the Nibelungen.
The “ring around the collar”. The mere mention of it caused my vasculature to contract in indignation, raising my blood pressure and readying me for aggressive action, like changing the channel.
Marvel Comics’ The Mandarin wields an armament of ten rings, each with a specialized function.
The ring in Buffy the Vampire Slayer that made a vampire invulnerable.
Zelazny’s second Amber series, with Merlin’s spikard, linked to pre-prepared spells!
To expand : The One Ring, the three Elvish Rings (Vilya, Narya, and Ninya, yes?), 7 Dwarvish Rings, and 9 Rings for Men.
Alan Scott’s Wood-Weak Ring; Standard Corps Ring (now available in a revised version without the weakness - just like Kyle’s); Sinestro’s yellow ring which was originally Qwardian (pre-Crisis), post-Crisis I think it’s… Korugarian? Power Ring’s ring is an artifact containing a sentient entity known as Volthoom, IIRC. There were also some fake knock-offs of GL rings encountered from time to time; G’nort was originally a part of a fake GL corps with one of those rings.
The Ring of Amara, though the Gem was the magical part.
The “power rings” worn by the decadent, blasé, bickering but rather adorable eloi of Michael Moorcock’s “Dancers at the End of Time” series come to my mind.
Wearing these rings, the immortal inhabitants of the last days of the universe could do whatever they pleased, limited only by the imagination. In practice, these powers were mostly used for throwing elaborate and fantastical parties, which inevitably failed to impress the seen-it-all guests.
I can’t believe I’m about to post this, but…
The rings from “Captain Planet”. You know, with the powers of Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and…um…Heart.
sigh
And I’ve just been reminded of the Wonder Twins’ rings.
The Wonder Twins had rings? I don’t think so. AFAIK their powers were inherent, not from any gadgetry.
Now if you want obscure, Dynamite magazine from the 70s (anyone else remember Dynamite? I’ve been meaning to start a thread) had a feature called IIRC “The Dynamite Duo.” A brother and sister won a pair of rings at a mysterious carnival which, when touched together, transformed them into superheroes (they were the embodiments of a space alien prince and princess I think). Embarrassingly, one of them had living in their ring a black genie-type entity called, I kid you not, Jive Turkey.
Don’t forget Lonestar’s ring, even if it was bupkiss.
I’m pretty sure they had rings, and they’d touch them together activate the powers. The power may not have been from the rings, but I’m pretty sure they had rings.
Does the Green Krypton ring that Batman uses against the Poison Ivy controlled Supes in Hush count?
Magical rings are myriad in various RPGs, so I won’t attempt to list them (though I’m rather partial to D&D’s rings of elemental command).
The members of the Legion of Superheroes (or at least, the ones who can’t fly inherently) all have flight rings, enabling them to keep up with their less gravity-challenged comrades (and how much would it suck, if flight was your only inherent power?).
In Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series, one of the characters has a ring of wishing, capable of granting a single wish.
And speaking of wishes, in addition to the famous lamp, Alladin also had a ring with a (much weaker) djinn bound to it.
The Flash had a ring into which he could compress his entire costume; it would spring out of it when needed.
Maybe that’s less of a “power” ring than a “portmanteau” ring, though.
The rings from “The Magician’s Nephew” that were the original way to get to Narnia. They were green and yellow, I think.